Threats to Bennett are unacceptable, but the simmering political fury that is erupting on social media towards this Government and its policies is understandable.
The despicable things this Government and its right wing media mates have perpetrated on NZ during the Dirty Politics scandal is infuriating. The way beneficiaries and the poor have been treated by this Government and its right wing media mates generates righteously angers. The mass surveillance powers, the increased erosion of our civil liberties, the economy structured for the rich, the inability for many to be able to actually get ahead all fuel an anger.
Then right wing vandals like Matthew Hooton from a perspective disconnected privilege describes that anger as a mental illness.
The anger is there because the media don’t just give a different perspective, they claim a different reality to the desperation many sinking from 8 years of National are going through.
Hooton being singled out should surprise no one, this is the same Hooton who handed Nicky Hagers address over in the hope he would be killed by Chinese organised crime.
Using Slater as a source to attack Sue Moroney is so 2013.
There’s no place for political violence or threats, but when you rule over people rather than with them, a Government breeds contempt.
The privileged ones who have been listening to the right wing spin are caught by surprise at the anger that has been building over the past seven years?
Too much listening to Hooton and Farrar, Natz lies, et al.
Actually, some of us are really pissed off. I am amazed that it has taken so long for the downtrodden 50% to voice that anger.
The individual anger is uniting against those who have increased their wealth by 40% since GFC. That anger needs to gather strength through unity.
Yes, many of us are *really* pissed off. It is time for the bastards to feel a bit of fear.
It might help them get in touch with reality.
I think the restraint shown by New Zealanders has been remarkable. I also think the Prime Minister in particular and his government have taken advantage of New Zealander’s natural disinclination towards expressing any form of political. According to them and their supporters, even booing the PM is unacceptable. What do they expect? People to clap hands to express their anger? Calling 20,000 people who take part in a protest march “rent-a-crowd” shows a contempt for peaceful protest.
When disgusting people like Bennett drive over peaceful protesters in a vehicle, it is outrageously hypocritical to cry wolf over any threat to her.
To then argue, that she just wishes to be like any ordinary mum and visit the supermarket with her children, well, that’s bordering on derangement.
She wasn’t driving.
She was a complicit passenger in the car, driven by Chester Borrows, the man who has done all to persecute beneficiaries who got overpaid by the WiNZ department, while they transited into work. Anyone claiming a benefit, that cannot be stopped from one day to the next (given weekly payments), who was caught in the transition was labeled a “fraudster” by Borrows, and Bennett was happy doing the same.
Cry baby, cry baby!
No but she was a passenger happy for it to happen, so yours is a lame excuse.
Nothing wrong with violence Martyn.
Governments have been practising it for years.
Military violence, police violence, governmental psychological violence, financial violence, political violence and straight out violence violence.
Trickle down.
Roger Douglarse should be pleased.
Cause and effect is the only reality in this universe. Applies to the ape-descendants as well.
And Bennet is most definitely an ape-descendant…
Are you sure? She always makes me think of Reginald Perrin’s mother-in-law.
Actually, she rather does, doesn’t she…
Point taken.
For the younger people out there https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2mLAajm7ZY
In every century governments go too far and are taught to fear their people once more. A collapsing economy, a housing crisis, a job crisis, a crippled social welfare system, Christchurch still in ruins, multiple electorate offices burned – I’m surprised it’s taken this long. The Key government are on the cusp of something special.
And the reason for this anger is:
Unemployment 5.3%, down 0.5%
Wages up 2.1% from a year ago
Inflation just 0.1% from a year ago (down 0.7%)
GDP up 2.5%
Mortgage rates 5.77%, down 0.94%
From these figures it’s clear there is no *rational* reason for any anger, so why is there any?
I propose the anger is based on sheer frustration from some of the hard left. Faced with a broken Labour party lead by an incompetent they see a future filled with National Party governments.
Anger is all they’ve got left!
Andrew, so if unemployment is down, why are we seeing hundreds facing redundancies?
And low interest rates don’t matter a jot when housing affordability is plummeting.
I think you’re cherry-picking and not presenting us with the whole picture.
Hi Jane,
There are two answers to your question:
1. In a dynamic economy jobs are appearing and disappearing all the time, but because the mainstream media are only interested in bad news, people tend to get an overly negative view if they read newspapers and watch TV.
