Love Lifts Us Up: Thoughts from the Green Party’s campaign launch.

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Author Eleanor Catton wants people to give their party vote to the Greens.
Photo by Peter Meecham

NO ONE WAS QUITE SURE how he did it. Somehow Bob Harvey had persuaded the owners of the rights to Joe Cocker’s Up Where We Belong to authorize its use as the New Zealand Labour Party’s 1984 campaign anthem. The theme song from An Officer and a Gentleman had, of course, been enormously popular, so arranging for the David Lange-led Labour Party to make its pitch to the New Zealand electorate over its soaring melody and aspirational lyrics was a coup of no mean proportions.

But it was much more than that. Joe Cocker’s song perfectly matched the mood of the times. For nine long years, through Carless Days, Think Big, Olympic Boycotts, Springbok Tours and the Wage and Price Freeze the New Zealand people had borne both the curses and the blessings of Sir Robert Muldoon’s leadership with stoical endurance. But, by the winter of 1984, the patience of two-thirds of the population had been exhausted.

David Lange knew it and with oratory every bit as uplifting as Joe Cocker’s song he offered the voters the vision of a better New Zealand where consensus would replace confrontation and the cramped orthodoxies of a world that was fast disappearing would give way to new ideas, new opportunities and new freedoms. In the famous leaders’ debate, when, in the closing moments, Lange reached out to Sir Robert and assured him that any contribution he wished to make to this new New Zealand would not be scorned, it brought tears to the old tusker’s eyes and prompted his astonishing rejoinder: “I love you too, Mr Lange.”

Love lifts us up where we belong – and then some!

I’m wondering if we might not be heading into another election where Love lifts a new government into power. Rather appropriately, I suppose, the thought occurred to me at the campaign launch of the Greens.

Ever since the Green Party entered Parliament in 1999 it’s MPs have attempted to prove that politics does not need to be “dirty”. That it is possible to debate issues rationally – without rancour. And now, a month out from polling day, and with the National Party disintegrating before our eyes like a vampire in the sun, the Greens are asking us all to “Love New Zealand”.

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This is not a mere feel-good exhortation, either, but an invitation to the 3 percent of New Zealanders who earn more than $140,000 to put their money where the hungry mouths of 200,000 children are. The Greens proposed new top tax-rate of 40 percent is to be devoted exclusively to the elimination of child poverty in New Zealand. A case of not only sharing the love, but the wealth as well.

It was a courageous speech that the Greens’ co-leader Metiria Turei gave. Indeed, it filled in the gaps that were so noticeable in David Cunliffe’s speech to the Labour Party faithful last weekend. Any words concerning the fate of the children of beneficiaries and what might be done for them were conspicuous by their absence at Labour’s campaign launch, so it was reassuring to hear them voiced loud and clear to the 300-400 people crammed into the auditorium at Auckland’s AUT campus.

Reassuring, also, to hear the words of endorsement penned by New Zealand’s award-winning young novelist, Eleanor Catton. Her speech was as moving and as evocative as any I have heard in 30 years of attending such occasions.

The sneak preview provided by the organisers of the Green Party’s opening political broadcast made it clear just how seriously the party is committed to remaining upbeat and positive. Russel Norman and Turei have both been used to good effect, delivering their party’s messages with energy and conviction.

The most telling moment in this broadcast – at least for me – came when Turei and her daughter, Piupiu, are walking along the beach at Piha and the proud mother talks about making sure that this simple pleasure remains for her children – and grandchildren – to enjoy. The look Piupiu shoots her mother will be familiar to all the parents of teenage daughters. The “Aw, Mum!” moment is so natural and so real that it steals your heart away completely.

If the revelations mounting up against the National Party continue into the election campaign proper, then the voters will very quickly become sick of the stench of “dirty politics”. Like people forced to spend too long in an abattoir, they will emerge into the daylight desperate to fill their lungs with clean, fresh air. And quite serendipitously, that’s exactly what the Greens’ “Love New Zealand” campaign (along with Labour’s “Vote Positive”) aims to provide: relief from the odours of what Nicky Hager calls “the pit”.

