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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- An announcement about an announcementWithout a corresponding drop in interest rates, it’s doubtful any changes to the CCCFA will unleash a massive rush of home buyers. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: The six things that stood out to me in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate on Monday, April 22 included:The Government making a ...4 days ago
- All the Green Tech in China.
Sunday was a lazy day. I started watching Jack Tame on Q&A, the interviews are usually good for something to write about. Saying the things that the politicians won’t, but are quite possibly thinking. Things that are true and need to be extracted from between the lines.As you might know ...4 days ago - Western Express SuccessIn our Weekly Roundup last week we covered news from Auckland Transport that the WX1 Western Express is going to get an upgrade next year with double decker electric buses. As part of the announcement, AT also said “Since we introduced the WX1 Western Express last November we have seen ...4 days ago
- Bernard’s pick ‘n’ mix of the news links at 7:16am on Monday, April 22
TL;DR: These six news links stood out in the last 24 hours to 7:16am on Monday, April 22:Labour says Kiwis at greater risk from loan sharks as Govt plans to remove borrowing regulations NZ Herald Jenee TibshraenyHow did the cost of moving two schools blow out to more than $400m?A ...4 days ago - The Kaka’s diary for the week to April 29 and beyond
TL;DR: The six key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 29 include:PM Christopher Luxon is scheduled to hold a post-Cabinet news conference at 4 pm today. Stats NZ releases its statutory report on Census 2023 tomorrow.Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivers a pre-Budget speech at ...4 days ago - 2024 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #16A listing of 29 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 14, 2024 thru Sat, April 20, 2024. Story of the week Our story of the week hinges on these words from the abstract of a fresh academic ...4 days ago
- Bryce Edwards: The Government’s new fast-track invitation to corruptionThe ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. The Government says this will ...5 days ago
- Thank you
This is a column to say thank you. So many of have been in touch since Mum died to say so many kind and thoughtful things. You’re wonderful, all of you. You’ve asked how we’re doing, how Dad’s doing. A little more realisation each day, of the irretrievable finality of ...5 days ago - Determining the Engine Type in Your Car
Identifying the engine type in your car is crucial for various reasons, including maintenance, repairs, and performance upgrades. Knowing the specific engine model allows you to access detailed technical information, locate compatible parts, and make informed decisions about modifications. This comprehensive guide will provide you with a step-by-step approach to ...5 days ago - How to Become a Race Car Driver: A Comprehensive GuideIntroduction: The allure of racing is undeniable. The thrill of speed, the roar of engines, and the exhilaration of competition all contribute to the allure of this adrenaline-driven sport. For those who yearn to experience the pinnacle of racing, becoming a race car driver is the ultimate dream. However, the ...5 days ago
- How Many Cars Are There in the World in 2023? An Exploration of Global Automotive StatisticsIntroduction Automobiles have become ubiquitous in modern society, serving as a primary mode of transportation and a symbol of economic growth and personal mobility. With countless vehicles traversing roads and highways worldwide, it begs the question: how many cars are there in the world? Determining the precise number is a ...5 days ago
- How Long Does It Take for Car Inspection?Maintaining a safe and reliable vehicle requires regular inspections. Whether it’s a routine maintenance checkup or a safety inspection, knowing how long the process will take can help you plan your day accordingly. This article delves into the factors that influence the duration of a car inspection and provides an ...5 days ago
- Who Makes Mazda Cars?Mazda Motor Corporation, commonly known as Mazda, is a Japanese multinational automaker headquartered in Fuchu, Aki District, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. The company was founded in 1920 as the Toyo Cork Kogyo Co., Ltd., and began producing vehicles in 1931. Mazda is primarily known for its production of passenger cars, but ...5 days ago
- How Often to Replace Your Car Battery A Comprehensive GuideYour car battery is an essential component that provides power to start your engine, operate your electrical systems, and store energy. Over time, batteries can weaken and lose their ability to hold a charge, which can lead to starting problems, power failures, and other issues. Replacing your battery before it ...5 days ago
- Can You Register a Car Without a License?In most states, you cannot register a car without a valid driver’s license. However, there are a few exceptions to this rule. Exceptions to the Rule If you are under 18 years old: In some states, you can register a car in your name even if you do not ...5 days ago
- Mazda: A Comprehensive Evaluation of Reliability, Value, and PerformanceMazda, a Japanese automotive manufacturer with a rich history of innovation and engineering excellence, has emerged as a formidable player in the global car market. Known for its reputation of producing high-quality, fuel-efficient, and driver-oriented vehicles, Mazda has consistently garnered praise from industry experts and consumers alike. In this article, ...5 days ago
- What Are Struts on a Car?Struts are an essential part of a car’s suspension system. They are responsible for supporting the weight of the car and damping the oscillations of the springs. Struts are typically made of steel or aluminum and are filled with hydraulic fluid. How Do Struts Work? Struts work by transferring the ...5 days ago
