A victory for lies, media thuggery and lazy prejudice

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On the night, Election 2017 delivered a victory for lies, mainstream media thuggery and lazy voter prejudice.

We all know the lies. And the liars. Stephen Joyce and Bill English’s alleged “$11.5 billion hole” in Labour’s spending proposals and the claim Labour would raise income taxes (if only they would on the top 10% of income earners)

Filthy lies. But they did the job stalling Labour’s rise and National’s drop. Depending on your political affiliation you could either call this smart politics or a particularly filthy attack on democracy.

National had nothing to offer the electorate after nine years of mounting economic and social problems and when Labour put up a half-decent campaign National resorted to negative attacks based on the cynical tactics of the playground bully. Any let’s be clear – it worked.

But the vilest incident of the campaign was not red-neck farmers protesting their right to pollute and degrade our waterways at our expense. It didn’t even involve the National Party directly. It was the vile, despicable, media-run campaign to denigrate Green MP Metiria Turei and drive her from the co-leadership of the party.

Others have claimed Metiria and the Greens brought it on themselves with poor political management but that’s irrelevant to what actually happened. Key political journalists in the mainstream media themselves ran the campaign – from the indescribably awful John Armstrong to the urban liberal know-all Duncan Garner. It was a media frenzy which fed into the National Party’s campaign to denigrate beneficiaries.

 It was a campaign on behalf of the wealthy against the poorest New Zealanders. It was the opposite of speaking truth to power.

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This is the vilest example of collective journalistic thuggery I can ever recall. 

It was also Jacinda Ardern’s nadir. There was no integrity, solidarity or leadership as she threw Metiria under the Labour Party bus by declaring she would never have a cabinet position in an Ardern-led Labour government.

Lazy voter prejudice was the biggest winner on the night.

For those of us who follow political debate closely it can sometimes be a surprise to realise the vast majority of voters engage only superficially in politics. From the farmers in Morrinsville (driven by self-interest and self-absorption) to the beneficiaries in East Christchurch (focusing on survival in a world where voting hasn’t changed anything for 35 years) voters follow lazy prejudices which justify them ignoring economic and social problems provided they themselves are in the top half of the socio-economic pyramid. 

Election 2017 was a victory for the corporate and the comfortable.

58 COMMENTS

    • Who is the intellectual giant holding the communist sign. I wonder if he has the faintest idea what communism is and the history of how it came about.

      • For that matter, I don’t suppose that idiot is even aware that one of his idolised National Party MPs actually was/is a communist.

  1. “On the night, Election…… insert-date-here …….delivered a victory for lies, mainstream media thuggery and lazy voter prejudice.”

    Sorry John, but it’s naive to think elections have ever been otherwise.
    Getting into power has always been about twisting peoples perception and winning them over.
    As we’ve seen, any backtrack on stated campaign policy can be “justified” once power has been grasped. Nazional are the masters of Machiavellian politics. Hence their long grip on power.

    Far more importantly, it’s what you do after you attain office that separates the good from the bad. eg Norman Kirk vs Roger Douglas.

  2. I’m inclined to think the lesson to be learned from this lesson is work out what you stand for, let everyone know what that is, and stick to it.

  3. yes the 2017 election campaign was a catalogue of awfulness, the snarly looking bumpkin in the photo above could be from 1981 if you swapped “…Pretty Communist“ for “Support the Tour”, “shoot the HART bastards” or other similar lumpen expression

    some people still wonder how the German Nazis rose in the 30s, how did death camps occur under peoples noses? well if you really want to know, there is a masterclass in “othering” right here in NZ

    the poor have been demonised here for 3 decades now, and this country is split into “winners” and especially “losers”–these despicable losers you see bring it on themselves, the working poor, beneficiaries and oldies in dire straits, have all made bad choices to become “benefit spongers” etc.

    once certain sections of people are officially declared “not like us” they are fair game for all manner of sadistic and unfair treatment–particularly targeting–which is where the NZ media wing of the corporates and torys comes in as John describes

    there is some truth in the “boomer/smug property owner” analysis, but not total truth, I and most of my friends are boomers that have spent their lives in unions, solidarity movements and fighting for social justice, a few thousand more funerals will not entirely solve the problem of social division, and low political consciousness, as a look at all the young Nat wankers on social media confirms

    • Me included Tiger mountain,

      I am 73 and been knowed down several times never from ‘my own doing’ but eith cororate greed or other bussiness srewups.

