WHAT A WEEK! It begins with John Key and ends with Bill English. But, apart from the faces on the TV news, how much has really changed? Nobody is suddenly richer, or poorer, because John Key decided to give up his day job. Employers still expect their employees to turn up for work on Monday morning. The banks still expect the mortgage to be paid on time. Ditto, landlords and the rent. The kids still have to be sent off to school. The Christmas shopping still has to be done. For most New Zealanders, life goes on as usual.
For those of us who live and breathe politics, the general indifference of our fellow citizens is perplexing. It shouldn’t be. Most people have enough to do just keeping their personal, working and family lives on an even keel. The idea that they should devote more than a moment or two of their precious time to the machinations of politicians would strike them as nuts.
Yes, most New Zealanders were startled to learn that John Key was stepping down. They’ve seen his face on television for more than a decade now, and most of them liked what they saw. But, who his successor might be, and what he or she might mean for New Zealand: these are questions two-thirds of the country would struggle to answer.
Don’t believe me? Well, on Monday, John Campbell and the Checkpoint team fanned out across the streets of suburban Auckland and Christchurch to ask a random selection of pedestrians for their reaction to John Key’s departure. Nearly all of them were surprised, but very few were dismayed. Most reckoned the Prime Minister had done a pretty good job and it was fair enough that he’d decided to quit while he was ahead. As for who should replace him. One man volunteered the name of Winston Peters. But most of those questioned had no idea who should take over the job. When one woman was asked what she thought of Paula Bennett, the hapless shopper confessed to not knowing who the reporter was talking about.
In a perverse way, this level of indifference and ignorance is compelling proof of John Key’s success. Most people only become engaged in politics when they have to, and the sort of events that impel people towards political engagement are seldom pretty. War, economic crisis, natural and man-made disasters: these are the things that cause ordinary people to pay political attention. And even then, as the Christchurch earthquake demonstrated, it’s not the disaster itself, but the perceived failure of political leaders to respond to it adequately, that gets voters up in arms.
The most crucial factor in mobilising ordinary people is the extent to which a crisis affects them directly. If the country is at war, and the soldiers fighting it are conscripts, then close to the entire population will have a personal or familial stake in its outcome. A colossal economic catastrophe from which no part of the population can stand aloof, such as the Great Depression of the 1930s, will similarly test a country’s political leadership to the limit. If the incumbents fail, then a substantial portion of the population will enter into a desperate search for saviours – and scapegoats.
John Key and his government are guilty of no such grand and all-encompassing failures. Yes, there are many New Zealanders who find themselves under acute economic pressure: jobless, homeless, earning nothing like enough to make ends meet. But there are nowhere near enough of them (who vote) to frighten a government. Especially when thirty years of neoliberal indoctrination have convinced a majority of New Zealanders that poverty is the outward manifestation of individual weakness and family dysfunction.
There are also are a large number of young people struggling to afford their first home. But most of these folk are concentrated in Auckland and, therefore, unlikely to attract too much sympathy from provincial New Zealand – where housing is comparatively more affordable. What’s more, the youngsters shut out of the Auckland housing market have yet to organise themselves into the sort of pressure-group that makes a government sit up and take notice. Collectivism and the Millennial Generation are proving an uncomfortable fit.
No drama, then. New Zealand, it seems, like John Key himself, has been “comfortable” with the economy and society over which he and his National Party have presided with such unprecedented insouciance. Most Kiwis felt no need to memorise the names of Key’s Cabinet; or to pay any serious attention to the Opposition parties and their leaders. They were doing fine, which meant, as far as they and their families were concerned, New Zealand was doing fine. They are now expecting Bill English’s steady pair of hands to keep it that way.
As for the tens-of-thousands of their fellow citizens who aren’t doing fine. Well, as the celebrated American cartoonist, Ron Cobb, portrayed the problem in a bitter cartoon depicting a little white boy, pulling a wagon-load of toys, addressing a little black boy with none:
“If ya got somethin’ it’s cause you’re good. If ya got nothin’ it’s cause you’re bad … Ask Santa Claus.”
“most of them liked what they saw”
Not true. Most voters voted against Key, can we stop with the parroting of Nat propaganda!
Silly quibble. Chris was not writing about voters/non-voters – he was writing about people in general. Polls support Chris, not you. Can you quote anyone who polled more popular as PM than JK? (Not that I ever voted for JK’s party.)
Northland and Roskill proved the polls a lie, and most people in general do not like John key at all.
Is that why Key and the nats have been between 45% and 50% for the last 8 years? Pillock.
