If we were honest, and I mean honest, not tribal, all progressives should be bitterly disappointed at the utter lack of ‘transformative’ change Jacinda has managed to achieve.
- Not implementing a capital gains tax.
- Pretending that doing something in 30 years is a response to the climate catastrophe.
- Not implementing the 42 recommendations on welfare.
- Borrowing billions to spend on fucking roads.
- Kiwibuild fiasco.
- Light rail fiasco.
- Housing crisis fiasco.
- Climbing Suicide rates.
Now there are reasons Labour have been hopeless, they didn’t expect to win the election and had no 100 day plan to reform the neoliberal Government departments so haven’t been able to implement any real transformative policy.
The end result are progressives who are simply too disappointed to vote Labor again until Simon Bridges ruled NZ First out because that means the only way Bridges could become the Government is National + ACT.
Imagine the carnage of a National/ACT Government. All the damage they did over their last 9 years but on meth!
David Seymour is like cocaine, a small amount is nice, too much and you die, where as Simon Bridges is like chlamydia in that no one wants to admit to ever liking him. Together they couldn’t be trusted, they would be like fat kids in a sherbet factory, you’d need police with tasers to shock them out of there.
Suddenly progressives who actually care about politics (but who have been disappointed by this do nothing meaningful Government) are forced to vote for them because a National + ACT Government would be so incredibly damaging to everything we care about it demands support of Labour.
Thank you Simon Bridges for finally coming up with a good reason to vote Labour in 2020.
“Labour have been hopeless, they didn’t expect to win the election and had no 100 day plan to reform the neoliberal Government departments so haven’t been able to implement any real transformative policy.”
That’s because ‘National’s moles’ were so burrowed into the ‘bee hive like bees in a hive’ that it will possibly take three terms to weed all those horrible ‘nats’ out of the parliament stucture for the Labour coalition Government to go forward with their policies.
It is high time to ‘drain the Wellington swamp Martyn’.
I wrote this article on Scoop last year about the Wellington beaurocrats styming the Government.
https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1902/S00113/government-is-being-stymied-by-bureaucrats.htm
Government is being stymied by bureaucrats
Friday, 15 February 2019, 12:14 pm
Press Release: Citizens Environmental Advocacy Centre
Citizens Environmental Advocacy Centre In’c.
“Government is being stymied by bureaucrats over health care, transport, and trades training”.
This week we saw salvation army releasing their “state of the nation” report “ that showed that Jacinda’s vision of a “Kinder gentler caring Government is not being nurtured by the bureaucrats who still have an iron grip on government departmental policies.
Salvation Army report that the gap between rich and poor is still becoming worse with household debt still rising while the use of P is alarmingly still increasing amount our young.
Next subject was with Labour’s talented PM Chris Hipkins as Minister of education discussing the worsening of our trades shortages and his plan is to make the education of early trades skills more ‘seamless’ in our schools as he wants an early school integration into trade skills made free to all at school level, I went through school during the 1950-60 era and all woodwork and mechanical training was taught us as a skill we needed to have for our life skills, so why was it scrapped then?
Next was the sad story of the case of young Nicky McPherson who was under the care of a health facility in Hamilton and was left un-attended when he walked out of the facility and committed suicide, and this worried me greatly as now the Health Department is demanding another official review of the case even though the family had successfully made a claim against the health department.
All these cases that are our mirror into how the bureaucrat’s control our public services are showing that the bureaucrats are causing problems and public concern for the government now as they are slowing down progress from the past autocratic government of national Government into Labour Government’s stated transition to become a kinder gentler caring Government.
Transport issues are also under the spotlight today over the lack of the ‘Kinder gentler caring Government’ vision and services.
We in our long fight for better land transport options are having a similar problem with NZTA (the roading controlling agency) (RTA) as this agency are after 19 yrs is still holding their iron autocratic grip over the current government by not giving any care for a ‘fair kinder, caring mitigation’ to residential communities all-over NZ who are now adversely affected by rising truck freight movements causing noise, vibration and air pollution into their homes everywhere as NZTA is effectively actively forcing truck convoys to use roads through many sensitive residential zones today and Auckland is an example where large 4 metre high concrete noise barriers are being placed all over Auckland now but not in very many other regions sadly.
