In my first Daily Blog post I wanted to introduce myself and explain a little about my politics. I’m grateful for the opportunity to engage with you in a conversation on the direction of New Zealand and where you think we can head.
Growing up in Gisborne, my Dad worked at the freezing works until he was laid off. My Mum still works at the Columbine factory. I don’t recall discussing politics growing up but in Gisborne in the 1980s and 1990s the impacts of political decisions were visible in the closed shops along Gladstone Road, the crumbling empty freezing works and the unemployed out front of the Kaiti WINZ office around the corner from our home. Like many of my mates I was turned off by politics and cared more about girls, cars and rugby than what was happening in Parliament.
But moving to study in Wellington in 2000 opened my eyes about the serious environmental and social justice issues facing the country but also the opportunity of changing direction. It was incredibly exciting and empowering to see the new Green MPs taking their seats in Parliament. For a young guy seeing people like Nandor Tanczos, Sue Bradford and Keith Locke talking about real issues in Parliament was a revelation. It wasn’t just mostly old, rich white guys in Parliament; the House of Representatives; under MMP could actually be representative. I ended up building a career at Greenpeace sailing on the Rainbow Warrior and running the country’s largest climate campaign Sign On, before entering Parliament in 2010.
A political theme I have been consistent on in Parliament is the need for genuine change in New Zealand, a transformative shift away from the neoliberal orthodoxy which has caused such harm in the last few decades. In my maiden speech I talked about my passion for history and the big changes we have seen over the last one hundred and fifty years: the Liberal’s social reforms in the 1890s, the first Labour Government’s establishment of the welfare state and the fourth’s dismantling of it. Since the 1980s New Zealand has only tinkered at the fringes of the neoliberal status quo and three decades on my politics is built on the idea it is time for a transformational change, a change for good.
For 30 years we have been told that there is no alternative to Rogernomics—by both his red and blue successors. Neo-liberal economics plainly has failed New Zealand on its own terms. We have dropped from fifth in the OECD economic performance rankings in 1951 to 23rd today. We are more dependent on the dairy sector than ever, and we work some of the longest hours for some of the lowest wages and pay some of the highest cost-of-living costs in the developed world. In a land that exports food that feeds 20 million people, it is an absolute travesty that our kids are still going to school without food in their bellies. The neoliberal economic experiment has seriously cost the country in terms of chronic unemployment and the 290,000 Kiwi kids in poverty. Meanwhile over that time our rivers have become so polluted they are unswimmable and our contribution to global warming is higher than it has ever been before.
What motivates me to push for progressive change in the face of five years of National selling off the assets and selling out to big business is the spark of hope. In 2014 we stand on the cusp of a historical change in direction. This year we could embark on another national transformational shift to a new way of doing politics and a focus back on real people not just the Tiawais, the Chorus’, the Sky Cities, and the Anadarkos. With Labour now abandoning parts of the neoliberal orthodoxy and the Greens in a stronger position than they have ever been before it is possible we could see a real progressive government form. This year we can make history by electing the most progressive government New Zealand has seen in a generation.
My message this election particularly to young Kiwis is ‘connect, construct, contribute.’ We can use new technological tools, like social media or blogs like this to connect. We can do things differently and construct the future we want but it will only happen if we do it together and contribute.
This election every vote will count. We have a real choice over New Zealand’s direction. In 2014, we can make history.
Welcome aboard, Gareth, I look forward to reading your posts and hope they stimulate as much debate as your guest spots have in the past.
Bring it on Gareth just what I wanted to hear.
P.s does anyone know how Anadarko’s ship the Bloody Bob Douglas is coping with the huge southerly storm off the Otago coast? The test drilling is the most dangerous part of its business so they say, they must be chundering over the sides by now… I bet they thought it would be nice settled calm late summer autumn weather, well it’s shaken up out there big time, as long as it doesn’t fizz over the top of the test drill!
All the best Gareth.
Gareth welcome on board.
Sorry to get straight to matters, BUT, both Labour and the Greens (I historically ‘toggle’ between Green and a Labour voter) need to REALLY get on top of the NZ housing market.
The policies offered to date, though infinitely better than the do nothing that the (not for NZ) National party are doing, still isn’t enough !!!
1) We have to limit immigration, maybe to the number of available empty-free houses (except for obvious humanitarian matters). To curb the demand.
2) We need a COMPREHENSIVE capital gains tax, as housing is a human right and when a citizen can’t afford to buy in his-her own country, most else is irrelevant.
