Fran O’Sullivan: in praise of central planning

57 comments on “Fran O’Sullivan: in praise of central planning ”

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1. KJT 1

   4 August 2012 at 11:30 am

   One of the main distinguishing features of Neo-Liberals is that their principles are totally flexible.

   Except for one.

   Whatever enables them to take the most wealth from the rest of us.
   • Colonial Viper 1.1

     4 August 2012 at 11:43 am

     You can’t accuse them of taking their eyes of the goal.

     If only “Left” political parties were as consistent with bolstering the economic and political franchise of the struggling lowest income quartile of NZers, as the Right are with helping out the top decile.
2. dave brownz 2

   4 August 2012 at 11:34 am

   The capitalists never repudiated central state enforcement of their exploitative system.
   What are wars but class wars?
   Many of my generation were politicized by the War on Vietnam.
   Of course many have since changed sides.
   This (CERA) is the class war on the poor to grab more private property for capitalists. 
   They get away with it because there is only one army in the class war that is mobilised in NZ and that is the capitalist army. 
   When the Christchurch workers organise their army  beyond some scouting operations and take on General Brownlee we will get some traction.
   • dave brownz 2.1

     4 August 2012 at 11:58 am

     Forgot to link to this critique of ChCh as Disaster Capitalism Downunder for those who missed it first time round.
     http://redrave.blogspot.co.nz/2011/04/disaster-capitalism-downunder.html
3. tc 3

   4 August 2012 at 11:42 am

   Wow NACT are proposing it so it must be a great idea, yet if this was any other gov’t than her idols she’d be screaming NANNY STATE like her and other sycophants like JA, etc were during Clark’s time.

   It’s sooo obvious and reduces what little credibility she has left. try and apply an objective intellect Fran if there’s any left.
4. captain hook 4

   4 August 2012 at 11:42 am

   o’sullivan will just follow the money.
   she is just greedy.
   • mike 4.1

     5 August 2012 at 7:33 pm

     That’s right, and look at our milk producers. All fanatical Naties and making their money from a collective!
     Next thing they’ll elect Stalin president of Fed Farmers and claim he’s Ronald Reagan
5. vto 5

   4 August 2012 at 11:49 am

   Yes it has completely bemused me that those so vehemently pro-free market have trampled their big heavy jackboots into town and done the complete top-down centrally planned job.

   If ever there was an opportunity to prove its free market credentials, a clean slate Christchurch is it.

   But they have chosen with glee the top-down central planning.

   How would gosman see this? He never answers my questions
   • Draco T Bastard 5.1

     4 August 2012 at 1:57 pm

     Yes it has completely bemused me that those so vehemently pro-free market have trampled their big heavy jackboots into town and done the complete top-down centrally planned job.

     The free-market rhetoric is just that – rhetoric. The people in power know that it’s just a plausible sounding explanation for them to get whatever they want. It’s not about giving people choice and power over their own lives but actually removing it from them and giving it to a few at the top.

     How would gosman see this?

     He’ll be as enthusiastic about it as O’Sullivan.
     • Georgecom 5.1.1

       4 August 2012 at 3:10 pm

       Competition and property rights are fine, as long as its on the terms that favours money. Otherwise, competition and property rights can be ‘modified’ by actions of the state.
6. Zaphod Beeblebrox 6

   4 August 2012 at 11:50 am

   Why do I keep thinking of ‘The Simpsons’ monorail episode?
7. bad12 7

   4 August 2012 at 12:24 pm

   Centrally planned Capitalism has a name beginning with F, 10 points for the correct answer…
   • Colonial Viper 7.1

     4 August 2012 at 1:48 pm

     I see it more as crony capitalism, kleptocracy and corporatism currently, rather than full on F’ism.
     • Draco T Bastard 7.1.1

       4 August 2012 at 1:59 pm

       CV, that’s what full on F’ism is. Don’t need the jackboots (although I’m sure NACT are in the planning stages of that as well).
       • Colonial Viper 7.1.1.1

         4 August 2012 at 2:06 pm

         Probably my main point is that we preserve some relative levels of severity in our languaging. Full on F’ism we’re not at by a long way, at least in NZ. We’re not just missing the jackboots, but also an effective shut down of an independent judiciary/academia/fourth estate, state sanctioned thuggery and kidnappings, arbitrary confiscation of opponents’ assets, forceable suppression of political dissent etc.
         • bad12 7.1.1.1.1

           4 August 2012 at 2:53 pm

           Yeah i agree, perhaps as pointed out below there are stages a society transits through to reach the full on F-ism,