So powerful have past government’s made this road agency, that they have changed the regulatory rules of the RMA and the ‘NZ Standards’ to lower noise standards in NZ regarding ‘road traffic noise levels’ to where NZ has some of the ‘lowest protections’ for all residential communities now.
Evidence of this is shown here,
The noise, (sound pressure) measurement is only measured in a single (dBA) descriptor (now considered improper) as their standard used is regarded as insufficient for low frequencies emitted from trucks as (industrial activities) so they refuse to use guidelines set in this globally accepted symposium. “https://www.acoustics.asn.au/conference_proceedings/ICA2010/cdrom-ICA2010/papers/p987.pdf
In this study report it states; “Relying on traditional A-weighted measurements will not capture the modulation nor would it offer the potential to distinguish engine brakes from other traffic noise.”
NZTA is simply being seen publicly now as a ‘truck transport agency’ (not a ‘transport agency’ as the press often referred to it as) and we now suggest if Government want to succeed with the vision of being a “Kinder gentler caring Government” they need to remove being stymied by bureaucrat’s bent on revenge of the public seeking a kinder gentler service and we urge the ‘Labour coalition Government to now get involved’.
+100% …cleangreen…Great post !
Yes bureaucrats need ousting and we need to find those responsible for leaking party information.
It is ironic that Bridges formally tells media he will not go into coalition with Winston. Is this on the back of being privy to N.Z. First leaked information and is it Bridges who will slowly leak the information to his favorite rightwing political reporters? We are already seeing dirty politics in action and we also know National are the party of dirty politics.
None of the above list is down to Jacinda. Perspective is always important. In this case, it’s even more so.
Ardern may have made contributions to policy under Andrew Little but to put that list down to her is just wrong.
By the time Ardern was made Labours leader, the election campaign was well under way with only around 8 weeks until election day. This situation was unprecedented in NZ Politics. What Ardern had to take on board at that time was astonishing and she did so going up against the very well oiled National Party machine desperate to retain power. Her magnificent achievement was what converted me into a Jacinda fan.
Prior to Ardern arriving as leader, Labour had virtually nothing and showed nothing that indicated they would be the next Government. This is what ultimately resulted in Andrew Little finally giving up the ghost in the home straight. I strongly believe Labours team were preparing for yet another 3 years in opposition. Had John Key stayed on, that’s exactly what would have unfolded. In saying that, Andrew Little’s rating did not go up 1 percentage point when Key stood down. Very telling.
Ardern is an inspirational leader who has a team under her that is some distance from inspirational. One person can only do so much. The areas the Government has not been successful with are not the end of the world they are being portrayed as. It’s in National’s very best interests to put up in lights and keep it there anything that is even remotely unsuccessful. Labour failed to do this toward National when they had a million opportunities to do so under Andrew Little. As a result, National was able to farcically get away with being a “strong stable Government with a rock star economy”…when in fact they were steering the Titanic straight toward an iceberg with absolutely no regard for the growing number of casualties, especially the casualties that didn’t have first class tickets.
Ardern has made great inroads toward positive change in NZ but her “to do” list is just enormous courtesy of the neglectful carnage left her by the Me Me Me Latrine Rodent Party. That will take a generation to put right. Labour, foolishly and naively felt they could do it in one electoral cycle. That’s been their biggest blunder.
It’s a total misrepresentation of the dynamic to just say Ardern failed to implement a capital gains tax. Perspective is hugely important here. Ardern was bitterly disappointed she couldn’t get it over the line but there was absolutely nothing she could do about it. Her backing down was done solely to avoid a catastrophic Government collapse. She knew there would be howls of protest from the wealthy who were sickened by the prospect of having to pay tax on their profits and have a fairer tax system. That’s not how they play the game or ever want to play it. Ardern was comfortable to ignore their predicable bleating. What she couldn’t ignore were the very strong noises Peters and NZF were making. Had she continued on, the Government would have fallen over and chaos followed. Anyone who blames Ardern for not getting the CGT over the line is not fighting fair. Putting suicide rates at Arderns feet is just wrong. More can and should be done with Welfare but something is hidden from view. Ardern, unmistakably, cares deeply for people, especially those doing it hard. We should trust that as our PM, she is trying to find the right balance with welfare.