      I became disabliled by my corporate errors in workplacwe practices.

      I bought my own house in 1974 and am still paying a morgage.

      I never got anything I did not work for.

      I still care and work for the underdog today.

      • 40 years paying a mortgage Cleangreen?! You bought your house when you were 30 then and still paying it off at 73 seems pretty far fetched! And you have told us all you spent many years in Canada…or did you come back from Canada in ’74?

                • Had a mortgage once. Was going over the contract when I realised that I didn’t actually own the house I was living in. The bank did, because the bank gets to keep the title. Until I could completed the scheduled payment that is. It was at this point I realised I had phaqued up. And spent the next 5 years unphaquing myself.

                  The bank I was with at the time was selling morgtgages for about 3%. What the banksters didn’t mention and I later found out through an Australian senate hearing, that BankWest had a company policy which allowed them to raise debt repayments at will. Bank west fraudulently foreclosed on hundreds of millions of profitable businesses and family homes in this way.

                  And I suspect this practice goes on in New Zealand. There has been any number of bank branch managers caught going onto there computers and manipulating the mortgage lending rate just to boost there monthly targets abit. It happens because New Zealand’s finance industry is totally unregulated. Not totally unregulated I mean the Financial Markets Authority receive enough funds to be the minister of finance fall guy, and the New Zealand Police seem to think beneficiaries are so sophisticated that they need the surrounded by the worlds most expensive eavesdropping devices in the world ie 5is.

                  So be carful the information you consume or put out there. A lot of people including yourself don’t even relies the words that are spoken are not new ideas. Most of the ideas that people hold are given to them as a child or at school. Messages like –

                  Money is the root of all evil.

                  Money won’t buy you happiness.

                  Or equally people are lazy.

                  Get a job.

                  Non of these messages house people or secures energy sources or sustenance and leisure.

                  So if the government maintains a surplus. That’s deducted from the economy, businesses borrow to fund the shortfall in productivity, and workers pick up that debt in lost wages. That’s what record low interest rates does. It takes the New Zealand economy down to lower lvls of economic performance BUT that’s all cool because we can just tick shit up on the credit card.

                  So which would you rather have?

                  Surplus under Bill English for tax cuts there by increasing the debt burden on businesses.

                  Or surplus under Jacinda that decreases the debt burden on businesses. Now I could go into the detail of this but Sufice to say that borrowing for tax cuts is a stupid idea.

        • Obvously you never got an injury eh?????

          Because your richness allowed you to go private where us lower class had to suffer a disability that the pubic medical system never covered?????

          Nw you knowarsehole why I had to draw on a morgage on property to pay for the medical costs but you would never know that side of life as you live in a parrellel world.

          Go back to your paymaster for your pay after again you insulted my character yet again, as you are a very sick puppy then go see a shrink.

          • Cleangreen, I don’t think “IM Right” is the sharpest tool in the toolbox, hence the nom de plume. The thought process that goes into factoring why you have been paying your mortgage for such a long period of time clearly didn’t breach his/her thinking capacity. However, the first consideration for me was, what had taken place for you, what significant event had taken place in your life that has resulted in this? But then I have socialist thoughts and IM RIGHT has neoliberal thoughts, which is to attack before engaging your brain. Nice that you had to educate him/her on this.

        • 40 year mortgages weren’t unheard of, Imright. Especially once “mortghage holidays” are taken into account at times of financial hardship.

          You can’t comment on a person’s individual circumstances if you don’t know the facts.

  4. The lesson from Metiria is how nasty some people in this country can be toward those on welfare. The vilification of Metiria was a lesson in intolerance and right wing moralism, cloaked in brutal misogyny.

  5. You have to have integrity. You have to have principles. You have to have ethics. Then you can happily live your life subjugated by those who have none of those.

    Funny old business politics. Ardern said Turei would never have a cabinet position in an Ardern-led Labour government.

    If Ardern said “no decisions had been made about cabinet positions” would things (voting) have been any different?

    If Ardern said “Turei would be considered for cabinet positions” would things (voting) have been any different?

    If Ardern said “Turei would most likely be in cabinet” would things (voting) have been any different?

    If Ardern said “Turei, as a coalition partner leader would be in cabinet” would things (voting) have been any different?

    I believe the last case scenario should have been the right call. I believe if she had said that the Labour vote would have been considerably less.

    • I agree with your sentiments John and many of the comments above.

