New Zealand’s Neoliberal Drift
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2:23 pm, May 20th, 2017 - 85 comments
Categories: Economy -
Tags: Jacobin, long form, neoliberalism
This post by Auckland journalist Branko Marcetic was first published in Jacobin in March 2017. Written for a US audience, it’s an easy-read, long form piece on NZ’s descent into neoliberalism.
A few years ago, when the 2008 global financial crisis was just one or two years old, a coworker and I were talking about the increasingly common sight of homeless people in Auckland, New Zealand. While homelessness in Auckland was nothing new, we agreed that we were seeing more and more men and women curled up in doorways, draped in layers of old clothes and blankets, and holding up tattered signs asking passers-by for money on Queen Street, the city’s main commercial hub.
It was sad, I remarked, that while the problem seemed to be getting worse, the government seemed to be doing very little to help these people escape poverty. She too expressed sympathy for the poor and stressed the importance of giving them a leg up, but confessed she found it difficult to feel bad for homeless people. After all, New Zealand had a generous welfare state that made sure no one was left behind.
“I mean, if you can’t make it in New Zealand,” she said, “then there must be something really wrong with you.”
Her attitude is not particularly unusual — millions of New Zealanders share it. The image of New Zealand as a kind-hearted social democracy, a Scandinavia of the South Pacific, is deeply engrained in its culture.
In fact, this view extends far beyond the country’s borders. A Kiwi in the United States is likely to field three common queries: questions about the country’s natural beauty, about The Flight of the Conchords, and about how much more progressive New Zealand is than America. (There’s an occasional fourth that has something to do with Lord of the Rings.)
To be clear, New Zealand has earned this reputation. Its quality of life is consistently ranked among the highest in the world. In metric after metric — whether examining corruption or life expectancy — it rates well above average. Perhaps most significantly, New Zealanders themselves report extreme satisfaction with their lives.
All of these accolades cover up another truth, however: New Zealand hasn’t been a social-democratic paradise for a long time now. Often considered a “social laboratory,” New Zealand eagerly adopted radical neoliberal reforms in the 1980s like few countries before or since. Nevertheless, its kindly image persists, in and out of the country.
A Social-Democratic Laboratory
All countries have narratives. In the United States, it’s the “American Dream,” the idea that hard work makes millionaires. In New Zealand, it’s the idea that a benevolent, liberal state will look after its people.
This self-image can be traced back to the period between 1890 and 1920, when the country became known as the “social laboratory of the world.” By then, New Zealand already had a long egalitarian streak: it established government life insurance in 1869 to help those who couldn’t afford private plans, assisted new immigrants, and embarked on an expensive public works scheme to lay roads and railway lines. But in 1879, a severe depression dented New Zealanders’ widespread belief in the free market and individualism.
The Liberal governments of Richard Seddon and then Joseph Ward, which first took power in 1893, passed a flurry of social welfare reforms, including distributing free textbooks, improving workplace conditions, establishing food and drug standards, and breaking up large estates to provide land for settlers. The Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act of 1894 instituted a guaranteed minimum wage and a system of compulsory arbitration for settling industrial disputes. The 1898 Old Age Pensions Act created one of the world’s earliest public pension schemes, even if it was small, means-tested, and only applied to “persons of good character.” (Much of this came at the expense of the indigenous Maori, who were dispossessed of more and more of their land to make way for English settlers and railroad lines).
Foreign visitors returned with tales of an egalitarian paradise and “a country without strikes.” American Progressives drew on New Zealand’s example to push for similar changes back home.
New Zealand’s reputation for progressive enlightenment continued into the twentieth century, even as consistent labor agitation undermined its popular image. The benefits of its burgeoning welfare state expanded over the years, particularly during World War I, when it began covering widows, the blind, influenza victims, and consumption-stricken miners.
Then, like the rest of the world, the Great Depression devastated New Zealand’s economy. The downturn hobbled the country’s labor movement. Widespread economic suffering — exacerbated by the country’s lack of unemployment relief — swept the Labour Party to power in 1935. Its leader, Michael Joseph Savage, promised New Zealanders a “reasonable standard of living in the days when they are unable to look after themselves.”
The country’s first Labour government gave unemployed workers an immediate Christmas bonus, launched a state housing program, established compulsory union membership, and started a Keynesian scheme of guaranteed prices for exports. The centerpiece of its stimulus package was the 1938 Social Security Act, which established universal superannuation for those sixty-five or older, universal free health care (at least in theory), and welfare payments for the poor and unemployed. Savage died trying to enact this bill, putting off cancer surgery to help get it passed and win that year’s election. (Once again, Maori were left out — the law’s language gave officials wiggle room to discriminate and pay them reduced benefits).
Perhaps most importantly, however, the government’s commitment to full employment would endure for decades to come. Successive Labour governments paired this policy with a gradually increasing family allowance, culminating in 1946, when a universal benefit for all families with children passed.
By 1949, the International Labor Organization (ILO) claimed the Social Security Act had “deeply influenced the course of legislation in other countries.” English prime-minister-to-be Clement Atlee praised New Zealand as “a laboratory of social experiment.” In 1944, Labour prime minister Walter Nash wrote that the country offered a “practical example” of what “may well become typical of most democracies tomorrow.”
While Labour’s time in power ended in 1949, its policies of government intervention New Zealand endured. The country remained a highly controlled economy with an extensive welfare state and widespread state ownership in various sectors through the 1970s. Government-guaranteed full employment enjoyed bipartisan support. Even Robert Muldoon, who served as the right-wing National Party’s prime minister from 1975 to 1984, once joked that he knew all seventy unemployed New Zealanders by name.
Weird Science
This all changed in the mid-1980s. As in the Depression years, a crisis sparked a political sea change. New Zealand lost a major trading partner with the United Kingdom’s turn to Europe in 1973, while a series of oil shocks through the 1970s plunged the country into recession. In 1965, New Zealand ranked as the sixth wealthiest country per capita; fifteen years later, it fell to nineteenth.
Again like in the 1930s, the Labour Party implemented a major political transformation, making New Zealand once again a “laboratory of social experiment.” But this time, Labour responded to the crisis by deregulating, selling off public assets, and slashing state investment.
The reforms came to be known, somewhat derisively, as “Rogernomics,” after the finance minister Roger Douglas, who would go on to found ACT, a radical free-market party that has recently embraced US Republican-style law-and-order policies. Prime Minister David Lange acted as an affable and charming salesman for the reforms but had little interest in either economics or policy more generally. For the most part, he allowed his team to experiment with the economy however they liked.
Through the 1980s and 1990s — first under Labour, then under National Party rule — New Zealand ushered in neoliberal reform on an unprecedented scale. Controls on wages, prices, rents, interest rates, and more were scrapped. Finance markets were deregulated, and restrictions on foreign investment were removed or relaxed. Based on the belief that welfare helped create unemployment by encouraging dependency, the system was overhauled in ways that the government’s own official encyclopedia describes as “particularly swift and severe.”
In 1986, Labour slashed the tax rate for high-income earners and introduced a goods-and-services tax. This change effectively hiked taxes on low- and middle-income earners, given that they spend a larger proportion of their earnings on consumption. (Douglas even tried to institute a flat tax, which turned out to be a step too far for Labour.) Legislation in 1991 eliminated hard-fought reforms like compulsory union membership, compulsory employer-employee bargaining, and unions’ special place in this process.
Most state-owned assets were fully or partially sold off, including three banks, the Tower insurance company, shipping companies, the national airline and the country’s main airport, and various energy companies, among many others. In some cases, the results were disastrous, as when National sold off the country’s highly profitable national rail network to a consortium of financial companies, who soon ran it into the ground, forcing a government buyback. It wasn’t the only privatized asset the government later had to rescue.
Government disinvestment from public services abandoned the most vulnerable citizens. Nearly all psychiatric hospitals closed down by the 1990s, their responsibilities passing on to nongovernmental organizations. University tuition fees shot up by nearly 1,000 percent in 1990 and have climbed steadily ever since. The price of attending college in New Zealand now ranks as the industrial world’s fourth highest. The abrupt end of farm subsidies and protectionist policies hit farmers hard, plunging them into debt and leading to a spate of suicides. One prominent Kiwi recalled seeing a beggar on the streets of New Zealand for the first time in his mid-fifties, an experience he described as “like being kicked in the stomach.”
All of this happened at a dizzying pace. And it had to because the reforms were hugely unpopular.
“It is uncertainty, not speed, that endangers the success of structural reform programs,” wrote Roger Douglas in 1993. “Speed is an essential ingredient in keeping uncertainty down to the lowest possible level.” Douglas would later reportedly advise foreign leaders to keep their equivalent programs hidden from the public and to implement them as quickly as possible to bypass opposition.
New Zealand once again became a global poster child for policy innovation, as Jane Kelsey outlines in The New Zealand Experiment. The New York Times gushed that a “heavily protected, over-regulated, high inflation economy” had been turned into “one of the most open in the world.” The Financial Times claimed New Zealand offered a “blueprint for a shrinking state.” The Wall Street Journal applauded that “this little Prometheus unchained itself from a rock of high taxes, high tariffs, heavy welfare burdens, and pro-union labor laws,” and celebrated that “anybody can follow New Zealand’s example to prosperity.” None praised New Zealand more than the Economist, however, which ran story after story on what it called a “free market experiment in socialist sheep’s clothing” that was “out-Thatchering Mrs Thatcher.”
New Zealand’s neoliberal employment reforms attracted policymakers’ attention internationally. In 1996, Newt Gingrich — then House Majority Leader — sent a congressional delegation to study the country as a “model” for industrial relations deregulation. Powerful neoliberal institutions like the IMF, the Asian Development Bank, and the World Bank exported New Zealand’s grand “experiment,” organizing and funding study trips, speaking tours, seminars, and reports that promoted the program.
Partly thanks to this, countries like Mongolia and Thailand copied New Zealand in their own reforms and worked closely with prominent architects of the experiment. In 1998, New Zealand’s minister of international trade boasted that the “success of New Zealand’s economic reforms” was now as internationally well known as its sheep, its rugby team, and its milk brand.
If you look narrowly at metrics like inflation and government debt, the reforms worked. If you look at more fundamental economic measures like employment, income levels, and economic growth — all of which free-market policies are supposed to boost — they were a miserable failure.
