Who would have thunk that all you had to do was bribe baby boomers with inflated property valuations and play to rump NZ’s anti-intellectual negative egalitarianism and you could pass right wing idealogical brain farts without any opposition.
I despair at my fellow citizens most of the time. The cruelty that poses as social policy now is a disgrace for a country that once had a proud history of egalitarianism. Mass surveillance lies, Dirty Politics and an abuse of political power unlike we’ve ever seen is ignored by the majority of NZers benefitting from property speculation and Key’s depoliticisation of the role of Prime Minister.
How else can you explain near 50% support for National as their ideological experiments in Charter Schools, Social Housing and Private Prisons fail so publicly…
Plans to bump people off state housing list ‘unwarranted attack’ – Labour
Plans to bump people off the state housing list if they turn down too many properties are “an unwarranted attack on the country’s most vulnerable people”, Labour housing spokesman Phil Twyford says.Twyford savaged Social Housing Minister Paula Bennett for her suggestion that tenants were rejecting state houses without good reason, accusing her of “mocking and caricaturing” Kiwis who were struggling to find a suitable home to live in.
Bennett told a housing conference on Thursday morning the Government was considering a stand-down period for those who rejected state houses without good reason.
She said officials had told her over 400 people turned down properties in the last year for unacceptable reasons, such as “birds chirping in the trees next door, wanting a bigger back yard for a trampoline, and not liking the colour a door was painted”.
Twyford said Bennett had “made a career out of attacking the very people she’s meant to represent and serve”.
Government funding of charter school rolls questioned
Charter schools are being funded for more students than they have on their rolls, with a teachers’ union describing the situation as a “complete mess”.Nine publicly-funded charter schools in New Zealand were guaranteed funding for at least 860 students for 2015.
However, September enrolment figures showed they had fewer than 700, with only two of the schools meeting their guaranteed minimum roll numbers, Radio NZ reported.
The seven charter schools who had not met minimum rolls were funded for 669 students but only had 490 students in September.
Post Primary Teachers Association president Angela Roberts told Radio NZ charter schools should not be funded for students that they did not have.
“Given that we’re constantly being told there’s no more cash to go into the system for state schools, that hurts,” she said.
Social housing groups concerned by ‘unprecedented’ Government power grab
Social housing groups have expressed fears about plans for an “unprecedented” power grab that would allow government ministers to sell off state houses without the approval of Housing New Zealand.The organisations also said the Government should require that any money made from selling state housing went back into the social housing sector.
The Social Housing Reform (Transaction Mandate) Bill would allow designated ministers to sell Housing NZ properties without the approval of the board of the corporation.
Serco let off seven penalty fines over Mt Eden breaches of contract
Serco has been forgiven $620,000 of financial penalties after being issued performance notices by the Corrections Department since it took over private management of the Mt Eden Corrections Facility in August 2011.Over the same period, Serco has forfeited $1.4 million in penalties to Corrections.
Figures released by Corrections show that penalties were very high in its early operating days, then dropped away, but have dramatically picked up again.
The $620,000 in forgiven fines comprises $275,000 in penalties that were withdrawn and $375,000 for cases in which the performance notice was upheld but Corrections decided not to deduct the penalty.
…property speculating boomers and NZers intellectually intimidated by soy lattes don’t care about ideological experiments in education or prisoner rights or beneficiaries in state housing – even if those policies are counter productive, because in the battle for heart and mind, those who vote National have no heart or mind.
I think this is where the Left have to seize upon a mascot who can melt the ignorance of these NZers by appealing to them on a level they can enjoy and connect with.
I present to you Fluffy the All Black’s home renovating & cooking Rugby Cat.
…Fluffy plays Rugby for the All Blacks, renovates houses and has appeared on MasterChef.
Fluffy thinks Charter Schools are a waste of money and in reality simply offers the Government a means to lower teacher costs without any actual benefit for students.
