If there were any questions over Grant Robertson’s mastery of the Finance spokesperson role or Annette King as Deputy, they were dispelled on the second day of the Labour Party Conference.
Grant’s wide ranging future of work speech and panel discussion showed a level of forward thinking intellect that the National Party seem incapable of. Consider the following…
– 151,000 New Zealanders are out of work, and the rate of unemployment is six per cent, with projections that it will head towards seven per cent next year. 151,000 people. Think about that. It is nearly twice the population of this city out of work. It is nearly 50,000 more than when National took office. In Gisborne one in every ten people is out of work. It is clear that John Key and Bill English see levels of unemployment like this as collateral damage in their blinkered economic vision.
– Where exports as a percentage of GDP are now the lowest they have been since 1997, coincidentally the last time Bill English was given the keys to the car.
– When wage growth is the weakest it has been since the depths of the GFC five years ago, and in the coming year working people are expecting the smallest wage increases in over a decade.
– Where there is such a disparity of wealth in our country that we see some corporate CEOs paid salaries of four or five million dollars a year, while 115,000 Kiwis survive on a wage of $14.75 per hour.
– Where 305,000 children grow up in homes where fridges are often empty or where their parents cannot earn enough money to buy the shoes and clothes they need.
– Where the house price to income ratio for housing in our biggest city is 9:1,there is the lowest home ownership rate in 60 years, and where thousands of New Zealand families live in cold, damp, overcrowded rental accommodation, or worse in garages and sheds.
…we are living in a housing bubble where the wealth is an illusion and the poverty is real.
Grant’s work on this shows he has taken the rebuilding time of Labour as the opportunity to school himself on the issues and start thinking of where NZ will be in 5, 10, 15 years from now. It’s an interesting and challenging body of work he has brought up and demands a response.
Annette King on the other hand showed why she retains the Deputy role. The fire in her belly to take on food producer corporations and force them to start doing something meaningful about sugar in processed foods has drawn criticism from health advocates that she didn’t go far enough on a sugar tax, but that criticism misses the reality of the political landscape. A ‘sugar tax’ would have been manipulated by the media (Brooke Sabin tried it) as nanny state and the electorate are easily conned into believing such manipulations.
Forcing food producers to print how many spoonfuls of sugar their product contains and then forcing them to remove that sugar is a giant step forward, one the food producers will fight tooth and nail over, while I agree a sugar tax is necessary on fizzy drinks, the reality is that is a policy you bring in once you are Government, not before.
I had expected to be at a wake this weekend, I am surprised by how serious Labour have taken the infighting and have rebuilt after the election. That’s not to say this version of Labour will be any great left wing revolution, but they are a damned sight better than National, and unfortunately in this political environment where the property speculating middle class care about nothing more than their untaxed property valuations and the disconnected generation rent aren’t voting, it’s the best progressives are going to get.
robertson first..
..yes..that is a reasonable summary of where we are now..but what is he promising to do/change..?
..where are the financial-transaction tax/universal basic income/mandated living-wage/raising taxes on the rich/free tertiary-education..?
..genuine poverty/inequality-busting solutions..?
..nowhere to be seen..
..and his idea of school-kids being taught to drive cars..?..really..?
..why..?..won’t there be driverless cars by the time primary-school children now finish their education..?
..it’s all just feel-good waffle..
..and king..once again..just waffle..
..she/labour is threatening ‘to do something’ about the sugar-pushers..
..in labours’ second-term..(!)..
..five fucken years away..
(and..has someone held you down and made you drink the labour kool-ade..?..)
Some fair comment BUT why would they issue any policy details this far out from the election? Most times they have done so in the past the Nats grab them and weaken Labour’s position by implementing them to one degree or another.
I’m prepared to have patience and wait and trust Labour that they really are assiduously working in the back-room on developing detailed policies and strategies – and the latter is as much about timing as anything.
They cannot afford to give the Nats any forewarnings.
Meanwhile have patience and trust it will not be will not be wasted…
After all, TINA – is there?
Watch their space!
@ brian..you do realise that the reasons their policies are ‘stolen’..is because they are ideologically tweedle-dum and tweedle-dee..eh..?
..as counter-examples..can you see the british tories ‘stealing’ corbyns’ (already stated..4 yrs out from an election) policies..?
..can you see the republicans in america ‘stealing’ bernie sanders’ policies..?