           Corporatism might just be the stepping stone, when sections of the population begin to object strongly,(and other sections of that society begin to take notice),perhaps it is then the jackboots are donned and other means used to suppress the vocal minority’s…
   • Bill 7.2

     4 August 2012 at 2:31 pm

     “F*scism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power”
     ― Benito Mussolini
     • saniac 7.2.1

       4 August 2012 at 4:27 pm

       As my friend Gio is forever pointing out, “corporate” in that sentence is not about modern business corporations. It is an adjective applying to any organised body and in context Mussolini was saying that unions, guilds, societies, charities, and so on should be part of and under the control of the state.Corporatism (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporatism) was a real thing at the time and doesn’t mean what you think.

       I share the belief that O’Sullivan is showing that her priniciples merely consist of simply advancing the interests of a small business elite at the expense of democracy, but this isn’t fascism, just plain old fashioned class warfare.
       • Pascal's bookie 7.2.1.1

         4 August 2012 at 4:34 pm

         +1
8. muzza 8

   4 August 2012 at 1:33 pm

   This is where people who deny that the world and indeed NZ is not, and has not been run by F’s all along, get a little window into reality.

   FOS along with those she kneels down to, and those who in turn they kneel down to etc, are simply the tools who are used in order to keep the peasants distracted and subdued.

   Capitalism and demoracy are simply a sham, and always have been!
   • Draco T Bastard 8.1

     4 August 2012 at 2:01 pm

     Democracy isn’t, we’ve just never had it and those in power do their best to keep it from us. Hell, even people on the left use the same arguments as the dictators as to why we can’t have it.
     • TheContrarian 8.1.1

       5 August 2012 at 12:53 pm

       ” we’ve just never had it [Democracy] and those in power do their best to keep it from us.”

       What fucking bullshit. NZ is a democracy and, not for the first time, I ask you Draco to find me anything that says different. And I don’t mean a blog or “some guy says” but any scholarly, considered and educated resource that considers NZ to be anything other than a parliamentary democracy.
       • Frank Macskasy 8.1.1.1

         5 August 2012 at 1:38 pm

         Perhaps, TC, it’s not what structure a democracy follows, but whether people feel included in that process.

         One might conclude that the reason Labour did so poorly at the last election was a lack of sense of inclusiveness. Hence why Labour is re-assessing how it meets the needs of members and suppotrters.

         And hence why over a million fellow Kiwis couldn’t be bothered to vote.

         Just a thought.
         • TheContrarian 8.1.1.1.1

           5 August 2012 at 2:12 pm

           So outside of your own personal musing is the anything you can cite that proclaims NZ to be anything other than a parliamentary democracy?
       • Draco T Bastard 8.1.1.2

         5 August 2012 at 8:26 pm

         🙄
       • xtasy 8.1.1.3

         6 August 2012 at 12:03 am

         “What fucking bullshit. NZ is a democracy and, not for the first time, I ask you Draco to find me anything that says different.”

         ‘The Contrarian’:

         True democracy requires genuine ability to make informed decisions. Without an informing, balanced, not commercially dependent media, any “exercise” democratic expression, i.e. usually the 3-yearly casting of a vote, becomes a farce.

         NZ has abolished just about almost ALL non commercial, public or otherwise “balanced”, independent broadcasting, basically only has two large foreign owned, commercial corporates dominate the print media, and leaves only the internet, again with sadly mainly poor, commercially conditioned and even misinforming websites, than truly fact based, informative sites.

         Hence we have ministers of the Crown go around spreading lies, misinformation and not front up to serious scrutiny, allowing to manipulate the public at large, so that most are unable to make INFORMED decisions.

         Such a state of affairs is to me at least NOT true democracy, but rather a smartly designed, manipulating, dumbing down system that more and more resembles a sophisticated form of modern ‘dictatorship’.

         Add the over-use of over-bearing, rights restricting and at times even law ignoring police, and you have a very dicy situation, quite worrysome indeed.
         • seeker 8.1.1.3.1

           6 August 2012 at 12:09 am

           +1 +1 Extremely well said Xtasy, thanks.
         • TheContrarian 8.1.1.3.2

           6 August 2012 at 8:52 am

           So all you have is your own personal musing?
           • xtasy 8.1.1.3.2.1

             6 August 2012 at 9:08 am

             A comment without substance and representing mere distraction. So that is all you can say. Thanks for confirming me that the “dumbing down” that is taking place sadly works with some!
             • TheContrarian …

               6 August 2012 at 9:14 am

               Of course, I don’t agree with your own personal view therefore I have been “dumbed down”.