      The response of the media carrion was far and beyond anything I’ve seen in 40 plus years of political awareness.

      I spoke repeatedly to anyone that would listen about the lack of coincidence with the neo-lib putsch to change the leadership when the poll numbers were clearly indicating exactly the outcome of saturday’s poll.

      The difference only in the percentage of seats that the three non-gnat parties would bring to the coalition talks.

      Our owners , clearly did not like the numbers of progressives vs dry’s that the pre-Turei massacre polls indicated .

      At this point all I can hope is that t least 1 of Winston’s much conjectured bottom lines is a multi agency [ GCSB included] investigation of 2017 campaign funding.

    • It was in my view Ardern’s role to say whilst she doesn’t condone what Metiria did, she understands it! That would have been a good start and she shouldn’t have been answering any questions about who would be in her cabinet.

      • look why are people still harking on about this in my view Metiria should have zipped the lip. The gnats took her out she was a threat to them polling at 15% and they used their media circus to do it they also took out Jacinda and they used the same clowns. They tried to take Winstone out but he is too smart and wasn’t having a bar of it they don’t call him the silver fox for nothing. The system is geared towards the ruling class the people with all the money and power.
        Now the Maori party can moan, cry and throw their toys out of their cot but they only have themselves to blame. Did the maori party get out and get our people to register? did they expect to dump candidates in Maori electorates for example Taarre Reedy a very bright articulate women but no one knew her and what has she done for them shes been in America for 10 years this to me is bad practise and taking our people for granted. How long were the Maori candidates working in the electorates they were standing for. Tariana your hate for labour is showing you are biased you say national are the only ones that have done anything for our people. If this is true why did we need the closing the gaps policy. Why is it that every time the gnats are in power statistics in every area of life get worse for our people. Lastly why did the Maori channel put up those bullshit polls saying tu ururoa was ahead by 20% and howie tamati was ahead. I believe they also showed there bias. Now the people have spoken and once again our people have shown we do not like the gnats we do not trust them and our people were looking for a vehicle to take them out and many believed that vehicle was labour. Now whether that is true we will find out and if they fail our people will do just what they have done to others vote them out

  6. When banks and other corporations control the information flow and control most of the economy you must expect information that challenges the phony corporate narrative to be censored, and for the masses to be fed an endless stream of pro-corporate propaganda.

    Also, you must expect corporations to promote those politicians who work hand-in-hand with corporations to facilitate their short-term interests.

    This corrupt money-lender and consume-till-you-can’t based system is called ‘freedom and democracy’, and is arguably the best short-term system money can buy.

    Longer term most humans are completely fucked as a direct result of the lies the corporations and their bought-and-paid-for politicians continually tell.

    2017
    412.63 ppm on Arpil 26, 2017 (NOAA-ESRL)
    411.27 ppm on May 15, 2017 (NOAA-ESRL)

    2016
    409.44 ppm on April 9, 2016 (Scripps)
    409.39 ppm on April 8, 2016 (Scripps)

    2015
    404.84 ppm on April 13, 2015 (Scripps)

    https://www.co2.earth/daily-co2

    However, the liars will keep lying until they can’t. And they will keep promoting the money-lender corporate agenda until they can’t.

    • God we are screwed AFEWKNOWTHETRUTH,

      Last figures I could find were 407+ in August shit these CO2 numbers are astronomical.

      This will certainly now affect the ability for our plants to grow now just for a start.

      When food shortages abound then we will begin to really understand what is happening.

      For everything there are consequences!!!

      • Plants love CO2 Cleangreen , the increased growth rate in a forrest can be seen. Trees love it. All plants need it.
        D J S

        • Plants love CO2 Cleangreen , the increased growth rate in a forrest can be seen. Trees love it. All plants need it.

          In which case, David, Venus should be a verdant jungle planet as Edgar Rice Burroughs (and others) envisioned it.

          In reality, the predominantly carbon dioxide atmosphere on Venus is 467 °C at the surface; and the pressure is 93 bar (9.3 MPa), approximately the pressure at 900 metres deep under our ocean surface.

          Yes, CO2 is good for plant life. But too much of it, and a runaway greenhouse effect kicks in.

          Just as if there was too much oxygen in our atmosphere, it would be toxic for animal life.

  7. I did pick up in Winstons election night speech that he absolutely agrees with your headline John and that he will be looking into the foreign financial influence on our election. Does this give evidence as to which way Winston may go, who knows?

