Election 2017: Spell-Binder Or Spell-Breaker?

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YOU KNOW the times are really changing when a bunch of capitalists (no matter how hip) are willing to fund a film called “The Young Karl Marx”. Exactly how much change New Zealand is willing to embrace, however, will only become clear in 59 days’ time. My best guess is that the result delivered by the 2017 General Election will reveal an angry population torn between the future and the past.

Fifty years ago, New Zealanders dissatisfied with the status quo would have known exactly how to express their discontent – by voting Labour. In 2017, the voters’ choices are nowhere near so clear cut. The two great political tribes of the 1960s and 70s have splintered. But, as the electoral choices have multiplied, the economic and social significance of casting a vote has diminished. The more the electorate attempts to change things, the more they stay the same. No matter who people vote for, the political class always seems to win.

Hence the anger.

Confronted with a status quo they are no longer disposed to tolerate people will cast about for solutions in either the future, or the past. Of the two, the past enjoys the considerable advantage of evoking nostalgia: that feeling that everything was better in “the good old days”. Believing that tomorrow can be better than today requires considerable faith – because imagining something which has never happened is generally a lot harder than remembering something that’s already taken place.

Nobody understands the political potency of nostalgia better than Winston Peters. The appeal of his NZ First Party lies in its supreme confidence that if New Zealanders would only embrace the proven policies of the past, then their country’s future would be made secure and prosperous. His great skill is to present National and Labour as the obverse sides of a single fraudulent coin. Like people bewitched, the followers of the two major parties, are presented as incapable of recognising themselves as the victims of Neoliberalism’s malignant spells. They simply will not accept that only Winston Peters and NZ First know how to lift the enchantment.

It is a political narrative that cleverly enlists the voters as crucial actors in their own and their country’s salvation. Viewed from this perspective, the rise and rise of NZ First is unsurprising.

The Greens are offering the voters a similar starring role in the movie of their own deliverance, but rather than inviting them to return their country to the comforting certainties of the past they are inviting New Zealanders to open the way to a better future by smashing the intolerable injustices of the present.

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For a distressingly long interval it appeared that the Greens had abandoned this revolutionary narrative for a kinder, gentler, more environmentally friendly iteration of the neoliberal programme. Thankfully, Metiria Turei’s promise to make a bonfire of the infrastructure of neoliberal oppression – most especially of its poverty traps – has extended the promise of a better and fairer future to Kiwis who had almost forgotten how to hope.

National and Labour can, of course, rely upon a substantial quantity of residual electoral support. But, their caution and their refusal to stand for anything more exciting than more of the same (but with different numbers attached) is practically certain to see their share of the Party Vote decline.

On 23 September, nostalgia is likely to attract more supporters than the Greens’ invitation to “break on through to the other side”. For those parties still bewitched by the magic of the neoliberal status quo, however, Election Night is shaping up to be a decidedly disenchanting experience.

27 COMMENTS

  1. Only have to look at the newshub on line research poll to see the greens are leading nationally at the moment and labour 2nd.

    I hope it turns out this way election night.

    • Geez, is that right Lye? I’ve been thinking they need people to communicate the Greens’ great message to the poor, weak and sick–and thus it was definitely not in the bag.

      Communication doesn’t follow the central channel of my youth in the 70s.

    • You mean well organised Green voters are using social media to spread the word and brigade an online opinion poll? Yep, I believe there’s a realistic chance of that bearing out on election night.

    • Geoff – where can I find this poll – I just searched Google and Newshub – but couldn’t find it anywhere – sounds very exciting. The Greens have got my vote – with this gutsy and REAL performance from Metiria – and after seeing the poison and vitriol this week from so many quarters all hell bent on bringing down a black, gutsy female with the kind of integrity we haven’t seen in any politician in this suffocating place called NZ since the 70’s – I’m IN. Go the Greens!

      • Geoff is right – here are the “party vote” results as of today 27-07-17 for all Newshub users across the nation. If the results are reflective of the mood it looks like the left will be back in business (maybe without the need even to bring in Winston) – these results are quite staggering: https://www.screencast.com/t/LtzyXC3Cw8

  2. I fear this is not about the future or the past, this is about values and trust, and reliance on government, and the present one will exploit this admission by Metiria Turei to the maximum.