- What Does Car Registration Look Like: A Comprehensive GuideCar registration is a mandatory process that all vehicle owners must complete annually. This process involves registering your car with the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) and paying an associated fee. The registration process ensures that your vehicle is properly licensed and insured, and helps law enforcement and other authorities ...5 days ago
- How to Share Computer Audio on ZoomZoom is a video conferencing service that allows you to share your screen, webcam, and audio with other participants. In addition to sharing your own audio, you can also share the audio from your computer with other participants. This can be useful for playing music, sharing presentations with audio, or ...6 days ago
- How Long Does It Take to Build a Computer?Building your own computer can be a rewarding and cost-effective way to get a high-performance machine tailored to your specific needs. However, it also requires careful planning and execution, and one of the most important factors to consider is the time it will take. The exact time it takes to ...6 days ago
- How to Put Your Computer to SleepSleep mode is a power-saving state that allows your computer to quickly resume operation without having to boot up from scratch. This can be useful if you need to step away from your computer for a short period of time but don’t want to shut it down completely. There are ...6 days ago
- What is Computer-Assisted Translation (CAT)?Introduction Computer-Assisted Translation (CAT) has revolutionized the field of translation by harnessing the power of technology to assist human translators in their work. This innovative approach combines specialized software with human expertise to improve the efficiency, accuracy, and consistency of translations. In this comprehensive article, we will delve into the ...6 days ago
- iPad vs. Tablet Computers A Comprehensive Guide to DifferencesIn today’s digital age, mobile devices have become an indispensable part of our daily lives. Among the vast array of portable computing options available, iPads and tablet computers stand out as two prominent contenders. While both offer similar functionalities, there are subtle yet significant differences between these two devices. This ...6 days ago
- How Are Computers Made?A computer is an electronic device that can be programmed to carry out a set of instructions. The basic components of a computer are the processor, memory, storage, input devices, and output devices. The Processor The processor, also known as the central processing unit (CPU), is the brain of the ...6 days ago
- How to Add Voice Memos from iPhone to ComputerVoice Memos is a convenient app on your iPhone that allows you to quickly record and store audio snippets. These recordings can be useful for a variety of purposes, such as taking notes, capturing ideas, or recording interviews. While you can listen to your voice memos on your iPhone, you ...6 days ago
- Why My Laptop Screen Has Lines on It: A Comprehensive GuideLaptop screens are essential for interacting with our devices and accessing information. However, when lines appear on the screen, it can be frustrating and disrupt productivity. Understanding the underlying causes of these lines is crucial for finding effective solutions. Types of Screen Lines Horizontal lines: Also known as scan ...6 days ago
- How to Right-Click on a LaptopRight-clicking is a common and essential computer operation that allows users to access additional options and settings. While most desktop computers have dedicated right-click buttons on their mice, laptops often do not have these buttons due to space limitations. This article will provide a comprehensive guide on how to right-click ...6 days ago
- Where is the Power Button on an ASUS Laptop?Powering up and shutting down your ASUS laptop is an essential task for any laptop user. Locating the power button can sometimes be a hassle, especially if you’re new to ASUS laptops. This article will provide a comprehensive guide on where to find the power button on different ASUS laptop ...6 days ago
- How to Start a Dell Laptop: A Comprehensive GuideDell laptops are renowned for their reliability, performance, and versatility. Whether you’re a student, a professional, or just someone who needs a reliable computing device, a Dell laptop can meet your needs. However, if you’re new to Dell laptops, you may be wondering how to get started. In this comprehensive ...6 days ago
- Bryce Edwards: Serious populist discontent is bubbling up in New ZealandTwo-thirds of the country think that “New Zealand’s economy is rigged to advantage the rich and powerful”. They also believe that “New Zealand needs a strong leader to take the country back from the rich and powerful”. These are just two of a handful of stunning new survey results released ...6 days ago
- How to Take a Screenshot on an Asus Laptop A Comprehensive Guide with Detailed Instructions and Illu...In today’s digital world, screenshots have become an indispensable tool for communication and documentation. Whether you need to capture an important email, preserve a website page, or share an error message, screenshots allow you to quickly and easily preserve digital information. If you’re an Asus laptop user, there are several ...6 days ago
- How to Factory Reset Gateway Laptop A Comprehensive GuideA factory reset restores your Gateway laptop to its original factory settings, erasing all data, apps, and personalizations. This can be necessary to resolve software issues, remove viruses, or prepare your laptop for sale or transfer. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to factory reset your Gateway laptop: Method 1: ...6 days ago
- The Folly Of Impermanence.“You talking about me?” The neoliberal denigration of the past was nowhere more unrelenting than in its depiction of the public service. The Post Office and the Railways were held up as being both irremediably inefficient and scandalously over-manned. Playwright Roger Hall’s “Glide Time” caricatures were presented as accurate depictions of ...6 days ago