    • Will,he won’t be able to look into foreign influence if he joins a National coalition and I’m sure Labour /Greens would be most interested in exposing the depths of National’s corrupt practices.
      Could be a match made in heaven.

  8. “Election 2017 was a victory for the corporate and the comfortable.”

    Spot on!

    The journalists who hounded Metiria out of politics should reflect on the fact that the sheer ugliness of persecution tends to show up starkly in hindsight, when the expedient reasons for it have evaporated. Even if they don’t give a shit about those who have been made poor by the system that feeds them, they might consider whether they want to find themselves shamed and embarrassed when public opinion no longer supports them. Racists, sexists and vehement homophobes also rested safely once in the folds of “public opinion.”

  9. Et tu @ John Minto?
    To qualify what I’m about to write:
    I have my home in deepest South East Otago, and not by choice, I assure you.
    The reason I have what I euphemistically call a home although at this point, is merely a house, in deepest South East Otago is because I was gripped in a panic to buy something somewhere for my mother and father after they were swindled off their free hold farm by the [then] manager of the BNZ in Timaru.
    More on that later. I’m gestating a book. Or is it that day old, room temperature, chicken curry…?
    Both parents seem to be dead at the moment and after the Canterbury earth quakes… here I am. The joy of it just blows out my heart like a hand grenade suppository.
    The point of all this, is to qualify what I’m about to write re your pithy comments, specifically re Clem The Clumpenator
    /Farmer proudly displaying his art, signed and all, here. “ But the vilest incident of the campaign was not red-neck farmers protesting their right to pollute and degrade our waterways at our expense.”
    Sorry…? At whose expense exactly are you referring?
    Clem, like you and me and everyone else, are victims, more often than not, of our ignorance and prejudices.
    What else was poor Clem to do? Take information he never had, clearly, and regurgitate it less than eloquently to suit our faux, hybrid classiness ? We are the ‘ enlightened ones’ after all. How can we be anything else? Living in urbane societies, drinking of the latte’s, snickering at the Big White Sneaker People? Thinking that just by being mindful of how dreadful life must be for the homeless, that we have, in some way done our duty? The only thing that, that achieves is we bullshit ourselves into thinking we’ve done our bit by merely thinking we’re aware of the problem.
    That, dear @ John Minto, is Clem Clump Country. Where he thinks that by pointing out a ‘pretty communist’ is really him ‘ doing his duty’ so to speak. Is he any different to us thinking otherwise. Because after all, we’re all being manipulated into thinking that our thinking is ours to think, when in reality, we’re simply instructed to think the way which is most advantageous to ‘ them’ for having us think in such a way that doesn’t arouse too much suspicion.
    Here’s what I think.
    I would ask all those people ( Filthy farmers) who derive their sole income from the land to not do so for one seasonal year. If that proves less than fruitful, pardon the pun? Then make it two.
    Farmers? City people think they are the ones who earn our money to buy stuff and things and pay for our national debt running at close to $94 Bil’.
    City people? You think the likes of Clem Clump and his banner are to blame for the result of the gargantuan cluster fuck you’re soon to face? You borrowed to buy wank houses in wank suburbs to impress the lawyer or the real estate agent living at the end of Greed Street didn’t you? So you’re part of the problem. More so, in fact, than any poor old ragged Clem Clump. He just does what he does and does what he does well. You city people can barely make a fist when the latte’s dry up. How then could you make a sausage when the filthy, pissing animals are gone? For what’s coming? I’d dig up the designer grass and tussock and chuck in a few spuds if I were you because here comes to awful
    Let me try to be less obtuse.
    It’s in the dark interests of those few to maintain a vast, and seemingly unbridgeable divide between farmers and city people so as the Great Swindles can continue unabated.
    I’m constantly disappointed however in the seeming reluctance to have that ‘ issue’ debated by erudite persons such as yourself and other, otherwise well meaning individuals who prefer instead to be drawn into making assumptions and drawing conclusions born of carefully constructed ignorance.

    P.S. I did say that Jacinda Adern was unwise to place rural people and their rural towns under attack when they’re already under attack from those who’ve traditionally pledged their support; Nat’ liars.