Actually, Chris, the NATS have been riding high in the polls. But Key’s own popularity rating has fallen.
+1 Roy, most do not like smug and smarmy John key, what a sell out and he also threw the National government under a bus. key getting thrashed in Mt Roskill proved the polls a lie.
+1 Roy
“No Drama No Change” No nothing really and No retrieving the Pike River miners. No “Brighter Future”
Liar and fraud.
Spot on Bert !!
Oh Chris, you are at it again…still its what we’ve come to expect…
Key bribed the Act party and Peter Dunne plus the Maori party.
He has never got 50% plus… he has been and still is a con man, he brought the leadership and now that failure was just around the corner he’s resigned just as he did when the American housing bubble exploded.
The man is a born liar and manipulator of the highest order. TDB before your idiotic attempt at justification of a rat leaving a sinking ship says it like it is. Take a break over Christmas and give your pen a rest.
I do not understand your bitterness. Electoral figures you are using are irrelevant, as I pointed out above: Key has been most popular in all polls taken since he became PM, and Chris has not lied. I agree with you about JK. A rat leaving a sinking ship, with any luck. But every time Chris Trotter writes anything at all, you explode with ill-founded vituperation.
Most popular? So the spin says, but reality says different. You like CT have been sucked in.
I must have been sucked in too. Maybe it is a dream. (nightmare.)
It went like this though. John Key won the elections in 2008, 2011 and 2014. Through that time all the polls registered his popularity as very high.
People who knew the truth and observed things they knew were not right used the expression “smiling assassin” in full recognition that what was being slaughtered was more than just political opponents.
In the parallel universe though, a carefully cultivated one, a pervasive drug was being used which ridded the expression of the “assassin” bit. The gormless ‘hunky-dory’ smile and a tickety-boo media ensured the growth of the perfect stage to do whatever he wanted. Indifference and ignorance sought, indifference and ignorance gained.
Quoting Northland as an indicator of lack of popularity of Key and his lot fails to recognise that particular situation and the circumstances. There was all the stuff about the sitting MP who resigned, there was the singular sense that the Government had treated the North with disdain and ran a campaign which accentuated and aggravated that, it was “only” a by-election and there was the maverick candidate on hand to capitalise on those things.
In the far South and Taranaki, Waikato and Auckland is there a sense of a rat leaving a sinking ship? That the ship is sinking? That we need to man the lifeboats? Or are the masses happily swimming in ignorance and indifference? And where are indications of that to be found? On sites like this? In the local shops, bowling and cricket clubs retirement homes? Or in the polls which we say we can’t believe?
I will just say that I myself dislike JK, but I can recognise when I hold a minority opinion. It is sheer wishful thinking to claim that ‘most people’ don’t like JK simply because of Northland, Mt Roskill, and your own opinion.
Ask people in the street.
maybe you have been too.
Your view that Key’s a filthy lying piece of shite is most accurate. But just because you or I believe this doesn’t make Key or the nats unpopular. Why can’t you understand this? Or are your comments always going to be on a “Labour good, National bad, ug, ug” basis? Either way you are a complete pillock.
Chris who said anything about labour? and why the need to call anybody a pillock. Face it Key was and will always be a con man, I for one will be glad to see the back of him and when the shit hits the fan you and the rest of the MSM will suddenly pretend you never let Key off the hook time after time. Not one of you asked the hard questions , fawning after him like a bunch stoned groupies, the reason he polled so well was because sell outs like you and your so called reporter mates did your upmost to make it that way. Lets see how many of you Key groupies stand up and be counted when the chickens come home to roost.
I’m not Chris Trotter. And I’m calling Words a pillock because he cannot accept Key was popular. That’s reflected everywhere including the fact the nats won the election. I, too, am glad to see the back of Key, but my point about Words is that he has this totally stupid idea that Labour = good, and that you cannot associate one word that might have a positive connotation to Key or the nats, hence his refusal to accept Key was “popular”. Words has never forgiven Trotter for naming Key ‘politician of the year’ or something years ago, even though it was really about being the biggest and smarmiest snake in parliament. Ever since then Words calls Trotter a nat supporter. Words is a pillock.
Well said Peter, true that.
well said peter
The level of human capital in New Zealand is pretty poor these days.
………………………………{ PIKE RIVER }…………………………..
