1 Month on from winning 2020 Election – what is the NZ political landscape?
So it’s been 5 weeks since the righteous crimson tsunami crushed all before it. The final vote swung 3 electorates to Labour plus an extra MP off the Party list while the Māori Party held onto Wiariki and also gained an extra MP off the coat tail, the Greens were bribed with hollow baubles while National wallow in self pity and self deception. ACT called for a $50 per hour minimum wage???
Crazy times.
However the strains and stresses of unregulated free markets have all ubered home to roost and Labour have been caught so flat footed that poor old Grant Robertson has had to get off his chuff and write a letter to the Reserve Bank!
A LETTER!
After all the praise for saving us from Covid, Labour now find themselves 2 months after the election getting attacked by their own allies for the total lack of any leadership on a range of issues.
LABOUR:
So their first move was to support a racist drug law because 50.7% of the population wants to criminalise the remaining 49.3%, they then told beneficiaries to go fuck themselves this Christmas with no welfare reform despite 50 of the leading NGOs begging Jacinda to be kind, and hilariously Labour have poured billions into property speculators to molest the housing market while ruling out a wealth tax.
I’m not sure that’s the ‘transformative’ change we were all looking for.
Last term Labour defined ‘transformative’ as ‘whatever Winston let’s us get away with’, now Jacinda defines it as ‘change that sticks’, which sounds less like transformation in social policy and more like a byline for a vitamin supplement sold on Fox News.
Labour’s cowardice of actually tackling the neoliberal settings is shameful, but unfortunately very predictable. They have a history of baulking when they are required to respond intellectually to the challenge of neoliberalism and failed ‘free’ markets. Be it public broadcasting, Oranga Tamariki, prison abuse, the toxic culture of winz, inequality, you name it, and they won’t do it.
Jacinda’s ‘kindness’ is rapidly becoming ‘neokindness’, her focus to ‘rule for all of us’ means newly won over National voters are the priority, long suffering actual Labour voters however are relegated to being first time home buyers in a political market they can’t afford.
Yay, how ‘transformative’.
NATIONAL:
To truly appreciate how delusional National are right now, consider the words of the National Party President last weekend.
“For an opposition party, trying to hold a celebrity government to account for their decisions and policies it was suddenly a crime to ask legitimate questions for comment and daily broadcasts became televangelistic like a gospel to the masses,”
“Democracy gave way to a time to a form of temporary tyranny; no-one should fear death threats or violence for voicing an opinion no matter how much you disagree, but that was the reality in a Jacindamania world and I’m sure you felt that too throughout the year, I certainly did.”
The only conclusion you can take from this ridiculously offensive claim of ‘legitimate questions’ is just how delusional National truly are.
I’m not talking ideologically delusional for believing Kiwis wanted less State when they were running towards the State for protection in the middle of a pandemic, I’m talking fully fledged Trump denial of reality level delusion.
What the fuck was ‘legitimate questions’ about National’s pandemic debate?
An MP released private Covid Patient details to the media he had taken from the former Party President.
What was legitimate about that?
Brownlee was promoting conspiracy theories in the middle of a pandemic!
What was legitimate about that?
Judith ended up attacking fat people???
WHAT WAS LEGITIMATE ABOUT THAT?
Pretending that this was some sort of tyranny utterly ignores National’s own inability to value anything else beyond political selfishness.
National wanted to save the economy, Labour wanted to save the people, once voters see that, they can’t unsee it. Every time Voters saw the casual malice of Judith, they recoiled in horror!
That the National Party can’t still comprehend that, shows a Trumpian level of self awareness.
GREENS:
Should have gone in there table thumping and demanding real policy gains by threatening opposition, instead they begged and cried for whatever crumbs Jacinda was prepared to offer. Honestly, the Greens have all the tactical response capacity of slow growing moss. The Greens need to be radical on the environment and the economy rather than free the nipple middle class ally causes that only manages to alienate.
This deal will gag them and make them look complicit in Labour’s tepid progress. They don’t look like members of a progressive Government, they look like collaborators for mediocrity.