- A crisis of ambitionRoger Partridge writes – When the Coalition Government took office last October, it inherited a country on a precipice. With persistent inflation, decades of insipid productivity growth and crises in healthcare, education, housing and law and order, it is no exaggeration to suggest New Zealand’s first-world status was ...6 days ago
- Have 308 people in the Education Ministry’s Curriculum Development Team spent over $100m on a 60-p...Rob MacCulloch writes – In 2022, the Curriculum Centre at the Ministry of Education employed 308 staff, according to an Official Information Request. Earlier this week it was announced 202 of those staff were being cut. When you look up “The New Zealand Curriculum” on the Ministry of ...6 days ago
- 'This bill is dangerous for the environment and our democracy'Chris Bishop’s bill has stirred up a hornets nest of opposition. Photo: Lynn Grieveson for The KākāTL;DR: The six things that stood out to me in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate from the last day included:A crescendo of opposition to the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill is ...6 days ago
- The Bank of our Tamariki and Mokopuna.
Monday left me brokenTuesday, I was through with hopingWednesday, my empty arms were openThursday, waiting for love, waiting for loveThe end of another week that left many of us asking WTF? What on earth has NZ gotten itself into and how on earth could people have voluntarily signed up for ...6 days ago - The worth of it all
Hello! Here comes the Saturday edition of More Than A Feilding, catching you up on the past week’s editions.State of humanity, 20242024, it feels, keeps presenting us with ever more challenges, ever more dismay.Do you give up yet? It seems to ask.No? How about this? Or this?How about this?Full story Share ...6 days ago - What is the Hardest Sport in the World?Determining the hardest sport in the world is a subjective matter, as the difficulty level can vary depending on individual abilities, physical attributes, and experience. However, based on various factors including physical demands, technical skills, mental fortitude, and overall accomplishment, here is an exploration of some of the most challenging ...6 days ago
- Release: Working together on consistent support for veterans this Anzac Day
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...2 days ago - Release: Penny drops – but what about Seymour and Peters?Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...2 days ago
- Release: Budget blunder shows Nicola Willis could cut recovery fundingIt appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...3 days ago
- Further environmental mismanagement on the cards
The Government’s resource management reforms will add to the heavy and ever-growing burden this Government is loading on to our environment. ...3 days ago - Release: RMA changes will be a disaster for environmentThe Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...3 days ago
- Release: Labour supports urgent changes to emergency management systemLabour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...3 days ago
- Release: Labour calls for New Zealand to recognise PalestineThe Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...3 days ago
- Release: Three strikes law political posturing of worst kindThe Government is bringing back a law that has little evidential backing just to look tough, Labour justice spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...3 days ago
- Release: Government cuts unbelievably target child exploitation, violent extremism, ports and airpor...Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...3 days ago
- Three strikes has failed before and will fail againResurrecting the archaic three-strikes legislation is an unwelcome return to a failed American-style approach to justice. ...4 days ago
- Release: Environmental protection vital, not ‘onerous’The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...4 days ago
- Release: Govt cuts doctors and nurses in hiring freezeCuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...6 days ago
- Fast-track submissions period must be extendedThe Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...6 days ago
- Release: Progress on climate will be undone by GovtNew Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...6 days ago
- Release: Dark day for Kiwi kids as a third of Govt cuts affect themNews that 1000 jobs at the Ministry of Education and Oranga Tamariki could go is devastating for future generations of New Zealanders. ...1 week ago
- Release: Alarm as Government signals further blow to school lunchesMore essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...1 week ago
- Release: Quick, submit – stop Govt’s dodgy approvals billThe Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...1 week ago
- Government throws coal on the climate crisis fireThe Government’s policy announced today to ease consenting for coal mining will have a lasting impact across generations. ...1 week ago
- Release: Public transport costs to double as National looks at unaffordable roading project insteadCancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...2 weeks ago
- Release: Cost of living in Auckland still not a priorityA laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...2 weeks ago
- Greens look to fast-track submissions on harmful lawThe Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...2 weeks ago
- Release: Govt should stop making people’s lives harder and build more homesThe National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...2 weeks ago
- Release: Melissa Lee missing in action on mediaThe action Melissa Lee promised to protect democracy and the media sector is missing, Media and Communications spokesperson Willie Jackson said. ...2 weeks ago
- Landlord Government leaves little hope for rentersThe Government’s announcement on tenancy rules prove that it does not care about renters. ...2 weeks ago
- Opportunity to build a more sustainable economyGreen Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...2 weeks ago
- Significant step forward in fixing cruel and unjust pastA significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...2 weeks ago
