Big Bob Reid over at First Union almost made Duncan Garner orgasm on the AM Show this morning after Big Bob’s roasting of Labour by claiming NZ First was the tail wagging the dog because Uncle Money Shane Jones was deciding what cash could go where in the regions.
First Union ‘worried’ about NZ First’s dominance over Labour
First Union has expressed concern over what it sees as NZ First’s growing influence in the Government.Labour’s plan to repeal the three strikes law was canned because of objections from NZ First and more recently, Winston Peters has thrown plans to double the refugee quota up in the air.
First Union President Robert Reid said New Zealand First has got everything it wanted from the coalition agreement, especially on important issues like immigration.
“I guess we are a bit worried in the union… [about] the dominance on a number of issues that is coming from New Zealand First,” he told The AM Show.
“It seems to be that everything that got tied down that New Zealand First wanted in the coalition agreement, Labour is going along with.
“But if it wasn’t in that agreement, the major party in some ways is being dictated to by the minor party simply because it requires those numbers to put things including industrial legislation, including migration [through].”
…this of course led to Tova O’Brien gleefully seizing upon this to paint Jacinda as weak…
Newshub Political Editor Tova O’Brien said it was a bad sign for Labour that a union was voicing concern about the Government.
“We’ve been seeing these flashpoints between the governing partners but for one of Labour’s bedfellows, the unions, to now be speaking out against [Labour]… this is next level,” she said.
…let’s be honest about this whole ‘NZ First is the tail that is wagging Jacinda’s dog’ talking point shall we?
In the first 5 days of negotiation, the Labour Party Mandarins in Wellington were so terrified of what Winston wanted to do to the hegemonic neoliberal economic frame work they did everything they could to stop a deal from happening, Winston has waited to regain power for a decade, he knew exactly what he wanted when he went into those negotiating rounds and Labour had very little idea of what it wanted.
How is it Winston’s fault that he negotiated such a good deal?
How is NZ First to be blamed for the total lack of vision missing from Labour?
What is being highlighted here is not the strength of NZ First but the total weakness of Labour’s own actual vision. Labour still have zero response to the neoliberal economic settings of NZ.
Labour are rushing around creating dozens of inquiries because their own philosophical position is a joke post Rodger Douglas’s free market radicalisation.
This isn’t a case of the quick brown NZ First jumping over the lazy red Labour, it’s more a case the lazy red Labour has no idea there is a fox, that it is jumping or has a functioning idea of what gravity is or how it works.
If Labour knew what it wanted this wouldn’t be an issue.
I remember John Tamihere calling Tova a little girl that was a good laugh
If you really want to look in depth at Labours less than ideal policy roll out then you must go back to the thrashing in 2014 that left them with a shallow talent pool and an almost impossible chance of ever ever forming a government….ever.
And if one drills into that further, Labours abortion of a system for electing the most unelectable leaders God ever put breath into is the next problem. A system that had in part, unions staunching out all challengers with their chunk of the vote and in the process electing the wrong person, guaranteed every time!
I am sure on a good day Cunliffe and moreover Little were the right men in a certain role, but as leaders, they were awful and with that went any realistic chance of Labour governing. And those in parliamentary Labour didn’t just suspect it, they believed it!
Enter Jacinda, not elected by Labours ruinous selection system and within weeks of that, Lordy lordy, they won! But her time at the front has been far too short to work miracles.
She has taken the ultimate hospital pass and sidestepped the linebacker who was bearing down on her and is working hard to get it right, but it is hard yards for now.
I am hopeful that by the halfway mark, Labour and NZ First will be on the same page, but until then, Jacinda is feeling her way.