    Metiria is honourable for having come out on the past actions she took, while being a solo mum, she deserves much respect. Trouble is, that most out there are not that warm hearted and forgiving anymore, as Kiwis once used to be.

    It is a nasty world now, and every person thinking that people may forgive them, they are in for a nasty surprise.

    The neoliberal brainwashing, division and resulting nastiness is everywhere, as I note, it even caught on with once traditional Labour voters, who now often think a bit like nasty Nats voters, some of them at least.

    This election is open though, what Metiria did, and what the Greens defend, that may deliver them many votes by former non voters, who simply lost trust in the system many years ago, but it will not win the Greens any votes in that so called centre.

    We will face a very uncertain election this year, the most unpredictable one in decades, I suspect, and we may well be in for a surprise. Metiria has made it easier for me to vote now, and it may have done for many others.

    One Winston, who deserves respect for raising immigration issues, is also deserving respect, but some of his rantings are a turn off.

    I may decide to vote Labour, both candidate and party this time, they seem most sensible and honest now, I had not thought this was going to happen months ago.

    Kiwis, vote, do vote, inform yourselves, we need a government that cares and is more responsible and fair than the present lot, so do the hard work, read, learn and vote for change, thanks.

    • this Nastiness is going to eventually going to turn NZ into hell as everyone will be fighting everyon else. Neoliberalism has be scrapped before we get to that point.

  3. Pretty good summary of the facts there Chris, – i cant fault it at all.

    What I am worried about is the sudden change of the Green Party Hopeful in Helensville recently when all three parties you mentioned here, were asked if they would support using the Helensville unused rail to operate a passenger rail service for commuters to Auckland, and of the three parties only Labour and NZ First said they would support using the rail.

    But the Green party hopeful said she would rather prefer using more busses instead.

    https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2017/07/24/disuse-of-rail-line-a-bloody-shambles-say-locals-in-auckland-growth-area-ptua/

    Now me; – as an past member (1999 to 2002) of the Green Party I was shocked at the reversal of the Green Party transport policy here!!!!!

    As recent as last year we had Julie Anne Genter (Transport Spokesperson) blowing smoke in the NZ Herald saying they will get the ugly polluting trucks off the roads and use rail?

    Which was music to our long deafened ears from years of 2300 trucks every day thundering past our homes in Napier 24/7.

    https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2017/07/24/disuse-of-rail-line-a-bloody-shambles-say-locals-in-auckland-growth-area-ptua/

    “Helen Peterson representing New Zealand First, said her party’s policy is to support rail and that train services to Huapai should be part of an integrated network of buses and trains. “People prefer trains”, she reflected, and they also have clear access benefits for those on bikes or with disabilities.
    The Labour Party is Kurt Taogaga, who said from his time growing up in Helensville he knows it’s a ‘public transport sinkhole’. He said he supports diesel rail services in the short term and that Labour wants to bring forward the development of a North Western Busway.
    The Green Party’s Hayley Holt said her party support more buses, more frequently along a North Western busway which could eventually be a light rail system.”

  4. I feel very sorry for those that believe that we will and can get change in peaceful means, I totally disagree, some info of use :
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tp-F637K13s
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojToYs6nCnk

    Few will know that it was police and police escalation that led to the violence in Hamburg.

    That is just one incidence, we get misinformation and lies all the time, al over the globe.

    So NZ election will be determined by the corporate players and Crosby and Textor et al, people better wake the fucking hell up

  5. The Natzis cannot be voted out. Foreigners with PR and “new” No Zealand colonials are half of their voter base. The Transnational Capital Party is importing tens of thousands of voters every year. They cannot simply be “voted out”. Did Maori “vote out” European colonists? Not that I recall. The system is rigged and is a gigantic Ponzi scheme that can only end in blood and tears.

    Voted out? Yeah, right. Let’s see the results of the forthcoming election, shall we? Perhaps then the truth of my words will become clearer.

  6. And my guess is that all the appetite for change will peter out and most of the country’s vast apathetic population will duly cast their votes for the party that spins them the most outrageous fairy tale – invariably National.
    This country is in a pitiful, feeble state and doesn’t have the guts to pick itself out of the gutter and put down a challenge to its politicians.
    I really hope I am wrong, I really do.

  7. Good article Chris.
    The Right’s vindictive character assassination on Metiria is about the only response they have had to the Greens social policy. I hope the majority can see through this right wing smokescreen and give the Greens a resounding YES.

