As TDB predicted, Labour to use universal super fund to buy back assets and woo NZ First

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Green-Party-co-leaders-Russel-Norman-and-Metiria-Turei-relax-in-Auckland.-Photo-by-The-New-Zealand-Herald

Greens about to be snookered again?

 

As The Daily Blog has pointed out several times now, Labour will use a universal super fund to buy back NZs assets in a bid to offer Winston a legacy project…

Labour plans new fund to buy back assets
Labour is promising to create a new national asset buying fund, giving at least $100 million a year to help raise local ownership.

In the last major policy announcement before Saturday’s election, leader David Cunliffe revealed the details of his planned sovereign wealth fund, NZ Inc.

Keeping alive the possibility of state asset buybacks, the fund helps create a point of different from National in a bid to woo New Zealand First into coalition.

…this is part of a strategic move by Labour to use NZ First as a bulwark against the Greens who are increasingly looking like they will be snookered again.

If Labour + Greens + NZ First = the majority on the 21st September, this policy will be the decider for Winston. How Cunliffe manages the Greens once they realise how limited their impact will be will become crucial for this to work long term.

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18 COMMENTS

  1. Yeah , well fuck that ! Our stuff was misappropriated from us and that in itself needs a Royal Commission of Inquiry to sort . I’m fucked if I’m going to pay into some dopy ‘ fund ‘ so as I can buy my own stuff back .

    That’s like paying the burglar for the return of ones belongings .

    As for Winsome Winnie ? A vote for Winnie is a vote for the regime . The neo liberal status quo .

    You want to know where Winsome Winnie’s true loyalties lie ?
    Here’s a start . Recognise any one ?
    http://www.treasury.govt.nz/government/assets/saleshistory#sthash.7NVSQQwN.dpuf

  2. Man, Winston is a saint compared with most of Labour. Only Winston and Hone stood up for the most basic principles of justice and the rule of law when the Kaipara Validation Bill got passed.

    Hate neo-libs? Sure, National is unspeakable right now, an agent of the corrupt US government and the commercial interests that run it. But who was it that presided over the 1980s reorganisation in New Zealand that gave away so much to good buddies? Who [damn, true though this sentence was, defamation law says I’d better edit its guts out], and is now still a Labour MP all these years later?

    I want to see Internet/Mana in that coalition, and Labour a junior partner to the Greens and Internet/Mana! Hoping for some big surprises this time. [Hey, sometimes hope is all we have . . ]

  3. Do you want a change of government or a pure idealistic race to be opposition again? Smart move Labour. The Greens are really strong, will come into a coalition with strong numbers. Their impact will be significant. Why do the left specialise in tearing themselves apart at crucial moments. Be pragmatic, win the Election!

    • Well said JROBIN,

      For all the people that think NZ First are old school neoliberal need to wake up. All the recent analysis on their ideology has put them (economically) at centre left—this is academic analysis by the way. So people need to stop their moaning, because I want a damn change in government, even if it’s not the super-progressive democratic socialism that I would want, but its a damn sight better than 9 years of the destructive race to the bottom of neoliberalism. I think a Labour (with Cunliffe leading as opposed to Shearer, Goff, Jones et al.) with the Greens and a left leaning NZ First (compare with Conservative), with confidence and supply by Internet-Mana is probably the most progressive government we’ve had since Norman Kirk.

      So to reiterate: stop complaining about Winston for the sake of changing to government or else we are going to end up with 3 more years of National-ACT-UF with possibly Fruit Loops Colin thrown into the mix.

    • JROBIN, I agree about pragmatic/strategic voting, and I wouldn’t be voting Internet/Mana just as a gesture, not if I thought the odds were too high that the vote would be wasted.

      I’m betting that their total will be close enough to 5% that those few more votes it might need to push them past 5% will have a lot more impact than they would if given to Labour or Greens. That might also keep Internet and Mana parties together, which would be another bonus as I think they add up to more than the simple sum of their parts.

      If things turn out that way, both Labour and Greens will have cover on the left plus a big push from some very articulate IMP MPs to tread farther in that direction. Or am I misperceiving something?

  4. An Open Message to Winston Peters – and I’ll keep it short – does NZ First really want to go into coalition with the political train-wreck that is National? Do they really want to be associated with the muck and sleaze coming from the National Party? Do they want “Brand NZ First” linked to “Brand National” ?

    Your call, Mr Peters.

    • Absolutely, Frank! And however we get our assets back, we must first be the government. If Green principles are going to work, they must stop thinking they can go it alone–or sillier still, influence National. This is good policy, share some olive branches. And no iwi will lose on this either.

  5. If Labour is to bring about a more just and stable society, it has to create a platform upon which to do it. Moreover, there are very powerful forces that do not want this to happen. Since 2011, Labour has been faced with a choice – either give up being a Labour Party except in name, or get hounded every inch of the way. Well, they tried the former and the membership rejected it. After all, why would you vote for people you don’t know and don’t much like to enjoy cool jobs in the field of maintaining a system that hurts you?

    With Cunliffe Labour has taken the second path, and has duly received the hounding. But this policy more than any other shows up where the divide lies, and so where the choice lies – between building a viable, inclusive country with real choices, or continuing as a client country with a lot of hardship, little productivity and a few bourgeois preening themselves and playing at being global citizens. That Labour has come up with it shows they mean business, and not just business-as-usual.

  6. Blows my head off, Labour did shine with this policy.

    I am 70 yrs old and remember the time we inherited what our forefathers and mothers left to us all.

    Once we had cheap power, and good power companies, clean environment, unspoilt places, and a safe caring community support system in the 1950.s.

    This NZ Inc. has just made me feel warm and compete as I look at my grandchild and know that we have to offer him the same we had at least.

    Go Labour go please present this grand plan to all this week as the way to vote please.

    Proud NZ Grandad.

  7. The thing that bothers me about this scenario is that it illustrates yet again the seeming inability of Labour to work with the Greens. They have previously shafted them at every opportunity. Its a problem because Greens and Labour will form the core of the next government. They need to show the electorate that they are a government-in-waiting. At the moment, they are not doing that.

  8. Yesterday, having received some of the expected electioneering propaganda in the letter box, quickly browsing through it and then promptly giving it a home in the fireplace. An impression remained with me from NZ First’s, namely the single mention of the environment, immediately thought could this be a signal if willingness to work with a Labour/Greens government?

    I totally agree with the commenters above, that for progressive voters, a Labour-Greens-NZ First government is light years ahead in preference to another term of the current government.

  9. I actually thought it was a good link between NZ First and the Greens. AND maybe this is just something this new Labour incarnation is for – independantly.

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