At one level this Government is a real laugh. Every couple of days either David Seymour or Winston Peters do something outlandish to try and attract attention. They do not care about getting majority support. They just want to attract attention to secure their base and they are in competition for the same small group.
Act’s Batshit crazy interpretations of the Treaty and putting this forward as a referendum presents no problem. Even though it has the potential of making the Springbok tour protests look like a walk in the park.
Not to be outdone Winston Peters last weekend likened co governance to fascism. Claiming that showing respect for Maori and article 2 rights is akin to Nazi Germany was a valid thing to say according to Winston. That Nazi Germany had no respect whatsoever for the rights of minorities and people with dark skins is totally irrelevant.
This does not matter to Winston. He is not trying to appeal to the 70% of the population who is rational and/or compassionate and/or sensitive. He is appealing to his base, people who think the 1950s was the best time in the country’s history.
His complete contempt for the concept of property rights is of concern.
It is not as if right wingers have not had problems in the past with respecting the property rights of musicians.
Who can forget National’s plagiarism of Coldplay’s Clocks in 2007?
Or how it was sued by Eminem for using a song described as eminemesque? Turns out that the use was not pretty legal.
Peters idol, Donald Trump also has some form in the area. He once used Neil Young’s song Keep on rocking in the free world at a campaign launch. This attracted a cease and desist letter from Young who was at the time a Bernie Saunders supporter.
Trump was not the first American right wing politician to totally ignore the rights of musicians to their music. Ronald Reagan once used Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the USA” in 1984, and caused major affront to Springsteen who is a strong union supporter and a true progressive. And in 2000 George Bush junior used Tom Petty’s song “I won’t back down“. He then received a cease and desist letter from Petty which showed clearly that Petty was not backing down. Petty even played this song for Al Gore after he conceded the 2000 election.
The thing about musos is they tend to be talented intelligent people who want to make the world a better place. Because of this they hate the right and populist politicians who rely on division and hatred for support especially those that use their music without consent.
And Chumbawamba are clearly in that category and were also upset that Peters had usurped their talent for his political purposes. From the Herald:
[F]ormer lead guitarist Boff Whalley said Tubthumping was written “as a song of hope and positivity, so it seems entirely odd that the ‘I get knocked down …’ refrain is being used by New Zealand’s Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters as he barks his divisive, small-minded, bigoted policies during his recent speeches”.
“Chumbawamba would like to make it clear that we did not give permission for Peters to use the song and would ask him to stop using it to try to shore up his misguided political views,” Whalley said in a statement to Stuff.
“Chumbawamba does not share any of Peters’ ideas on race relations and would like to remind him that the song was written for and about ordinary people and their resilience, not about rich politicians trying to win votes by courting absurd conspiracy theories and spouting misguided racist ideologies.”
You would think that the message was pretty clear and that Peters should back down. But no.
Peters thinks that since the event was not being used to make money he is in the clear. He really needs to get better legal advice. And besides NZ First apparently had a cameraman there obviously gathering campaign material. The slightest sliver of the song in any publicity material would render his defence, such as it is, irrelevant.
Peters will make this into an absolute circus. Instead of doing his job as the Deputy Prime Minister he will spend lots of time fighting an issue where the merits are clear.
I hope that Sony sues him. Please make it quick so the media is not dominated by clips of angry Winston railing against the machine, or at least railing against Musicians wanting to protect their rights to their music. He should be doing his job which is making decisions on issues that are actually important for all of us.
Prepare for the circus. And don’t expect Winston to win this.
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