The economy shrank by 1 percent between 1985 and 1992, while other countries in the OECD saw 20 percent growth. Poverty skyrocketed, with one in six falling below the poverty line by 1992. Unemployment jumped, too, and even when it later fell, much of the recovery was in part-time work. Income inequality widened sharply, with the bulk of income gains going to the country’s wealthiest citizens.
Binging on Neoliberalism
While these reforms profoundly shifted New Zealand’s politics, citizens’ self-image hasn’t kept pace. There remains a prevailing view that their country is an idyllic paradise apart from the rest of the world’s ills that, if anything, is too generous to its less advantaged citizens.
Surprisingly, many business leaders believe that New Zealand is an over-regulated, antibusiness economy hostile to economic success. Complaints that companies are mired in “red tape” never seem to end. CEOs regularly report that fear of regulations keeps them up at night.
These beliefs stand at odds with reality. Three times since 2005, New Zealand has topped the World Bank’s annual “Ease of Doing Business” report, which measures regulations that, at least according to the World Bank, enhance and constrain business activity. Every other year, it’s come third or, more often, second. It ranked first twice during Helen Clark’s Labour government, which often faced accusations that its legislation was making it impossible for businesses to succeed.
Furthermore, Forbes has listed New Zealand in the top three “best countries for business” each year since 2010. It ranked first in 2012. Two years later, Forbes called it best in the world when it came to “red tape.”
Every year since 2009, the conservative Heritage Foundation has put New Zealand in the top five countries for its “Index of Economic Freedom.” Investment banker and right-wing commentator Peter Schiff said he would like to live in New Zealand because of its lack of governmental interference.
Resistance to “the nanny state,” a paternalistic government unreasonably worming its way into every little of detail of individuals’ lives, has also become widespread. This belief most commonly finds its expression in complaints about the welfare program, which many think discourages hard work and desperately needs to be cut back. This narrative took center stage from 1999 to 2008, when Clark’s Labour government went some way toward slowing, though not ultimately reversing, the march of neoliberalism.
New Zealanders would be shocked to find that since 2001 and throughout all of the Labour years, social spending as a percentage of GDP has been on or below the OECD average. New Zealand has consistently appeared in the lower half of OECD social spending, closer to the United States than to countries like Finland, Denmark, Sweden, and even France and Germany, which rank far above it.
Nonetheless, popular myths about New Zealand’s safety net persist. Tales abound of unscrupulous beneficiaries gaming the system and ripping off taxpayers, or of apparently sociopathic parents churning out children just to receive more paltry benefits. Much of this is based on anecdotal evidence and high-profile yet rare incidents that receive heavy publicity. As per usual, it is also heavily racialized — the “dole bludger” that exists in popular imagination is usually Polynesian — even though 44 percent of working-age welfare recipients are Pakeha, or white.
The dramatic changes to the welfare system made by John Key’s National Government, which took power in 2008, are founded on these myths. As of 2012, single parents who wanted to keep their benefits had to start looking for work as soon as their child turned five (previously, they could wait until the child was eighteen); parents who had children while on welfare had to start job-hunting after one year. These changes enjoyed wide approval, even among voters who identified as left-leaning. Two years later the government promised to cut welfare rolls by a further 25 percent.
Meanwhile, charities like the Salvation Army reported a massive strain on their resources as overwhelming demand for food and other assistance outstripped their ability to provide it. Poverty, a normalized, structural feature of the New Zealand economy since the 1980s, has reached shameful levels: a third of the country’s children now live in poverty, and an increasing number of families live out of their cars as rents in cities go up.
Meanwhile, attitudes have hardened. A 2013 bill that would have provided free breakfasts and lunches at schools in low-income neighborhoods failed after the opposition called it “an abdication of responsibility of parenting.” One influential right-wing blogger and pollster mocked the bill as a plan to “replace parents”:
[I]f a family is so incompetent that [it] can’t arrange breakfast or lunch for their kids, then surely we can’t trust them to do dinner also . . . So I think we also need huge state owned dining places where kids can get their dinners for free.
After businessman and one-time Trump prototype Bob Jones said beggars were “fat Maoris” and “a bloody disgrace,” an online poll found that 72 percent of the nearly forty thousand respondents thought begging should be outlawed.
Such views also spurred a recent crackdown on welfare fraud, which saw as many as one thousand people a year being prosecuted for costing the country around $30 million annually. By contrast, less than a tenth of that number are prosecuted for tax evasion, despite the fact that this problem cheats taxpayers of $1 billion annually.
Public services have been further hollowed out over the past nine years. In its quest for budget surpluses, no matter how small and meaningless, the Key government slashed health funding, relentlessly defunded the Department of Conservation, and cut support for education at all levels. It has ramped up privatization over public objections, ignoring the fact that selling profitable state-owned assets for a one-time payment makes little economic sense.
Workers’ rights have also been steadily undermined — a stunning fact for a country once viewed as an international model for its labor laws.
Shortly after coming to office, the National Party introduced a three-month probationary period for all new employees, during which they could be fired for any reason without appeal. A 2010 Department of Labor survey and a 2016 Treasury report found this extra flexibility had done nothing to help employment, but had simply cut “dismissal costs for firms” while creating uncertainty for workers, a fifth of whom had been fired under the provision.
In 2010, the government passed legislation that excluded film workers from the definition of employees. Warner Brothers had threatened to move the production of The Hobbit to Ireland if the change wasn’t made, and the measure had been both publicly urged and privately promoted to top policymakers by the film’s director, national treasure Peter Jackson.
Anti-union sentiment became so bad that a group of global unions issued a joint statement in 2012 calling for “an immediate end to concerted attacks on workers in New Zealand” and “an end to the union-busting measures.” More recently, the government narrowly succeeded in revoking workers’ long-held right to rest and meal breaks.
While the benefits once afforded to workers and the poor are slowly being eroded, it’s never been a better time to be wealthy. Inequality may not be as extreme as in other countries, but as journalist Max Rashbrooke notes, the wealth gap has widened more quickly than anywhere else in the developed world.
Certainly, the National Party’s tax policies have helped: in 2010, the Key government embarked on a series of reforms that gave the biggest cuts to high earners and further raised the goods-and-services tax — a stealthily regressive tax regime that undermined any gains for lower-paid workers.
While New Zealand has been hesitant to welcome Syrian refugees, its doors are open wide if the price is right. It offers the global rich two separate residency visas, one of which — the Investor Plus, introduced in 2009 — has only two conditions: émigrés must invest $10 million over three years and spend at least eighty-eight days in the country in the final two years.
Since then, there has been an uptick in ultra-wealthy individuals gaining residency. As Peter Thiel recently showed, citizenship appears to be easily available to those with a high enough net worth.
Indeed, a recent New Yorker article revealed that New Zealand has become a popular refuge for billionaires preparing for the breakdown of society. But this has been known for years, at least since Robert Johnson told the Davos World Economic Forum in 2015 that hedge-fund managers were buying farms as “boltholes” to escape increasing unrest over inequality. New Zealand’s absurdly loose rules around foreign property ownership make this strategy possible: buyers don’t need visas and pay no stamp duty. Until recently, it was one of the few developed countries to have no capital gains tax. (Even now, it only applies to houses sold within two years of their purchase.)
New Zealand’s laws benefit the rich in other ways. For years, it operated as a tax haven, allowing foreigners to stash income in anonymous trusts and pay no tax on it. John Key expressly requested this rule, which a top law firm said would put New Zealand on even footing with the Cayman Islands, Luxembourg, and Ireland — all world-famous tax havens. While some have denied this label, the Panama Papers heavily implicated New Zealand and showed that these trusts more than quintupled from two to eleven thousand over a decade.
Ironically, the politicians behind this continued neoliberal rollback all directly benefited from the programs they are now dismantling. The social development minister who cracked down on single parents on welfare was once a single parent on welfare. Former prime minister John Key, whose government sold off thousands of state houses, grew up in a state house. Virtually everyone involved in the reforms that have burdened generations of young people with student debt enjoyed the right of free education.
But a significant part of the population has long since internalized the idea that this is simply the way it has to be. Just prior to Donald Trump’s victory, the New Zealand Listener (the country’s equivalent to Time magazine) criticized Trump and Bernie Sanders for “their unimplementable and often mendacious policy prescriptions.” Some of Sanders’s signature policies included a public health-care system and free college — both of which once existed in New Zealand (and one of which, public health care, still does, albeit in a modified form).
The First Step
Despite adulation from people like Peter Schiff, New Zealand is hardly the libertarian promised land. It continues to have a robust government involved in many aspects of its citizens’ lives.
But neither is New Zealand the progressive paradise that foreign travelers once breathlessly described — or that many of its citizens still believe it is. Perhaps it never was, given that ideas about self-reliance and individualism have always been central to its culture and self-conceptions.
Still, decades of neoliberal reforms have not only hardened social attitudes and eroded some of the country’s greatest legislative accomplishments, but also rolled back many of the elements central to its self-image. A country once proud of its egalitarianism now has higher income inequality than much of the developed world. A country once known for its prosperity now suffers with shameful levels of poverty. A country that markets itself as “clean and green” now must face the reality of its environmental degradation.
For the vast majority of the population, much of this remains invisible, which explains why Kiwis continue to view their country through social-democratic-tinted glasses. Perhaps if they looked more honestly, they could start to solve these problems.
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The Justice Committee has called for submissions on National's racist and constitutionally radical Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi Bill. Submissions can be made at the link above or by post, and are due by Tuesday, 7 January 2025. But I'd get in quick, in case National grows a spine ...5 days ago
- We need to talk about Kevin
All happy families are alike; each unhappy family has a Drunk Uncle Kevin in there somewhere. If your Kevin is anything like the ones I know, he was getting along happily enough without having to think too much about the Treaty Principles Bill apart from bloody good job, onya guys ...5 days ago - The hikoi
Like everyone else (everyone who wasn't there, anyway), I've spent the morning watching the hikoi march on Parliament. The pictures are astounding: parliament grounds and the surrounding streets are full, and there are still people backed up along Lambton Quay. The police are estimating 35,000 people, and that's a floor ...5 days ago
- Why Govt & NZ Inc should boycott & regulate Facebook
6 days ago - How should we talk about change?