Marama and James can gnash their teeth and throw as many tantrums as they like, but while they have those juicy empty baubles, their criticism comes across as meaningless just like it did when the Māori Party would try it on under Key.
Green Party Woke Apparatchik’s will flood this page screaming that the whole ‘winners and losers’ dichotomy is a heteronormative white cis male binary choice and as such is promoting hatred towards women and mummy bloggers, which isn’t fair as I also hate daddy bloggers as well. Listening to them trying to sell this meaningless nothing on Twitter as some type of great advance for everyone is like listening to Democrats trying to defend Hillary Clinton’s 2016 nomination.
Chloe is the only hope for the future of the Greens.
ACT:
Their discipline, their touring the country thanking voters, their candidate post election academy – it’s all boiling up as an incredibly well planned post election strategy and I’m genuinely worried. ACT have become the defacto Right Wing Values Party and ever since the bloody Woke gave Seymour the Free Speech ammunition, they, not he, awoke a once dormant vein of right wing political representation.
ACT will become more radical and more hard right and cannibalise National’s vote. There is a real chance that ACT and National could be on level pegging come election 2023. This is great for Labour because none of those hundreds of thousands of 45+ women voters who went from National to Jacinda will go back if the alternative is a hard right ACT-National Government.
The polarisation of hard right politics can be restrained from their worst excesses as long as Seymour is leader, but once he’s gone, expect them to go full blown Free Market Nazi. This will be a war to fight in 2026.
MĀORI PARTY:
They need to urgently re-order how they are going to do things and focus on where they can make the most impact.
Debbie Ngarewa-Packer should be in Parliament all times articulating Māori values.
JT should be in the media as much as possible to articulate on the minute responses to issues.
The biggest criticism used against Tamati Coffey who lost Wiariki was that he wasn’t around the electorate enough so Rawiri Waititi should be focused on staying in the electorate and ensuring it is a fortress for the Māori Party.
NEW CONSERVATIVES:
After all the attempts at starting a culture war, after all the anti-Māori rhetoric, after all the pious whinging that their free speech was being impacted despite no one giving a toss what they had to say, the New Conservatives have replaced a Clown with a Joker as Leader…
Leighton Baker steps down as New Conservative leader
The party garnered 1.5 per cent of the vote in this year’s election and didn’t make it into Parliament.
Today, Baker announced he was stepping down, saying he had enjoyed the leadership role “immensely”.
“However, the board has decided that now is the time to try another leadership style, and I wish them well in that,” Baker says.
If the answer is Elliot Ikilei, the question is ‘who could do worse than Leighton Baker as New Conservative Leader.
Strip away any rationality, compassion and gentle sensibilities within Christianity and you have the New Conservative Party.
Hateful of abortion, solo mothers, gays, solo mothers, cannabis and solo mothers, the New Conservatives love guns, patriarchy and more guns.
Paranoid and frightened of any idea post the renaissance, the New Conservatives would represent a great leap backwards for New Zealand.
It’s political thinking is so inbred, I think they would want to relax laws around cousins marrying.
Banjo playing with your toes and burning books is mandatory to be a candidate.
I suspect Solo mums are not allowed to vote for the Party.
Their policy against Māori would actually see a race war in NZ.
Replacing a Clown for a Joker won’t save the New Conservatives, it will only make them politically irrelevant quicker.
The New Conservatives demise is proof that there is a God.
ADVANCE NZ + NZPP:
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha…
Advance NZ’s Jami-Lee Ross has threatened former co-leader Billy Te Kahika with legal action after a nasty public stoush over donations following its split from the NZ Public Party (NZPP) last month.
…I don’t care about the minutiae of their war against each other, I just love that it’s imploded.
These two snake oil merchants who manipulated peoples fear with Covid Conspiracies deserve everything they get. They are wretched politicians who managed to exploit voter’s ignorance in the most venal manner at the most vulnerable of times.
A plague of genetically modified Covid spread by 5G to bring about a shadowy one world Government on both their houses!
Hahahahahahahahahahaha.
They deserve each other!
CONCLUSION:
The geography of our emotional political landscape has been irreversibly re-imagined.