..no..you can’t..that is because both are offering/promising real-change..change that shakes the foundations of that neoliberal-consensus that we see here..
..whereas labour/little are pretty much offering just more of the same neoliberal-shite..with a few (easily-stolen) minor tweaks..
..only substance in the speech was bringing forward the auckland rail-link..(and something in canterbury..)
..and a promise to allow benificiares to earn a bit more..before it being clawed back out of their benefit
..littles’ top 3 priorities ?..(as stated in his speech..)..’jobs..jobs..jobs’.
Meanwhile have patience and trust it will not be will not be wasted…
We’ve been fed that bullshit line by Labour since Lange sacked Douglas…
…All through the Clark’s 5th Labour Govt…
…And after Cunliffe’s sudden emasculation upon becoming leader…
…all the while the neoliberal juganaut rolled on while labour played the lyre….
…and now we get it again…
“trust us”.
Yeah right.
Five fucken years? How about never? Get real, Phillip Ure.
When the country doesn’t trust you or want to drink your Kool-Aid, if you don’t have patience you don’t have anything…..except your energy and your conviction. You can put both to work striving for change or you can keep bunging grenades and just feel reeeally good about yourself.
Your choice.
both king and little were at pains to point out that they would only do anything substantial about the sugar-pushers..in the second term of a labour govt..
..until then it would be just more of the same finger-wagging they did before…
..that is the ‘getting real’..
..so we are talking five years and two elections..before labour would do anything ‘reeal’ to rein in the sugar-pushers..
..and make no mistake..were labour offering real ‘hope/change’ a la corbyn/sanders..i would be cheering them on from the rafters..
..and no..just more of the neoliberal-paradigm that has got us to this horrible place..does not make me feel ‘reeally good’ about fucken anything..eh..?
No offense I admire your optimism but as a former labour member, volunteer no the party is actually in chaos. They have contempt for their rank and file members you know the ones that fund the party, a look at their election review will show to the extent. They aren’t going to live that one down with the members or former members. On top of that they have gone even further to the right. There’s very little difference between national and labour and under Little’s mousey bill Rowling esque I can only see them going further right. This a party where the neo liberals have won. I don’t see the point of a labour government again nor do I want one. This year I woke up and realized the labour party and national party no longer exist in their place we basically have two near identical neoliberal parties, we already have a bunch of neolib twits in nothing will change if we vote for another.its time all leftys start having a conversation about creating a new alliance party style party to replace labour, take a look Bernie Sanders left wingers who are truly left and can’t be brought are exciting its time nz put the labour party out to pasture
Now here’s the thing…
If Labour’s tepid-milk position on the political spectrum gains the support of the Propertied Middle Classes; wins the government in 2017; and puts an end to Key’s career – I can reluctantly understand the gambit.
Even if it alienates those New Zealanders who desire something more progressive; bold; and something Corbanesque to give us something to believe in…
But if it has no affect on the PMC, and still alienates progressive voters – then it has achieved nothing. And Key has his fourth term.
What really gives me cause for concern is the readily-willing (?) dumping of policies such as Capital Gains Tax and NZ power.
As I wrote about the ease with which Labour dumps its leaders, like I change my socks, if Labour dumps it’s policies with equal ease – does that mean they never really believed in them in the first place?
If not, why should I? Or other voters?
In which case, do they really believe in any new policies they present to the public?
I have an unease about Labour and a gnawing suspicion they are going down a dead-end road.
This is one of those occassions I hope I’m wrong, and everyone will point a finger at me post-election-day in 2017, and say “Hah! You were wrong, Frank!”
I’d happily wear that.
Asutute as always, Frank!
good to hear Martyn Bradbury…however if they dont pull back from the TPP they wont get my vote….this is the most important issue facing New Zealand …our sovereignty and democracy…anything less from the Labour Party is a betrayal of New Zealanders….This is their acid test
‘TPP revealed: Pact details ignite debate over privacy, internet freedom, whistleblowers’
https://www.rt.com/usa/321002-tpp-details-revealed-trade-privacy/
‘The Most Brazen Corporate Power Grab in American History’
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_most_brazen_corporate_power_grab_in_american_history_20151106
Labour just dumped capital gain tax for the old platitude of opportunities for every one. They are rolling over for the TPPA signing. It’s still the red hue of corporate fascism through and through.
…waiting, still waiting…
So….. what does Labour stand for???
