Tax cuts for the rich. A growing deficit. GCSB spying and infiltrating civil society. Denied rights to have a say on activities in the EEZ. Deep sea oil and sea bed mining in precious habitats. Removal of (already limited) environmental protection under the RMA. Destruction of the Department of Conservation. Subsidised irrigation schemes leading to dammed, damned, and polluted rivers. Environmental abuses. Selling out workers’ rights to Warner Brothers and selling off gambling laws to Sky City. No accountability for bosses who oversee deaths of workers, whether it be in forestry, mining, or truck driving. The 90 day fire at will law, and undermining organised labour and the right to strike and join a union. Selling assets generations have built and paid for at less than real value and still failing to ‘balance the books’. The rebuild of Christchurch slow in the hands of monopolists. Appalling child poverty. A growing gulf between the rich and poor. A veto of extended paid parental leave. Cuts to community education. Charter schools. Private prisons pocketing proceeds of crime. Trade deals negotiated in secret binding the nation, sacrificing sovereignty in pursuit of the mighty dollar and cheap and nasty junk. Transport budgets concentrated on mega motorway projects that don’t stack up on benefit:cost analysis and which suck funds from local roads, public transport, walking and cycling. Resistance to Auckland’s City Rail Link. The ‘supercity’. CCOs which disempower the public and put decisions into the hands of the non-elected. Closure of the Dunedin Hillside railway workshops and outsourcing ‘Kiwi’ rail construction overseas with costly effects….
The list of legacies from the National Government go on.
Are you angry yet? Disappointed? Disgusted in this Government and what it’s doing to GodZone?
Even though the Government has the flimsiest of majorities, it supports an unmitigated fast tracked erosion of Kiwi values. Never before have we had so many submissions to write and protests to attend with so little effect. There are an almost overwhelming number of issues of concern for all New Zealanders, which affect our way of life, our quality of life, our societal values and order, and our sense of nationhood. Threats to all that is great and good about New Zealand.
Many of these policy trends reflect what’s also happening in other parts of the developed world. Because they express a corporate agenda, some of the forces are beyond one government’s control. But I do know we have to change this one. Huge damage has already been done.
The National Government legacy is a call to action. To fail to act, to fail to take all measures to change this government, would be to abrogate a duty not only to past nation building, but also to current generations and the future of our country. We have to talk to our neighbours, our kids, our workmates. We have to get people to vote, left.
I’m in. Are you?
The scary thing is how under-the-radar National’s right wing “reforms” have been been. It’s as if the Rogernomics “revolution” of the ’80s and ’90s was a lesson to the neo-liberals that further policies should be enacted quietly, gradually, and with minimal fanfare.
This is Rogernomics 2, on-the-quiet.
Almost everything of importance a “healthy” society values, is either crushed or swept aside for economic interest and development. Neo-liberal reforms over the years have had a real “Ugly” social and environmental impact on our Country.
Time for change-Vote Left
Nice article Christine
Don’t forget the constant privacy breaches that they swear are not systematic…
WINZ – ACC – EQC –
Good isn’t it!
Bloody marvelous job they are doing if you ask me.
Hay Ricky,
You must be that guy pictured above- shirtless. clueless, and chewing on straws!
I’m as angry as you . I’m also angry at Labour – who I gave up on a LONG time ago . Coming from a strong Labour/Union family I still hold a sliver of hope that they’ll ‘see the light ‘ . I’ve written to them ( Labour ) before the last two elections , asking WTF they think they’re doing, squabbling over the Centre Right when there are people out here SUFFERING and in desperate need of a LEFT Wing party .
Of course, I got no reply , because , at the end of the day, the Labour ‘leadership’ doesn’t give a fat rats bum about workers, unemployed or poor … as long as they’re pulling in a good wage ( Govt or opposition… who cares ) and have the prospect of a good pension then why rock the boat ?
Cunliffe has as much fire in his belly as a sodden dishcloth, the neo-Liberals are hanging on for their Superannuation & perks and honestly, most of them could move to National and who would know the difference ?
I’m someone who has always voted , I berate people who don’t vote , I drag people along to the polling booths , but by hell, I’m soooooo close to not voting this election …why bother ? I trot down to the polling booth , vote as Left as possible ( Mana last time ) .. I’m always slightly tempted to vote Labour in the hope that they’ll get more votes but then I think ” Why the F**k should I ? They won’t commit on the TPPA, they won’t promise to re-nationalise OUR assets , they’re just a bunch of (bad) career politicians sleepwalking their way to another 4 years on the opposition benches …so F**k them ! ”
As for Kiwis ‘waking up ” it’s not gonna happen , we now have 2-3 generations of voters who never knew the likes of Norm Kirk , who don’t know that there’s another way, who don’t know or learn , that we used to lead the world in Social policies and who basically have been dumbed down so much they’d vote for a german millionaire who gave $50,000 to ACT …. I give up !!!
Don’t give up – I know how you feel about the conservative mainstream political parties we have to choose from, but voting is also just one part of the political exercise. It’s not the only way to get involved or to channel that anger. We have to use all tools available – consumer pressure, activism, education… to change the status quo, not just the act of voting.
As for the generations of New Zealanders who have lived under the neo-liberal agenda as if it’s the only alternative – and who mostly don’t bother to vote – think of the absence of a democratic culture in Eastern Europe or the Middle East and how those people have risen up to challenge entrenched, unjust distribution of power – and remember it only takes a spark to light a prairie fire.
Crikey Christine, Excellent synopsis of National’s failings, all true – but hey that’s the main difference between Tory’s and the Left, they interpret the outcomes of alleged failings in polar opposites.
The Left – well their outcome was and will be exactly that – LEFT OUT : The Right (Neo-Liberal’s what ever) are more than happy because you can bet all those so called failures made some money for the Nat’s and their sanctimonious sycophants.
VOTE NEW ZEALAND FIRST
Unfortunately, Doc, a “vote for New Zealand First” is pretty much a blank cheque.
We have no idea who Winston will support post-election.
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