Even David Seymour seemed very doubtful about the addition of fuchsia to his party’s logo, which constituted a colourful but hardly meaningful ‘rebranding’ last week. Much more important in terms of the Act party was the announcement of a flat tax rate of 17.5%. For those of us who are old, our minds slid back to Roger Douglas’s announcement that there would be a 20% flat tax rate for all. This announcement caused David Lange to call for a cup of tea (even though it later emerged that he increasingly needed stronger drink to sustain him), and to the eventual collapse of the Labour Party’s neo-liberal assault.
But that was then and this is now. My prediction is that a 17.5% flat tax rate will fall upon the electorate flatter than a pinky-purple pancake. Yes, even those in Epsom, who surely are not so self-absorbed that they would not recognise the double whammy that this policy would inflict on those in the lowest income brackets. In short, higher taxes and fewer state services.
While one has to admire Act for going back to its policy roots (even if the founding fathers of that party will be flinching at the new logo), I think the party is coming to its natural end. I reckon this is Seymour’s last stand, and that he will lose in 2020.
So who will replace him? Ever since Colin Craig’s meltdowns, the Conservative Party has had no chance of rebuilding its support (it polled nearly 4% in 2014). It was first rebranded as the ‘New Conservative’ Party which garnered only .2% support at the last election. Late last year a person famous for other things, ex-Rugby boss David Moffett, joined the New Conservative board.
Moffett is an interesting character, seemingly driven by conspiracy theories and treading on the edge of white supremacist policies and the ‘replacement’ theories I have discussed before. Everything is a conspiracy to him. Jacinda is a traitor standing by to import huge numbers of umm persons of colour into New Zealand, and climate scientists are just seeking to feather their own nests by doing busy work. I will not even go down the trashy road of this man’s gender politics. The interview with Andrea Vance in January, which Martyn wrote about at the time, is a classic that should not be missed.
The New Conservatives is now transformed into New NZ (will it be the New New next?). David Moffett now has the title of “Founder and Executive Chairman” (no chairpersons here in the white male homeland) of the new New.
So they have just announced their party leader. Is it someone New? Well, no, not exactly. Marc Alexander entered Parliament in 2005 as one of nine MPs brought in by Peter Dunne, as a result of a worm that turned one night on TV after Peter said the magic words: “common sense”. If you do not believe me, look it up. Truth is definitely stranger than fiction in this story. Prior to politics he was a Christchurch based chef, and Garth and I used to love his little Mexican restaurant.
Anyway, Marc found himself with new roomies who he could not abide. Most of the new MPs in that Party were committed evangelical Christians with no time at all for the atheist Marc. He had a miserable and undistinguished term as an MP. He has a couple of favourite groups, and he once attacked Pillars (the organisation I am part of that works with the families and children of prisoners) in Parliament because they had a contract that he wanted for his favs. We have even featured him in Pillars’ 30th anniversary book. His actions lost the contract for everyone, as it was withdrawn. Trap for young players: asking questions in Parliament about a programme is a death knell for that programme. A bit of a wrecker, that bloke.
Looking for a political home, he joined National and was placed at number 61 on the list in 2008, but failed to get elected. I really don’t know what he has been doing since, as he has had a low profile. Thus, like a phoenix from the ashes, this week he rose again as the new leader of the new New. And believe me, he is not new or New.
Apart from his extreme views on imprisonment (he was once a Sensible Sentencing spokesperson) and his charity-bashing, I don’t know much about Marc. I remember he has an upbeat personality which I am sure will do him well as a party spokesperson. Sorry, ‘-man’. Looking forward to some policy from the party that seeks to replace Act in Parliament. Will they put some fuchsia, or perhaps neon turquoise, in their new logo? Time will tell.
Dr Liz Gordon is a researcher and a barrister, with interests in destroying neo-liberalism in all its forms and moving towards a socially just society. She usually blogs on justice, social welfare and education topics.
Cheers @ Dr LG.
“But that was then and this is now.”