Pfft, feels. They have to learn how to punch and expose to the public the psychological weaknesses of the opposition. Okay, back to the budget responsibility rulz. Asides from the rulz it’s a much harder thing restraining private debt from abroad rather than just cut government debt. So as the 2008GFC and Christchurch recovery came through they were supposed to pay off core crown net debt and tax revenue was supposed to pick up, changing the narrative from “Labours debt” to” National payed Labours debt” but that never happened. What actually happened was the debt went from $10 billion to $50 billion, and the real figure is over $100 billion. So would we be sloshing around in foreign debt markets if we didn’t have to add to core crown net debt $40 to $100 billion dollars of debt. In other words if we had of added to kiwi saver accounts from the nothing National Party contributes to about 15% per year, the improvement on savings of the nations accounts would be worth a further 3% on the GDP. So instead of running a budget deficit of around 3% per year we’d be flat to rising by about 3%. In other words, and I’ll make this simple, our banks would not be out there borrowing in New York at rates of interest which reflect the risks in the American Financial system, to fund the budget deficit because of a porosity of New Zealand savings regiment at a time when there borrowing maturity is under 12 months.
As it is now, because National chopped NZ super contributions the baby boomers, any one born after 1950 (actually 1940) can’t now be in the retirement savings system long enough to get any real capital. And now through Simon Bridges they want to miss the great Green Energy Future boom through to the end of the century and the great lift in incomes and accumulations in pensions and private provisioning. Thanks to The National Party it is impossible now to look after the baby boomers.
yep, any lefties worthy of the description were cleaned out of the Labour Party during the Backbone Club Rogernomics years, it is full of third way apologists, ideologically adrift, but they are what we have at this point, and have to be given qualified support for the much needed reforms they are trying to deliver
if there is anyone in the Labour Caucus, bar Willie Jackson and Andrew Little with a whiff of class analysis, let alone a marxist world view, they are deep cover operatives indeed
Labour is always a class collaborationist party, some good stuff is obviously achieved despite that as per the Savage and Kirk years, but they are no longer even classic social democratic but party to a a bipartisan agreement to retain the structural underpinnings of neo liberalism–The Reserve Bank Act, SOEs, free in and out flows of capital etc.
things like returning power generation and supply to full public ownership are sorely needed, when the cost of electricity sees frozen pensioners and sick kids, business confidence can sod off etc. but without a class based combative attitude Labour is struggling and Winston is filling the gap in his unorthodox way
Rather than blaming Labour how about you call on NZ First to act in good faith. It appears that even where it is tied down in the Coalition agreement, the Cabinet and the Speech from the Throne, NZ First (or at least as alleged / reported by the media) still think it can negotiate weakening the ERA amendment bill – which as you have pointed out often, is really just a reset to how things were before National came along. That will be the concern Robert was reflecting.
Robert Reid is right with his concerns, the coalition negotiations may have formally finished and ended in a coalition agreement, but it appears, NZ First, first of all Winston First, are concerned about poll ratings, and want to make sure they get their voters happy.
It is indeed a worry that they (NZ First) seem to think they can still influence the PM and the agreement to their favour. That is why the MSM and some in the public, also fed by Nat propaganda, get the impression the PM is ‘weak’.
When you do not have your troops behind you, when your troopers do not conduct themselves responsibly, and when you as PM have to do damage control, then the perception of the observer ends up to conclude the PM or leader is ‘weak’.
NZ First better think, do they want to be in government, or do they want an early election, and perhaps be left out of Parliament for years to come.
If it were not Winston’s decision to put Labour in government they wouldn’t be there. It’s inevitable that as kingmaker he is able to wield more power than the numbers would reflect . Personally the more influence he has on macroeconomics and the less Grant Robinson has the better, but I admit thats not reflection the vote.
And who knows what the people who did vote for Labour were hoping for on these issues anyway? Do labour voters even take an interest in policies , or do they just assume a labour government will look after their interests better than a National one.
By going with Labour even with their barely sufficient numbers to allow him a choice, Winston has given them the opportunity to show what they can do.
D J S
I NOTE: Censorship on TDB continues!
LOL – Um Marc isn’t this like the 3rd time you’ve promised to leave TDB?
Editor Bradbury hiding behind TDB pseudo. But my comment on it again not published.
Do not hold a grudge, just funny game, I suppose.
If it gets to the point where all progressive policies are being deep-sixed by NZF, it’s time to call their bluff. My feeling is we’re drifting dangerously close to a coalition collapse when the mana of the Labour Maori caucus is being undermined – see Kelvin Davis’ announcement shemozzle this week.
Comments are closed.