Fluffy thinks Private Prisons incentivise incarceration which creates a dangerous profit motive in prisons.
And Fluffy thinks Social Housing is a mass privatisation of state houses that serves the interests of property speculators, not the poor and represents yet another example of John Key’s Government attempting to shift their social obligations to charity sectors.
If only we had the All Black’s home renovating & cooking Rugby Cat at the Moment of Truth.
Very Cute Kitty …vote for FLUFFY!
I’d laugh – if it wasn’t true.
Martyn,
Who are you actually targeting with these sorts of comments? I get that you are genuinely disgusted at the state of NZ society and politics (me too), but I reckon your cynical rants won’t escape this blog chamber. Dirty politics and National’s corruption were indeed revelations, however is it necessary to repeat these time and time again? They will give the anti-gov TDB faithful a rise but offer little to engage the people actually required to vote for change.
The same can be said about putting down the best chances we’ve got. Apparently the Greens are pure evil now because they co-opted with Act and wrote a bill on flag change? These are not policy blockbusters which undermine the good work done 99% of the time. Your stance can come across as very negative and disengaging.
Building momentum by public discourse and simplifying problems is the way forward in my opinion. The IKA Table Talks are an excellent example.
Greens and Green movement and environmentalists will continue despite poor leadership from political parties…so dont equate ‘NZ Green Party’ with environmentalist Green movement and activism
…all political parties are up for examination and critique…none are too saintly…and all are corruptible..this includes the NZ Green Party
… Green organisations and movements are corruptible especially when working with corporate Capitalism
Naomi Klein ‘This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs the Climate’
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/09/books/review/naomi-klein-this-changes-everything-review.html?_r=0
@ himsee ? ( Where did you get that name ? )
Nothing stopping you from starting your own Blog then ? Show us all how it’s done . Maybe you can ‘engage’ the Media lobotomised masses ? Maybe you can ‘engage’ the voter.
Cynical rant ? Frankly , that’s rich coming from you.
The Neo Zealander is perhaps even more dopy than @ Martyn Bradbury has gone to pains to point out.
A fuzzy kitten plonked on a rugby ball is like dangling a string to the shuffling clumps that we minority humans must hope and pray use their pudgy, MacDonalds clamping fingers and vote. That is if they can raise their vast arses up long enough to wobble to a voting booth. Or Chamber of Lies . Which ever you prefer.
The Sweet as ‘ers and the Gidday Mate’ers have yet to rise above beating the missus, fighting at the barbi and doing vroom-vrooms in the Mazda to even begin to contemplate how their sociopathic masters are rooting them for their time and money. Especially now, footy time !
@ Martyn Bradbury is rightfully angry at the blank brained Kiwi hoi polloi . They shit where they eat , dump their trash onto our beautiful NZ/Aotearoa and can’t be arsed to vote much less have any kind of opinion about anything political . Because they’re too fucking stupid to realise they’ve been conned . God help someone brave enough to point that out @ Himsee . Now, you go away , write your warm fuzzy Blog and we’ll all pop over to see how that’s working out for ya .
@ Fluffy ? I’d vote for it. It makes more sense than feeble old Andrew Little does.
Little’s black cat BUDDY will be voting for Andrew though …the long paw of Buddy
https://www.google.co.nz/search?q=Andrew+little+and+Buddy+the+cat&espv=2&biw=1440&bih=775&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0CBoQsARqFQoTCOjOrKnu3MgCFYEalAodPV4JFg
Himsee – Thank you for your comment.
Who are you actually targeting with these sorts of comments?
The 300 000 odd page views that read this blog every month is who I am targeting.
I get that you are genuinely disgusted at the state of NZ society and politics (me too), but I reckon your cynical rants won’t escape this blog chamber.
I wasn’t aware that I was doing anything other than writing a cynical evaluation of modern day NZ society on a blog.
Dirty politics and National’s corruption were indeed revelations, however is it necessary to repeat these time and time again?