Yes and no.
‘Then’?
‘Then’ has yet to be set on fire, buried in a ditch then bulldozed over followed by a thick layer of reinforced concrete lest the virus escapes to re infect everyone and everything everywhere. Like it did.
The wretches who fucked us are still alive and very much kicking. Thank’s, perhaps, to ‘blood boys’. You seen roger ‘Pig Eye’ douglas lately!? He looks every bit the vampire. Just uglier, meaner and more upsidedowner in a cupboarder.
It’s a long overdue contemplation, specifically when intellectuals debate it, that the ‘Right Wing’ is a term that’s simply jam on the spoon of the bitter medicine for an aliment that doesn’t exist. They are, in a word, crooks. It’s clear as a bell, the right wing per se have no interest in our security, safety, happiness, creativity, eccentricities, sexual proclivities… Etc. They don’t care about us as beings trying to continue to be human. They see themselves as $-rich but most importantly, powerful and most worryingly…. they see us as a means to their ends.
“Now”?
Well, now is the time. Now, is always the time. For everything. This moment, this nanosecond is our eternity. And yet we must acquiesce to others fucking around with our moment for their pleasures including but not specifically to enslave us to work harder for them to have awesome cars, fabulous boats, beautiful holiday homes here and there, great foods, exquisite wines, superb health care, tremendous dental, prolonged holidays in Italy, Spain, France and Greece… They have every tech’ trapping imaginable. iPhones, iMac’s, iWatches… They, at the tap of a little pinky, can use their phone ( i ) to look into their beautiful, spacious homes from where ever there is internet coverage to see who is peering longingly into the twin oven kitchen with the high rise fridge freezer stuffed with foods of the world and none of that Pick N Starve muck neither.
And the riche, crooked little right wingers can, without faltering, step from the McLaren and stride past the homeless in seemingly divine confidence that they are not luckier than those poor bastards. Instead, they’re BETTER than those poor bastards. And if they think they’re better than the unlucky, the right wing riche will have no qualms about influencing politics to keep the unlucky and the impoverished permenantly where they are.
In our “Now” ? Nothing has changed. Not one thing. Actually, that’s not correct. Something has changed. Things have got worse. Very, very much worse. Thank’s, Right Wing arseholes.
Arseholes. A theory.
John Walker.
RNZ
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/saturday/audio/2018697763/john-walker-assholes-a-theory
The problem with your logic is there are plenty of right wing thinkers that aren’t filthy rich and there are plenty of left wingers that are. Your generalisation is pathetic. After a year or two you might be saying
Thanks left wing bastards. Or are you too one red eyed to see the world as it really is. This Government has feed us its share of bullshit and has shown themselves to be dragging the chain or incompetent with many of their policies so maybe you can use the word arsehole to describe politicians from all parties representing us in Parliament.
And you think there are no filthy rich left wingers. You think all those from the Labour Party are righteous and wonderful human beings. A tad one eyed don’t you think. Most people that have money have worked for it. You write like you have a big chip on your shoulder.
Yeah well maybe there’s a whole heap of us who underwent the criminal ‘reforms’ of R. Douglas and his filthy thieving cabal during the mid 1980’s and with the Bolger govt of the early 1990’s. Worse, – have had to live through successive govts never having the gumption to change it. In fact , they never WANTED to change it.
You talk as though you were an Act supporter yourself , – or a recent arrival who is pig ignorant of recent NZ economic and social history. And the above poster if you have had been following through the years doesn’t just traditionally single out ACT or Nats , – but those from across the political spectrum.
In fact , what most of us here have a problem with is neo liberalism.
Both in National and Labour party politicians.
Something that YOU seem to conveniently not want to mention. And that 17.55 flat tax increase for the non wealthy is EXACTLY the sort of scam shitheaded utterance from the neo liberal far right wing that we have come to expect. We’re old hands at it now, – we’ve seen the effects and the fall out of that ilk of politician. And none of us came down in the last shower mate. In fact ,many of us had out young working lives raped by the whole privatization , asset stripping , flat wage rate thieving bastards.
