Comrades.
What NZ First did by having ‘someone’ photographing journalists who were investigating them & handing those photos to Slater’s latest far right hate blog is awful, but let’s not suffer a collective amnesia here in terms of the vast abuses of power the Key Government embarked upon!
Watching National trying to claim the moral high ground over NZ First’s behaviour here is Trumpian in its delusion.
Let’s remember those abuses of power:
- Using the meth hysteria to throw thousands of beneficiaries onto the street during a homelessness crisis to privatise state housing by misusing Housing NZ drug policy and needlessly pissing away $120m in decontamination costs that were never a threat to health.
- Colluding with the SIS to falsely attack Phil Goff before the 2011 election
- The Todd Barclay fiasco.
- The Teapot Tape fiasco.
- The paying a Saudi Businessman a multi million dollar bribe fiasco.
- Running a dirty politics team out of the PMs Office
- Using the same far right hate speech bloggers to attack their political opponents
- Having one of their stooges pretend to be a PR person when they were really a journalist for the NZ Herald, to discredit the Waitress who bad accused Key of tugging her pigtails.
- Lying about mass surveillance.
- Attacking Journalists and overseeing state intimidation on John Stephenson & Nicky Hager.
- Ramming through mass surveillance legislation under a misuse of urgency.
- Paula Bennett releasing details of beneficiaries to the media who had complained about her draconian welfare reforms.
- Passing retrospective legislation to allow Police abuses of surveillance power to be legal.
Oh and a war crime. Let’s not forget their Afghanistan SAS revenge attack war crime.
Again, it is unacceptable that anyone from NZ First passed along photos of journalists investigating NZF to a far right hate speech blog.
BUT
In the totality of abuse of power and compared to National’s legacy of doing it, watching Paula, Simon and all the other Blue Stormtroopers pretend they suddenly have a conscience when it comes to the State abusing its power is Republican in their selectiveness.
Yeah but they’re all scum ( and rich as fuck. ) and we’re without a parliament.
Aliens? A little help here please?
Yeah I’m totally ready for a zombie apocalypse. Or more realistically, a meteorite/comet strike that wipes out half the population. Or the Yellowstone Super Volcano erupting. I guess that’s all very hyperbolic, but mankind as a whole does kinda deserve some sort of catastrophic reset right now.
Don’t worry…..it’s coming
Whataboutary
It’s true though, isn’t it? I mean, if you were going to compare the filthy shenanigans of the Key years with Winstons’s misdemeanours, the latter would pale into embarrassing insignificance. Do NZ First deserve a slap on the wrist? Yes. Yes, they do. Should we sit back and let National’s army of hypocritical troglodytes crawl out of the sewer so they can wag their diseased talons at NZ First? No. Because if National were any dirtier, Parliamentary Services would have to issue staff with hazmat suits.
My worst fear is that people forget. National are awful every single time they’re in power. Every. Single. Time. That awfulness operates on a sliding scale (Key really raised the bar on that shit), but it’s still awful. I’m not a fan of Winston Peters. I think he’s a pompous blowhard whose only real concern is self-preservation, but he wields comparatively little power and is easily ignored for the most part. National are well-organised, generously bank-rolled, driven by a mixture of self interest and toxic neoliberal ideology, fundamentally dishonest, lacking in empathy and prepared to do whatever it takes to win. They don’t care about New Zealanders. They care about enriching themselves and their wealthy friends before retiring to a cushy gig at a Chinese bank. Quid pro quo and all that.
Fuck National. The further away from the levers of power we can keep them, the better.
Wensleydale,
100% agree. A sad but superb and accurate read.
Cheers.
Agreed, the best analogy I can come up with is this. My 56 year old sister left for Australia in 2008 disillusioned with Clarke and the then Labour Government. She returned home with her family last year to be close to our ailing parents. Last night she informed me that she will returning to Aussie because NZ just isn’t the same anymore. She didn’t realise how NZ had declined in all areas including distrust for one another, people looking over their shoulders in fear, a dog eat dog mentally and a general lack of care for each other. She realised that actually 2008 wasn’t so bad after all. What has happened she asked me? My response was that for 9 years we had a government that was punitive, lacked integrity, little empathy, allowed for rampant immigration and therefore a NZ that no longer allows for equal home ownership, rising mental health, increasing crime statistics, politicians that were self serving and not serving the very people who put them there and lastly picies which benefitted a very small portion of society.. All of which results in a dog eat dog mentality. People no longer give way to each other when walking in the street, abuse is hurled, there is a sense of entitlement. Those in power believe they are untouchable and take no responsibility for any mistakes. No, this is no longer the NZ it once was. How do we change this, well maybe, just maybe it’s to late.