SUPPORT THE PIKE RIVER PROTEST MONDAY ,13TH DEC , 2016
+1 Wild Katipo
It’s not called lame stream media for nothing. It neither educates nor informs and it’s where people go for their nightly briefing. jonkey knew he was safe in their hands. Talking about Pike River @ Bert, The Con Trail reports tonight that the road access didn’t belong to Solid Energy and the farmer/owner has given the road access to the families. I wonder what else will bubble up from the swamp. Interesting times ahead for all.
+1 Helena good on the farmer/owner!
@ Chris Trotter. Good Post. A sobering Post actually. It’s true to say, most Kiwis really have no idea what/who/where/why politicians.
They don’t care. They don’t give a fuck.
The reason? Exhaustion perhaps, a sense of helplessness, I.E. why bother? “Nothing we can do anyway” What ever it is, the anaesthetic that’s sprayed at us is certainly toxic. And it’s sprayed at us by an all bought and paid for media. None of your state owned rubbish.
I see it here ( TDB). I see people doing their very best at trying to wring out, if nothing but a drop of passion. A common comment is ” National must be removed from parliament ! ” I’ve written that myself is I have to be honest, and the question is always ‘ How’ ?
Should we ask, to prompt thinking;
What political environment existed prior to the rise of neo liberalism?
What was NZ life like before roger douglas et al?
What can we tell those younger than 40?
What ignition mechanism is there that could be be used to galvanise attention to the marauding malaise that’s settled over an already passionless people?
I remember this book..
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/news/article.cfm?c_id=6&objectid=10817111
An excerpt from the bit that’s part of the thing. ( I’m tired. )
“When the first edition was launched, Robert Muldoon was Prime Minister under a National Government. Now, with the same party we have John Key, who McLauchlan says is the perfectly pitched passionless person, the ultimate “smiling zombie” poster boy “with the perfectly passionless palliative face” who is ruining our country.”
It will take a strong person with a loud voice to cause a rise in the blood pressure of the bloodless Kiwi. It’d be easier to challenge, galvanise into action, then lead, a troupe of dancing turtles to battle against randy, rampaging elephants on P. I’ve personally seen people savagely defend their right to their ignorance and complacency to the point of a fist fight.
The damage done to the collective ‘ us’ is terrible. The insidious and odious methodologies are devious and cunning. The damage is palpable and real. The future looks awful. Truly awful as gentrification and sameness takes hold of dulling minds swirling in a haze of reality TV as safety addicts push their weird expectations on us humans to control and command while demanding unquestioning compliance to The Authority Figure. And, of course, on-going effort to feed the banks our time on this earth.
We’re in trouble all right and it’s thanks to the likes of Chris Trotter who’s brave enough to broach the unpalatable that might mean that change might occur. ( I doubt it will. I think we’re fucked.)
Well thought out and said!
New Zealand Prime Minister resigns after getting caught giving $13.7 million in taxpayer money to the Clinton Foundation…
https://investmentwatchblog.com/new-zealand-prime-minister-resigns-after-getting-caught-giving-13-7-million-in-taxpayer-money-to-the-clinton-foundation-merkel-gave-5-million-to-the-clinton-foundation-during-our-election/
It has been revealed that millions of New Zealand taxpayer dollars have been donated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) to Hillary Clinton’s charity, the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI), a non-profit organisation created from the Clinton Foundation with the stated goal to reduce HIV/AIDs in Africa.
An MFAT spokesman confirmed to the NBR that between January 2010 and June 2016, $7.7 million of taxpayer funds had already been donated and another $6 million was to follow, keeping to a pledge to donate $13.7 million made by the government organisation in 2013.
ACT party member David Seymour commented “In a world where New Zealanders can crowdsource to buy a beach, it’s not clear what role there is for the government to collect taxes and contribute it to a global charity which is more than capable of reaching out and raising its own money.”
The big question is, why is our government sending millions of dollars overseas while at the same time cutting funding for crucial services which desperately need the money here in New Zealand?……
Dear Bill, Hilary and Chelsea,
Please refund my share of the NZ Taxpayers’ secret contribution to the phoney, “Pay for Play” Clinton Foundation.
You can refund the money to me personally if you like.
Yours sincerely,
Murray Simmonds,
disgruntled NZ Taxpayer.
And thanks, Slippery, for bringing this important item of MSM-neglected news to our attention. Fascinating.
Our money is sitting in a bank in Qatar with more of it stashed in Switzerland : http://www.whatdoesitmean.com/index2141.htm
Indeed.