- Missed opportunity but NZ will surely one day recognise the right to a sustainable environmentNew Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...2 weeks ago
- Release: Don’t cut our lunches – clear message sent to GovernmentTens of thousands of people are demanding the Government commits to fully funding free and healthy school lunches. ...2 weeks ago
- Release: Govt makes U-turn on Suicide Prevention OfficeLabour welcomes the Government’s U-turn on the closure of the Suicide Prevention Office, says Labour Mental Health spokesperson Ingrid Leary. ...2 weeks ago
- CCC issues warning over further climate delayToday’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...2 weeks ago
- Luxon targets are lousy example of leadershipIf talk is cheap, Chris Luxon’s “targets” are bankrupt. ...2 weeks ago
- Luxon targets lame and lousy example of leadershipIf talk is cheap, Chris Luxon’s “targets” are bankrupt. ...2 weeks ago
- Release: Commitment to disability communities missing from Govt prioritiesMinister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...3 weeks ago
- Methane target review is dangerous duplicationThe Government’s newly announced review of methane emissions reduction targets hints at its desire to delay Aotearoa New Zealand’s urgent transition to a climate safe future, the Green Party said. ...3 weeks ago
- Anzac Commemorative Address – NZ National Service, Chunuk Bair
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...8 hours ago - Anzac Commemorative Address – Dawn Service, Gallipoli, TürkiyeMai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...14 hours ago
- PM announces changes to portfoliosPaul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...2 days ago
- New catch limits for unique fishery areasRecreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...2 days ago
- Minister welcomes hydrogen milestoneEnergy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...2 days ago
- Urgent changes to system through first RMA Amendment BillThe coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...3 days ago
- Overseas decommissioning models consideredOverseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...3 days ago
- Release of North Island Severe Weather Event InquiryEmergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...3 days ago
- Justice Minister to attend Human Rights CouncilJustice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...3 days ago
- Patterson reopens world’s largest wool scouring facilityAssociate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...4 days ago
- Speech to the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective Summit, 18 April 2024Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...4 days ago
- Government to introduce revised Three Strikes lawThe Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...4 days ago
- New diplomatic appointmentsForeign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...4 days ago
- Humanitarian support for Ethiopia and SomaliaNew Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...4 days ago
- Arts Minister congratulates Mataaho CollectiveMinister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...5 days ago
- Supporting better financial outcomes for KiwisThe Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...5 days ago
- Trade relationship with China remains strong“China remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,” Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...5 days ago
- PM’s South East Asia mission does the businessPrime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...6 days ago
- $41m to support clean energy in South East AsiaNew Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...6 days ago
- Minister releases Fast-track stakeholder listThe Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...7 days ago
- Judicial appointments announcedAttorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...7 days ago
- Education Minister heads to major teaching summit in SingaporeEducation Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...7 days ago
- Value of stopbank project proven during cycloneA stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...7 days ago
- Anzac commemorations, Türkiye relationship focus of visitForeign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...7 days ago
- Minister to Europe for OECD meeting, Anzac DayScience, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...7 days ago
- Comprehensive Partnership the goal for NZ and the PhilippinesPrime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...1 week ago
- Government commits $20m to Westport flood protectionThe Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...1 week ago
- Taupō takes pole positionThe Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...1 week ago
- Cost of living support for low-income homeownersLocal Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...1 week ago
- Government backing mussel spat projectThe Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...1 week ago
- Government focused on getting people into workBenefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...1 week ago
- Clean energy key driver to reducing emissionsThe Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...1 week ago
- Earthquake-prone buildings review brought forwardThe Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...1 week ago
- Thailand and NZ to agree to Strategic PartnershipPrime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...1 week ago
- Government consults on extending coastal permits for portsRMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...1 week ago
- Inflation coming down, but more work to doToday’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...1 week ago
- School attendance restored as a priority in health adviceRefreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...1 week ago
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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.
😉
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pd3yXO60aOM
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
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hA736oK9FPg
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.