    I hate to say I told you so Jacinda, but I did tell you so.
    http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/201859834/national-s-grip-on-akl-provinces-tipped-election-analyst

    Jacinda was senior policy advisor to tony blair? And she’s making enemies within the farming primary industry which is a National strong hold area??? Did that tactic force our primary industry sector to huddle closer to their so called friends who are in fact the farmers real enemy? Does that not make anyone else go WTF? Nothing makes sense of Jacinda’s tactics re farming ( remember folks PRIMARY INDUSTRY RIGHT? PAYS FOR PROMISES ! ) leading into the election.
    http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/mediawatch/audio/201859399/fear-and-loathing-in-the-farming-press

    • “we’re all being manipulated into thinking that our thinking is ours to think, when in reality, we’re simply instructed to think the way”

      Bloody Good points there Country Boy.

      My family also lost their farm in Wairoa due to a bank swindle years ago.

      Bank and finance company fraud is rife in NZ and Winston knows this all very well.

      Sadness is the that Government have allowed complete control now by the Media who is now owned by the same Corporates that rigged our election.

      By all their constant spin and “media brainwashing” of our entire voting population it would have ended this way.

      They live with this belief that if a lie is repeated over and over it becimes the truth.

      The Jornalists abandoned their obligation ton reoport all issues in a “Fair & Balanced manner” so they let the country down.

      One saving grace countryboy is that Winston is keenly more aware of those issues and has a broadcasting policy to coonvert our public media into a full public commerial free service with Investigative Journalism public sevices programs as we used to have before the MSM was taken over by corporates.

      That is why they hate Winston with such vile contempt

      Good on Winston.

    • Countryboy
      It’s no use trying to bridge the divide by explaining to intelligent ,well educated, well read , mature , historically and politically aware bloggers by explaining to them that they all owe their comfortable lifestyles to the people who get out in the rain and the mud at 3 or 4 o’clock every morning and do the job. In between battling with prices that double and halve on a monthly basis and a mortgage of a magnitude determined by the fact that ever other multibillionaire in the world fancies a nice farm in NZ as a bolt hole and a trophy, and they are all allowed to buy one by successive treasonous governments of either hue. (darker or lighter purple).
      The folk I’ve identified in the above elongated sentence already know and understand this perfectly. It sticks in their craw. The last thing to do to improve relations is to point it out to them. You need to obsequiously pull at your forelock and plead that your doing your fencing and planting, or have done it long ago. And will try to stop your cows from farting, but they don’t milk well when they’r dead. It won’t help much but it’s all you can do until all the farmers in the country have sold out to a Chinese conglomerate and bought a house in town next door. Then they will be acceptable. And everyone will like the new owners because otherwise they would be racist. Too bad all the returns go to china and there’s nothing left at all to pay the beneficiaries.
      I guess we will live off tourists then, but doesn’t all that air travel from the other side of the world produce a bit of CO2?
      It was better when we made do with the white clover supplying the nitrogen though, and operated more within the natural climatic and fertility conditions of the land.
      Cheers … don’t TOP yourself over it
      D J S

  10. “Election 2017 was a victory for the corporate and the comfortable.”

    Oh so true that is!

    Trouble is that it is also due to the complacency of so many, who do not bother looking at issues and policies more thoroughly, who do just follow politics rather superficially, they never get properly informed, and thus vote in ignorance of the truth and of facts.

    With the largely commercially and ratings focused media preferring superficial reporting, chit chat and hitting headlines and slogans, they perpetuate the widespread state of ignorance, and manipulate the bulk of voters into the kind of voting or abstention behaviour that makes such results as we got possible.

    Polls should not be published for two weeks out from an election, full stop, as they are only like self fulfilling prophecy coming true. When early voting starts, there must not be any polls allowed to be published, and advertising should also be stopped with the commencement of voting.

    • Absolutely. The media hystericals won’t like it but too bad.
      And the electoral commission will need to get its act together because so many people wanted to vote early, but their electoral forms had not arrived. They could of course still vote, but the process could have been smoother.
      The advance polling booths need to be more strategically situated. Putting them in CBD areas in the cities, where parking was a hassle, was not a good move. In suburbs many polling booths were sited in heavy traffic areas also with limited parking.
      Clearly there’s some work to do in the advance voting environment.

      • Rosielee I think the electoral commission was deliberately under-funded
        My partner received 4 lots of the same forms yet we change his address details at the last election. Then 2 weeks 10 working days before the election date I sent two lots of forms back to ensure at least they would receive one. Yesterday Monday 25 Sept we got our electoral notice back saying he was enrolled to our current address. He had to do a special vote because of this. Now to top it of I checked to make sure online that he was enrolled at our current address and he was. Yet when we got to the voting booths he was still under our old address. Now also I know of some people that walked away from an advance polling booths because of the que these are people that have to work so they went to vote after work the booths had only 3 staff members clearly not enough. I would like to know for something so important why so few staff and who is this more likely to benefit. This is clearly not in the bests interest of democracy and I believe it is the reason we have so many special votes.