3) STOP, and let me emphasis this STOP, overseas people speculating in the NZ housing market (………….for reason like, it’s gains are tax free, we’ve got printed out of thin air money so which country is stupid enough to let us buy assets in their country with it etc etc etc
Even if NZ wont accept CGT, overseas buyers DON’T vote, so at MINIMUM put a HUGE CGT on their purchases.
4) Introduce an equivalent to the overseas (shares) Fair Dividend rate on rental homes. i.e. it is assumed to earn say 7% yield-rent, so you’ll be taxed on that, not what you say you received…….as per my overseas shares (as advised by any independent financial adviser to be diversified !!!).
5) Do all the above on the first day in power, so we the citizens of NZ don’t have suffer a day longer than we need to.
The above WILL BE the election decider. Be in NO doubt about that. There are so many ‘swing voters’ to the left of centre that this is THE hot topic.
If someone like Winston suggest similar and other parties are way short of ‘it’, then he will get a huge increase in his vote, and RIGHTLY so. Which means he’ll have Labour-Green over a barrel.
NZ is being sold down the river, so overseas people can make a killing at our expenses in a market which is a human rights issue, HOUSING.
I do hope the Greens and Labour get the importance of this and DO something way more significant and precise (no wiggle room !!!).!!
Well said, Gareth. You’ve articulated the serious problems (I refuse to call the “issues”) confronting our society and economy.
I look forward to future writings from you!
Party vote for the Greens for me this year!
Gareth, some years ago, Russel Norman wrote his excellent ‘Callphone Towers, Health and Democracy,” outlining how our regulations for cellphone towers, etc., had been designed by the telecommunications industry itself and that the Interagency panel the Government refer to, contains people of vested interest. Despite a Select Committee recommending our standards be revised and vested interests be replaced, Nick Smith (then Environment Min.) refused to change our industry- friendly regulations (NZS2772:1) to reflect the WHO Precautionary Principle.
Since then, the International Agency for Cancer Research (IARC), classified the emissions from cellphones, WiFi, smartmeters, etc., as possibly carcinogenic (cat. 2B). This category is the one that tobacco and asbestos were in for many years, whilst their industries, with the aid of inept/ignorant poiticians and a complicit media kept the public unaware of the dangers for decades.
Our Government, is aggressively pushing WiFi in schools despite the fact that France and Germany are taking it out and there is a case before the Israeli High Court at the moment saying WiFi is harmful to children. Cancer and many other diseases and conditions typically take decades to become apparent. Therefore, our Government, is, in effect, gambling on our children’s future health, in order to keep collecting revenue from the industry.
No one wants to stop the new technology, but NZ should have at least the same standards of protection as many other countries, Italy, Israel, Austria, India and Russia, to name some of them. Even China, with it’s poor Human Rights record, has a higher standard of precaution than NZ’s industry designed standards.
Dr Norman clearly understands this, Denise Roche (and Jacinda Adern) has signed a pledge to say she will do her best to get the NZS2772:1 revised to protect NZers and the environment. Yet the Green Party (apart from the wonderful, Sue Kedgley), has done nothing to bring this issue to bring this issue to public attention, let alone formulate a policy to protect people from ever increasing levels of a possibly cancer forming substance.
Gareth, can you please explain why you are promoting smartmeters – a device that pumps pulsated microwave energy through homes when the scientists of the Russian National Commision on Non-Ionising Radiation (RNCNIRP), advise against it, as do the 29 scientists of the Bio Initiative Report and the scientists of the IARC at the WHO, are saying it could cause cancer?
If these scientists (and many others) are right and you and our corporate-friendly Government are wrong, the consequences would be too horrific to imagine.
I look forward to your reply.
Tin foil hats are useful at protection from radiation…. Just saying
This report? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bioinitiative_Report
Ban bananas. They contain radioactive poison that has been proved harmful. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana_equivalent_dose
Seems to me like the stance the green party is taking is not really attacking the fundamentals of the neoliberal order. Your economic policies, implementing a FTT, providing high taxes on corporate externalities, and a capital gains tax are good policies, but its like putting a plaster on a gaping fleshwound.
I mean george bush had a capital gains tax, if our centre left can be as left wing as george bush was, that’s great. But its not exactly going to overthrow capitalism is it?
If you expect to overthrow capitalism by voting you’re going to be disappointed.
If you expect to effect change by encouraging people not to vote you are going to be sorely disappointed
Without scaring the brainwashed voters,
banking cartels sucks us dry and end up owning more of NZ each day.
Wealth does not come from from private interests printing money at will nor the finance industry and hangers on. The capture wealth not create it.
Wealth comes from natural resources or labour.
State is not a swear word in spite of the extreme right wing propaganda.
But keep you head out of nooses. We (NZ) need you.
Git . hey clint gimme back my fwag !!
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