Yes, for as long as I live – the need to remind NZers what they voted for and the power dynamics around the most corrupt political party in NZ history needs repeating every day. National have abused political power unlike any other Government and if that is a truth that can’t be repeated on a blog – where the hall can it be repeated?
They will give the anti-gov TDB faithful a rise but offer little to engage the people actually required to vote for change.
With all due respect – I’ve helped found 2 political parties in NZ and I have worked tirelessly for change and i have watched the other major ‘left’ wing party – Labour – demolish those so that those voices have no place in the political spectrum. I’ve seen change, and it is a self interested wound that has no time for anything other than itself. The only ‘change’ that occurs now is the desperate scramble from the sleepy hobbits once the property bubble pops and market crashes, until then they will continue to treat Maori, the poor, the hungry, students and the environment with contempt.
The same can be said about putting down the best chances we’ve got. Apparently the Greens are pure evil now because they co-opted with Act and wrote a bill on flag change?
No, the Greens are merely attempting to reposition themselves by helping National with the flag change so that they can threaten Labour & NZ First to not leave them out of Government like Helen Clark did – with the possibility of a vote I cast for the Greens going towards National – it means I couldn’t personally vote for them.
These are not policy blockbusters which undermine the good work done 99% of the time. Your stance can come across as very negative and disengaging.
And what do you call letting the farming industry off any real commitment to stop green house emissions for 5 years? Look Shaw wants to take the Party to the centre, that’s fine, but there are no solutions there – if you find my comment negative and disengaging it’s because the current political landscape is negative and disengaging.
Building momentum by public discourse and simplifying problems is the way forward in my opinion. The IKA Table Talks are an excellent example.
Well we can agree on one thing then, the IKA Table Talks are excellent – and you’ll note it was The Daily Blog that brought them free to the people and it was The Daily Blog who produced them.
Just want to echo the excellence that is IKA Table Talks. We never hear the voices and opions talked about any where else.
Martyn, many thanks for the reply.
This is your blog after all and I can see the passion to support the voiceless in everything you write. I think however those on the fence need a different approach to be convinced/converted. As a regular reader I’m sad to say that I’m growing a bit weary of posts that repeat the same negative themes. If the base is not increasing with time then this approach is not growing the movement and may in fact be a turn off.
The only ‘change’ that occurs now is the desperate scramble from the sleepy hobbits once the property bubble pops and market crashes
This type of cynicism alienates the activist left movement as “holier than thou” and posits that only a ruinous financial disaster will “save” the country. (For what it’s worth, I’m a young professional based overseas with no property investments.) There must be a more inclusive way to convince people that corporate hegemony, wealth concentration and a deteriorating environment will see them living worse off unless the tide is turned.
Maybe this change won’t happen overnight, but it will and it should. Corbyn, Sanders, Trudeau, Turnbull over Abbott, are all evidence of a shift.
Andrew Little and Buddy the cat
https://www.google.co.nz/search?q=Andrew+little+and+Buddy+the+cat&espv=2&biw=1440&bih=775&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0CBoQsARqFQoTCOjOrKnu3MgCFYEalAodPV4JFg#imgrc=ZuPGQGF72n8apM%3A
Very droll and sadly accurate post, Martyn.
This headline from Stuff sums up the NZ psyche, I believe: “All Blacks and John Key share victory beers after RWC semifinal”. Depressing.
The RWC beers share doesn’t need to be depressing of itself – in a different context we could see it as positive as Mandela’s presence was in South Africa.
In a world, where we’d refused to go to Iraq and clearly rejected the draconian elements of the TPP and were positioning ourselves as leaders in the battle against anthropogenic global warming through bold targets and effective action, I would have a lot more pride in being a New Zealander and endorse the PM raising our country’s profile (and not his own). Have we heard him tell us how proud he is of his country and the achievement of the All Blacks? No – deafening silence between the photo opps and the meetings on the TTIP/TISA.
Comments are closed.