               Idiot. 
               • xtasy …

                 6 August 2012 at 9:18 am

                 It worked! Thanks!
         • Phil 8.1.1.3.3

           9 August 2012 at 2:21 pm

           Well expressed, and I agree with you. Demockary is an ongoing work in progress. A bit like a garden. To TC .. you have made an irrelevant connection.
9. Robert M 9

   4 August 2012 at 3:34 pm

   I’ve always thought that Fran O’Sullivan and almost all the herald writers were fairly left anyway. There have been many fairly radical conversions anyway like Gareth Morgan’s. They probably view it as conceeding to political reality. I disagree. The only chance for Christchurch after even the first earthquake was to allow the planning and control of the rebuild almost entirely in private hands, and to probably to start immediately in rebuilding the entertainment . bar and courtesan and commercial business headquarters anyway. What was magnificent about the old Christchurch was the all night relatively shophsiticated bars, the mind blowing blantant strip clubs, brothels and drunked Irish working class wakes that occured in warehouse bars down Manchester St.
   From the first moment after the earthquake in 2010, it was obvious that Christchurch would never be rebuilt in any worthwhile way- because it gave scope for the Andertonite factor and Medical School Cuban and Argentinian type communsits to impose their model of society- which assumes that the working class are too irresponsible and insticnt driven to experience any sort of pleasure or humanity. In other words the working class can’t be allowed booze, sex with pretty women or any other worthwhile pleasure. No one is more hull of hate for the working class than women like Lianne Daziel and Bradford and Mike Lee because the only purpose of the rail system in Auckland is to build high rise tower blocks where the working class males can be mangaged, controlled and systematically destroyed. Beyond that Daziel and her mates were about the greatest hypocrtes that ever lived because they believed in beauty- even as basic as KJemma Jamieson and sex was also what they lived for.
   In reality if Christchurch was to be rebuilt in any useful form , Dunne would have led it and NZ would have had a mild military dictatorship- otherwise any real freedom. The point in Germany in the 1930s would have been better to do it that way.
   Eventually I gave up on the American model myself because like Act people they destroyed. When they wouldn’t give Tiger, one of the greatest sexual freedom with white women- the Repulicans were beyond hope. And the contempt for Megan Fox, and that she had been so poorly educated showed the US was no longer worth much
   • Colonial Viper 9.1

     4 August 2012 at 4:47 pm

     I’ve always thought that Fran O’Sullivan and almost all the herald writers were fairly left anyway.

     LOLOLOLOL sure mostly on the left margin of Ayn Rand
   • DH 9.2

     4 August 2012 at 4:47 pm

     “I’ve always thought that Fran O’Sullivan and almost all the herald writers were fairly left anyway. ”

     Thanks for the laugh. The Herald does have a few token lefties but O’Sullivan ain’t one of ’em. She’s about as left as Atilla the Hun.
     • Colonial Viper 9.2.1

       4 August 2012 at 4:55 pm

       This was also a brain addled hoot:

       From the first moment after the earthquake in 2010, it was obvious that Christchurch would never be rebuilt in any worthwhile way- because it gave scope for the Andertonite factor and Medical School Cuban and Argentinian type communsits to impose their model of society

       Didn’t Robert M hear that the great lefty Sir Gerry Brownlee is the one in charge of Christchurch?
   • Draco T Bastard 9.3

     4 August 2012 at 6:06 pm

     Wow, a lot of words that manage to convey nothing except your idiocy and contempt for other people.
   • Jimmie 9.4

     4 August 2012 at 10:21 pm

     Wow that must have been some quality weed bro…….keep it up!
10. Frank Macskasy 10

    4 August 2012 at 3:37 pm

    Left this little comment on the Comments Section,

    “Fran – you’re supporting centralised government planning?! Oh say it ain’t so! You’ve become a fan of the dreaded bogey, the “Nanny State”!!

    As for your comment; “What if other New Zealand cities – particularly Auckland – were given the tools so they too could follow Christchurch’s example and wipe the barriers that stymie economic growth?”

    Indeed. I am planning to build a fat-rending factory next door to your house. Now don’t you be going pulling any of the RMA-stuff on me, y’hear. After all, you’ll get used to the smell of stale tallow… and the wind will occassionally blow the other way…

    Ok, carry on.”