A nation grown weary of sleaze and tired of being manipulated may yet decide to award a decisive election victory to an Opposition coalition determined to prove how much better New Zealand could be with “cleaner, fairer and smarter” policies.

In the immortal words of The Beatles: “All you need is love.”

28 COMMENTS

  1. you have read my mind Chris. Was thinking today after all the national sleaze being brought to the fore isn’t it ironic in a good way that labours slogan is vote positive and the greens love nz

  2. “…it brought tears to the old tusker’s eyes and prompted his astonishing rejoinder: “I love you too, Mr Lange.” – Hmmm…. I feel you might be letting the pink haze of the Green conference overcome you Chris. Muldoon made that statement sarcastically rather than in any loving tone to David Lange.

  3. Awesome words and sentiment Chris.

    Love is the answer! You just reach out your hand with your heart, and lift them all up, out of their despair.

    Everyone who needs help must vote for this change.

    Evil can only win if good does nothing.

  4. I’m part of the Christchurch “scum” so my candidate vote is going to Labour’s Tony Milne as the best hope of ridding this city of Nicky Wagner. However, as you point out Chris, Cunliffe’s address had too many gaps – a man trying to appease the right of his party, so it’s party vote Green for me.

  5. Aaah lovely Chris, my fingers are crossed for the happening of what you so beautifully describe! Kia kaha Aotearoa.

  6. The Greens deserve to a greater say in the next government, both in terms of seats in the house, in cabinet, and in policy development. They have consistently refused to stoop to personal attack politics, and if they have criticised opponents it has been because of policy differences or unacceptable behaviour by their opponents. I am pleased that the latest polling is showing a rise in support for Greens, (as well as Labour and Internet/Mana).

  7. How are the Greens proposing to eliminate child poverty, given that poverty is a relative term a mere transfer of wealth will do little to address the core inequities born from unemployment, alcohol & drug abuse, domestic violence and young uneducated single parents?

    • Teatatutim: Here you are – just for you and all Nats:

      “Greens launch billion dollar plan to reduce child poverty

      The Green Party today launched a billion dollar package to significantly reduce child poverty in New Zealand.

      The details of the plan were released at the party’s campaign launch in Auckland.

      The plan is the core component of the Green Party’s social policy priority this election: Delivering a fairer society where every child has enough to thrive.

      The Green Party will:

      Create a new top tax rate of 40 percent above $140,000, harmonise the trust tax rate with the top income tax rate, and introduce measures to make it harder for people to avoid paying their fair share of tax, generating close to $1 billion a year;

      Investing that revenue to fund:

      A new Children’s Credit that will give an extra $60 a week to families currently missing out, at a cost of $400 million a year;
      A non-discriminatory Parental Tax Credit of $220 a week in the first weeks of life for the poorest children, costing $29.4 million a year;
      A $500 million per year investment in children’s health and education to reduce the harm caused by poverty.

      “The Green Party is committed to building a fairer society where every child in this country has enough of what they need to thrive,” said Green Party Co-leader Metiria Turei.

      “Ensuring that every child in New Zealand has enough to thrive is one of the biggest moral and economic challenges of our times. One in four kiwi children now live below the poverty line.

      “There are 35,000 more children growing up in severe poverty in New Zealand than there were before National came to power. That makes a total of 205,000 New Zealand children living in severe poverty.

      “Child poverty and inequality grew faster in New Zealand in the 1980s and 1990s than any other country in the world and it has remained at unacceptably high levels.

      “Kiwi kids growing up in poverty are three times more likely to be admitted to hospital, five times more likely to die of cot death, and 27 times more likely to get rheumatic fever, and die earlier than those who are better off.

      “Child poverty can be eliminated. We have the tools and techniques. It is simply a matter of choice.

      “The Green Party plan will significantly reduce the number of children growing up in poverty in New Zealand.

      “Altogether the Green Party has a $1 billion plan to invest in children and families to reduce poverty in New Zealand.