The sense of solidarity this universal shared experience of a pandemic generated was there for any politician to pick up and use. The difference between what Jacinda did and what Bridges, Muller and Collins couldn’t, was appreciate what that solidarity meant and could actually do.
The Right are so individual Uber Allas that they had no idea how to appeal to the universal common good whereas Ardern had the emotional IQ to attract this enormous psychological tectonic change in the electorate.
The greatest tragedy is that after winning a mandate, Labour are too timid to use it and actually reform the neoliberal state.
Jacinda won the battle, but she is on her way to losing the neoliberal war.
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The irony of Nationals criticism of Labour on the housing crisis escapes no one.
Collins belief that National are revitalised when the true reality that with dinosaurs in her caucus like Brownlee, Smith etc and Nationals archaic President, alongside the appalling Woodhouse means there will be no shift in Nationals dirty politics style nor a shift in it’s policies. Collins style is one with the jingle, “make my wallet great again”.
As for Labour, a very disappointing start to their new term, but with the new talent yet to embed themselves, happy to give them a chance.
And as for Seymour, well we see the results of what is happening on the streets with his gun promotion.
As a national voter I admit to looking on with a degree of bias but when elected I said they deserved a fair shot before passing judgement as they obviously had the backing of a huge majority of the voting public . However they do not seem to have made a very good start . 50 NGO ignored about raising benefit farmers and business leaders ignored about a need to move urgently on getting overseas staff for important roles in getting the economy turning over. The need for locals to eventually fill these roles is an arguement for later the need is now. Ignoring a petition to stop bottom trawling as they said they no mandate. A slow response to souring house prices . While agreeing with Nash about tourists it was poorly worded and made NZ look bad around the World. Still as you say early days .
With regards to the guns that is more to do with a poorly drafted bill that did not get the backing from the public to make it work. Many otherwise law abiding citizens are now law breakers.
Seymour was in bed with national for the 9 years when they had their blinkers on when it came to housing.
As for the many economist who said housing prices would drop, another lot with their blinkers on. And Ashley Church a so called housing expert was also wrong. Housing prices will not drop until we have enough or we have surplus housing. And then some people may find themselves in the shit as they brought at over inflated prices. The greedy ones will have flipped their investment by then leaving the fear of missing outs up the creek without a paddle.
@covid is pa – Plenty of houses are being built but they don’t seem designed for the price points of people below making up NZ demographics…
remember anyone in the world can buy NZ new apartments…
luxury development is where a lot of construction effort is directed taking up the NZ construction jobs and labour force and desirable land…
https://thepacifica.co.nz
https://www.seascapeauckland.co.nz/residences
(start at 4 mins)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGZB2B5Qofk
NZ statistics
2.7 million people are employed
151,000 unemployed
average wages 33.86 p/h
If we have 5 million people in NZ, That means a massive amount of people aka 2,149,000 are neither employed or on the unemployment – on benefits aka pensioners or people on other benefits like the DPB, in prison or in study or kids.
https://tradingeconomics.com/new-zealand/wages
Any foreign student or worker has the right to bring their spouse, kids and grandparents with them into NZ under our current visa laws… they all need somewhere to live…
Initially I thought the Greens should give Labour 100 days to get some changes underway. But, sadly, those hopes have gone already. Jacinda and Grant are just slaves to the same “old boss” as Key and Helen Clark are. So, the Greens should dump their agreement and go in full opposition to this pathetic Labour mob. That is if they want to gain support instead of becoming irrelevant toadies, which they will be if they stick with these Labour neolibs.
OUCHIES !!!!,…. I find it hard to disagree with most of what you say Mr Bradbury. I’ll not refute a single thing . Matter of fact, I’d rather honour you with a song from of ALL sectors,.. an American southern rock band,… far simpler for me and I hope you understand…
Rebel Son – From a Mile Away
https://youtu.be/B24HZ50Pngk?list=PLnLPw-F5_XyKaUDw_eWxrTxptWcZb9NXJ&t=1
The problem is wages have fallen below the cost of living (and remember those who have a mortgage are better off with lower interest rates so it is even worse than what people think it is). Just keeping a job/income and paying for essentials in NZ like food and power is a struggle.