A better world isn’t just possible, it’s desirable. And that’s how we should frame a lot of our conversations around making a greater Auckland. As an example take urban climate action. A climate friendly Auckland: Is free from congestion Enables people to travel how they choose Is filled with ...6 days ago
- AMA + Holiday Webworm Merch!
6 days ago - Discount Code for Webworm Merch!
Hi,So there’s a bunch of new stuff on the Webworm store (www.webworm.store) — just in time for the Holidays. Read more ...6 days ago - Trying to defuse the tension
There were urgent moves yesterday at Parliament to try and defuse the tension building up over ACT’s Treaty Principles Bill. The Bill’s author, ACT leader David Seymour, told reporters that he understood the Justice Select Committee met yesterday to discuss how long it should take to consider submissions on the ...6 days ago
- An Irritable NZ Pawn – David Seymour Admits Treaty Principles Bill will clear the way for deve...
6 days ago - Gordon Campbell On The Hikoi Arrival, And Tyler Childers
Politicians like to bang on all about the need to heal society’s racial/economic divisions, but in their actions they’re more keen on stoking those divisions, with the Treaty Principles Bill being the classic example. The Bill seeks to dilute the Crown’s responsibilities to Māori at the same time as it ...6 days ago
- Socially Backwards and Fiscally Forwards: the False Ideological Divide and the “Conservative” Li...
6 days ago - Kaamos: Accepted
I appreciate that A Phuulish Fellow has been fairly quiet recently. That’s a combination of two things – comparatively little in the way of relevant material to discuss (at least until The War of the Rohirrim comes out next month), and my general work on The Secret Non-Fiction Writing Project. ...6 days ago - Here’s how governments could fix their Paris climate commitment failures
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Governments around the world face a conundrum. Virtually none are on track to meet their Paris climate commitments. That includes the United States, which committed to cut its emissions at least 50% below 2005 levels by 2030 but is only on track for 32-43% cuts ...6 days ago
- Unstoppable.
6 days ago
- Katherine Trebeck – An Alternative Economic Narrative
The era of neoliberalism has been destructive on so many levels, with a huge growth in wealth and privilege for the one percent. A hollowing out of the state; fraying of the safety net; inadequate government investment in infrastructure; and continued environmental degradation has resulted in damage on a vast ...6 days ago - In a Manner of Speaking
In a manner of speakingI just want to sayThat I could never forget the wayYou told me everythingBy saying nothingOh, give me the wordsGive me the wordsThat tell me nothingOh, give me the wordsGive me the wordsThat tell me everythingSongwriter: Winston TongNext Tuesday, the subscription price for Nick’s Kōrero will ...7 days ago - Monday 18 November 2024
The NZNO have announced a nationwide strike for December over its pay dispute with Health NZ, who have put a 1 per cent cap on pay rises. The Hīkoi mō Te Tiriti and Treaty Principles Bill remain front and centre in the media, with the impacts of the Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke-led ...7 days ago
- Shipley warns Seymour’s bill is ‘inviting civil war’
The divisive Treaty Principles Bill is not just a risk for the National Party, it’s a risk to civil order and unity, warns a National Party grandee. Photo: Getty ImagesKia ora. Long stories short, here’s my top things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on ...7 days ago - A clearer network for the City Rail Link?
This post was originally published on Linked In by Nicolas Reid. It is republished here with permission. Auckland is now just a year or so away from having the keystone of its urban rail network complete. As I wrote about here, the City Rail Link will be a literal game changer for ...7 days ago
- National’s support base is wobbling
If ACT leader David Seymour intended the Treaty Principles Bill to drive a wedge into National’s support base, he may well already be succeeding. By midnight on Thursday after the Maori Party haka in Parliament, National MPs were being deluged with emails and messages from their members calling them out ...7 days ago
- 2024 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #46
A listing of 33 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, November 10, 2024 thru Sat, November 16, 2024. Story of the week Our Story of the Week is completely "meta" (no, not that Meta). It's about our exploring how ...1 week ago
- Grifter Eftpos Tamaki at it again
..Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.Self-appointed “Bishop” and proto-fascist, Brian Tamaki was at it again on 16 November, blocking Auckland’s southern motorway, SH1.This time, the target of his ire wasn’t the Civil Unions Act; covid lock-downs; mask mandates; or ...1 week ago - Rip up a bill, lead a haka are words to live by
I cannot stop grabbing people by the lapels, or shoulders, or similar, and raving at them about the tiny miracles in my ears.I can hear again! There could not be a more satisfied customer in all the world.In a noisy cafe I am even catching words that Karren cannot, she ...1 week ago - Unintended Consequences
Take the baitYou pay the priceIt's much too lateFor good adviceYou know and I know that our good things' throughBecause there's consequences for what we doConsequences for me and youWriters: Kevin Robert Hayes, David Nagier, Bonnie Adele Hayes.Fallout from the first readingOne News began last night by saying that tens ...1 week ago - Thank you, driver!
Today, Saturday 16th of November, is Auckland Transport’s Bus Driver Appreciation Day! Saturday 16 November marks the third annual Auckland Transport (AT) ‘Bus Driver Appreciation Day’, and this year we are encouraging all of New Zealand to thank their driver or let the bus go first if you are in ...1 week ago
- Totally Normal: Holiday Edition
Hi,If I was to accurately sum up my mental state over the week, I’d just say that I got a huge fright from my own shadow.I’d nipped out for an 11pm neighborhood stroll, just to calm down after a day of stress and screens. The Cure and Fazerdaze’s new record ...1 week ago - We Are Not Listening
The current rise of populism challenges the way we think about people’s relationship to the economy.We seem to be entering an era of populism, in which leadership in a democracy is based on preferences of the population which do not seem entirely rational nor serving their longer interests. ...
1 week ago - More lawlessness from National
On Tuesday, sick of government stonewalling, the Waitangi Tribunal issued a rare court order, ordering the Minister of Health to release unredacted documents within 48 hours showing its reasoning for disestablishing Te Aka Whai Ora, the Māori Health Authority. The government's response to the lawful order of a court? Yeah, ...1 week ago
- National’s tyrannical “foreign interference” law
Yesterday, under cover the the biggest political fight of the year, National quietly - covertly, even - introduced anti-foreign interference legislation. The bill is the product of a years-long work-program aimed at countering shit like this and this, and there's unquestionably a need to do something to counter foreign states' ...1 week ago
- The Haka Represents The Best Of Us
A few months ago, I was in an audience watching a Haka-Kapa and as I watched children dance and sing and sway and shout and beat, I couldn’t help but think “The Haka represents the best of us.”Yes, yes - there will be a thousand voices that rush forth to ...1 week ago
- Adding up the climate cost
St Mary’s Bay housing left hanging: Climate risk is systemically underestimated in the climate scenarios used by central banks, and a new report warns 10,000 houses are set to become uninsurable in Aotearoa. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, here’s the top six news items of note in ...1 week ago
- Auckland chafing at Bishop’s housing intensification orders
One of the major problems the Government has in implementing its ‘going for housing growth’ strategy is that it isn’t giving much funding help to councils. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāKia ora. Long stories short, here’s my top things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and ...1 week ago - Friday 15 November 2024
The Treaty Principles Bill continues to dominate political news, with it passing its first reading in the House. Parliament was briefly suspended and Te Pāti Māori MP Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke suspended for 24 hours after leading a haka that was joined by opposition MPs and the public in the gallery. Willie ...1 week ago
- Weekly Roundup 15-November-2024
Happy Friday, welcome to another round-up of interesting stories about what’s happening in Auckland and other cities. Feel free to add your links in the comments! This post, like all our work, is brought to you by a largely volunteer crew and made possible by generous donations from our readers ...1 week ago
- Are We The Waiting?
And screamingAre we we are, are we we are the waitingAnd screamingAre we we are, are we we are the waitingForget me nots, second thoughts live in isolationHeads or tails and fairy tales in my mindAre we we are, are we we are the waiting unknownThe rage and love, the ...1 week ago - The Hoon around the week to November 15
The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts & talking about the week’s news with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent on the latest climate news, including from COP29 this week; on the US Presidential elections, Israel vs Gaza/Iran/Lebanon, Ukraine/Nato vs Russia/North ...1 week ago
- First Tea and Toast, now Milo — why do NZ’s best beverages need so much defending?
Only two months ago, Nicola Willis had to step in to stop Health New Zealand cutting tea and toast for post-birth parents, and now Lester Levy is riding to the rescue with a welcome message for all: our health workers can once again drink Milo, and will no longer need ...1 week ago - Gordon Campbell on the folly of making apologies in a social vacuum.