  11. I presume those of you who’ve been pimping for NZ First on this website for the last few years have been busy since Sat night, on the phones and pounding tables to make sure they support a change of government, as you’ve been claiming they will. This is where the rubber meets the road. I think you know, and I hope they know, that if NZ First prop up an exhausted and increasingly unpopular 4th term government, they will be toast in 2020.

    Will it be a repeat of 1996, or 1999? I wait with baited breath…

  12. I am still in despair at the way NZ ers were steered by the parties and the media over Metirias situation. This time I voted double Green … for the party with the most integrity, in my opinion.

  13. I agree with John about Labour’s mis-handling of the Metiria issue, but I feel that people seem to let the Greens off too lightly. If we look beyond the strategic errors that were made by Metiria and the Greens in relation to the admission of benefit fraud, it was interesting to watch the Greens and their “partner” Labour eventually abandoned her. These parties, supposedly of the left, did not have the fortitude to keep the media focused on the message that Metiria was trying to drive home about poverty and the way the government and the justice system in this country treat those in need. In my view, both parties lost a lot of integrity by not working hard enough to drive this important message home, by being too scared of the media. The Metiria issue was bungled by both parties in too many ways. I see it as a major lost opportunity of the campaign, with both parties losing integrity.

    Of course, this perspective is in hindsight – I acknowledge that the media pressure was intense at the time.

  14. I’d like to see that sign changed from “she’s a pretty communist” to “I’m an ill-informed redneck fuckwit”.

    It would be more accurate.

    • Ha! Yes. He may be an ” ill-informed redneck fuck wit”. But ask yourself this question/s?
      If he had a choice. Would be ‘choose’ to be an ” ill-informed, redneck fuckwit”?
      Might he have said “ Muriel!? Today, I’m going to be ill-informed, rednecked and fuckwitted. It’s something I’ve always wanted to be, so, before it’s too late and I’m not getting any younger, I’m going to be the best ill-informed, most red necked and fuckwitted I can be. What about this for a banner! ? A dream come true for me.”
      Do people, in the broader context, choose to be ill informed, red necked and fuck witted? Or is ignorance, prejudice and witlessness something cultivated by those far more cunning, cruel and sociopathic in order to divide and rule. Particularly, given he’s a farmer and as such, is a member of our primary industry export earning sector…So, can’t have him running about all civilised and aware now can we? He might ask uncomfortable and searching questions. Like “ Why am I on the bones of my arse while bankers ( ANZ ) earn $2k AN HOUR to fuck fellow farmers over using interest rates swap swindles?”
      That kind of thing.
      Or does he simply not understand why city people hate him and make demands upon him that he simply can’t afford or has the energy to placate, in us.
      This link is to a very familiar dilemma from the late 1970’s through the ’80’s, 90’s and now the double naughts.
      We hate farmers because were told to and they kill themselves. And who wouldn’t. Only a life right? Not like it’s losing money or anything like that.
      http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/country/340282/call-to-destigmatise-rural-suicide-depression