2. These statistics are generated by Statistics New Zealand and independently audited. https://www.ict.govt.nz/guidance-and-resources/open-government/new-zealand-data-and-information-management-principles/
I don’t bother with state owned TV anymore, and I certainly don’t rely on NZ’s right wing owned newspapers. Sources from any government funded agencies are also extremely suspect. So your quoted statistics are meaningless. Nothing new there my young Tsar.
Do you really think the gunman at the Ashburton WINZ offices and all the others who have since tried to imitate this attack in other WINZ offices are disappointed lefties?
Is this really a Green Party gone feral?
They are clearly ordinary people driven to very desperate measures to try and cut through the intentional barricades and double binds placed on the poor, young, sick and aged, for the sole purpose of ‘cutting costs’, by a government department that always denies its own culpability in these matters and responds to government directives with gusto and enthusiasm.
I know this for a fact because this is the circle I now move in. It is no joke trying to live down here among the outcasts of your Brave New World.
Eventually your perverse mislabelling of cause comes back to bite you on the bum.
I say ‘Hooray for that’.
But don’t worry, I’ll gladly sell you a band-aid; market price then, driven by demand, around NZ$200…
Go suck a lemon, tosser.
Unemployment is up, liar. Only UE benefits are down.
Real wages are down.
Inflation reflects the shrinking real economy.
GDP up 0.3 % excluding Christchurch and migration.
‘low’ interest rates remain 1-1.5% higher than international norms.
This government is an absolute catastrophe.
Real wages http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/299259/incomes-dropping-despite-gdp-growth,-english-admits
“Unemployment 5.3%, down 0.5%”
Andrew, when you stated the tally for the unemployment figures, did you also include the recently announced laying off of 500 NZ Post staff?
And I can almost guarantee there will be more of the same to come as part of NZ’s blighted future!
At the same time, there will be some gaining the benefits of worker lay offs, in the form of personal profit!
I quoted the latest Statistics NZ figures.
The laying off of 500 postal workers has not actually happened yet, so of course it won’t be in the latest figures. When it does happen it will be just a small part of the ebb and flow of the overall employment scene.
Many unemployed did not get jobs in tge latest stats, they simply cease to be, in other words no job and no social welfare! This was well publicised but National glossed over it, didn’t go near it in fact.
Low interest rates are largely because of the mire the world is in and we are very close to deflation. You’d think, having this “rockstar” economy they would be going the other way, which they are not.
Deflation is not good and this RB governer has never once met his targets and Bill English is clueless as to what to do about it!
Without Keys minimum wage rises wage growth is practically flat lining.
Growth is largely coming from immigration and that is making Auckland totally unaffordable. In fact the imbalance is very worrying.
There is little this government is doing that is contributing to a better NZ and plenty they’re not that is harming this country.
XRAY: You make valid points but you’re conflating several complex topics.
Indeed the global economy is facing severe headwinds and deflation is a possibility in the future. The causes are well known and understood: Advancing automation, the Internet, Labour arbitrage and the baby boomer bulge retiring. Each of these is a worthy topic for discussion in itself.
As a result we will likely see static wages and patchy economic performance for several years.
These are global phenomena and nothing little NZ can do much about. In NZ we’ve done reasonably well compared to some other nations: The economy is well run and we’re reasonably efficient in our business.
The only ‘local’ issue that you mentioned we can possibly address ourselves is the housing situation in Auckland. I agree it is worrying, but once again this is the result of multiple factors: Incompetence within the Auckland Council, Chinese money looking for a safe haven and lots of cashed-up Kiwis returning from Australia (because our economy is doing better than theirs – see above).
So yes there are problems. That we can agree on, but I don’t see any practical solutions appearing on these pages.
“I don’t see any practical solutions appearing on these pages.”
Now why would an avowed liberal be looking for solutions in a blog which, by its nature, is op-ed?
You do come up with some odd notions.
And, if we did – who, in the current manifestation of ‘government’, is going to do all the legwork necessary to realise the concepts? To whom do we send our brain children? And do we get personal dollars for doing so?
You have to think these things through, don’t you?
ANDREA: If it was a practical and pragmatic solution to a problem you can bet the current government would consider it. They are not ideologically driven and have adopted several polices which I would consider are left field.
In fact this gets to the nub of the problem facing the Tribal Left: National has cherry picked all worthwhile bits of old Labour policy and are busy implementing them right now. This leaves the Hard Left with nowhere to go.