      “For a quarter of the price of National’s tax cuts to the wealthiest New Zealanders we can reduce poverty and its effects amongst our poorest children.

      “We will roll the Family Tax Credit and the In-work Tax Credit together to create a new Children’s Credit, worth an additional $60 a week for children who currently miss out on the In Work Tax Credit.

      “130,000-150,000 extra families will benefit from this payment, which will provide an additional $3000 a year to the majority of children in poverty, whose parents are beneficiaries or students.

      “The Children’s Credit will represent a dramatic reversal of 22 years of discrimination against our poorest children that started with the scrapping of the universal family benefit in 1991.

      “We will also extend the Parental Tax Credit to the 13,000 newborns whose parents are currently ineligible. The Parental Tax Credit will be worth $220 a week for 10 weeks, a total of $2,200.

      “Our policy enacts the advice of Paula Bennett’s officials who told her that babies born to beneficiaries had the most to gain from this financial support in their first weeks of their life and that such a payment could improve their long term wellbeing.

      “We will also invest $500 million per year in children’s health and education initiatives to reduce the harm of poverty.

      “Hundreds of thousands of Kiwi kids will be much better off under the Greens $1 billion investment in the health, education and financial welfare of our children. We will loosen the grip poverty has on the lives of too many kids,” said Mrs Turei.

      The Green Party also announced that the funding for the poverty alleviation package will come through introducing a new top tax rate of 40 percent on any income earned over $140,000, with every cent raised going directly into alleviating child poverty.

      “The new top tax rate will impact only 3 percent of all taxpayers, but the revenue raised will make the world of difference to the hundreds of thousands of children who are living in poverty.

      “Our tax system is the key to solving poverty and reducing inequality. Our top rate of income tax is the fourth -lowest in the OECD. Even at 40 percent, we’ll still have one of the lowest top tax rates in the OECD.

      “To limit the risk of tax avoidance that can arise when you raise the top tax rate, we’ll also raise the trust tax rate to harmonise with the new top tax rate at 40 percent.

      “The Green Party is committed to eliminating child poverty in New Zealand. Our suite of initiatives will significantly raise incomes for the poorest families in New Zealand.

      “Voters have a real choice on September 20. A Government prepared to tackle poverty and inequality, or a Government in denial of both.”

    • You need to look at their policies as a package towards this, not just their taxing the very wealthy policy. For instance they plan to set up community hubs linked to schools and allow local communities to decide on the resourcing and systems in place for those hubs (in part of their education policy), where they look to facilitate communities to turn to models that work currently in pockets of the country (e.g. Point England School). This policy goes way past the dominant 2 parties in terms of being open to addressing the needs of each community and helping them address what they actually need, as it prevents a top-down government policy from making yet another one-policy-fits-all approach that throws money at things without considering the wider causes of cycles of crime, unemployment, violence, addiction etc etc…

    • TeAtatuTim says:
      August 18, 2014 at 7:59 pm

      How are the Greens proposing to eliminate child poverty, given that poverty is a relative term…

      Really?

      Tell you what, Brainiac, give me all your money and transfer all you assets to me. In return, I’ll pay you $210 a week (the unemployment benefit, net).

      Then we’ll put you out on the street and point you in the general general of various social services and see how you get on.

      • “Then we’ll put you out on the street and point you in the general general of various social services and see how you get on”.

        =

        “Then we’ll put you out on the street and point you in the general direction of various social services and see how you get on”.

  8. Well said Chris an interesting article.
    I look back on the egalitarian NZ that used
    to be.
    When registered unemployed numbered
    close to zero. A time when a labourer on
    overtime earnings could equal the salary
    of a qualified professional.
    Of course a different time and age but
    nevertheless now a socially transformed
    and bleak NZ in comparison.
    A word on Muldoon who was a returned
    service man a real Kiwi who cared about
    this country.

  9. I am to for equal redistribution of our common wealth. (egalitarianism)

    I was bought up from 1944 and through the Walter Nash warmth of Egalitarian society.

    We never were rich but life was free of drugs, murder, and robbery.