My view is that woke identity politics have consumed all common sense in NZ and converged to essentially support the right wingers in many areas aka immigration.
Somehow lefties have changed 100+ years of action for workers into a sort of beneficiary led, migrant group, minority group fest. Now many lefties continually advocate more and more support to those from overseas, who are normally wealthy, middle class (and sometimes rich) with hundreds of thousands of dollars to buy migration into NZ for their families.
Meanwhile they fail to raise NZ standards and support those residents already here.
Meanwhile the minorities of the last 100+ years in NZ (Maori and Pacific Islanders) have got worse off as well as many Pakeha and it’s also not looking good for the next generation of Kiwis.
This from Brian Easton, https://www.pundit.co.nz/content/invisible-children
“Shortly after, I discovered that measured poverty in the country was dominated by children and their parents. This was a revolutionary finding at the time and it took only four decades for it to become the conventional wisdom. Even today, you will find people who focus their poverty discussions on beneficiaries, ethnic minorities, single-parent households, and those in rental accommodation. The research evidence points to the most common household in poverty is a Pakeha couple with children living in their own house (with a mortgage) and being dependent upon wages That is because the group is the largest, so even if its poverty rate is lower than average, there are more poor.”
The only thing stopping the majority of people in NZ (aka 65 – 70 %) from falling into huge poverty is that they own a property that somehow now earns more than their wages. Phew.
Problem is that many lefties want to take that away, rather than raising wages and stability for workers and improving jobs and wealth for existing residents.
They support the demand led, economy run by immigration. They are like the right wingers in policy, but just want more taxes – but not for the migrant rich.
The lefties wholly believe the media, blaming NZ citizens for the housing crisis that NZ never used to have, before mass immigration.
Now the left and right seem to fully support the idea of circa 300,000 new NZ residents per year, filling the work force with new residents on slave wages who often can’t actually do the job or the job is so basic that even the stupidest leftie should see it for what it is (aka Mr Heap advocating Thai workers to pick his courgettes due to their specialist skills).
NeoKindness now has the temp residents on NZ benefits while our media cries out that they can’t fill jobs and need more overseas migrants to fill the jobs. https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/123475269/from-real-estate-agents-to-pet-groomers-these-are-the-jobs-that-new-zealanders-cant-or-wont-do
What?
But what about the existing temp residents already here on benefits who can’t find work, why are they out of work and can’t fill the jobs??? https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/431197/benefits-for-migrant-workers-to-match-standard-dole-rate
The logic does not work, and neither does the Maths of allowing somebody into NZ for a degree or work, and then allowing migrant spouses, kids and grandparents and go on NZ welfare, when we have a housing, health, school, water, congestion, super, shortages…
When visitors come into NZ on 3 month visas, they don’t leave for 19 years, marry another migrant, and then get to stay here, permanently because their migrant wife turned NZ citizen is depressed. https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/300165188/drinkdriver-who-overstayed-for-19-years-dodges-deportation-due-to-wifes-depression
Once someone hits NZ shores the woke will do anything to help them stay in NZ, while crying out about the housing shortages!!! Which quite frankly are not shortages but affordability issues to do with the slave wages and conditions in NZ that the lefties are encouraging to prosper!
Does not compute!
The west’s obsession with international business is part of the problem. I’m not against international business, but there has to be a limit.
Brexit was caused by social disruption in Britain, in particular locals being marginalised in their own country. Britain had plenty of taxes, VAT, stamp duty, high income taxes, capital gains taxes, but nothing to stop immense wealth overpowering their own economies and buying up UK citizenship, (and assets) but paying taxes elsewhere, and lobbying for international capital to take over the UK. https://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2016/05/more-backlash-from-londons-empty-towers/
The UK also thought nothing of importing in low paid labour but little thought of what would happen when the local Brits had no jobs or housing anymore.