GDP up 2.5%.. yes and given our main source of economic activity is basically selling residency/citizenship to wealthy foreigners under our investment migrant schemes so thy can open yet another bloody pizza hut franchise , this will probably increase
this is also the reason it doesnt really mean anything,
im imagining our GDP PER person figures are probably plummeting…
Let me go through your figures Andrew.
Unemployment, which does not measure those who fall through the gaps, which this government has created, nor does it measure under employment, Probably something your privileged tush knows nothing about.
Wage up 2.1% from a year ago, now called employment inflation – ummm which leads too
inflation at 0.1% Is that not called deflation, or a downward spiral? That figure is a joke, it is made up to have inflation rather than admit, it has all gone pear shaped.
GDP, measured leaving out some pretty important figures in the economy, like – oh you mentioned it next – house prices.
And mortgage rates only affect those who can get a mortgage, which is a declining number over the term of this failed Tory government.
Plus, a wee p.s Andrew, always good to link a source for your figures if you going to quote them, otherwise you look a wee bit like a know it all, or a fool.
this government is good at one thing cooking the books
You must walk around deaf, with your eyes closed, and your brain disengaged Andrew. What a typical National supporter you are, and as usual, you are so wrong, on so many levels.
National’s fudged figures do not equate with real life realities. If the real truth is to be known, unemployment is a hell of a lot higher than the figures National have pulled out of the air. Seen the current batch of job losses?
Low interest rates are in response to the tanking dairy industry, that National has largely sold off to NZ’s main competitor, China.
Wages are not keeping up with the increases in the high costs of living. Seen the govt debt figures lately? Manipulated inflation figures that rwnj’s like you like to use, is misleading as it masks the realities of what is really going on. Unprecedented immigration numbers drive down wages. Standard National government MO as it serves its private agendas. Nothing that National do is in the best interests of this country or its people; it’s in the best interests of National itself and their cronies.
WORDS: A few ‘matters arising’ from your post.
If you recall it was the Clark government that signed the free trade agreement with China and opened the door to unrestricted Chinese investment in housing.
Low interest rates are a global phenomenon. In fact rates in NZ are spectacularly high compared to many other OECD nations (US, EU and Japan). Interest rates have little to do with the dairy price and are being forced down internationally by forces outside of anyone’s control. (See by post above on deflationary factors)
According to Statistics NZ the only inflationary factor in the NZ economy at the moment is Local Government. Otherwise inflation would be essentially zero. Look to your local councillor for failure to manage the town you live in.
Once again – I have to remind you that Statistics NZ is an independent organisation in that the government tells them what to measure but it doesn’t have the opportunity to adjust the numbers once they’re available. So I apologise that the facts don’t compare well with your somewhat benighted worldview.
Fiddled statistics is another quality of this government, you just proved you fall for that, and worse.
Dodgy stats don’t improve your arguments.
Why don’t you do some REAL research instead of reading off the National Party website?
I’m not angry Andrew. But the govt were responsible for giving the reserve bank powers to enforce 20% & 30% deposits whilst no restriction on property investors who invest in more than one property.
Whilst interest rates are down so are interest rates on term investments. Your opinion falls over with contrived figures and your personal attack of Labour and it’s leader.
““Dr. King’s policy was that nonviolence would achieve the gains for black people in the United States. His major assumption was that if you are nonviolent, if you suffer, your opponent will see your suffering and will be moved to change his heart. That’s very good. He only made one fallacious assumption: In order for nonviolence to work, your opponent must have a conscience”
….Stokely Carmichael
…and a heart. Absolutely right ANNO1701. It won’t work if the opponent doesn’t care or give a stuff.
can someone please oia this information:
– when did bennett make a complaint about the death threat?(it was posted two weeks ago)
– who made the threat?
– what action have police taken? (points to credibility of threat)
Little on TPP: “I don’t support it, we don’t support it” http://thestandard.org.nz/little-on-tpp-i-dont-support-it-we-dont-support-it/
Matthew Hooton …
28 January 2016 at 9:40 pm
You make a good point. So why are people going to riot against the signing?
weka …
28 January 2016 at 10:13 pm
🙄 You guys are really scraping the bottom of the barrel.