Day One of the Treaty Principles Bill…and everyone got what they wanted, and did what they liked. Heated words were exchanged. Culturally appropriate acts of outrage were performed. David Seymour got to play the victim card. Willie Jackson got kicked out of class. A comically red-faced Mr Speaker bellowed “Order, ...1 week ago
- Skeptical Science New Research for Week #46 2024
Open access notables Microbial solutions must be deployed against climate catastrophe, Peixoto et al., Nature Communications [comment]: The climate crisis is escalating. A multitude of microbe-based solutions have been proposed, and these technologies hold great promise and could be deployed along with other climate mitigation strategies. However, these solutions have ...1 week ago
- The PM gets some extremely valuable legal advice for free
You can pay a great deal of money for the services of a KC. So just what would some peerless legal writing from 40 or so of them be worth, do you reckon?Priceless, that’s what. It’s not even the half of it, but this is my favourite part of the ...1 week ago
- Release: Government should be transparent on live exports
Targeted consultation on reinstating live cattle exports by sea won’t allow the New Zealand public to have their say. ...3 days ago - NZ’s global climate rankings plummet as Govt removes agriculture from ETS
The Government has passed legislation to remove agriculture from the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) while Aotearoa’s reputation on climate action plummets. ...3 days ago - Failed boot camp experiment must end
As legislation to set up boot camps passed its first reading, the Green Party urged the Government to abandon this failed policy experiment for the good of our rangatahi. ...3 days ago
- Gender-affirming care must centre evidence and health needs, not political posturing
The Ministry of Health has today released an evidence brief regarding the use of puberty blockers in gender-affirming healthcare, amid moves by the government to limit access. ...3 days ago
- Release: National doesn’t care about manufacturing
The National Government is walking away from our manufacturing sector with constant reports of closures and job losses. ...3 days ago
- Release: David Parker speech – Piketty, Inequality and Climate Change
David Parker's speech from the University of Auckland's forum on Piketty, Inequality and Climate Change in September 2024. ...3 days ago
- Release: Youth mental wellbeing no longer a priority for Child Poverty Minister
Louise Upston has revealed her diminished vision for vulnerable youth against a backdrop of snubbed advice, scrapped priorities, shifted goal posts and thousands more children projected to fall into poverty. ...3 days ago
- Release: National’s lack of climate action taking NZ backwards
National Government’s backward-looking climate policy has seen New Zealand fall seven places on the Climate Change Performance Index to 41 out of 63 countries measured. ...3 days ago
- Release: Simple reason for drop in emergency housing
When the Government says it has reduced the number of people in emergency housing, what it means is it is stopping people from accessing it in the first place. ...4 days ago
- Govt’s child wellbeing strategy ‘shallow and shameful’
The Government is turning its back on children by not only weakening child poverty reduction targets, but also removing child mental wellbeing as a priority focus in their Child and Youth Wellbeing Strategy. ...4 days ago
- Release: A historic win for Samoan communities
Labour warmly welcomes the Restoring Samoan Citizenship Bill as it passes its third reading, before becoming law. ...4 days ago
- Government plan to reinstate live animal exports a “national disgrace”
The Government has taken a giant step backwards by reinstating live animal exports. ...4 days ago
- Pasifika justice as Member’s Bill passes final reading
Teanau Tuiono’s Member’s Bill, the Citizenship (Western Samoa Restoration) Amendment Bill, has passed its third reading and will become law. ...4 days ago
- Release: Minister of Education thinks New Zealand ends at the Bombay Hills
The Minister of Education has shown complete disregard for rural communities and their school bus routes in Question Time today. ...4 days ago
- Economists sound alarm on Government’s slash-and-burn approach
A group of prominent economists has released an open letter to the Government, raising grave concerns about the far-reaching consequences of its fiscal policy. ...4 days ago
- Release: Smoking numbers up under Costello’s watch
National’s repeal of Labour’s smokefree legislation has taken New Zealand further away from achieving a Smokefree 2025 and a smokefree generation. ...4 days ago
- Release: Call for Palestine recognition by NZ, Australian and Canadian MPs
Parliamentarians from Australia, Canada and New Zealand have written an open letter to their respective Prime Ministers calling on them to recognise Palestine. ...5 days ago
- Justice Select Committee opens floor for Treaty Principles submissions
Today, the Justice Select Committee has decided to officially open submissions for the controversial Treaty Principles Bill. ...6 days ago
- Power of the people on full display as hīkoi approaches Parliament
Today, Hīkoi mō te Tiriti arrived in Wellington, with thousands gathering to march in unity against the divisive Treaty Principles Bill. ...6 days ago
- Hypocrisy as Te Whatu Ora contractor bill balloons
Te Whatu Ora’s bill for contracting and consulting staff has ballooned by nearly 20 percent under the National Government, breaking a promise they made during the election campaign to cut contractors. ...7 days ago
- Release: Growing pressure to scrap Section 7AA Repeal Bill
The newly released Section 7AA Repeal Bill's select committee report is further evidence that the Government should scrap it. ...1 week ago
- Government’s move to monetise access to nature a slippery slope
The Green Party is voicing serious concerns over the Government’s proposal to charge for access to public conservation land, released today. ...1 week ago
- Green Party condemns the passage of Treaty Principles Bill
The Green Party condemns the passing of the Treaty Principles Bill at first reading, and is clear that the fight is not over. ...1 week ago
- Stand Up for Te Tiriti
Te Tiriti o Waitangi is our country’s founding document. It forms the basis of the relationship between Māori and the Crown – and the Aotearoa New Zealand we live in today. ...1 week ago
- Release: Over 15,000 sign Labour’s open letter to Luxon
As the hīkoi to Parliament continues, Labour has sent an open letter to Prime Minister Christopher Luxon in a last-ditch attempt to get him to kill the Treaty Principles Bill. ...1 week ago
- Fast Track Bill threatens environment, climate and reputation
The fast-track legislation passing its second reading in Parliament is another step towards environmental ruin. ...2 weeks ago
- Greens join King’s Counsel in calling for Treaty Principles Bill to be abandoned
The Prime Minister must answer the call from a group of senior lawyers of the King’s Counsel to abandon the divisive Treaty Principles Bill. ...2 weeks ago
- Chris Hipkins’ apology statement to state and faith-based care survivors
...2 weeks ago
- Release: Labour formally apologises to state and faith-based care survivors
Labour joins with the Government in unreservedly apologising for the abuse, neglect and trauma including torture in state and faith-based care and for ignoring the voices of survivors for too long. ...2 weeks ago
- Green Party stands in support of survivors of abuse in care
Today, the Green Party stands alongside the survivors of abuse in state care and faith-based care as the Government issues an historic apology. ...2 weeks ago
- Green Party calls for conscience vote on Treaty Principles Bill
The Green Party has written to the Speaker of the House requesting he enable a personal vote on the Treaty Principles Bill. ...2 weeks ago
- Govt move to exclude journalist risks chilling effect
The Green Party is alarmed by the Government’s move to exclude a journalist from covering this week’s apology for the survivors of abuse in state and faith-based care. ...2 weeks ago
- Without action, an apology will be empty air
For tomorrow’s apology to survivors of abuse in state and faith-based care to hold any water, the Government must not pursue the same policies that drove the abuse in the first place. ...2 weeks ago
- Release: Concerns remain over tobacco interference
Concerns about the tobacco industry’s ability to interfere in government policy making remain, despite the inability of the Office of the Auditor-General to investigate the Government’s decision to halve the excise tax on heated tobacco products. ...2 weeks ago
- Urgent wake-up call on climate
The Climate Change Commission’s latest advice indicates Aotearoa needs to be stepping up on climate action. ...2 weeks ago
- Green MP’s Meme-ber’s Bill set to save the world
Break out the punchlines and dust off your meme folder: Green Party MP Kahurangi Carter’s Copyright (Parody and Satire) Amendment Bill was pulled from the Ballot yesterday. ...2 weeks ago
- Release: Poroporoaki: Ta Robert (Bom) Gillies
Kua hinga te manawa kairākau o Te Rua Tekau Ma Waru Tiwhatiwha te po! Kakarauru i te po! Ka rapuhia kei hea koe kua riro! Haere e te Ika a Whiro ki o tini hoa kua ngaro atu ki te Pō ...2 weeks ago
- Labour, Greens and Te Pāti Māori call on the Prime Minister to block the Treaty Principles Bill
The opposition parties stand united for an Aotearoa that honours Te Tiriti, rather than seeking to rewrite it. Labour, the Greens and Te Pāti Māori are working together against the Government’s divisive Treaty Principles Bill. ...2 weeks ago
- Release: Labour, Greens and Te Pāti Māori call on the Prime Minister to block the Treaty Principle...
The opposition parties stand united for an Aotearoa that honours Te Tiriti, rather than seeking to rewrite it. Labour, the Greens and Te Pāti Māori are working together against the Government’s divisive Treaty Principles Bill. ...2 weeks ago
- NZ must pursue independent foreign policy
The Green Party says the need is greater than ever for Aotearoa New Zealand to pursue an independent foreign policy. ...2 weeks ago
- Child Protection Investigation Unit established
A new Child Protection Investigation Unit is being established to ensure the safety and wellbeing of children in care, Minister for Children Karen Chhour says. “The report released by the Royal Commission into abuse in state care shows us all the risk of not acting immediately when there are serious ...2 days ago - Speech at United States Business Summit 2024
Ka nui te mihi kia koutou. Ka mihi ki te mana whenua ko Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei. Kia ora and good morning everyone. Thank you Fran and Simon for inviting me here today, and importantly your leadership of this forum over several years now. I want to acknowledge David Gehrenbeck, Deputy ...2 days ago
- Record number of submissions received on granny flat proposal
Nearly 2,000 submissions have been received on the Government’s proposals aimed at making it easier to build a granny flat of up to 60 square metres without a resource or building consent, RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk say. “This is the highest number ...2 days ago
- District Court Judge appointed
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Rebecca Guthrie as a District Court Judge. Judge Guthrie was admitted to the bar in 1997 following her graduation from the University of Canterbury in 1996 (LLB, BA). She commenced her legal career in Hastings in 1997 before moving to London in ...2 days ago
- Appointments strengthen Predator Free 2050
The latest Predator Free 2050 Board appointments will help to strengthen biodiversity efforts across Aotearoa New Zealand, Conservation Minister Tama Potaka says. Mr Potaka today announced two appointments to the Board of Directors of Predator Free 2050 Limited, a key player in the wider Predator Free 2050 Programme. “The Predator ...3 days ago
- New facility in Christchurch will improve the lives of young New Zealanders
Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey today opened Kahurangi, an innovative and much-needed facility for Canterbury’s Child, Adolescent, and Family Mental Health Services. “The new state of the art outpatient facility opened today will be a gamechanger for the way mental health is delivered for young people in Canterbury,” says Mr ...3 days ago
- Driver safety screens to be installed on Auckland buses
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed news from the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) that bus driver protection screens will be installed across Auckland’s bus fleet by 2026.“The Government is committed to improving the safety of working environments for bus drivers, and Budget 2024 allocated $15 million of Crown funding over ...3 days ago
- Government action provides Southland farmers more time to meet plan requirements
The Government is taking action to ensure Southland farmers and growers are not affected by unreasonable regional farm plan deadlines, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay, Environment Minister Penny Simmonds and Associate Environment Minister Andrew Hoggard say.“Cabinet has agreed to provide more time for farmers and growers to comply with regional rules ...3 days ago
- Bill reaffirms Government’s commitment to crack down on serious youth offending
The Oranga Tamariki (Responding to Serious Youth Offending) Bill had its first reading at Parliament today. The Bill reaffirms the Government’s commitment to crack down on serious youth offending, Minister for Children Karen Chhour says. “In recent years we have seen an unacceptable spike in youth offending. “This Bill makes ...3 days ago
