There’s Method In Shane Jones’s “Racist” Madness.

By
Chris Trotter
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39
2945

WHAT IS SHANE JONES trying to do? In speaking so insultingly about the Indian student community he must have known he’d attract the ire of the people he calls “Ngati Woke”. Was he being provocative just for the hell of it, or did he have a more coherent political motive for courting accusations of racism and xenophobia?

While it is always unwise to overestimate the thoughtfulness of politicians, many of whom do not think through the consequences of their off-the-cuff public utterances, I do not believe that Shane was simply blurting. In my view, there is some pretty solid method to his allegedly “racist” madness.

Matt McCarten was fond of telling his comrades in the left-wing Alliance that under MMP it really doesn’t matter if you piss off 95 percent of the voters, so long as 5 percent of them want what your offering. It would seem that the same blunt analysis is currently driving NZ First’s electoral strategy. In practical political terms this means that the party will do whatever it takes to stay in the game – no matter how disruptive or potentially divisive.

At the heart of this new strategy lies what Jones has identified as NZ First’s “Population Policy Debate”. The party is clearly determined to home-in on New Zealanders’ rising anger over immigration. The evidence is mounting that New Zealand’s unaffordable housing crisis; the cost blow-outs in its public health system; the pressure on its schools, and the difficulty so many unskilled workers have in lifting themselves out of wage poverty; may all be traced back to the unprecedented flood of immigrants pouring into New Zealand over the past two decades.

The fact that the country’s population is set to top 5 million this election year, five years earlier than predicted; and that Statistics NZ is predicting an “Asian” population of between 1.2 and 1.4 million by 2038, has alarmed many Pakeha New Zealanders. Their fears have been further stoked by demographic projections indicating that over the next 20 years the European population of New Zealand will fall from its current 70 percent to 66 percent. Given that, 20 years ago, Europeans made up 80 percent of the New Zealand population, the trend is very clear. Racially-charged anxieties are rising, and NZ First – as it has done so successfully in the past – intends to exploit them ruthlessly.

The most effective way to build support for a radically revisionist “Population Policy”, is to provoke the initiators and defenders of New Zealand’s curent population policies into demonstrating their bitter opposition to any serious, broad-based debate about the country’s current immigration settings. NZ First is aiming to build a persuasive political narrative around the idea that the startling changes to New Zealand’s demographic profile are the result of a 34-year-old conspiracy involving this country’s intellectual, bureaucratic and political elites.

At the heart of this conspiracy, NZ First will argue, was the elites’ disgust at what they saw as this country’s de facto “White New Zealand Policy”. The framers of what would soon emerge as New Zealand’s brand new “multicultural” population policy, acknowledged the Pakeha majority’s strong preference for maintaining the existing ethnic balances in New Zealand society, but chose not to treat it as determinative. The majority, they argued, was racist and wrong: it should not be trusted – or heeded.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, NZ First leaders like Shane Jones will argue, the initiators of this new Multicultural New Zealand policy were equally unwilling to consider the preferences of the indigenous Maori population. Notwithstanding their passionate anti-racist rhetoric, the multiculturalists would have been aware, right from the start, that their policy, if successfully applied, would eventually result in immigrant communities expanding continuously until they overwhelmed (at least numerically) the Maori population.

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“What does it really say about the elites’ actual commitment to the Treaty of Waitangi,” NZ First will ask, “that they have been willing to oversee a process which, according to Statistics NZ’s 2017 projections, will see ‘Asians overtake the Maori in ethnic share within the next five years, and will make up more than one in five – or 22 per cent – of the population by 2038’?”

These questions have the potential to unleash the same sort of populist-nationalist fervour that brought the world Brexit and Trump. They evoke exactly the same feelings of having been excluded from the policy conversations that mattered; the conversations that resulted in devastating changes to the life-worlds of ordinary people. NZ First’s strategy is clearly to bring these conversations out into the “public square” where everyone can hear them, and where their originators can be challenged and interrogated.

Crucial to the strategy’s success will be the gathering of examples of elite spokespeople deriding and dismissing those who dare to breach these policy taboos. Jones’s comments regarding Indian students were obviously designed to do elicit just such a response – and they succeeded brilliantly. Just consider the following sentence from a Newsroom opinion piece headed “Why Jones is wrong about Indian students”, released yesterday (3/3/20) under the names of the University of Otago Vice-Chancellor, Harlene Haynes, and Otago Professor of International Relations, Robert Patman:

“Today, all states are confronted by security, economic and environmental challenges that do not respect territorial borders and cannot be resolved by populist-nationalist politicians promising to ‘take back control’ of national sovereignty in New Zealand or anywhere else.”