For me, the biggest failures Ardern has made involve scandals and the diabolically inept way they have been handled at Ardern’s direction.
1) Directing her team to “play nice” when you had the diabolical Jamie Lee Ross situation with Bridges and National. Ardern, remarkably gifted National a free pass on a situation that should have buried National.
2) The pathetic handling of the farcical, alleged sexual abuse. This cost Labour dearly and will continue costing them. Ardern had a magnificent opportunity to clean all that shit off the wall and highlight the appalling actions of Bridges and Bennett putting that shit there by accusing her of knowingly covering up sexual abuse.
3) Totally mismanaging the bleating and threats from Indians when the Government had the audacity to view arranged Indian marriages as not having the same merit as traditional Western marriages. It must be remembered that immigration fraud is huge from that part of the world and fake marriage is a key component in that fraud. Shane Jones rightly said if the Indians didn’t like the Governments ruling on behalf of all Kiwi’s, the airport is that way ——–> . Jones received widespread support for his stance and showed Indians that NZ will not bow down to their threats and false accusations of racism. Along comes Ardern and cuts Jones off at the knees and bowed down to Indian threats. Now, Indians know they can threaten the Government at will. Kiwis have been told their sacred marriages are the same as arranged Indian marriages. Immigration fraud continues via dubious arranged marriages from India and a vitally important coalition partner has been humiliated and totally undermined. Epic fail.
Ardern is an inspirational leader who has a team under her that is some distance from inspirational. One person can only do so much. The areas the Government has not been successful with are not the end of the world they are being portrayed as.
Totally agree.
Ummm
Building roads provides jobs.
Of course that means less excuse for the indolent stay at home on welfare.
Commuters north of the harbour bridge ( as one example) will be much pleased with improved highways- and there’s lots of votes there M8.
Capital gains tax strips the ladder for lower born to climb the ladder of capitalism. Take that away and u lose big time vote potential.
So as reality emerges in Jacinda’s pre elected dream world, the outcomes Labour are producing might not be as deleterious as Bomber fears.
Ummmmm; – Building homes and rail provides jobs too!!!!!
Jobs for who? People from the Philippines and China who need housing and health care in NZ which is provided free with every 2 year work permit and adding to the housing and health crisis!
BTW the Coronavirus seems to have relieved Auckland’s congestion faster than the petrol tax ever did!
Yeah the “lower born” struggling to pay rent let alone a home are still able to aspire to wealth accumulation via investment property because we do not yet have a CGT … . Does paying tax on wages take away aspiration to work, so why …
the outcomes Labour are producing might not be as deleterious as Bomber fears.
I agree. Particularly among those who do vote.
Was it Mark Twain that said both underwear and governments should be changed often and for the same reason.
The only way you break through the arrogant out of touch politicians bubble is to vote them out of office.
Otherwise they will be happy to lie to you like the TPPA because who else are their tribal base going to vote for instead?
Their cynicism is disgusting.
Like kids -they have to have a consequence for bad behavior or you are allowing them to be monsters.
The least worst option for me is to try and preserve some of the freedoms we have left. There is not much difference between the parties otherwise.
Firstly Simon Bridges might be a gone burger closer to the election (if the Natz can find anyone better) and the resulting new opposition MP with hopes and prayers (and love for all) might make people forget the other ray of bright light, that the COL seem to be banking on, Jacinda.
Presuming that Simon will help COL win the election could backfire, because he might not be there.
Nice to see self suppression in the list, because the biggest changes to what COL campaigned on were reducing immigration and not signing the TPPA. But we are now not allowed to talk about that in election circles from left commentators.
There used to be debate with the left about immigration and it’s benefits/disadvantages or what is going wrong with immigration. Mike Treen did an expose about SkyCity migrant chefs lowering the wages when it first became obvious what big business where up to, but come 2020 when we are now in free fall in practically every statistic in NZ from jobseeker to transport and immigration is increasing year by year, crickets chirp and we avoid any use of immigration in relation to housing, to infrastructure, to taxes, to superannuation.