  15. Posted by a facebook user…

    Question for National supporters: given the following list, I would genuinely love to hear an argument this morning for why you aren’t completely ashamed that your self-centered & empathy-less voting keeps so much company, and how you interpret “A Brighter Future” or “Stable”.
    1. NZ is now #1 in the OECD for worst rate of homelessness (1% of population / over 40,000 people). We almost double the rate in Australia which ranks #3, and easily double Canada who are #4. (America is #11 with 0.17%).
    2. #1 for Youth Suicide (ages 15-19) in the developed world. That is 15.6 suicides per 100,000 people. Double the US rate and almost five times that of Britain. Consider too how many people a suicide hurts, if not permanently breaks, when looking at those numbers.
    3. Highest percentage of indigenous prison population in the developed world. Māori make up only 14.6 percent of the population, but 50% of the male, and 65% of the female prison population. In 2014 the UN told NZ such institutional racism “constitutes arbitrary detention and is illegal under international law.”
    4. NZ is #1 in the world (not just the OECD or developed world) for most un-affordable housing. “New Zealand has had the highest rise in house prices, costs the most against the average person’s income and now has the biggest difference between house prices and renting prices.” & “the past 46 years New Zealand’s house prices have risen by more than 8 percent on average a year.”.
    No doubt this is great if you’re a baby boomer who bought houses in a central city suburb, hugely subsidized & built by the government, and then costing just double a single annual income. Not so great when a living wage (more than most gen-x/millennials get) barely covers the cost of rent to live in a cold, un-insulated flat, shared with 4 people, in which you have almost no rights & can be evicted at any time.
    5. The Climate Change Performance Index rated New Zealand ‘poor’, in 43rd place of 58 countries, and the seventh worst in the OECD. Denmark was ranked as the best-performing, followed by Sweden and Britain. Climate change is real, that’s what scientific CONSENSUS and facts are. If you doubt that you either don’t accept a fact based reality, or you are the victim of the climate change denial think-tanks who in a previous line of work killed millions of people by denying for decades that tobacco caused cancer and promoting it as a ‘healthy option’.
    6. #10 in the OECD for income inequality. Statistics New Zealand found the country’s richest individuals (the top 10 percent) held 60 percent of all wealth by the end of July 2015. Between 2003 and 2010, those individuals had held 55 percent. The poorest 40 percent held just 3 percent of total wealth.
    7. UNICEF rated NZ 34th out of 41 developed countries for child well-being. Unicef said New Zealand’s presence in the bottom end of the rankings is proof that “high national income is no guarantee of a good record in sustaining child well-being.” & “This ranking reflects performance in neonatal mortality, suicide, mental health, drunkenness and teen pregnancy.”
    8. #1 in domestic/family violence & sexual assault against women. The UN study “found a third of the country’s women had reported experiencing physical violence from a partner during the period 2000 to 2010.” “In the past year, 2 per cent of women reported experiencing sexual violence from a partner, ranking bottom of the list.”. And this is with the knowledge most sexual violence isn’t reported.
    Oh gee-whiz, it feels great living in a brighter future!

  16. The Lazy prejudice of the Labour Party

    https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2017/09/07/latest-tv-one-poll-labour-43-national-39/#comment-399156

    PAT O’DEA says:
    SEPTEMBER 7, 2017 AT 7:19 PM

    Who do the Labour Party want to be King Maker?

    Who becomes King Maker is up to Labour.

    With only a two seat difference, the choice is between New Zealand First and the Maori Party

    In the 2nd leaders debate between Bill English and Jacinda Ardern, both leaders were asked; “What bottom line demand of Winston Peters would you refuse to agree to?
    Bill English indicated that he would agree to all of them to get back into government, Jacinda Ardern said she would not agree Peters bottom line demand to hold a binding referendum on removing the Maori seats.

    If Labour destroy the Maori Party and take all, or even most, of the Maori electorates, as they have stated they intend to. Then Labour will remove the Maori Party as an extra coalition partner to the Greens that they will need to form a government. And the nation will be handed a National – New Zealand First coalition government.

    Wake up Labour!

    Give up your racist campaign to destroy all independent Maori voices in parliament.

    The enemy is not the Maori or Mana Parties, the real enemy is the National Party.

    http://www.msn.com/en-nz/news/national/what-would-it-take-to-oust-the-kingmaker/ar-AAreSeQ?ocid=spartanntp

  17. The Labour Party achieves Victory….

    “The choice before Jacinda Ardern is stark, does Jacinda Ardern want to be leader of the opposition or leader of the country.
    We will see which way she chooses.
    If Ardern chooses not to work with the Maori Party. And instead succeeds in Labour’s stated aim to to expel the Maori Party from Parliament. And then falls short by the amount of seats needed that the Maori Party could have brought to a Labour Green Party coalition.

    Then on losing the election to a National New Zealand First coalition, Ardern should resign in shame, it would be the decent thing to do..”

    https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2017/09/04/the-possible-labour-green-maorimana-party-government/#comment-399149

    PAT O’DEA says:
    SEPTEMBER 7, 2017 AT 6:47 PM

    In the last night leaders debate Jacinda Ardern said she would not have done the Seabed and Foreshore legislation to take away Maori legal right to take court action over the exploitation of the sea bed and foreshore.
    Yet, in practice Labour is still warring against the Maori Party, which sprung from the rift created between Maori and the Labour Party resulting from the Seabed and Foreshore dispute.
    If Labour want to go some way to heal the rift between Maoridom and the Labour Party, then Jacinda Ardern needs to put a stop Labour’s sectarian war to expel all independent Maori voices from Parliament.