- Critical milestones for earthquake buildings review
Fairer, more sensible rules about managing earthquake risks are a step closer with the passing of legislation and the appointment of an independent chair to provide expert advice, Minister for Building and Construction Chris Penk says. “The Government is committed to reinvigorating our cities and regions to support economic growth, ...3 days ago
- State of the art radiology machine for Auckland
People in Northland and Auckland will benefit from a new machine for cancer treatment installed at the Regional Cancer and Blood Service at Auckland City Hospital. The MV5 linear accelerator, or LINAC machine, officially opened today targets cancer tumours with pinpoint accuracy. Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says this new, ...3 days ago
- Foreign Minister to visit Europe
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Winston Peters will travel to Europe for high-level talks with France, Germany and the United Kingdom next week. "Since taking office almost a year ago, the Coalition Government has emphasised the importance we place on New Zealand's traditional and likeminded diplomatic and ...3 days ago
- First arrests made under gang patch ban
Police have made their first arrests under the new gang patch legislation, with two gang members arrested, says Police Minister Mark Mitchell. “Just before 11 this morning, Police in Wairoa apprehended a gang member for wearing a patch to the supermarket. He has been arrested and will now face enforcement ...3 days ago
- Better support for victims of sexual violence
The Government is proposing two major changes to name suppression laws that will put the views of victims of sexual violence first, Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “We are committed to restoring law and order and these two proposed changes will help ensure the victims of crime are put at ...3 days ago
- Government moving forward with Regional Deals
Cabinet has agreed to invite all regions to submit proposals for Regional Deals between central and local government that drive economic growth and deliver the infrastructure our country needs, Local Government Minister Simeon Brown and Infrastructure Minister Chris Bishop say. Inviting all regions to propose a Regional Deal that boosts ...3 days ago
- MSA pilot participant update
One of the ten young men selected to participate in the Military-Style Academy Pilot has allegedly reoffended. Children’s Minister Karen Chhour is disappointed but says it would be naïve to think that none of these young men would reoffend. “I’m saddened that this young person has not taken this opportunity ...3 days ago
- Fighting for Kiwis in Trade
Delivered at Auckland Trade and Economic Policy School Good morning and thank you Deputy Vice Chancellor Lithander for your warm welcome and for inviting me to open Auckland Trade and Economic Policy School today. A Special thanks to the University of Auckland, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade and ...4 days ago
- Attendance rates increase, again
Associate Education Minister David Seymour says that school attendance is continuing to rise. In Term 3 of 2024 51.3 per cent of students attended school regularly, an increase of 5.3 percentage points from 46 per cent in Term 3 of 2023. “This Government has prioritised student attendance and it is ...4 days ago
- Improving the lives of young New Zealanders
Ensuring New Zealand is the best place in the world for children and young people is the vision at the heart of the Government’s new Child and Youth Strategy, Child Poverty Reduction Minister Louise Upston says. “Childhood represents a huge opportunity to set people on a positive path towards living ...4 days ago
- Government continues work to reinstate livestock exports by sea
The Government is reinstating the trade of livestock exports by sea while ensuring the highest standards of animal welfare, says Associate Minister of Agriculture Andrew Hoggard.“The Government will introduce legislation changes to reinstate the trade, enhance oversight, and strengthen requirements for exporters to identify risks and manage the welfare of ...4 days ago
- Speech to the National Quality Forum 2024
Tēnā koutou katoa – it is a pleasure to be here today. I would like to begin by acknowledging the important leadership role you all play in ensuring a quality health system New Zealanders can trust. There is enormous clinical expertise in this room covering a wide range of disciplines. ...5 days ago
- New Zealand’s COP29 National Statement
Tēnā koutou katoa. Mr President, Excellencies, Delegates. New Zealand, and all nations represented here today, are already dealing with the impacts of climate change. Our households, businesses, and economies are bearing the costs of its effects. The choices we make now will shape the severity of these impacts for generations ...5 days ago
- Latest Quarterly Investment Report released
The Government has released its second Quarterly Investment Report (QIR) which shows substantial work still to be done by agencies to improve investment reporting and meet the Government’s expectations, Infrastructure and Acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “New Zealand has significant infrastructure and investment needs. The Government is determined to get ...5 days ago
- New Zealand supporting loss and damage fund
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced New Zealand will contribute NZ$10 million to the new Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage while at the annual United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP29) in Baku, Azerbaijan. “New Zealand is joining the global effort to address the significant challenge of responding to ...5 days ago
- Gang crackdown begins at stroke of midnight
The free ride for gangs is over when the clock strikes midnight tonight, with tough new laws officially coming into effect, Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith and Police Minister Mark Mitchell say. “Gang patches will no longer be able to be worn in public. To earn the right to wear a ...5 days ago
- LGFA increases borrowing capacity to support high growth councils
The Government is welcoming the decision by the Local Government Funding Agency to increase access to financing tools for fast growing councils to support greater investment in critical infrastructure, Local Government Minister Simeon Brown says.“Communities across the country are facing an infrastructure deficit and significant population growth is projected in ...5 days ago
- Temporary Traffic Management costs revealed
The Government has revealed that over the past three years, the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) has spent an eyewatering $786 million of taxpayers’ money on road cones and temporary traffic management (TTM), Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“When I became Minister, I was surprised to learn that that NZTA did ...5 days ago
- Jurisdiction of Disputes Tribunal to double
Legislation that will double the financial jurisdiction of the Disputes Tribunal from $30,000 to $60,000 has passed first reading in Parliament today, Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith. “We need to improve court timeliness and access to justice so that Kiwis and get on with their lives. Court delays affect everyone, the ...5 days ago
- Protecting New Zealand from foreign interference
Legislation that will specifically criminalise foreign interference and strengthen espionage offences has passed first reading in Parliament today, Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “It is normal and appropriate for states to interact and work to influence one another. This encourages cooperation and can have mutually beneficial outcomes. “However, the reality ...5 days ago
- Significant milestone for Canterbury Road of National Significance
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed news that the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) Board has approved funding towards pre-implementation and early works on the State Highway 1 (SH1) Belfast to Pegasus Motorway and Woodend Bypass Road of National Significance (RoNS). “Reaching this significant milestone is a reflection of our Government’s ...5 days ago
- Health survey results to help drive change
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says findings from the annual Health Survey highlight the need to continue driving better health outcomes for New Zealanders. The New Zealand Health Survey is an annual snapshot of key metrics measured from July 2023 – July 2024. Findings released this morning include: In 2023/24, ...5 days ago
- Final push needed to get to Smokefree 2025
A renewed effort to get people to quit smoking will build on what has worked to date and target the groups who most need support, Associate Health Minister Casey Costello said today. “The latest New Zealand Health Survey results show the daily smoking rate at 6.9 per cent and we ...5 days ago
- New diplomatic appointments
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters has announced four new diplomatic appointments. “Our diplomats play an important role in ensuring New Zealand’s interests are maintained and enhanced across the world,” Mr Peters says. “It is a pleasure to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the Ministry of Foreign ...6 days ago
- Next steps for Regulatory Standards Bill
Regulation Minister David Seymour has today announced the next steps in the Government’s plan improve the quality of regulation by opening consultation on a proposed Regulatory Standards Bill. “New Zealand's low wages can be blamed on low productivity, and low productivity can be blamed on poor regulation,” says Mr Seymour. ...6 days ago
- Red Tape Tipline goes live
Minister for Regulation David Seymour has today announced that the Ministry for Regulation’s Red Tape Tipline is now live. “We want to hear about your red tape horror stories. From today, New Zealanders will have a say on how they are regulated through an online portal,” says Mr Seymour. The ...6 days ago
- Youth Parliament 2025 announced
The Minister for Youth Matt Doocey has today announced the eleventh Youth Parliament will be taking place in 2025. “Youth Parliament offers a unique youth development opportunity to young people from across New Zealand to experience the political process and learn about how government works,” says Mr Doocey. “The two-day ...6 days ago
- Police stats show promising change
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Good site, the Jacobin. I fully recommend it to anyone with a left wing persuasion.
The. alternative is that attitudes have not hardened people have become more enlightened and no longer accept the left propaganda and failed socialist policy of the past Nz is by far a better place than the closed so called social paradise of the 50 60s and 70s
You are absolutely right that the 50-70s had plenty of problems and faults. But I fail to see any benefit from high cost education, inequality, low pay and poverty. I think it is possible to move on from the problems of the 1970s without making NZ a millionaires paradise at the expense of everyone else and the environment.
“But I fail to see any benefit from high cost education, inequality, low pay and poverty.”
Those things enable people like Red to live well, that’s the benefit 😉
I doubt if Red lives well. Propagandists for the right wing are usually “wannabees” who have bought the bullshit that the “rich have earned their wealth”.
Education is high cost as there are now 200000 plus students 60s and 70s 17000 fully paid hence why it costs a bit more now, , if you want to be a student now yep you need to cover some of the cost yourself, tough reality, below tertiary I would argue the quality and resources now compared to the 70s 60s is real value for money even if you need to top it up with inconsequential fees compared to what the tax payer fund, likewise health and even poverty it’s all relative, just need to suck it up and don’t wallow in self pity or get lost in left wing whinging, doesn’t help More opportunity and diversity of opportunity today than ever if you want it
“Education is high cost as there are now 200000 plus students 60s and 70s 17000 fully paid hence why it costs a bit more now”
There is no explanation there. You’ve just asserted something without explaining how or why. The rest of your comment is the same. So I will take your comment as ideological rather than being based on evidence or logic.
(it would help if you paid a bit more attention to the grammar in your comments, they’re not that easy to read).
If grammar is all you got weka ( every one hates a corrector) I will leave it at that, barring if tax payer is funding 200k students vs 17000 I suggest this maybe a bit more expensive, 😀
Red, if language is truly the brain’s instrument of thought, your inadequacies are explained.
Socialism never failed in any fair competition – the Capitalists always knee-cap Socialism and tilt the field. It MUST NOT succeed.
Judging by your grammar and syntax, I suspect that you are not well-read in history.
Your verdicts stem from unfair tests, and when it comes to self-pity, just listen to the well-off moaning about having to pay tax. Maybe that includes you.
😉
Roughly speaking, there are currently 200 000 students in Scottish universities. Scotland has a similar population to NZ. And tertiary education in Scotland is free.
So is heath-care, including dentistry.