Lets help Trump make America great while NZ ‘democrats’ aka Labour, adopt an election strategy around pretending that theres nothing going wrong in NZ for the average local, and how to solve it. Lets instead focus on kindness (but remember in NZ charity does NOT start at home). 10,000 per year of new migrants make permanent residency/citizenship in NZ without any income at all and that has been averaging for 15 years, while hardship grants go into freefall and nobody can access any social service anymore, as they are so congested. (Justice, health, family courts, schools, transport).
Firstly Simon Bridges might be a gone burger closer to the election (if the Natz can find anyone better) and the resulting new opposition MP with hopes and prayers (and love for all) might make people forget the other ray of bright light, that the COL seem to be banking on, Jacinda.
Presuming that Simon will help COL win the election could backfire, because he might not be there.
Agree. Nice for the Left if he is, I think 🙂
But yeah, nah… cannot rely on that.
Labour and NZ First, ruled out a capital gains tax so not sure why that would be the number one thing that was not transformative. That policy also created a lot more votes to Labour from the Greens. If it was so important and popular to left voters, it would have gone the other way and Greens got more votes.
More taxes aimed at the middle classes (while ignoring where the wealth is being jettisoned out of NZ, now profits are NZ biggest export) has become something of a mantra from the left and woke commentators. But it is not very popular to voters.
Still the left commentators (and dirty politics) keep that one, going and then are shocked when surprise, surprise we get a right government in!
The capital gains tax the working group came up with was not a capital gains tax at all, because the tax was calculated on taxable income which is easily manipulated in NZ (and around the world) especially for corporations who start posting huge losses as they lose money offshore or push up local debts.
While making people redundant these multinationals like Mondelez make huge asset/cash transfers and load parent companies up with debt… so therefore calculating taxes on taxable income does not work! https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/201843153/business-commentator-rod-oram
Companies like Mainzeal and Fonterra have all lost significant amounts of money in China Strategies.. in the case of Mainzeal they went bankrupt… https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mainzeal The biggest losers are the smaller contractors and employees. Those are middle/working class people for the most part being screwed over by globalism, but ignored by the left.
This is the complex side of what is gone wrong with globalism, not helped by the keyboard warriors thinking that everything will be ok with making the victims of globalism like Average Joe should pay more tax and that somehow landlords are to blame for buying all the houses up, in one of the biggest rental shortages NZ has ever seen.
Logic is absent in left thinking, if landlords are buying all the houses up, where are the houses? The reality is the opposite, landlords are selling the houses to new residents and that is why there is no supply anymore.
Meanwhile the neoliberal PPP type arrangements fail to build any affordable housing and are essentially giving away state house land, to unaccountable quasi development companies like Panuku Development Auckland where it makes it’s way into private hands via Kiwibuild (where the types of people on the list drew concern as not really needing government help at all https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/391713/kiwibuild-pre-approved-applicants-list-raises-eligibility-questions.)
The biggest employers, owners of land and assets, businesses, and so forth, have many mechanisms not to pay tax.
Does anyone think shrinking IRD will do anything about it?
Nope, like the commerce commission that allows NZ to have some of the highest costs per wages of other nations, banking, child care, electricity, food, construction costs, the locals are the cash cows of globalism, while the intensively farmed cows of the globalists get to pollute the locals seas and waterways … https://www.odt.co.nz/rural-life/rural-life-other/proposed-oceania-pipeline-draws-irrigators’-ire
The middle class is shrinking, and the Trump win has been put down in America to
“This is really being driven by elite whites, not by members of minority groups necessarily. They pose as saviors and champions of victimized groups and take a highly melodramatic view of politics” https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/feb/02/the-new-class-war-michael-lind-democrats-trump
echoed by the miraculous win of ScoMo who advises
So next time someone woke blames micro aggressions of middle class with the CHCH attacks, to thinking that landlords are to blame for a rental crisis when they are racing to exit the industry and that another right wing darling of the left suggests that undemocratic zoning changes will save us aka Ihumatao , higher density is our saviour https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/property/119235508/more-questions-over-auckland-skyscraper-projects-building-standards (so many failures here from Bella vista to Victopia building).