All good for Warlord Capitalism. In this article George Monbiot exposes how Warlord Capitalism has taken over from housetrained capitalism.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/nov/24/brexit-capitalism
We see the same happen in the USA with Trump vs Biden and the same will happen in NZ, because most local citzens will never be able to compete with overseas cash and NZ will not be able to continue with a welfare state with hundreds of thousands of new demand per year from low income, immigration.
NATIONAL LITE
Labour has convinced 420,000 voters to leave National and vote Labour ,and Labour wants to keep them .Funny that .
Keeping the 420,000 middle class , middle aged property owners happy means no substantial change in Taxation , capital gains tax ,wealth/assett tax ,and in turn ,no serious redress in terms of inequality, affordable housing ,benefit reform or child poverty .Its National Lite ,all the way to 2023 .
If you don’t knock their world most Exnational voters will probably stick with you, but many ” traditional ” Labour voters will likely vote green in 2023 as a protest against Labour abandoning the opportunity for serious and transformative progressive change .There is no “Hand brake Winston “to blame .
In this regard the political retention of the 420,000 means Labour has largely become the new National . .Labour has stolen their faithful and become more “center right ” than “left “.
But …..Saying you care ,and showing you care are completely different .
Jacindas emotive calls to action will increasingly be seen as PR candy floss window dressing if no real change occurs , and that popularity will fade if the results aren’t there.
You can promise transformative change but no real real change can occur if you keep the 420,000 happy .Its a real catch 22 .
You can ,
1. Make the big changes , then get voted out in 2023 , as the 420,000 go back to National ,or
2. Screw the poor (while telling them ,with tear dripping waves of false sincerity, you care deeply ), keep the 420,000 Ex Nats happy ,and obtain a third term .
Tough choice either way , but the first is far more noble.
It appears power is becoming more important than principles .
Labour should have a new brand make over… ..Im thinking light blue.
Yes , definitely , Light Blue , because red they are surely not.
This website is morphing into the “Opinions and Politics” section of the old Trade Me Message Board.
So now we are told it’s been 2 months since the election as some type of perverse justification for attacking and mocking Ardern and her Government.
Election night was the 17th of October. Referendum and half a million special vote results were released on November the 5th. Today is the 25th November some 20 days later yet that apparently now amounts to being two months since the election.
Labour has now been shouldered with the hostility and blame for the cannabis referendum “failure” and for what’s unfolded with our diabolical housing market. Anything else you want to blame Ardern for? There is a lot of flooding around NZ today. Surely, that’s her fault?
Ardern has repeatedly shown herself to be an outstanding leader, especially in a crisis. The situation with housing is clearly a crisis. Ardern will do what show does extremely well. Manage a crisis. Those bleating about there not being a CGT need to point the finger of blame where it belongs. Firstly to the vested interest extremely well-funded misinformation and scaremongering campaign against the CGT and then Winston Peters who threatened to bring the Government down if Labour pressed on with the desperately needed tax. Make no mistake, Peters would have carried out his threat. We would have had chaos and a caretaker government at the worst possible time. Ardern did exactly the correct and prudent thing. Anyone who doesn’t see this has not been paying attention. John Key had no problem with ruling out a GST increase and then showing zero integrity on the subject after the election. Ardern has integrity and emphatically stated no CGT would occur while she was PM. I dislike it but respect what she said and more importantly, why she had to say it.
Next year you should all complain to the TAB for not paying out on the result of the Melbourne Cup while the runners are all still in the starting gates.
Well, today the new parliament just got sworn in. Apparently everything should have been accomplished by now.
DX5,
100% on the money.
I understand folk wanting action on many fronts but time perspective has clearly been totally lost by some and replaced with an absolutely boring whinge fest. Perhaps they are just missing the all-day everyday hullabaloo of the election campaign to get their teeth into and struggling to return back to “normality”.
Jacindafan
The thing you’re missing is Labour have led government for over 3 long years. The narrative was they could not be more “transformative” because conservative old Winston held them back. But 2 months in with a majority it is obvious as the nose on your face this lot ain’t changing a thing and an example of that is they have not thought about housing vis a vis poverty for a very long time. Auckland averaging a million was a bombshell to Jacinda. Where has her useless Housing Minister been? Ir anyone else in her caucus?