+1 Slippery
As it’s nearing festive season, I decided to try my tin foil hat, on for size. Causing me to immediately link the departure of JK on 5/12/16, to the Foster Bell Q&A interview on 4/12/16, and Nicola Willis declaring 2 weeks earlier on 24/11/16, that she would be challenging Foster Bell for Wgtn central in 2017. Nicola, who is a former advisor and confidant to JK, would know where the bodies are buried, and may have threatened an ultimatum on 5/12/16, unless JK persuaded Foster Bell, who JK publicly supported, to step aside. But Foster Bell stood his ground on Q&A, meaning JK’s number was now up, and the teflon was finally torn. Since the scandal may have so tarnished JK, he decided to quit as PM the very next day, despite his fourth term desire – who else quits on a Monday? JK having fallen victim to the same dirty politics tactics, he himself once fostered. Leaving Bill as his successor, but such goings on had now awakened the Crushinator. Luckily her dark forces were derailed before she could even get moving, after quick thinking Chris Bishop, rallied backbench support behind Bill…nice one Chris…the universe owes you one.
NB: if there was a trunk of gold at the bottom of Pike river, Solid Energy would have been in and out of that mine years ago.
Actually there is huge change, but not politically.
Politically, everything remains almost exactly the same. The banks and corporations continue to maintain their stranglehold on NZ (and most other fake democracies); opportunists continue to game the system for their own short-term benefit. The government continues to promote everything that is completely unsustainable and call it ‘sustainable’.
The huge changes are in the real world. not the completely phony, utterly disconnected, fantasy world of politics and politicians.
1. The ice cover at both ends of the planet is extraordinarily low, and portends faster planetary overheating and all the climate catastrophes that accompany rapid overheating, plus faster sea level rise. This is a consequence of record-high atmospheric CO2, of course, and record-high global temperatures that excess CO2 generates, last month being ‘easily the hottest November on record globally’.
https://thinkprogress.org/satellites-hottest-november-on-record-93fa59887f09#.xv4yc37x6
2. After a long period of extremely low oil prices (well below $50), Brent has consistently traded above $50, and has trended upwards. That portents less discretionary spending for most people, rising prices for basics of living, and brings forward the unravelling of the Ponzi global economic system, which is predicated on an infinite supply of cheap oil.
It will probably take another 6 or 12 months for the dire predicament we are in to percolate through the truth filters that the mainstream media normally employ to keep the masses uninformed/misinformed and keep them spending their money (hard-earned or otherwise) on crap they do not need.
And the dire predicament we are in will NEVER [under the present banker-controlled system] percolate through the truth filters that politicians employ, so we can expect the Bill English government to do exactly what the John Key government did -make everything that matters worse faster and bring forward complete meltdown.
It seems that most people are comfortable with that state of affairs; rather like passengers on ‘NZ Titanic’, they retain basic confidence in the ship that is carrying them to their destruction. I recently witnessed gridlock in town (as I quickly cycled through), as crazed consumers queued up to purchase this year’s quota of overpriced crappy consumer products and semi-toxic manufactured muck disguised as food.
“There are also are a large number of young people struggling to afford their first home”
And so they should!
Home ownership is not a birth right and it was a massive struggle for most of us when we started out in adult life. It’s all part growing up.
Those who are struggling and failing need to widen their options, as I did. Coming from a welfare situation as a child, I started off without a penny, so I worked on contract in Central Africa for several years until I put enough together for a deposit on a cheap house. I kept saving and swapped it for a much better place and paid that off too. The house cost less than today but servicing a mortgage at close to 20% interest wasn’t much fun either.
It’s character building.
Housing is a human right, and the right to it, is the economic, social and cultural right to adequate housing and shelter.
Not according to the Human Rights Act.
Your rights are:
•The right to life and liberty
•Freedom of expression
•Equality before the law
•The right to be free from discrimination
•The right to participate in culture
•The right to work
•The right to an adequate standard of living
•The right to education
There’s no mention of any entitlement to own a million dollar property in Auckland.
Ooh, you’re so clever! I didn’t know it was possible to be so clever. Wow!
Key has been nothing more than a sweet sickly meringue. Looks great, tastes great especially when loaded with Fonterra whipped cream, but no substance and not to be confused with a real meal. But eat enough of them and you are hooked. Nothing but egg whites, sugar and air. Pretty sick really. That’s why much of the comment appears to favour Key.
Fair point Dorothy.
There was indeed a lot of feel-good stuff in the last eight years, but maybe there is merit in confidence building and stability in a country which lacks both.
But he didn’t spend all his political capital in my view. Too conservative in his approach to social reform – he could have done more by tackling some of the more intractable and sensitive social issues.
Nobody likes a prick. Especially a rich white prick
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