If landlords were selling property to new residents there would be evidence of more owner-occupied property and less landlord supplied property as a proportion of housing stock. Is this true?
SPC, Temporary worker numbers continue to grow
“At 152,432, the number of temporary workers present in New Zealand on 30 June 2017 was 16 per cent higher than the year before.” https://croakingcassandra.com/2018/03/31/work-visa-numbers-soar/
I have heard the figure is closer to 230,000 now, all these people need somewhere to live.
Something like 8,000 new cars come onto the road in Auckland per week which is driving a lot of the congestion.
Government policy on allowing so many visas and new residents is the biggest driver to many issues NZ is facing. They do it for private profits for the most part.
Auckland is also now running out of water.
Auckland water shortage: Helensville filling station third in a week to be closed
https://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/climate-news/119232563/auckland-water-shortage-helensville-filling-station-third-in-a-week-to-be-closed
In some bizarre situation, the average Joe living in NZ has been completely shafted where intensive farm cows in Canterbury get more consideration for water from government than Northland whose about to close schools because they are running out of water. https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12306891
Do you really think the COL talking about getting more roads, migrant chefs and retail assistants and more migrant aged parents and arranged marriages into NZ is working to solve all our problems, just like the Natz?
The kindness to the world, seems to be absent in the wake of all the problems NZ is facing from our neoliberal mass immigration experiment. And I don’t think not talking about it, is gonna work out for COL.
If you have a kid who can’t go to school due to water shortages due to not taking climate change seriously and having too many people come into NZ to live when we don’t have the facilities for them and also giving away water aquifers for peanuts to business.. (Jacinda nowhere to be seen).
When Auckland and Northland, turns into the third world with water, then something is wrong with government priorities.
The great news for the right and why they win, is that the left are championing and agreeing with all their policies because they are captive to the same discourses. Even when they win by saying they will do something different aka TPPA and immigration, somehow they seem to implement the opposite of what they think the result will be.
Spot the difference…
Natz money for roads, Labour money for roads
Natz immigration police, Labour immigration policy
Natz RMA policy, Labour RMA policy
Natz Overseas Investment Authority consents, Labour Overseas Investment Authority consents
Natz construction routs, Labour construction routs.
Natz housing with PPP, Labour housing with PPP
Natz carbon policy, Labour carbon policy…
Natz TPPA, Labour TPPA…
Labour follow the Natz policy so much, that a big thing that is driving elections, is who is more hated at the time! The policies seem to largely turn out the same and policy seems to somehow largely follow big international money, no matter who is elected.
Anybody who challenges global money, seems to be popular as an election strategy. Even Trump whose stands for the right attracted minority voters who clearly don’t want the USA turning more into a low wage shit hole than where they fled from. (Apparently wages up, under Trump).
Locals don’t want to be a pawn of international business, whether they live in NZ, USA, UK, China, South America or India.
People no matter where they come from, all still want a place that is their’s to call home, where they are not discriminated against or end up disadvantaged by people coming from somewhere else often promising the earth while statistics clearly show the promises are fake and not working, aka NZ’ Rockstar economy.
It’s not race based thinking, it’s a fundamental of people’s desire for fairness, because all races think very similarly and the woke and 1% are trying to ram their elite borderless thinking onto the masses and bringing down the left with their folly.
In theory (when you are an elite thinker who has never been homeless or had to struggle to access basic amenities in a first world country) borderless countries sounds great!
But be homeless, disabled, vulnerable, workingor middle class or average then it’s a different story when you somehow find that more benefits are cut and closures seem to be all in your own community from schools, hospitals roadworks. Employees just don’t turn up for social work and the call centre takes 30mins to answer your call, somehow you now have bodies turning up undiscovered from council housing to student dorms… people with a job are the new poor… a degree is a qualification where you are expected to work for minimum wages or nothing post degree in the ‘intern’ scams…
Borderless countries might work if they can work out how to avoid the above, when implementing their ‘vision’.