    • The Right’s vindictive character assassination on anyone from the left is like a catty 16 year old.
      Today whilst watching parliament, I witnessed why Health today, is in such an abysmal state. Coleman is a mongrel..

  8. Since all the mainstream parties are business-as-usual parties -which advocate control of society by banks and corporations, squandering of energy and resources and destruction of the environment- it naturally follows that it makes no difference who forms the next government, and everything that matters will continue to be made worse.

    It also naturally follows that for anyone seeking genuine change and authentic representation, voting is a futile activity which will deliver a business-as-usual government that will make matters worse.

    This dismal state of affairs [of it making no difference which party/parties are elected] will continue until the global economic system collapses as a consequence of declining energy availability and the rapidly deteriorating environment, or the unravelling of the Ponzi financial system, whichever comes first.

  9. To Chris Trotter

    Without question your knowledge of the political scene and its various moods is way deeper than mine.

    Nevertheless as I see it, Labour is saddled with the non glamorous bread and butter issues such as Housing; Rentals; Student burdens in high cost environments; Wages growth; Health provision grossly neglected; Education mangled; Poverty, Poverty, and inequality.

    With John Key gone the, the other show pony Winston Peters, has a renewed vigour and a huge commitment to his secretive self – as to what he might do or not do.

    He will very likely walk into the National Party and say to hell with the ordinary low waged citizens. For he commits only to himself. For himself, of himself, for his own great greatness.

    The Greens wander between the fluttering flags of the National Party and their own fluttering selves, causing a certain amount of confusion – to say the least.

    So, if we want a change of Government we will have to rely on that Bread and Butter honest man, Andrew Little. He has plugged the leaky Labour boat quite well. He is of the true Left. Plain and simple. No showman nonsense. Absolutely reliable. Trustful. The man for our times.

    Else, we will watch Billy fib his way through another lopsided creaking parliament fattening his crooked wealthy mates. For their are no crises in Gods own Country. Only lovely well to do people – and hopeless stinky dumb druggy poor people who count as nothing. Wage earners for instance.

  10. Well said Chris.

    Through the responding posts I am scenting an air of possible dissent.

    Good.

    It’s about time ordinary Kiwi folk began rattling their chains of discontent, collectively making noises, indicating to the status quo we have had enough of the hardship and cruelty that the past 30 years of neo lib politics have inflicted on far too many of us, turning many good Kiwis into insipid shadows of what they once were.

    I prefer to rid NZ of the present vermin governing us, through the ballot box. I say to those who as the result of too many years of neo lib politics are at the end of their tether, not to give up. Register, consider carefully what’s available and cast a vote for the party/parties which will bring about positive change to benefit all NZers.

    However if the ballot box does not bring about positive change in September … then how many times do we have to go to the ballot box before the confining and oppressive chains of neo liberalism are finally broken, before alternative means of change of government are considered?

    Something has to give one way or the other …

  11. … ” Metiria Turei’s promise to make a bonfire of the infrastructure of neoliberal oppression – most especially of its poverty traps ” …

    And what Metiria has done is the modern day ( almost ) equivalent of Michael Joseph Savage in spirit. That’s why the people are responding. And that’s also why ( as it was in the days of lassez faire prior to the Great Depression ) the free marketers are aggressive and panicking.

    What Metiria has done is knock out a major wall holding up the neo liberal house of cards in standing up for beneficiaries and refuting the narrative that low benefits ( sub standard to the actual cost of living ) are necessary but lenient / lax taxation of corporate’s and multinationals is OK.

    Its not.

    And the only reason Ruth Richardson introduced the ‘Mother of all Budgets ‘ back in 1991 was to slash welfare to below subsistence levels and set a neo liberal precedent that successive govts have followed ever since.

    The legacy from 26 years ago has been carefully built upon ever since !!!

    Twenty six years of reinforcing ripping off of New Zealanders and feeding them the lie just to lessen taxation for corporate’s and banks so they can continue to make obscene profits at our expense !!!

    And meanwhile poverty ridden beneficiary’s are hounded, spied upon , taken to court , imprisoned and in some case, take their own lives because of that harassment.

    This evil neo liberal narrative has to stop.

    Right now.

    It is time for all those who are now , of have found themselves on a benefit at some time or another,… to vote for the Greens en masse.

    Vote the dishonest bastards out this coming September.

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