Labour, their budget fumble and the terrible double standards of NZ politics

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Great line – but what are Labour actually going to do?

I went looking for a critique of Labour’s response to the budget on the Standard and to my shock found nothing other than a claim that Labour was forcing National to adopt ‘left wing policy’ – cough cough, which was surprising because let’s be blunt, Labour seemed to have fumbled fairly significantly under this budget haven’t they?

Now in the interests of peace and love, let’s look at Labour’s response to the budget by using the compliment sandwich where I say something nice about Labour, put a tiny smidgen of positive criticism in the middle and end it with another compliment.

The only downside of this is that it means a lot of sandwiches.

Compliment sandwich 1
-Gosh Andrew has nice bright white teeth.
-What the bloody hell were you thinking by using a transgender ‘joke’ as a jab at the Government?
-I like Andrew’s hair, it’s very shiny.

Compliment sandwich 2
-Isn’t it good that Caucus have managed to not eat each other for 7 months?
-The reason you can’t say anything critical about the budget is because you did jack shit nothing for beneficiaries in 9 years.
-The Labour Party logo is a neat shade of red.

Compliment sandwich 3
– Grant Robertson is lovely.
– Your response was to float an idea like means testing the pension which is as electorally popular as legalised incest and bestiality???
-David Shearer is tall.

Compliment sandwich 4

-Andrew Little was great on Jono & Ben.
-You dumped the Capital Gains Tax just before National implemented one??? Are you mad???
-Andrew Little’s cat is funny.

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The problem for Labour is the horror of the NZ political double standard.

Helen Clark signed a painting she didn’t paint and it was an outrage. The PMs Office colludes with the SIS to smear the Leader of the Opposition months before the 2011 election and nothing.

Helen Clark tries to shut down a loophole that allowed abusive parents to escape assault charges and it’s Nanny State gone mad. Key forces contraception and drug testing onto beneficiaries and gets a standing ovation.

Labour tried to regulate power saving light bulbs and water saving shower heads and it was the end of Western Civilisation as we know it. Key get’s caught using far right hate speech merchants to pimp smears and attacks via a complicit mainstream media and that’s politics as usual.

Helen Clark tried to keep us out of Iraq and got accused of being anti-American. Key not only sends soldiers right back in but also allows the NSA to implement mass surveillance in NZ and people blame Kim Dotcom.

Labour had 9 years to do something meaningful about poverty and they didn’t because they were terrified of being seen as soft on beneficiaries. Key can smokescreen headlines like ‘$25 extra per week’ to calm the conscience of female National voters and gets applauded for actually doing next to nothing.

It of course doesn’t help when you have a biased and hostile mainstream media who work with Slater to produce smears against progressive voices and political parties but that’s only a reminder of why public broadcasting is so essential. Kris Faafoi is the current Public Broadcasting spokesperson, which suggests Labour still don’t regard the portfolio highly.

Labour need to get their mojo back, and soon.

 

15 COMMENTS

  1. Key forces contraception … onto beneficiaries…

    The reason there’s been no outrage about that particular one is that it didn’t actually happen. That’s a pretty good reason.

  2. Good laughs and good points Martyn. Labour really need to come out with something radical and positive for wage earners and middle NZ instead of just being National Lite. Strangely there only seems to be one “correct” political philosophy these days. The way of the corporates, USA, UK,Europe and Japan. Hardly a success story unless you are well off. The lack of enquiry in the mainstream media seems to make everyone believe there is no choice. Labour could start by reducing tax on work, subsidise those who create jobs, make it easier to employ people and tax financial transactions. At least it would give them a point of difference

    • ”Reduce tax on work”, for the middle i would suggest that since the age of superannuation entitlement was first raised taxes have been reduced so many times that,(along with Working for Families), i have lost count of such enrichments,

      What is needed, in my opinion, is for some real redistribution where it is NEEDED the most, hold the middle and reduce the tax burden further for those earning the least, low wage earners and beneficiaries,

      Having said that, i would think there is more chance of such occurring by spending some minutes phoning up Robin Hood and asking Him for some,

      Redistribution that is….

  3. Yes Martyn; – Labour needs to go back and look at their previous strong policies success’s to find their way.

    Return to the “Award” salaries, from PM Walter Nash’s time and a statuary minimum wage could be at start.

    award wage

    1. (Industrial Relations & HR Terms) (in Australia and New Zealand) statutory minimum pay for a particular group of workers. Sometimes shortened to: “award”

    NZ First is running rings around labour by embracing the terrible mess national has left them all in since NatZ bankrolled Auckland.

    In fairness four labour MP’s come unannounced to Gisborne two weeks ago for a flying economic road show visit as Gisborne/Napier are beginning to suffer from economic depression with no rail.

    In response Napier/Matawai MP Stuart Nash announced that Labour would restore the mothballed rail service when next in Government.

    How long????????

    We cannot wait that long for that sorry as business’s are going to the wall now, but it was a nice gesture.

    So yes Labour needs to get back their past Mojo all right before NZ First take it over as they did in Northland recently.

    Perhaps they need to do what they did back 7yrs ago and setup an economic forum with all business’s and those deprived regional communities to get some factual details on what those communities actually want instead of following along behind the NatZ coat tails?