Which…well are you full of shit Red, or are you full of shit? Take your time. Breath deeply and think about it.
You are the one who appears to be hyperventating billy boy, settle petal
Ha ! this guy…. he’d deny everything including his brain having gangrene if the doctors told him his neck was rotting from the neck up…
It was a balanced factual article , Red.
And the truth hurts. Its time we all acted on those truths and started the neo liberal purge. Its cancer.
[deleted]
[see moderation note in your other comment. Pay particular attention to the warning re trolling. I see this shit again and I will give a lengthy ban – weka]
Red, “Suck it up” is the cry of those bereft of their own opinion.
A society functions best when all participants are able to contribute. In one sentence, this is essentially what is missed right now.
Some of it is historic, some of it is self inflicted, all of it is designed to have the majority of resources concentrated at a very small number of people.
Being in the diminishing middle class fighting, trying not to sink to the lower end can distort the view what is right and what is wrong.
One can see young children with preventable disease, older folks not cared for and suffering unnecessarily, people without homes, and I don’t even want to mention the rort that the ChCh Earthquake has become disguised as “caring”.
All this should be a reminder that every child deserves a good start to THEIR live and part of this is education. It is the hope we have to better the circumstances I mentioned above. To leave this once more to the domain of the haves will further increase the division that NZlanders tried to escape when the came here 200 years ago.
I see the behaviors of the up and downstairs creeping in everywhere and I do really hope that the younger and thinking people will see the situation for what it is.
History is repeating itself and I doubt that I “will suck it up”.
That’s physically impossible. It’s only society that can support people through education. An individual simply doesn’t have the wherewithal and it’s society that needs an educated populace. Without one innovation and skills decline – just as we’re seeing in fact.
If it’s inconsequential then the government should simply pay for it. But it’s not. many can’t afford the huge fees that schools more or less demand now.
The only whinging I see comes from you RWNJs – just like that entire wall of text you just spewed forth there. It really was nothing but whinging.
Nope, there’s far less because all the wealth is controlled by so few.
Luke 21:26King James Version (KJV)
26 Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.
Excellent post.
We have been fools to move our society in this neoliberal direction.
A line in the post caught my eye. The admirable (noble?) bit about the Welfare State being there for those unable to look after themselves. What event, or series of events, turned that unable into unwilling? This is, IMHO, why the political left struggles to maintain support with the vast majority of voters who by working; paying tax; housing, feeding, educating and guiding their children are very satisfied with their lives. There is no acknowledgment that this is the reality, and that the Welfare State has become an unsustainable and debilitating crutch for far too many. I’ll wait for the howls of outrage and abuse…
Yes, often the worst for beating down on the poorest, are those just one rung above. I think politicians and the media have actively encouraged this meanness.
Remember that the poorest 50% of NZ has just 5% of the nation’s wealth – and you can expect that close to 100% of those you deem “unwilling” are in that bottom 50%. With only 5% of the nation’s wealth – they are hardly bleeding the rest of us dry.
The same can’t be said of the top 1% who own 20% of the nation’s wealth (four times more wealth, divided among 1/50th the number of people) – and yet about them we hardly hear a peep of complaint!
The % of wealth has little to do with “bleeding us dry” I think. What is bleeding us is the costs of the welfare, the housing, the costs of the justice system, social workers, emergency services etc etc. Yet you will somehow blame this on some abstract neo-liberalism. The premise of the left, it would seem, is that it is some grand plan to keep the poor poor and downtrodden, yet it’s pretty obvious that the free market and capitalism would rather avoid all these unnecessary costs, and have everyone consuming happily with excess to spend. It’s easy to surmise that it is the grand plan of the left to maintain an underclass whose votes are cheaply bought (free stuff, KFC) to enable the Chardonnay lifestyles of Union bosses and the Political class.
‘ The premise of the left, it would seem, is that it is some grand plan to keep the poor poor and downtrodden’
* Did you not pay attention to the article? – it was neo liberal policy that enabled your above statement.
‘ Chardonnay lifestyles of Union bosses and the Political class.’
* Seriously ?… and the New Zealand Institute etc DOESN’T enjoy its own ‘ Chardonnay ‘ culture ?
‘ What is bleeding us is the costs of the welfare, the housing, the costs of the justice system, social workers, emergency services etc etc. ‘
* L0L at this one, again – you didn’t read the article , did you ? Did you not read the bit about NZ being rated as around the ‘sixth wealthiest per capita in 1965 ? We had a social democracy with a KEYNESIAN based economy then – NOT a neo liberal one. AND a welfare state, AND free education , AND large amounts of state houses AND free health care. Not to mention SOES’we owned!
‘ yet it’s pretty obvious that the free market and capitalism would rather avoid all these unnecessary costs, and have everyone consuming happily with excess to spend..’
* It just gets richer and richer ( no pun intended ) with you , doesn’t it? WHAT was the main article about other than NZ’s declining prosperity and rapidly rising rates of poverty again , Marco?. What was this article all about???
You never read it , did you.
Oh – and we owned lots and lots of STATE OWNED ASSETS as well !
( EDIT : Not to mention SOES’ we owned! I meant SOA’s in above post .)
Yes ! – we actually owned them ! – and previous generations build and paid for em ! And what did the neo liberals do ? – sold em off for bargain basement prices to thier overseas mates to ramp up the prices charged to New Zealanders.
Which made things like power un- affordable for the elderly and young working family’s to be kept warm in winter . So now we have kids dying in run down state houses .
And large numbers of homeless that are not warm and cant even afford to rent a home
Nice one , eh mate..
I dont think Marco gives a shit about any of that, when it all comes down to it. As long as he gets is dividends and rental income.
And yet the stupid thing is, – prior to 1984 , – we still had many very wealthy people in this country. Neo liberalism was just a cheap shot for removing wealth from the general public and into the already wealthy’s pockets.
It was theft by stealth introduced by a small number of politicians on behalf of certain individuals in the finance and business sectors.
“It’s easy to surmise that it is the grand plan of the left to maintain an underclass whose votes are cheaply bought (free stuff, KFC) to enable the Chardonnay lifestyles of Union bosses and the Political class.”
Wow.
Unfortunately the “underclass” often doesn’t vote, so your grand plan of the left seems to be in your own head I fear. Your whole spiel betrays some pretty unfortunate views.
Marco
You are so self satisfied. The only people you care about are those close to you. I suggest before you offer any more or your ‘wisdom’ you go away from the television news at night and read and listen to some of the information gathered and put up here or other blogs. Then you can step down from your high horse and join the rest of the people who understand what life is about, not just carry dreams around in their head. Your dreams show simple prejudice.
Or perhaps you have learned all you ever can in just getting the skills to hold down your job and have a family, and play sport, that is always a handy time-user.
In this strange set-up you’re imagining of people simply being ‘unwilling’ to look after themselves, there are no solo parents, no working people claiming entitlements, no structural unemployment, no inadequate wage rates…and anything being done that isn’t for money doesn’t count.
Also explain why you think the “Welfare State” is not sustainable? Haven’t governments cut taxes and privatised potential streams of revenue for one off payments? And even after doing that and impoverishing society (both materially and financially) how much money did western governments suddenly conjure up to throw at the banks again? I forget. Quite a wee few zeros in the dollar amount though, yes?
Bill even if they doubled welfare with the downside consequences of such it would not be enough for your ilk, you would argue then that its every one right to be driving in an Aldi Q7 funded by the state Re your ideology of envy
[Making false assertions about authors =… come back next week. FYI – never owned a car, never wanted a car never suffered from or operated from a basis of material envy.] – Bill
Is a warm, dry house the same as an Aldi Q7 in your eyes?
I suspect it is.
Plus 1000 Red, or however the sycophantic mutual hate festers do it here…
[This space isn’t provided for you to drop a bunch of unfounded assertions along with your nasty ideology and you’re too quick to jump over the trolling line. I suggest you have a think about how to make actual political arguments before you come back. One week – weka]
There a change come over you RWNJs recently. There’s an air of desperate defeat about you all. Hope you get through ok.
All good here muttonbrain but appreciate the concern 😀
[I told a lie up above. You’re gone until the second of June. I’m about to scan your other comments on this thread, so I hope you’ll understand not to be surprised if come back on June 2nd to discover the ban’s been pushed out further] – Bill
Please find evidence to do so, Bill. I for one will be highly appreciative of your efforts. Red is a constant bore.
This was covered pretty thoroughly in the article – the statistics don’t back up the stereotypes.
Slanted statistics rarely ever do , Craig H ….
How are they slanted? It’s like drug testing beneficiaries – a tiny percentage of beneficiaries fail, yet it’s a major stereotype despite not being supported by the numbers.
Hehehe…I was meaning when these neo liberals slant data , statistics etc , which they’ve done for years creating sub groups to victimize for political purposes.
Not so much those NGO’s for instance who submit reports that reveal the truth on say Nationals treatment of beneficiaries etc.
Marco, no outrage just a reality check.
Can you please quantify how much of welfare fraud is going on and if so, break it down to taxpayer moneys kept – as in not paid and taxpayer money kept but not deserved?
BTW, pensions are counted as social welfare, I hope you realise this? Would you then say that someone with an income from other sources, including trusts over 100K should not get a pension?
I belief an analysis will be needed before making such sweeping statements.
Gotcha, misread the post!
I don’t like the meanness of the New Zealand public sector either, and in how it treats the weak and the poor. WE are indeed spectacularly unequal now.
And I agree with him on the vastly unequal division of wealth, oppression of unions, and chronic low wages.
But the questions persist:
– Why are we so popular as an inbound migration destination? It’s not just our relativity.
– Why does investment continue to pour in? It’s not just because our rules let it.
– Why is our economy diversifying so well, over so long? It’s not just luck.
– Why is it, ‘for the vast majority of our population, much of this remains invisible’ – why do most people not care about it, not even know the term, and consistently vote centrist strong-staters in? It’s not like there’s a nationwide amnesia.
I would find him more convincing if he admitted what is going right.
Social mythology (egalitarian etc) and nice weather plus English being the spoken language probably explain a fair portion of your first question.
Dunno jack shit about investment.
Is the economy diversifying? Seems to be stuck on primary production mode from what I see (milk, logs etc) and then some tourism thrown in.