But that wasn’t enough for them ,… oh no…
Oh no , we had to put up with the odious Ruth Richardson and her Employment Contracts Act 1991 ,- to really put the boot into the workers and the unions.
Here mate , read this :
Ruthanasia – Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruthanasia
And this :
New Right Fight – Who are the New Right?
http://www.newrightfight.co.nz/pageA.html
And when you’ve got the time have a read of this, then ,- and see just how anti democratic and deceitful those early neo liberal pricks really were. Ramming through their agendas at the willful expense of the many despite prolonged , massive public protests just so those political cancers could curry favour with the Business Roundtable ( now the NZ Initiative ) , foreign investors , and also become benefactors of the carving up of NZ’s state owned assets and the deliberate destruction of collective bargaining putting people on wages that are far below the costs of living :
Defeat the Bill! The struggle against the Employment Contracts Bill, 1991
https://iso.org.nz/…/defeat-the-bill-the-struggle-against-the-employment-contracts-bill…
There’s a whole heap more that can be said buddy, – but consider what I’ve given you as just an introductory course in the origins of NZ’s poverty among the working and middle classes and the treasonous neo liberal pricks who imposed this upon us through deceit and guile and shat all over the democratic process to do so.
COUNTRYBOY is 100% RIGHT.
Matter of fact , as soon as I read his post THIS song came to mind regarding the pricks who did this to us as a nation…
Denis Leary – Asshole (Uncensored Version) – YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrgpZ0fUixs
WK. for your information I’ve lived here since birth. I’m a National supporter that was looking for some social reform along with others. I had even accepted that a capital gains tax wouldn’t be bad in some form. To me the Coalition is slow disorganised gutless and in some instances incompetent. Your pontifications about past National politicians is irrelevant. Try prodding this Government along a
bit more. I’ve Seen just as much of how this country has fared over the last fifty years as you. Maybe more. To you all right wing politics is wrong. It’s your opinion and that’s fine. Your comments are rarely balanced and that’s why people like me comment occasionally.
Ok, but please don’t try the ‘for your information’ thing on with me.
First off, no . I don’t like , in fact abhor neo liberalism, – both its economic and political fields. Matter of fact I despise it.
Why ?
Because pre 1984 , NZ operated under the KEYNESIAN consensus. Do you even understand that?
Not the bloody Mont Pelerin society / Milton Freidman neo liberal radical unorthodox prescription given to this country by Roger Douglas. And no , – sorry buddy , – I’m not going to criticize this coalition just for your good pleasure,- if that’s what you want , – how about instead of ‘occasionally’commenting here , – you REGULARLY make an effort to look back at historic comments.
There you will find if you open your eyes that I was less critical of Sir Rob Muldoon than ANY successive neo liberal govt we’ve had since 1984.
And why is that , you may ask?
Did you even realize that in 1965 we were the sixth wealthiest per capita nation in the world?, – just behind Denmark. THAT’S how far to the right this country has drifted. In a mere 35 years. And now we have entrenched and serious poverty levels
And so I’m less critical of Muldoon’s govt because he was the last of the Keynes Minsters of Finance ,PM and govts we had. And its been all downhill since then. Did you even realize that Muldoon’s govt was more closely aligned to MANA economic and social policy , – even moreso than the Greens? Do you?
I’ll bet you didn’t. And that’s one reason why if Muldoon was around today I’d vote for his system of govt in a heartbeat. Hands down over Aderns govt. Even of it was National.
Again , – and why ?- because Muldoon’s govt WAS THE LAST KEYNESIAN govt, that’s why.
So don’t come round here generalizing about others , mate.
As far as I can see all you want is to draw a wedge and get me or others to criticize this govt. Fresh outa luck mate. The criteria I judge ANY govt post 1984 is whether they are making moves to dismantle neo liberalism. So far they have not. None of them.