Clearly intended as a slap-down, the opinion piece played directly into Jones’s and NZ First’s hands. It will be held up as powerful proof of the elites’ scorn for ordinary people’s concerns. Not only that, it will serve as a demonstration of just how much of a lock multiculturalism has on academia, the media and mainstream politicians.

In this regard, National is especially vulnerable. An important element of its election strategy involves the electoral destruction of NZ First and the incorporation of its vote into National’s tally. But, just consider what would happen to National’s support among older anxious Kiwis, if NZ First was to highlight the fact that upwards of 75 percent of Chinese-New Zealanders vote National.

Suddenly, National’s strong support for the Multicultural New Zealand policy would take on a very different complexion. Suddenly, they would be charged with keeping the immigration flood-gates open for selfish electoral purposes. To hell with the kids who cannot get so much as a toehold on the property ladder! For every 10,000 adult Chinese migrants, National nets 7,500 votes. Ain’t “diversity” grand!

All those woke journalists working so assiduously to rid Parliament of Winston Peters and NZ First may yet be given cause to rue their actions. It was the veteran political journalist, Richard Harman, who only a few days ago responded when asked, on a RNZ podcast, to account for the relative mildness of populism’s influence on New Zealand politics, by observing that:

“Maybe we owe Winston Peters some thanks for this. New Zealand First, back in the nineties, picked up on those populist, nationalistic themes that we’re now seeing expressed in a much more extreme fashion [overseas]. We’re relatively lucky that our populist party – New Zealand First – has behaved in a very democratic and quite reasonable way over the years.”

That may be about to change.

 

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39 COMMENTS

  1. I think Mr. Trotter is on the money here. If the curious symbiosis led by Ardern manages to squeak a second term, ironically it may well be on account of Jones’ blokey un-PC provocations.

  2. A good summation thanks Mr Trotter.
    I note the same unversity elite bloc above calling for travel exemptions for foreign students, potentially risking kiwis health.only seen to be caring about $$$$$
    Corona virus is exposing how indentured our universities are to foreign interests.

  3. I for one and am less than convinced of the benefits of flooding NZ with Chinese / Indian immigrants and would have preferred the continuation of our ‘multiculturalism’ being restricted to Pakeha / Maori / Pacific Islanders . . the massive influx of Chinese to NZ (many of whom remain citizens of the PRC) is not in NZ’s best interests and this is only to get worse.
    I suspect while Machiavellian the above described strategy should attract support from others who feel similarly.

    • So you want “selective multiculturalism” oye! There ain’t no such thing as that.

      And truth be told, Chinese and Indians usually do better financially and educationally, are less of a burden in taxpayer in the long run as compared to the migrant types that you would prefer. Their participation rate in crime is abysmally low, compared to those other types that you have segmented.

      However, I suggest we need a Singapore style migration system, where we choose the best and the brightest, and once we have let them in, don’t chop the tall poppies.

      • Yes I imagine you could label it ‘selective multiculturalism’ and if ‘less of a burden on the taxpayer’ is the only criteria we should be working to maybe we should restrict immigration to allow only American billionaires?
        And despite your comments NZ having to cover the pension / healthcare etc costs of elderly Chinese who have come over due to having their children in NZ is a huge drain on the NZ taxpayer.

      • Also I suggest Squibb you should look into the massive overcrowding in Singapore or better yet move over there so you can experience it first hand . . and of course if you are from Singapore (and are so full of admiration for it) why are you here?

        • Well, I am not suggesting to be inspired by Singapore’s overcrowding situation.

          TBH you can’t really compare it with NZ really in terms of landmass. The overcrowding in NZ is because of useless government and their lack of foresight.

          What I am trying to say is we need to adopt middle ground, where we try to score the best and the brightest, irrespective of the race. Because when you are an insignificant and small nation like NZ, that’s the best and proven strategy.

          And despite your assumptions and ‘othering’, I am a kiwi although a “brown asiatic type one” (the ones that you may not typically think of as a kiwi).

          Thank you!

        • Well, I am not suggesting to be inspired by any places’s overcrowding situation. I am suggesting to learn the best policies from those who are successful.

          TBH you can’t really compare Singapore with NZ really in terms of landmass. The overcrowding in NZ is because of useless governments which are divided along the political poles of left or the right, and their lack of foresight.

          What I am trying to say is we need to adopt middle ground and apply whats rational and what works. We shoukd try to score the best and the brightest, irrespective of the race. Because when you are an insignificant and small nation like NZ, that’s the best and proven strategy. We could drive up our economy and innovation based on a sound immigration policy, instead of basing it on race based quotas.