Chris …
28 January 2016 at 10:26 pm
Maybe because it’s a filthy little arrangement made in private to help the rich get richer on the backs of not only the poor but now on pathetic little countries like ours? These people stop at nothing. Now they’re taking on whole countries. And rioting’s been justified for way less than the TPPA.
Brendon Harre -Left wing Liberal …
28 January 2016 at 10:55 pm
Gosh Mathew are you encouraging people to break the law and riot?
My understanding is on the 4th of February that people are going to get together, have a friendly party, walking around Auckland telling people they agree with Little, Turei and Peters that the TPPA as it exists is a crap deal and hopefully it will never be put into action.
Meanwhile McClay is meeting some guys from around the world who think the TPPA is fantastic (one suspects that like you Mathew they are in the corporates pockets) to announce the deal is signed, even though the deal may never be ratified.
It seems to me that the left have a much clearer idea of what is going on than the right!
Yes, and I haven’t forgotten and no one else should either, that Matthew Hooton was scaremongering, and he made up lies about the anti TPPA protesters as justification for police action when he tweeted…
“anti-#TPP protests plan to destroy property and assault people”
“Matthew Hooton @MatthewHootonNZ Jan 27
Police action is necessary because anti-#TPP protests plan to destroy property and assault people. ”
https://twitter.com/matthewhootonnz
The anti TPPA protesters showed Matthew Hooton up as the shit stirring liar that he is.
Never forget. We outnumber them, we have them surrounded and there running out of bullets.
With out state violence there laws (cough.legal statutes) aint worth didly shit. and the bigger and slower they are the less leed time you give em. double tap..
Oh gosh, who would have thought that Paula Bennett deserved such treatment? I am totally against threats and such BS, but come on, how many beneficiaries were thrown off benefits during her reign, how many were treated with contempt and hunted down as supposed “welfare cheats”?
Paula Bennett would not be safe walking some streets in Otara, or Manurewa, I reckon, not at night, but most would still treat here with respect, which she may not deserve.
The government we have has been busy, behind the scene, to get welfare policy introduced the UK style, where being sick is NO reason to not be “fit for work” anymore. They used “science” from there, bought from UNUM Insurance, that funded a Mansel Aylward led “research institute”, serving mostly lies.
Yet the MSM has never caught onto that, as they seem to rather be complicit with government to shaft the worse off and defend the middle class and those better off. What a disgrace this country has become.
https://nzsocialjusticeblog2013.wordpress.com/2015/10/04/how-the-n-z-health-and-disability-commissioner-let-off-a-biased-designated-doctor/
http://nzsocialjusticeblog2013.wordpress.com/2013/09/02/medical-and-work-capability-assessments-based-on-the-controversial-bio-psycho-social-model/
http://nzsocialjusticeblog2013.wordpress.com/2013/12/28/designated-doctors-used-by-work-and-income-some-also-used-by-acc-the-truth-about-them/
http://nzsocialjusticeblog2013.wordpress.com/2013/09/07/the-health-and-disability-panel-and-its-hand-picked-members/
Well said. The msm are complicit in National demonizing, persecuting and criminalizing the poor and vulnerable. In 19th century England with its introduction of the work house, being poor was a criminal offence and against the law, and therefore deserved punishment. In many respects, National has pushed this country backwards to that kind of brutal 19th century mentality.
Paula Bennett wants to ensure most people wouldnt have a normal life after she got through with tearing their lives apart. I seriously doubt Paula Bennett has ever wanted to walk the streets, or see the inside of a supermarket. She would see that as being beneath her anyway.
A government that turns vulnerable, mentally unstable into murderers has to ask itself some honest questions.
“Russell John Tully went from nicest bloke to killer”
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/77612963/russell-john-tully-went-from-nicest-bloke-to-killer
Quote:
“Russell Tully was born in Ashburton Public Hospital on March 14, 1966, to Eileen Patricia, a registered nurse, and Patrick Noel, a railways clerk. His mother was then 33 and Patrick, a strong Catholic, was 45. They already had a son Kevin and a daughter Catherine, who now live in Australia and have made their lives a success.
Patrick Tully died in 1980 when Russell was only 14 and his mother did not remarry. In 1984 the two boys were living with Eileen. Kevin worked as a farmhand and Russell was a storeman.
After his job as a storeman, Russell worked for an Ashburton machinery company which refurbished tractors and the like and sold them overseas.