    Hell I never locked my car never had a key for the door and never got burgled.

    We need to get back there folks before we all self destruct.

    Vote left centre nothing else.

    • If you give me your bank account details I will make a payment of our “common wealth”.

      That is on the assumption that I earn more than you. If the opposite is true, you can pay me. Fair deal?

    • @Cleangreen:

      So please assist me. I need some knowledge, if you have it.

      If I like some of Labours policies, and some of the Greens policies – and if I definitely want Nats gone; but also, I like the fresh initiatives of IMP, and in particular Laila Harre as a leader, and also Metiria Turei as a leader, ahead of David Cunliffe as a leader, then how am I best to place my votes, to ensure that the Nats have no chance of surviving this election?

      Are my 2 votes to get rid of National best served as:

      Green/Green
      Labour/Green
      Green/Labour
      Green/IMP
      IMP/Green
      Labour/IMP
      IMP/Labour.

      What is the ‘left winning’ combination of votes?

      • There is no ‘winning combination’. It entirely depends on your electorate:

        Electorate Vote:
        1.) If you are in Epsom, vote for National’s Paul Goldsmith to deny ACT an MP.
        2.) If you are in Te Tai Tokerau vote for IMP’s Hone Harawira to ensure extra IMP candidates still make it into parliament even if IMP’s party vote is under 5%
        3.) If you are in Ohariu, I am not sure. A Wellington local maybe able to help with this decision. It is essential to replace United Future’s Peter Dunne with either the National or Labour electorate MP – vote for whichever is the more likely to beat Dunne. It doesn’t matter which one, just the one with the best chance of beating Dunne
        4.) If you are in another Maori electorate currently held by the Maori party, you have to choose either the Labour or IMP candidate with the best chance of beating the Maori party candidate. In Waiariki this may be IMP’s Anette Sykes. Again seek advice from a local
        5.) If none of these 4 cases apply to you, it doesn’t matter too much. If there is a left candidate you like, vote for them as this will make them feel supported and more confident. If you are of a cynical bent, if there is a National candidate who seems particularly authoritarian, dim-witted, venal, or borderline criminal, vote for them in the hope that they do something in office that damages National. Most National candidates fall into one or more of these categories however so it is not as simple as it sounds.

        Party Vote:
        Vote for the left party whose policy best matches your own worldview. Don’t worry too much about the personalities of leaders as this doesn’t matter and buys into the idiotic cult of celebrity.

  10. I do agree with you Chris. It’s time to lift this election campaign into a new gear and creative a new government that has a heart, and the Greens can be that this time in my view. It’s the party that has first brought member-consensus made policies to our political world and has been working super hard for years to grow and develop its policies and be a strong voice for progressive, peaceful, democratic and environmental causes, and it’s ready to take part in government. (This is why they have my party vote I confess.)

  11. This is one reason among many why we have to return to Egalitarianism.

    I have in Daughter who lives away from our area, and works to keep her son in Playschool but he got a bug two days ago from Playschool and it is contagious so She (mother had to stay at home and care for his fever and cough.

    Since she hasn’t been there at the job for six months yet, she wont get paid, and now she has contracted the virus off the son so she was forced to drop him at playschool today dosed up the panadol and her with the same and due to financial reasons forced herself to go back to work so she has to pass it on to others and her son too?

    This illustrates the mindless Key government that can’t see the consequences of their actions.

    She cannot get WINZ help either so she is sick with a son and forced to work, = Key’s plan for us all.

  12. On the issue of National Party sleaze…

    Once National is defeated, Key will be gone, as he promised in January 2011.

    That will leave National seeking not just a new leader – but a change in culture.

    The dirty tricks; black ops; media spin-doctors – all will have to go. The new Leader will be given a broom, and boy oh boy, he’ll be busy sweeping clean.

    If he (she?) doesn’t, the legacy of Collins-Ede-Slater-Lusk-Key will remain, a Blighted Future for a once proud party.

    Ironically, National is the party of “personal responsibility” and the responsibility for cleaning up their foul mess lies solely with them.

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