          And despite your ‘assumptions’ and ‘othering’, I am a kiwi although a “brown asiatic type one” (the ones that you may not typically think of as a kiwi).

          Thank you!

    • From what I perceived living in New Zealand and seeing the picture projected within it by its media: New Zealand is assimilating its populations by giving them a common basis but at the same time emphasizing tribalism, reinforcing the feeling of belonging to specific sub-communities with their own codes and external signs of recognition, usually related to consumption of particular products. Hence the existence of terms of Blue-Dragons or Indian-Students even for people whose families have been living in New Zealand for two generations or more. But also the reduction of various populations to specific archetypes such as math nerd, dairy owner, fastfoodworker, meaning it is not simply an ethnical question but something broader than this, in which the immigration element is only part of it. There seems to be, from the discussions I have had in real life and online with people from New Zealand, a very strong fascination with the concept of identity based on genealogy and family history and how such elements should define how to behave and what role they will have within society.

  4. Clearly keeping NZ First in the headlines and judging by social media comments on places like news hub Facebook, he seems to be onto a winner with a lot more than 40% in mild agreement with parts of his comments…

    The people of NZ were not consulted about the mass immigration strategy of the last 2 decades and it seems to be adding to hardship for many NZ’er’s judging from the rise in hardship grants, food parcels, jobseeker rise, benefits blow out (in particular the rise of a tripling of Asian pensioners, because like trickle down seems to have the opposite effect to what was marketed by the neoliberals, aka immigration was supposed to save the pension not add to it) and further lowering of wages and conditions in NZ to everyone – not just migrants.

  5. I think ‘older anxious New Zealanders’ would quite like Asian migrants (apart from the out-and-out racists still fighting the Korean War and WW2) as those migrants tend to be law-abiding, hard working and respectful to NZers, especially towards the elderly. Also, lots of small businesses are started by Asian migrants.

    If those older Kiwis own a home, they quite like the higher house prices that more Asian migrants cause, and blame the government for not building enough houses.

  6. The quality is ‘sacrificed’ in the race for ‘migration based economy’. Firstly, Jones statement that the INSTITUTIONS have been compromised or weakened itself is wrong. Most of the private education providers were wanting to be offering mediocre and irrelevant pyrrhic certificates including diplomas, degrees and what not…golden promises with the MOON being shown to foreign students, including Indian students. Immigration New Zealand and NZ cannot tell the truth very plainly because they need to make the students dream of golden future including now-hard-to-get residency. Thanks to very many dodgy agents in India especially, who are not wanted by Immigration New Zealand to be either controlled or exposed, there are a raft of students here, who only may be having financial means but are lacking the grey matter required to be able to contribute positively to the society. We then get scandals, corruption and gross cases of migrants exploitation by the earlier generation of the migrants, mostly from the same country!! Corruption, though an English language word, has been practiced without any moral compunctions in most of the South East Asian countries, so that is completely unsurprising that those from their will generally never speak out against mediocrity or corruption or dodgy dealings and practices. Only a few, who wanted to run away from such evils and settle down in New Zealand are either in woeful minority or are treated as pariahs by their own country people as also the New Zealanders. I have tried to resist bullying, exploitation, racism and any sort of undemocratic way. I have suffered as generally people do not want to support an independent, uncompromising persons, who put morals and ethics as their basis, because these ones don’t generally behave as saying YES SIR to any boss for money. People like Shane Jones make the society extreme, but these ones get the leverage because of so many other factors overall due to lack of direction, honesty and policies to deal with Immigration on quality basis instead of quantity basis. The worst is yet to come, unfortunately. Sigh.

    • I quite like your comments.

      However I am tempted to give NZ First BOTH votes. Some, for the various reasons you mention, others, because NZ First seems to be singled out. The same recent charges could be laid at the feet of the National party equally as well.

      I , like so many others am a centrist, basically . Most NZ’s are. We like peace and quiet in out country. However many NZ’s vote National in the misguided notion they are ‘centrist’ . They are not. They are guided by the extremes of far right wing neo liberal capitalism such as the NZ Initiative.

      I have no truck with extreme far right neo liberalism in any shape or form, in saying that , some progressive policy’s are sheer lunacy. And they know it. I will not vote ‘progressive’ policy for simply being ‘progressive’. Much of it is sheer regressive.

      As savenz has mentioned , and as I have said too many times ,- New Zealanders were NEVER asked nor GAVE the mandate to these treasonous far right wing neo liberals for this massive flood into our country by FOREIGNERS, – YES FOREIGNERS!!!

      It was simply FOISTED upon us . And WHY?