A workmate from the time, who did not want to be named, said Tully was a good worker and “you couldn’t have met a nicer bloke”.
Tully was a quick learner and had a good mechanical aptitude. They went rabbit shooting together.
“There was never any sign that he was anything other than a good bloke. He was always smiling, always joking. He had a really nice girlfriend.”
Tully had not done an apprenticeship but stayed at the company at least a couple of years.”
So what have MSD been hiding, what has the Minister to hide, and why do our MSM report nothing else on this matter?
He was a man with issues, for sure, but why did he feel so let down to resort to a crime?
Government offers NO answers, I wonder why?!
Hooton must prescribe to the “positive thinking” ideology. If any person cannot see a glass half full, they must be mentally ill, that is what they really think.
I have come across some people like that, they would have made the most perfect NAZI propaganda strategists, so Hooton is in “good company”, I fear.
Had to laugh when Bennett said “I want to remain a good Kiwi woman”
I wonder, was Paula Bennett ever a good Kiwi woman?
By all accounts and purposes, it appears that Paula Bennett had an axe to grind. Over the last 7 and a half years, ex DPBer Paula Bennett, who took every advantage the welfare state had, launched a personal crusade to inflict as much damage as she possibly could, and she welds her position of power as a weapon to persecute and criminalize the poor, the sick, the vulnerable, the homeless, the old, the young and in particular, she targets struggling parents with children, and she does it all with such relish, without one iota of moral conscience.
It’s amazing then that Bennett still doesn’t think she is being targeted. Such blind denial and delusion of the consequences of her time in government. It would not be an exaggeration to say that Paula Bennett must be one of theee most hated ministers of the Key National government.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=11613235
its easy to shut down Auckland tppa proved that we need to do it again but we should pick one issue eg housing not the shot gun approach
Obviously Ms Bennett doesn’t understand cause and effect. When you’ve spent the majority of your tenure in government making the lives of the less fortunate increasingly miserable, people will be inclined to make their displeasure known. Some people will go to extremes that are counter-productive, but that makes their grievances no less valid. Jenny Shipley was burned in effigy in the street during her time as Minister of Social Welfare. If Ms Bennett continues to pursue her current course, she’s likely to be subject to a lot worse. She’ll still be able to visit the supermarket and the park, but she’ll require an entourage of government minders to escort her I suspect. A more vindictive soul might say, “Harden up, sweetie. You’ve made your bed, now lie in it.”
I find it quite ironic that such displays of anger are directed at the elected government, whereas the anger is generated because those who represent the angry people cannot get themselves elected.
Funny old world.
Displays of anger are directed at the elected government for failing the people they are supposed to represent, is more to the point Schwen.
Not really – Key behaves like an elected dictator – & dictators are hated everywhere.
If it were not so, you might have a point.
The anger against the government would have been far worse if it had not been for three reasons
1 The middle classes are supplementing their actual poor income with credit card and personal debt and working for families giving the illusion that they are getting ahead and keeping up with the Joneses and insulated with low intrest rates on their mortgages that they have for their hugely overvalued homes
2 Anything negative or the real truth about what this government is really doing or hiding has been up to this point simply not covered in depth in the media and spin has been applied to give the illusion that we are all “living the dream” in godzone
3 The Labour opposition have been ineffective so far in building a real altenative to the government we have now and grabbing the political initiative and the publics attention
Its not all been their fault when you are up against one of the best attack campaigns against the left for decades and the general dumbing down of available content mainly on radio and television and informed debate has also taken the sting out of a lot of serious issues
Selfishness and greed have had a lasting impact on our egalitarian values
What anger there is is ridiculed by the elected government through character assassination and negative portrayl in the media-just look at the march against the TPPA signing at Sky city
This whole Paula Bennett death threat issue is to engender sympathy from the public who have been lead to believe that the National Government is the closet thing we have to real saints and that although unpleasant comes with the territory when you are a high profile Minister
Helen Clark was nearly stabbed when she was PM and she preferred not to comment
So Key has been lucky {with help} and has not had to face real dangerous angry protest its been a dream run and the only inconvienence is the never ending selfies but even that has showed he is still adored and its great for the brand.
Engineering fake death threats by National Party sycophants is a well-known tactic of that party when things are not looking so bright for them.
Blame everyone else for your own failings – that is what National stands for.
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