At the moment, I’m torn between NZ First or Labour (maybe the greens), but it’s hard to pin down where Labour stands on policy. Anyway? Someone?
Rhetoric is the art of changing minds. It is never a shopping list of policies. Good policy will wait, bad policy will destroy you from within.
Grasping at sweeping policies without the trust and support of the electorate is a potential suicide note. What is needed to change the government is not so much policy as egalitarian, hopeful, inspirational, philosophical settings that appeal to a majority of the country. That means rhetoric, not capital gains taxes.
If this or that is the right thing to do to start to deal with the wealth imbalance, that is for the second term, using the power of the state to explain and convince.
Spokesmen in individual areas like Robertson or Twyford should not lose the opportunity to establish their mastery of their domain. But it is rhetoric, the power of the convincing word, that will eventually win hearts and minds.
And it can only come from the Leader.
no..it is not feel-good ‘rhetoric’ that will bring victory/change..
..it is..contrary to what you claim..’sweeping-policies’ challenging that neoliberal-paradigm..
..’sweeping policies’ that offer real hope and change to those doing it the hardest..
..once again..i urge you to look at what corbyn and sanders are doing/promising..
..and of more recent note..the ‘sweeping-policies’ that just made justin trudeau the new leader of canada.
.,and took his party from 3rd ranked..with 30-something mp’s..to a landslide victory of a 189 mp’s landslide..
..and he didn’t do that with empty fucken ‘rhetoric’..did he..?
Huffing and puffing doesn’t blow the house down.
Will there be a turnaround after this pivotal conference, by Andrew Little and/or his caucus on their future stance with respect to the TPPA.?
I can only pray there is, and I am neither a betting man nor a religious nut.
I attended Andrew’s speech. It was completely inspiring. He is talking about what he and Labour stands for. I am really sold. Andrew is the man.
Read his speech re the TPPA. I think you will feel very encouraged. I did. We have to get this team in. We really do.
Read his speech re the TPPA. I think you will feel very encouraged. I did.
Words are cheap. I’ll wait to see what he and his party do over the TPPA vote before feeling encouraged.
So should you
They’re all bland and witless . Like salt-less alphabet soup. Where did Labour come from ?? Who’s loins ? Did Peter Dunne and Helen Clarke clone themselves and become One ?
Labour ?
Bleak, bland, colourless, risk free/averse, banal, lacking in virtually every quality that defines humanity. Mind you, we’ve all become shuffling Zombies, subservient to the fluro vest , herded by the traffic cone. Look at the way we dress for Gods sake? I see people fossicking through The Warehouse clothing section for a bargain ? What. The . Fuck . ! ? ( Some of you may wonder why then do I go in there? Where not even Indiana Jones would go. Into the Caverns of the House of Ware ? I can tell you. To sneer. I look down my ample nose and I sneer. Then I leave, replete. )
I thought there was hope when I saw great and creative things being done in Ch Ch after the quakes. Fabulous art, sculptures, can-do cafe’s . Wonderful stuff but now the money rolls in ? Out goes art. Labour has no art. It has no soul. It hovers over the pile of shit that is borrowed money like the Nat-zi flies do. Buzzing away , hiding behind legal speak . Too afraid of expressing themselves lest they fly too far from that shitty money. Yuk ! There’s no one that takes my heart for a flight of fancy. There’s no one in Labour who engages my inner lunacy. Just Nat-zi lite. Don’t be rude to that dollar Mister. You need that Dollar because we say so. And that Dollar needs you becuase we tell you it does.
Re the poll re whom I might vote for if there was an election tomorrow ?
No one. Not one of the lazy , lackadaisical, $ six figures plus entitlement cunts . They can all go fuck themselves and that’s being kind to the grand stand full of the useless, fuckless fuckers . I’d rather vote for a special needs chicken.
“Vote for Mad Picky ! ”
Me ?
One vote.
And do you know what ? Mad Picky would see us right better that a possum face, a bow tie, a forgettable furrowed brow, a plump grin strangled by a tie , a smiling piano , a tree planting hypocrite , a hair fondling, beak nosed , meat pack stuffed with our money and a cadre of nameless hogs scuffling with each other for a place at the trough while we live unhappily then die while never really knowing what life was about because we spent all our time worrying about debt sold us by the MSM which they own and control to convince us to buy things and stuff we either don’t need or belonged to us in the first place .
Yeah , nah. Barbi/ All Blacks me baby. Nice hair . Tantalising ….
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