Correct. It’s not this government’s fault that they are hopeless, its Nationals… My brothers and sisters that make up the left need to seriously wake up and stop accepting mediocrity from our side. We have the treasury benches currently, which is frankly a rarity if you look at history. And what are we doing with that power and responsibility? Nothing substantial or transformative, we cant, because of National apparently. How truly pathetic the left has become. No wonder we are getting smashed in elections across the world.
Well writen comment . You seem to be a rarity on the left that while you support their views you can see the politicians on the left are not good at putting those views into practice. I basically support Nationals right wing approach but this does not mean I agree with all they do or say.
When you vote it is a pity that the personality of the leaders is to to the fore rather than what the party stands for.
And I vote the left wing approach based on empathy, policy and integrity. I believe Jacinda as a person encompasses both of those values.
Should National encompass empathy, policy and integrity, I would certainly look at them. Sadly history shows that I believe Bridges lacks in those areas as a person. JLR tapes prove that.
On the issue of blaming National, lets allow Labour 9 years of Governance to make comparisons. Then we can measure success versus failure. Plenty of people are using Kiwibuild as a failure. And yes I concede that indeed it was. But what was that on the back of? A housing crisis even National ministers agree upon. What are the Governments other failures?
Mickeyboyle I think you need to think about transformative when measuring National V Labour policy on mental health. National want to increase prison sizes to house more. Labour ARE building a 100 Mental Health unit at Waikeria prison to treat those with a mental health diagnosis with a recovery medical model. Ones punitive, ones transformational.
Substantial is improved wages and working conditions for teachers, nurses, health workers as well elderly and beneficiaries benefitted from the winter energy payment. Increasing the minimum wage is substantial and if you are in fact left leaning, don’t listen to those on the left bleating about National, they are yesterday news, they are the yesterday party. Get out and ask the teachers, nurses and health workers if you think Labour are failing us.
What’s even more extraordinary (& that’s bloody hard to beat as it is!) is the unashamed biased reporting in MSM at the moment around these issues afflicting NZF & the Chinational Party. Being handled, and covered, in opposite ways.
It goes beyond sickening. It is downright disturbing.
Yes and the MSM unashamedly aren’t even trying to hide it. Let’s see how many of the following, post columns on the National Party donation scandal and how many blame Ross alone.
Audrey Young
Claire Tevett
Mike Hosking
Heather du Plessis Allan
Fran O’sullivan
Kate Hawkesbury
Barry Soper
Mathew Hooten
! Breaking news!
Jamie Lee Ross one of 4 charged over National party donation scandal.
Grab the popcorn because if he goes down you can bet he’ll take a certain leader with him.
Winston is the least of Slimey Simon’s problems now!
Bert,
I agree.
The nasty Nats are smugly laughing that JLR has scored an own goal. If JLR is guilty of anything it will be that he was the frontman advising the Chinese donors how to split their donations. We all remember JLR asking Vile Bridges what he wanted to do with the donations? I’m certain JLR will reveal all. Bridges should be VERY nervous. Another interesting aspect is the Chinese donors made a statement saying they were “urged” how to split the donations. National, as always are knee deep in slime.
Bridges is the most untrustworthy National Party leader ever to hold that position. How ironic that Pullya Benefit is his deputy. Quintessional slime.
No j key is the most untrustworthy, Bridges is one of keys protégé as is JL Ross
“Journalist” is a very generous term for what Rachel Glucina does:
https://twitter.com/_RachelGlucina/status/727607447540535296
One things that sits in the craw about John Key’s reign of tyranny was that he had a “bottom draw” or maybe top draw of information that always silenced his detractors.
They are all complicit in what they are doing to this country.
I wouldn’t panic about John Key or any of his political descendants, they are Le Passe’, you will see the current COL govt returned to power. And you will see yet more of the filth of the ChiNational party , its dealings and its motives revealed in the next three years.
I predict, because of that , a return to a more centrist line by both major partys in the next few years. Extremism, will be less and less tolerated. And it is that time,… that voters need to reawaken to the possibility’s. I sense a weakening of the neo liberal agenda here in NZ,… it is now to be taken advantage of, so stay the course,… it is neo liberalism that we are at war against, that and that only.
Ok,there is no panic in my comment, it was an observation.
As for your prediction, I believe the exact opposite. The globe is heading towards a reign of facist extreme right wing government and that trend will not change until the world is almost dust.
I know too many of these neo liberals to think they will just roll over and concede all they have, both in terms of wealth and power.
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