It’s been rendered invisible by media over years and people encouraged to avert their gaze by the propagation of memes such as ‘deserving poor’ and ‘undeserving poor’. And there’s maybe still the impact of that racist element – white people aren’t poor and them brown skinned people’s lazy, innit?
Voting centrist – well, what options have there been? I mind back in 2002(?) sitting in a smoko room and people saying they wouldn’t vote Alliance because what they were offering was too good. I kid you not. I think there’s a certain attitude harboured by far too many in NZ that it’s somehow wrong to demand; that what’s deserved will be handed down…and riding shotgun with that a somewhat fearful culture insisting that people don’t upset the boss or ‘the betters’.
That as may be, what would you say’s going right Ad?
Check below for the 2016 MBIE report on where exactly New Zealand’s economic sectors are.
Might surprise you.
The dominant political options have been centrist and statist and liberal, and people have chosen them consistently for 20 years. Even so, those who oppose the centre-statist thing are tracking at about 20% (Greens + NZF). So it’s not like there’s no choice.
As for what is going right, well, that’s easiest left to the current government, who will tell us all about it, at length, in the next three months.
NZF is centre-statist.
“So it’s not like there’s no choice.”
There isn’t if you want a good cultural fit.
That was an interesting read. But I think all the current government can lay claim to is standing on the shoulders of the governments before, particularly the preceding Labour government. And creating MBIE to have an overall view of the economy.
In highlighting the growth in ICT and high value manufacturing the document also gives the current immigration policy a swift kick in the shins. Where’s the value to our economy bringing in “retail managers” when we need innovative, lateral thinking engineers. While MBIE have highlighted the things we are doing very well, the report also shows where we are putting it all at risk with a looming skill crunch.
The report, while produced last year, is based on data from 2002 – 12, so again mainly relating to the efforts of the Clark government. Would be very interesting to see how the current lot have changed the trajectory.
We don’t really import retail managers, we import students who move into that field as a (not very viable) pathway to residency. It’s pretty clear from appeal decisions that the vast majority of retail management positions seen by immigration are more supervisory in nature, but that doesn’t stop unscrupulous overseas agents from selling the dream.
For most people, it’s not a problem, so they don’t care unless and until it affects them, at which point they become very indignant.
“I would find him more convincing if he admitted what is going right.”
Despite Nationals general incompetency, I don’t think anyone is saying that neoliberalism has no successes. Obviously it does, or it wouldn’t have lasted. What people are saying is that the cost is too high. And we should be more honest about that.
Then there’s the issue that even where one can say things are going right, they’re still not really. Yes, people want to live here (most of the immigrants I know are middle class Europeans and Americans, and they’re here because there’s less people and a better environment), but look at the way that diary worker imported labour is being treated. Investment happens because people can make money. Like Bill I was puzzled by the economic diversity one, we’re incredibly vulnerable to an oil shock (tourism) and a number of risks associated with industrial dairy.
As for voting, 1 million people just don’t bother. Of those that do there’s the whole perception of Labour as not competent thing. It’s not like everyone is voting National and loving it. If it’s a choice between neoliberal and neoliberal lite, why not vote for one’s personal self interest?
“It’s not like there’s a nationwide amnesia”
Not, but still a fair amount of having not recovered from the 80s Labour betrayal.
See below for the economic diversity point.
I think it will surprise you.
In terms of voting centrist and strong-statist, well, if people really didn’t like it, they’d make the effort to change it by voting. It really is a popularity contest.
that’s not how it works though. People vote and don’t vote for a wide range of reasons. You are referring to the reasons why you think people should vote, not what they actually do. Some people vote for the handsome candidate ffs.
And if people didn’t want centrist but still wanted reliable and competent what would they vote for instead?
I wonder if macroeconomic theories/settings have a shelf life.
Basically, given enough time, people will figure out how to game given macroeconomic settings (currently neoliberalism, previously Keynesian economics) and drive them to a point where minimising that gaming becomes hugely problematic, at which point it’s better just to scrap the whole thing and move to a new set of macroeconomic settings.
Also, I think the ubiquity of computers accelerates this process, so changes need to be rung in more often than before.
We did ~50 years of Keynes, and now 33 years of neoliberalism – time to change again. I like Modern Monetary Theory, but would be happy to go back to Keynes.
@ Ad
But the questions persist:
1) Why are we so popular as an inbound migration destination? It’s not just our relativity.
2) Why does investment continue to pour in? It’s not just because our rules let it.
3) Why is our economy diversifying so well, over so long? It’s not just luck.
4) Why is it, ‘for the vast majority of our population, much of this remains invisible’ – why do most people not care about it, not even know the term, and consistently vote centrist strong-staters in? It’s not like there’s a nationwide amnesia.
1) Several reasons. One is the rich – we know about the bolthole thing. The other are large numbers of people from country’s that have ingrained poverty and class systems such as India. Not all , but many seek to bring their elderly parents as well. And they still look at NZ citizenship as a back door to the Australian economy and lifestyle.
2) A lot of investment is from Australia – who own most of our banks. We are a veritable gold mine for them. As is our housing bubble. But even they are getting wary of that now.
3) It may or may not be ‘ diversifying ‘ . That depends on who you listen to. It may well be ‘ diversifying’ insofar as the FIRE industry’s are concerned – but cast your mind back to the decimation of NZ manufacturing with the removal of trade tariffs. Also , – we have an investors/ employers dream here – a low wage economy. Thanks to the Employment Contracts Act. And the NZ Institute for lobbying National to ram it through.AND Nationals latest unbridled immigration providing cheap labour.
4) The generation that opposed Rogernomics are retiring off, there is a whole new generation that know nothing but neo liberalism. If they did know there was an alternative – they would be outraged, But 33 years of beating down the populace, lacing it with dogma and catchphrases, economic propaganda, teaching it in our University’s and edging out those hostile to it as well as in the media , have done a fine job of entrenching an ideology that works well for a minority – but dis-empowers and disenfranchises the majority – slowly but surely.
This MBIE 2016 report gives an idea on where the sectors are in the New Zealand economy. Might surprise you:
http://www.mbie.govt.nz/info-services/business/business-growth-agenda/sectors-reports-series/pdf-image-library/the-new-zealand-sectors-report-2014-main-report/Part%201%20-%20Overview%20of%20the%20Economy%20by%20Sector.pdf
Interesting idea that “the generation that opposed Rogernomics are retiring off”. Not unfair. Tells me that the new monetarist-capitalist vision within a strong and interventionist state really has happened.
Let me guess: FIRED (FRIED) or FIRET (REFIT) or DRIFT or F-TIRED? D=Dairy; T=Tourism.
To read MBIE documents you’ll need a gobbledygook translator 😉
To apply for MBIE funding you’ll need a stiff drink or two.
Or you can just read.
Treasury did a pre-dairy-price-fall report on the over-reliance on dairy, and came up with pretty even plusses and minuses.
I’ve had to wade through a fair bit of MBIE documentation lately and my antibody titres are high but when I have a quiet moment (??) I will read it, but not right now.
I wasn’t too far off.
Anyway, I’ve downloaded the PDF but I am not going to read all 90 pages of MBIE gobbledygook tonight; I hope you’ll understand.
Those are good questions Ad. Couple of my thoughts:
– Inbound immigration. No denying, there are plenty of places much worse off than NZ, and when you look at where many current immigrants to NZ are coming from, you can imagine why they would want to come here. That doesn’t mean we should accept NZ being far worse for people than it could be.
– Investment. Depends if it is doing any good for society whether that means anything positive. A lot of investment I have personally witnessed looks a lot like mere extraction of the wealth and ecology of NZ, or empire expansion by the very rich, with the lowest number of jobs with the pay closest to the minimum wage possible. There are plenty of loggers and miners “investing” in Africa and the Pacific as well, for example.
– “invisible”…depends who you mix with. It is true that many people doing relatively badly have no clear idea why any of it is happening, and are much more likely to blame “immigrants and bludgers” than neoliberalism – even though the latter is the actual problem in my view. Many young people I talk to don’t actually know what a union is, while at the same time living on the bones of their arses with zero hour employment paid far below the living wage.
Agree we should expect more for New Zealand.
But then, so would Bill English and Andrew LIttle both.
Agree that New Zealand in some parts is still a commodity-driven quarry-enclave economy. But it’s far better than it was even under Clark. I don’t think there was no alternative to Rogernomics in 1984, but Mouldoonist command-and-control statist was clearly rejected.
There are definitely fewer nodes of resistance in this new society.
I think the polls and the policy mixes of the main two parties accurately reflect what the public want. They are consistent over a long time.
It’s suitably mild as a political response.
As a society we consistently poll that we are happy and very content, and like it here.
The author of the article wants more for us all, and suffers from a really bad case of Left Melancholy, but there ain’t no cure for love.
No . Just wrong.
SOME people who are financially secure are content. Vast numbers are not. And I don’t think many are that convinced that neo liberal economics are that grand at all. In light of Brexit and Trump ,… I think the tides definitively turned and the public are starting to recover from reeling under it and are fighting.
I think we will have more luck in bashing our heads against a brick wall than getting Red and Marco to come round to our point of view.
Probably why I dont bother wasting my time on people like them any more.
Sounds sensible 🙂
New Zealand has experienced many social and economic changes of which neoliberalism is one the most recent ones. The pace seems to be accelerating although this might be an ‘optical’ illusion rather than real; modern technology allows for more direct (and personalised) ‘news’ reporting and quite possibly we’re also on the cusp of a transition. Anyhow, New Zealand is not unique; these changes are global.
Yet at the same time our democratic system, our political system, and our incohesive (!) constitution have largely stayed the same. Perhaps it therefore is no surprise that we frequently hear that our democracy is under pressure, at risk or “dying” even (e.g. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=11859042). Heck, we might even start to believe these clarion calls but what for?
I would argue that we cannot realistically expect to come up with solutions for our current social problems, for example, without a ‘rejuvenation’ of our governing institutions and their frameworks (in a literal sense). Our current and future social challenges are complex and require political solutions but if our political structures are antiquated, rigid and entrenched – they are all of these IMO – they will not be up to those challenges. In fact, one could go as far as to argue that they are or have become a hindrance to finding real solutions (e.g. https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-20052017/#comment-1331251 HT to Robert Guyton).