    We wondered why they never invited our NGO community groups to their talk fest with only business interests when they came?
    Simply not a good look there.

  4. Don’t expect Labour to go against government they are in cahoots with them See David @ David Degraw.org
    David states that elections are a con ,the result is known before first vote cast.
    UK expected hung parliament and coalition ,Tories won by huge majority.NZ supposed to be close result but expected Labour to win .

    Its a game the elite play with people to make us think we have a choice we have none.
    The term “lefty loony ” was termed to devide the people ,it worked .

    The big banks have been sucking Trillions from world economies, in Wake up New Zealand it says there is enough money in the world to provide prosperity for all,but the banks have stolen it. There was an enquiry in USA banks found guilty, they were fined Billion dollars, pocket change for them ,classed as operating costs and they carried on as before.
    The elite treat us like fools and get away with it, They have all the peoples money to use against them.

    • ELLE 1000%

      Yes most elections are now electronically counted after the manual count is fed into the electronic resister at either the election Commission or by private contractors which are far worse and corruptible process’s.

      The opposition could simply order an enquiry how this vote rigging is easily done here, and we wonder why they have not?

      There the vote counts are rigged so our opposition Parties and we must request a simple return back to a manual paper vote count through all process’s.

      That means using fully independent verifiable manual recounting process’s with the ability to be fully manually re counted when a dispute comes along.

      I asked the electoral Commission if this was possible to have a fully manual recount of voting papers with our manual/electronic counting system today and they said they cannot manually recount as then results are already in electronic digital format.!! This is a problem;–

      As the electronic counting is now corrupted all-around the globe.

  5. It’s a digital age. We somehow believe that a few more dollars can solve a lifetime of neglect.

    Anyone who has ever tripped over a receiver of governmental “largesse” will know that beneficiaries are beneficiaries because they have a problem, or more likely multiple problems. Giving them a little money may pay for a couple of bottles of Coke, or Just Juice or a pack of smokes or a few more logs of wood or a bus ticket into town, but it will make no difference beyond that. In fact it will not matter what the conscience salving pittance is it will help very little. What is needed is some real help. Maybe a case manager who has time to understand their problems, maybe an adviser who can suggest a way forward and has time and skills to help them get there. And sufficient respect on the part of the administration to believe that it is worth listening to them and genuinely trying to help.

    The trouble is that many on the Left have forgotten, or never knew that it was never about money, as an end. Only as a means. The governmental system in New Zealand have the responsibility to create a system that offers a reasonable life to all citizens. There is no money that can buy off their responsibility for the abject failure of their attempts (if any). A digital world has its limitations.

    (It is Government’s responsibility, not the private sector. In Alan Gibbs’ immortal words “it isn’t the problem of employers to make sure their workers get a living wage.”)

    By the way, if there are all these families who need a top up, why are they having to wait almost a year to get it? (Just near enough so the Nats can mention it in this year’s budget). The chump change from the Airport shakedown could pay the whole amount today!

  6. “Helen Clark tries to shut down a loophole that allowed abusive parents to escape assault charges and it’s Nanny State gone mad. Key forces contraception and drug testing onto beneficiaries and gets a standing ovation.”

    Yes, well, perhaps not “forcing” contraception, but “firmly suggesting it” (see slide 45!):

    https://nzsocialjusticeblog2013.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/bratt-aylward-shifting-your-primary-focus-to-health-and-capacity-june-2013.pdf

    “LARC and Beneficiaries”

    “A non-recoverable Special Needs grant is available to female beneficiaries to facilitate access to subsidised Long Acting Reversible Contraception – IUCDs (Mirena only when subsidised) and Jadelle implant”

    http://www.workandincome.govt.nz/individuals/a-z-benefits/sng-contraception.html

    “Work ability” has a high priority now, every measure seems justified, to put the pressure on and get people into work, those refusing it may bear the consequences.

    Forget not the extra expectations and obligations brought in a couple of years back, for those “daring” to have a further child while already on the benefit with children:
    http://www.workandincome.govt.nz/individuals/benefit-changes/additional-child.html

    And other measures for the (lazy) sick and disabled, reluctant to go and work:
    http://accforum.org/forums/index.php?/topic/16092-work-ability-assessments-done-for-work-and-income-%E2%80%93-partly-following-acc%E2%80%99s-approach-a-revealing-fact-study/

    And today we find this hot bit of information, Designated Doctors, now getting $250 a hit (plus GST) for “examining” a WINZ client for health conditions and work ability:
    http://www.nbph.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Work-Income-DD-Flyer-V3.pdf

    Going by accounts from the affected, many are seen for only 15 or maybe 20 or seldom 30 minutes, mostly asked endless questions about work, attitude to work, their hobbies and other activities.

    What a racket for some GPs.

  7. “Kris Faafoi is the current Public Broadcasting spokesperson, which suggests Labour still don’t regard the portfolio highly”

    No he is not.

  8. So the left wing blogger continues to beat up on his own allies instead of smacking his opponents around?

  9. No one mentioned Andrew complete u turn on Govt Super yet. Makes Cunliffe and his gaff almost modest.

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