It is equally obvious by the Prime Minister language that this Labour government will teach Winston or any other wanna be dry a thing or two about being conservative.
Honestly mate, they keep going on this route like a pseudo National government i will see no point in voting Labour because i sure as shit cannot abide National!
Pedro summarised their shortcomings very well.
X-RAY,
Three long years of unprecedented crisis that had zero to do with Ardern and her Government. If that wasn’t enough, they had a NZF axe and an anchor swinging over them for their entire first term.
The PM’s name is Jacinda Ardern…..not Harry Houdini.
Bomber went the early crow with his initial thread heading saying it had been two months. He amended that to one month but even that is drawing a long bow. The election was held on the 17th of October but the remaining half million special votes and referendum results were not known until November 6th just 20 days ago. Parliament was only sworn in very recently yet they have already been charged and convicted of failure. For some, the electoral term has apparently been reduced from 36 months to just 1 month. If that’s the case then yes, Labour have failed. If however, the term is still 36 months then some common sense and patience are required grasshopper.
Back in the 90!S, when due to my Union, care, i was blacklisted by all and truth then all major employers, cause they used to mention my name !nothing i was into! yet, my job carried on, even when the National Award was being decided. Anyway, what im getting at being blacklisted, and trust me these capitalist exploiters still do, and say we have never, lies. Back to it, a friend Carpenter, I Painter Paper Hanger, got to-gether and undercut all those capitalist exploiter employers, and did some serious professional proper work that got us noticed, so us pair decided, lets and we did through point of knowing workmanship and skill and cost effect, done some proper Trades unexploited work. Then some friend told told another friend who we had done some work for, and it was a world of, I have five rental properties, how old are you, Im 25, and when Im 35 I will be a property mill possible more, then doing one job came all these calls from all these same ilked, property youth wanabe millionaires. And that was back in the 1990!S. So my point, what hope you first home buyer, possible not minimum waged and probable your partner not minimum waged working, these days casual or two three jobs all on call, what afford your toil to gain a home of your afford to purchase, let alone rent afford.
I did not understand a single thing in this stream of consciousness.
Me too,… all it adds up to is a collegiate of neo liberals’ in collusion with each other. All WANKING in unison.
Labour government to be the most open and transparent in New Zealand’s history
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/christchurch-mosques-terror-attack-evidence-suppressed-by-royal-commission-for-30-years/UL3B4DJWB7FMNJ7YE3FUZ5R6X4/
Information on the actors and actions related to this case are hereby sentenced to two consecutive life sentences, without the chance of early release.
Nothing and no-one in this case justifies such action, citizens are entitled to know what has gone here, at the very least to learn how to protect ourselves from this filth. Most of us are sensible, law abiding adults and nothing in this terrorist act is any different from any other horrific murder (we should actually be told where murderers are at all times in our communities), or is any different from what is freely available on the internet (extremist content). ‘Protecting us’ from harmful content via government censorship (if that is what they are doing) presupposes that there aren’t nut-jobs in positions of power in the first place, such as treasonous gun nuts in the armed forces, police or government, in which case this amplifies dangerous power imbalances to the point of farce (the government may as well just let the cool kids of Silicon Valley rule our hearts and minds). Protecting the safety of innocents who trusted and vouched for the gunman (if they were truly oblivious to his wretched intention) is fair enough and some censorship is justified. The reputations of officials (if their decisions affected the outcomes) shouldn’t be protected especially if they were negligent leading to harm. Citizens surely have the right to know how the law is being applied in this case and how the intelligence services, police, Ministers, bureaucrats, everyone acted together. As for the contention that copycats may be inspired by revealing the case files, that is like saying everyone is presumed guilty until they can prove their innocence. What is even more disturbing is that slaughtering people is the playbook of western imperialism so it is ludicrous to instill morality and conscience on the front stage (via suppression) while governments bomb innocents relentlessly out the back (using justifiable murder methods). Censorship can sometimes also induce the opposite reaction, curiosity and discovery of vile methods are increased, rather than being hidden best in plain sight.