    If Jacinda Ardern was sincere in her words, then Jacinda Ardern would stop Labour’s war against the Maori Party and bring the Maori Party back into the Left camp with Labour and the Green Party.

    To end this war, Ardern needs to put all her Maori electorate MPs back on the Labour list. And ask Labour supporters in the Maori electorates to vote tactically to get a Labour led government. There is still time.

    The choice before Jacinda Ardern is stark, does Jacinda Ardern want to be leader of the opposition or leader of the country.
    We will see which way she chooses.
    If Ardern chooses not to work with the Maori Party. And instead succeeds in Labour’s state aim to to expel the Maori Party from Parliament. And then falls short by the amount of seats needed that the Maori Party could have brought to a Labour Green Party coalition.

    Then on losing the election to a National New Zealand First coalition, Ardern should resign in shame, it would be the decent thing to do.

    *(…against the Maori Party)

    In a repeat of the last election. The real big winner in this election has been Petty Labour Party Sectarianism.

  18. A victory for lies, media thuggery and lazy prejudice. And sectarianism

    (You forgot one John)

    The Labour Party can’t say they weren’t warned. They knew, and they still made the decision to carry on with their mad sectarian campaign against the Maori Party (and Mana).

    PAT O’DEA says:
    SEPTEMBER 12, 2017 AT 8:09 AM

    Since the introduction of MMP there has never been a government that has ruled without the support of a coalition partner/partners.

    This is the nature of MMP.

    On current polling the Labour Green bloc, need one more coalition partner to beat the National New Zealand First bloc.

    (If you think that NZF are not going to go with National, you have not been paying attention).

    That other support party can only be the Maori Party.

    That is, if Labour are not successful in their stated campaign to drive the Maori Party out of parliament.

    Putting all their Maori electorate MPs off the Labour list, provides them the added prod to carry this sectarian strategy to its ultimately self destructive conclusion.

    Note to Labour:

    The enemy is the National Party.

    The enemy is not the Maori Party.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WboggjN_G-4

  19. Any mathematicians or election experts about?

    If party votes were exactly as they were but all Māori seats had gone to Māori Party candidates, what would the difference be to the overall picture to what we have now ?

    • Yes, so true, we have of course a bias on either side of the spectrum, some here do still not see that in fact, Labour did NOT win the most votes, and they only gained by taking votes off the Greens, NZ First, Maori Party and a small number from the Nats.

      Combine Labour and Greens, and all that is achieved is 52 seats out of 120. Hence they absolutely need NZ First to form any government, in whatever form. Shifting vote shares between the left of centre is what largely happened, Labour was returned to something more like what the party had in 2008, and the Nats do still get most of the votes, while voter participation had hardly improved.

      Those hoping for a ‘youth quake’ in the special votes are dreaming. If there was a tiny ‘youth quake’, it was only happening at the universities, which Jacinda visited during the end of her campaign for Labour, but only a percentage of all youth go to university.

      The overall result is a great disappointment to me, and should be to others. And listening to Jacinda Ardern on RNZ this morning, talking almost academically and smartly about negotiations to be prepared with NZ First and Greens separately, I felt, she still has a long way to go, before she would be a competent and good PM leading the country. If any agreement with NZ First happens, it will be Winston First in the driver’s seat, not Jacinda, watch that space, if it happens. He is so far playing is cards well, others sit and wait by the phone, what a joke:

      http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/201859953/election-2017-ardern-plans-negotiations-with-peters

    • If I were an MP Bert, I would have widely distributed the 2009 video clip of ‘comrade’ Jacinta at the Hungary wrap up og young socialists where she uswd the word ‘comrade’ 15 times in 7 mins…then the voting public would see whats behind the mask!

  20. You forgot to mention Labour spending three years lying that health spending had been reduced, and the Greens lying that their polling had them ahead in Nelson.

    • Hardly a lie, Gormless. Per head of population, Vote Health has reduced. Which means current spending being spread further to meet increased demand.

      And polls fluctuate. What may be “true” one week may not be the next.

  21. @Bert
    re: 6. #10 in the OECD for income inequality
    to what degree has the National gov’t contributed to the income inequality in other countries by providing a tax haven for the rich over seas?

    • There is nothing to be proud of about being labeled as a tax haven/ international money launder for foreigners avoiding their tax obligations to their respective states.

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