I strongly believe that major changes are needed and that they will occur and be underpinned by grassroots movements (plural) – I won’t dwell on this again here – but this might not be enough by itself. A change at ‘the top’, of the institutionalised power and its memory (https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-20052017/#comment-1331329 HT to Bill) also needs to take place, hand in hand, so to speak; the ‘establishment’ needs to be toppled. [Yes, I am surprised by this new insight]
This is our task and it might look like (a) mission impossible but is there any other way?
I think that in the short term Rogernomics etc gave the impression that in certain ways our economy was better off. Some foolish dreamers still imagine so. The catch is that we were creating a hell-hole of a society. As the symptoms got and continue to get worse, these people fail to see that a hell-hole of a society is not a good price to pay. Society is more important than the economy, but they think it is the other way round. Even worse, they fail to see their own complicity in the emergence of that hell-hole that our society is becoming.
Too narrow in focus, and a lack of broad social vision. Greedy careerists who should have been kept in control.
Now we know why deregulation etc was not such a good thing.
‘ Greedy careerists who should have been kept in control.
Now we know why deregulation etc was not such a good thing.’
Nailed it.
In Vino
IMO ‘Society’ and ‘Economy” are so mutually interdependent thats its not possible to say that one is more important that the other.
A decent society is dependant on an economy that delivers wealth. A working economy is dependant on a society that produces talent, a market and social cohesiveness.
When either ‘society’ or ‘economy’ breaks down, then the other is negatively affected.
Venezuela provides a current example of this. The economy is breaking down and this is leading to societal break down.
Actually one of the insights from Venezuela’s situation is that ‘Economy’ may be more important than ‘Society” when you think about it.
“All of this happened at a dizzying pace. And it had to because the reforms were hugely unpopular.”
Read or watch Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein.
It looks at the imposition of neoliberalism on a global scale.
http://www.naomiklein.org/shock-doctrine
The NZ Labour needs to follow Corbyn. He has disavowed Blair and what he did to the UK.
When will Labour say sorry for Roger Douglas and move on?
Labour is still a neoliberal party in NZ.
Problem there is that NZ Labour don’t have a Corbyn.
No Corbyn, but we do have a Morgan. ( Just to shit stir 🙂 )
Seriously though I am starting to think he’s going to cause a few surprises this election.
I’ve had a few interchanges with him and his offsider on twitter. Not impressed by either their policy or how they interact with punters. The latter can be forgiven given they are newbies, but not at the expense of wasted left wing votes. In any other election I’d agree that having a few surprises would be useful. In this one, the only thing that matter is changing the govt and it’s a concern that they might put that at risk. They’re *not left wing. In terms of the policy, they do have some good ideas, but it’s very much centred on business model thinking and as far as I can tell they’re not talking enough to the people who will be most affected.
Their cannabis legalisation policy is centred around setting a minimum price so they can both raise health revenue and limit usage. So, good they want to legalise, and not so good that they want to do it through a model that ignores low income people and small expert growers and commercialises the weed at the expense of others. I see that pattern in their policy a lot. Interesting ideas, but the proposed implementation looks like it was designed by rich white dudes who think that everything can be corporate.
From what I’ve seen it looks pretty left wing. His main focus is fair policies for New Zealanders albeit often framed in an economists point of view. Policies like a targetted UBI for the most vulnerable – families with under 3 year olds, taxing property and reinvesting that to bring down income tax, legalising marijuana, clean waterways, etc
I didn’t get that take from the marijuana policy, he said people will be allowed to grow up to 2 plants for personal use. I also got the impression he wants to reinvest a lot of the tax that comes from it into education so the impact on young people’s health is reduced. He also wants an over 20 age restriction on using pot to reduce harm.
I think his policy set is focused around people’s welfare.
Morgan isn’t left wing, he says that. Geoff Simmons has talked about working with National. Not in a Greens, we’ll work with anyone but really hell will freeze over before we support a NACT govt, kind of way, but in a hey that would be cool kind of way. They are not left wing, and the whole point about TOP is that they will work with either Labour or National.
Their current UBI policy comes at the expense of elderly people who they want to remove universal entitlement to Super from above the dole level. That’s a benefit cut unless you can jump the hoops for means testing. Which sounds good until we look at how WINZ operates and think about what it would be like for elderly people to have to deal with that horrendous organisation. There are very good reasons for having and keeping Super universal. There are better ways to not pay Super to really well off people (e.g. via taxation), but they’re not after really wealthy people, they’re after people above the level of the dole and then people above $17,500/year.
Current Super for a single person is $390/wk. TOP want that to be $200, with a means tested $144 top up. So even in the best scenario it’s still a benefit cut. Their policy says it’s not. Who to believe?
They reference The Big Kahuna, which basically sets an actual universal UBI at the level of the dole and deliberately doesn’t do anything about the supplementary benefits other than remove them because welfare is wrong. So if you can’t work to top up your UBI, tough shit. That’s a benefit cut for some of the most vulnerable people in NZ. Women with young kids, people with disabilities, people with serious mental health issues. It also means no hardship grants.
He has some vague idea that people with medical and disability needs can get them met via services provided by the Health system, which again tells me he is not really aware of how welfare works. He wants to take income off people with disabilities and replace it with services from a Health system that is probably in as bad a shape as welfare is. That would include things that aren’t service based but require actual income, so now people have to go to Health for that, and the govt will have to set up a new system of managing that now that WINZ is gone. Like I said, there are some good ideas until you start looking at the detail and then it starts to look alarming fast. The reason for that is because economists should *never be in charge of social policy. Ever.
I tried to ask Morgan about this on twitter and was told I was trolling. Someone else tried to ask about the loss of accommodation supplement and got similar treatment. I honestly think that Morgan doesn’t understand how welfare works in NZ (Mainly because he hasn’t bothered talking to actual beneficiaries), but I also think that he believes that some vague but small number of people worse off is an ok trade for his big idea.
As for cannabis, yes 2 plants for personal use. So if you can’t grow your own two plants, then you have to buy off the govt regulated supply (not your neighbour) and they intend to set a minimum price so it’s not too cheap because they want to raise revenue for Health and to limit use.
They also want all growers to be regulated, so that will take out a swathe of existing growers for a start. The people that will be able to afford to do that will be medium growers not small growers. Someone growing extra in their backyard won’t be allowed to sell it. They haven’t said what the consequences would be only that the regulations would mean that growers had to fit into the business framework they have in mind. We’ve seen how much this doesn’t work with local food. And again, it’s a policy that looks superficially good, but once you get to the detail it starts to suck and that’s because they’re economists who believe that everything can be run that way.
“I think his policy set is focused around people’s welfare.”
Kind of. If I look at the Greens’ policies, what I see is people who have gone and talked to the people affected by the policy and then designed a policy around what those needs are. With TOP I get the impression they consulted with experts in the field and are too distance from those most affected (this is very obvious in their UBI work). So yes, they care but they are still designing from economics not social policy.
Corbyn presently has a finance minister who needs to be kept well under control. If elected the tension there could well undermine most of the good proposals Corbyn has put forward.
This from Red:
don’t wallow in self pity or get lost in left wing whinging, doesn’t help More opportunity and diversity of opportunity today than ever if you want it
Yes young people are branching out in ever larger numbers as the normal practices of community life are lost, no jobs to learn and gain qualifications and seniority in etc. They are learning street theatre, some just chalking it up like Banksy and others playing it out in dairies for money showing skills with threatening words, baseball bats and other damaging devices.
There is a sort of apprenticeship for this, their childhood in a careless home with parents who have succumbed to the hopeless, joyless life that is all around, and relieve their grief and anger with violence and drugs. They may be shifted from school to school, with parents’ constant new projects leading to a new better future, involving them shifting, changing in mood and location, even from day to day.
Great opportunities for all? Only for some who are in a state that can recognise and work to gain them, who are in the right position when available, who know the right people, who are stable enough, determined and focussed and not dragged back by fractured relationships, who can be assisted by mentors with advice to manage in the right way etc.
Most coming here aren’t wallowing, they are informing others here of what they have observed or learned, or what they are trying to overcome, and what the barriers are. These are thrown up by mean, self-centred people who have no feeling of concern for others in society, except for their immediate group who of course deserve the best treatment that is available. This is channelled to the people by the present government. Most of us believe that Labour will be trying to be 100% better which will put us above the 0 level on the graph for useful, positive policy and implementation as we are in negative territory going deeper under National.
So enjoy sneering Red (white and blue), you are a boil on the body politic which shows up when it is unhealthy. We will kick you out and bring wellbeing and health back.
Hey, this article was published on The Spinoff, but the link seems to be blocked. I’ve tried under more than one IP, and friends are also blocked. Anyone able to get through? If not, what’s that all about?
https://thespinoff.co.nz/category/politics/
what link are you referring to?
ah, this one, blocked for me too,
https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/18-05-2017/the-influence-machine-how-an-american-neoliberal-lobbying-group-operates-in-nz/
Guessing the admins have shit their pants over some nonsense legal threat because they’ve, it would seem from the intro, reproduced some emails or alleged emails. That’s just a guess mind.
Google cache works for me.
https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:I8d2Cz_6_E4J:https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/18-05-2017/the-influence-machine-how-an-american-neoliberal-lobbying-group-operates-in-nz/+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=nz&client=firefox-b
Nice piece. Thanks. (Had forgotten all about ‘wayback’ and such like)
http://cc.bingj.com/cache.aspx?q=the-influence-machine-how-an-american-neoliberal-lobbying-group-operates-in-nz&d=3319917729222&mkt=en-NZ&setlang=en-US&w=pfOmWiA6RsgV59dPt8TJYWD9C7FY5_bC
Please make sure that this link will not get TS into trouble! I am no expert in the legal ramifications.
ok, that’s a different article entirely (I thought r-b meant the neoliberal NZ one).
Message when tried just now. The administrator has blocked your IP from accessing this website. (But only for the american neoliberal story.)
I think there is too much beef in the above sandwich for the dainty fingers of the young and sprightly things that follow this site. They only tell it like it is when they are talking about their periods as in On the Rag. Or about making money from your driveway with Campable and Parkable – like AirBNB.
A political leader, rather than follower as per how it’s done these days, is what has been lacking these decades. Witness UK and USA. The certainty and surety and unembarassment of our demo-cratic forefathers.