    Wonder if they post it?
    • Colonial Viper 10.1

      4 August 2012 at 4:19 pm

      Crematoriums are good ones too. A nice fine layer of incinerated dead people on your washing, on your windows and all through your house.
      • Frank Macskasy 10.1.1

        4 August 2012 at 4:43 pm

        Between a crematorium on one suide of her house, and my fat-rending plant on the other, she’ll be doing a little happy-dance at the “wiping the barriers that stymie economic growth”…

        Anyway, what’s a little dead-dust and tallow-“perfume” as opposed to improving our competitiveness with Kazakhstan?!

        Hmmm, am getting the hang of thios neo-liberal stuff. Just close down all concepts of community-intereest; ignore that prickly sensation of guilt; cease all critical thinking… and Bob’s-your-Aunty!! Woohoo!

        (And just to make sure I’m not totally heartless about it, Fran can have all the tallow she and her family can eat. What a jolly good chap I am!)

        😀
        • Colonial Viper 10.1.1.1

          4 August 2012 at 4:45 pm

          (And just to make sure I’m not totally heartless about it, Fran can have all the tallow she and her family can eat. What a jolly good chap I am!)

          Cut price funerals too 😛
        • Phil 10.1.1.2

          9 August 2012 at 2:28 pm

          armh…… she doesn’t need any tallow.
11. millsy 11

    4 August 2012 at 4:35 pm

    Francesca O’Sullivan is all over the place with her political leanings.

    In the past her columns has swayed from endorsing unfettered free markets, and then she has endorsed hard core socialism. I think she once called for the creation of a state holding company like Temasek Holdings.
    • Frank Macskasy 11.1

      4 August 2012 at 4:53 pm

      I reject all claims that Fran and I are one and the same. It’s a sheer couincidence we’re never seen together, at the same time…
    • tracey 11.2

      5 August 2012 at 5:10 am

      maybe she is beginning to judge issues on their merits rather than some political ideology?
12. Frank Macskasy 12

    4 August 2012 at 4:52 pm

    If there’s one thing the Christchurch re-build has shown to our Right Wing, Free Market, Minimalist State cuzzies is that with the State, Christchurch would be f****d.

    I wonder what our little goose-stepping, Key-kissing, mates are thinking, having to accept that the State is an integral part in reconstruction?

    Just as the State was an integral part in the initial building of this country?

    And that the “free market” is like a remora-fish stuck to the side of the State Whale? Where would the remora-fish be without the whale? On my plate, with a helping of chips and squid rings, I’m guessing…
13. captain hook 13

    4 August 2012 at 5:09 pm

    so is fran sullivan a whale, a squid, or a goose?
    • bad12 13.1

      4 August 2012 at 6:08 pm

      A whale in stature, a squid in intellect,and a goose in conclusion…
      • seeker 13.1.1

        4 August 2012 at 6:32 pm

        lolz – such a clever description bad12.
14. CnrJoe 14

    4 August 2012 at 6:20 pm

    I detest the hijjack of Chch assets as intended for a ‘rainy day’. Lies lies lies – these mutts are criminals in their perversion of history and the takeover of the present through lies lies lies. I’m drinking dilmah by the way.
    • seeker 14.1

      4 August 2012 at 6:34 pm

      Dilmah is a good tea and this is a good comment CnrJoe.
15. Nick 15

    4 August 2012 at 7:31 pm

    “a central government plan to use emergency powers to appropriate land and bypass RMA property rights”

    RMA property rights? I think you may have unintentionally come up with the best oxymoron ever.
16. North 16

    4 August 2012 at 10:40 pm

    Oh she’s such a silly old chook that woman !
17. tracey 17

    5 August 2012 at 5:08 am

    So basically the nats want govt out of business unless they determine itsgood for business.

    The rma is hated so much because it places economics on an even level with people and the environment and threatens the ridiculous premise that if money can be made it must be a good thing.
18. vto 18

    5 August 2012 at 10:24 am

    I notice that nobody has come on here to answer the issue….. namely, where has the free market gone and why? Christchurch is the perfect template for the free market to show its credentials and how an amazing prosperous and brilliant city could arise from purely consumer demand.

    So come on free market, what’s the go?

    Where is Fran? Come on Fran, stand and explain.

    Or maybe gosman, or tsmithfield, or even Farrar.

    the silence is deafening

    they have outwitted themselves and stand bare and exposed in their failed ideologies.
19. Fortran 19

    5 August 2012 at 1:30 pm

    As a real Tax Payer I a not sure of where my money is going in the Christchurch resurrection, but it smells like one hell of a lot over the next 10 years.

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