And that’s why many people who comment here show more balance than the tripe you’ve just posted. In other words – they are LESS tribal, and less blinkered and know the difference between pre and post 1984.
Maybe instead of trying to get people to tear this govt down YOU should start not being so tribal and being more honest about the last 35 years of neo liberal trash. Trash that even the IMF has clearly stated is a failure.
Get rid of the trash and replace it with a system that works and we might be starting to get somewhere, huh ?
Never mind what party brings it in , – it could be the bloody Mickey Mouse party for all I care.
Martyn, this new screen format is bloody awfull.
It just gets thinner and thinner.
Unlike you I try to stay in the present. Even though I’m 66 and have lived through all the old shit like you,I stay in the present. It’s where we live. I pick away at the present Coalition because up until now they haven’t been performing. If they were I wouldn’t pick at them. You on the other hand are happy to flail around trying to hit the ghosts of Roger Douglas and Ruth Richardson. I don’t mind that you do that but it’s irrelevant. They’re gone man. It’s the Government of the day that has to be held to account. Not the opposition or John Key. I don’t expect the majority of those on this forum to agree with me or change because they believe in what they say. So do I so when I see a comment that is exaggerating an argument I’ll put my two pennies worth in.
A 17.5% flat tax rate?
Which would mean a TAX RISE for poor NZers and a colossal cut to govt stare services
The rise in poverty, crime, prison numbers, social dislocation, would make anything in the 1980s pale by comparison. Only a true sociopath would welcome such a dystopian future
It would be new zealand utterly unrecognisable and one which 99% of nzers would not want a bar off
It’ll be interestibg to see how Epsom voters react at the next election to Seymour’s naked appeal to the worst of our angels
Mjolnir please do not use the word naked anywhere around David S. It is bad enough having to see him in his dopey dancing clothes all the time.
And further, most of Donald Trump’s supporters believe in angels, so Epsom angels could be a difficult force to reckon with – dumb is always difficult- add dancing boy and it’s starting to sound like a cause of diarrhea – which is difficult to spell.
Hopefully Liz is wrong about Act’s new colour being fuchsia – or
perhaps this is prescience from Seymour’s advisers aware that the traditional name for fuchsias was, ‘Christ’s Tears.’ Apt for Act.
(Epsom sounds incredibly odd.)
A commentator the other day called David irrelevant which I thought was generous. He’s nothing, just a stubborn fungal infection looking for another host. I would rather watch Angela Merkle tremble and shake than waste my time watching David ‘dance’. For Seymour to suggest that Kiwis should only be entitled to 3 years of jobseeker allowance when he will be a political beneficiary for the rest of his years is abhorrent. He’s a yapping nobody, more of a drain on the economy than anyone, and ACT are nothing more than divisive shit stirrers. Their followers can shove their ideologies such as Hobson’s pledge up their arse. Facts remain: the TOTAL paid to Maori for historical grievances thus far amount to the equivalent of TWO MONTHS of superannuation (boomers on benefits). Why is Seymour not hammering this demographic, or even better the greedy businessmen making the news again this week? Is it to deflect attention away from the likes of Seymour and his ilk?
There are 250 000 licensed gun owners who may find a home in ACT who were faultless but blamed for the actions of a foreign terrorist. They are having their property and liberties curtailed.
They are very very angry.
Labour, greens, NZ first and National have thrown them under a bus, only ACT was brave enough to even question the agendas at play.
I will never again vote “left” as it currently manifests itself, as I have previously done all my voting life.
The left just wants to take from who it chooses- tax money from workers, free speech from those they don’t like and guns from same- to feel good about themselves but fix nothing.
You’ve all missed the point:
ACT will gain significantly at the next election, not because of their tax policy but because they stood firm in the wake of the illiberal attacks on law abiding firearms owners by Labour and backed by National.
I predict they will accrue a large slice of the NZF vote (sufficient to remove it from parliament entirely) plus a fair number of renegade National voters.
Bullshit
Act will open the seacocks and quietly slip below the surface never to be seen again.
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