We have already had the left vision of ‘Rogernomics’, ‘student fees’ and now the repopulation of NZ with to coin a phrase from Simon Bridges more ‘valuable’ ethnicities …
JLR: “Two Chinese would be more valuable than two Indians, I have to say.”
and about their own MP’s
“SB: Which is what we’ve got at the moment, right? Your problem there is you end up in a shit fight because you’ve got a list MP – you’ve got two list MPs – it’s a pretty mercenary cull – sitting MPs, all that shit. And then we’ve got the issue of – we could end up getting rid of some list MPs if we want and bringing in some of those new ones, and if you do that you’re just filling up your list even further with ones that you’ve gotta sort of look after – I mean I reckon there’s two or three of our MPs, not picking up obvious ones like Finlayson or Carter, but actually we just want them to go. You know? Like Maureen Pugh is fucking useless.
JLR: Yeah, I know. Carter, Finlayson, Nicky Wagner – they don’t really need to hang around.
Simon: Yeah, but then, we get, yeah, yeah, we don’t want them to go this year though.
JLR: Oh, no.”
https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/17-10-2018/the-jami-lee-tapes-a-transcript-of-the-ross-and-bridges-donation-chat/
Sad that we can sell of list MP seats for ‘valuable’ cultures who are ranked seemingly due to the amount of political donations they earn.
The government is up against market forces raising rents and its own self-imposed 30% government spending spending to GDP and debt targets (less important while debt is so cheap and their is infrastructure shortage).
It’s increased the WFF tax credits and the student allowance (and living cost of the tertiary loan), it’s increasing the MW, it’s provided the power income supplement (important to beneficiaries and those on super struggling with rent or rising rates/insurance) which has assisted budgeting for the higher cost winter months (now to allow people a month to pay their outstanding bills without price consequences – ffs power company finance costs are low).
It’s invested in mental health delivery (and maybe then onto dental), and increased support to carers (it now needs to increase support to those with long term disability to super payment levels and allowing them to stay on some level of permanent support when with a working partner).
It also needs to move beneficiary debt onto the tertiary loan system whereby repayments are not made until their income reaches a certain level (such as MW pay for 30 hours a week) – people repaying debt to W and I out of benefit level income is cruel and unusual punishment for simply being poor.
And if there is a promise to pay student allowance to those from low income families doing masters study – keep it.
And why is there no consideration to wiping off the TD of teachers and nurses who choose to stay here and work (I’d write off their debt at 20% pa over 5 years).
people repaying debt to W and I out of benefit level income is cruel and unusual punishment for simply being poor.
Absolutely!!! And it’s very often children who pay, who go hungry, and who pay for it in multiple ways.
Jacindas smile does not put a roof over anyone’s head or food on the table and this is all she brings to the table.Full credit to her handling of March 15th but just being nice is not enough when it comes to running the Nation. If she had the support of a group,of smart ministers she could pull it off but she has not and does not have the ability to strike out the poor performers like Key did so the nation bumble on sinking slowly into the mire
If she had the support of a group, of smart ministers she could pull it off
True, Trev. And, next time around she may have more options. Other Greens may win seats for one thing, hopefully ‘Greener’ Greens. Particularly as extreme weather events keep shifting the ground under our feet, burning it up or washing it away. Then she would not need to be so reliant on the Old Guard she inherited.
Well this article sums up our political system and it’s legacy nicely.
A progressive, with vision extending to the end of his university lecture notes, slagging off his perceived natural opponents.
Is it any wonder our country is in such a mess when we constantly swing between failed progressives and failed neo-liberals?
Time to put the country before the existing parties and their addiction to dated political theories. Vote all five of them OUT and give our kids and grandkids a chance.
With headlines like this, you have to wonder what the fuck is going on! Most babies are born at night!
Birthing unit in Ōpōtiki reopened but not staffed overnight
Instead of billions for roads (many of which the returns of the new roads are negligible) and hospital and education services for *select people and select *areas, maybe the government could invest in not looking like idiots! You know a bit of kindness for those that don’t fall into the money to be poured into categories of new infrastructure to be used by migrants or tourists or big business like airports.
Desperate hope, I guess.
I NEVER ‘loved’ Jacinda, and do it even less so now.
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