      Because after the diaspora of NZ’s to Australia during the 1990’s which resulted in over 650,000 NZ’s settling there never to return from a country of then some 3.5 million population a nation similar back then to the country of Ireland , – these filthy treasonous neo liberals has us right where they wanted us.

      They bleated on and on about’ the brain drain’,- a problem which THEY CREATED IN THE FIRST PLACE !!!

      They then filled the media with us having to be being ‘ TOLERANT’ , with us being labelled as ‘XENOPHOBIC’ , – and that we should ‘ACCEPT ‘all these foreigners who didn’t give a flying rats shit about our culture or our history to pour into our country to make up the deficit and work for dirt shit cheap wages and further lower wages . And they had RUTH RICHARDSON dream up the Employment Contracts Act 1991 to further destroy wages and conditions. Not only that , – MEANS TESTING , – and SETTING THE BENEFIT FOR THOSE FAMILY’S UNEMPLOYED TO BE DELIBERATELY 20% BELOW THE AMOUNT NEEDED TO SURVIVE ON !!!

      Don’t you see what has been going on RIGHT under your very noses, New Zealanders??!!?? Cant you see the con job played out here ??? Even Auckland University is in on the act recently – among countless other numbers of opportunists throughout the decades- they simply being the most recent ones to hit the news because a microscopic microorganism has laid them low and now they are crying ( we don’t give a shit about their cushy holidays in Fiji BTW … ). Let alone the visa scams enabled by open borders , turning blind eyes and relaxed Immigration criteria.

      Neo Liberals.

      YOU TREASONOUS BASTARDS!!!!

      FUCK OFF !!!

  7. Close to the line Chris. Excellent article once again and a topic close to the hearts of many a kiwi. But how do you write about this without sounding like a racist? Every comment supporting Mr Jones view will be smashed down by the PC brigade, as I’m sure yours will be. However it is so true that much additional hardship has been heaped upon the average kiwi by all this immigration. Not to mention the crippling effects to our Maori people. Nothing new for NZF of course but good on them I say, not withstanding their negative influence on some policies I hope they or someone could stop this very damaging hussle.

    • We all need to grow up and get over our fear of being labelled ‘racist’ . . our fear of this word has culminated in our rather risking leaving ourselves open to a potential pandemic than the possibility of coming to the attention of some self-appointed woke PC police.

      • Exactly , – so who the fack are they , these ‘ self-appointed woke PC police’ ?

        Come on , – show yourselves , weasels!

        Lets have at it !!

        As usual… a roaring silence form the cowards needing dutch courage in the form of chardonnay.

        Weak as dish water. So why do we listen to them?

  8. The starting point for negotiation has to be reciprocated Kiwi rights overseas (citizenship, buying land, ability to influence a country’s future after having lived there for only 5 seconds). Otherwise migrants should stay away (I’m talking people of the first world here, the entitled property class, not the good people from countries destroyed by the West’s endless wars). Once foreigners have relocated to Aotearoa they should then live here for at least a thousand years before they have the opportunity to be treated like second class citizens.

    • … ” Once foreigners have relocated to Aotearoa they should then live here for at least a thousand years before they have the opportunity to be treated like second class citizens ”…

      ——————————–

      I don’t recall EVER being asked by this or any other prior crop of neo liberal fuckers whether we wanted this or not. They just rammed through and onto us. Just like they did during the DEFORMS of the mid 1980’s and early 1990’s.

      And the rest of these fuckers have just carried it on ( Clark , Key , English and Adern ) assuming NZ’s would just meekly bleat a little then go back to chewing the cud.

      WELL FUCK OFF !!!

      We don’t need them, don’t want them , never needed them and never were ASKED if we did either.

      What we DO NEED, however , is an apology for 34 years of societal and economic rape, legislation passed to prevent neo liberal rapine ever happening again, and the reversal of the FOUR FOREIGN AUSTRALIAN BANKS who suck literally billions of dollars out of our economy per annum !!!

      LEASES instead of LAND PURCHASES for FOREIGN INDUSTRY.

      NO LAND SALES to any FOREIGNER unless they become a NZ CITIZEN.

      The Reserve Bank to come under direct Government control again.

      CESSATION of permanent residents getting the vote UNTIL they are NZ citizens.

      NO ( or extremely limited – including YOU , Australians ) WELFARE or PENSIONS given to FOREIGNERS unless they are actual NZ citizens.

      FREE tertiary education to NZ citizens – barring FOREIGNERS.

      A sliding taxation system that FORCES corporate’s and FOREIGN CORPORATE’S to PAY their FAIR SHARE and thus contribute to OUR infrastructure and their PRIVILEGE to conduct business in OUR COUNTRY.

      And that’s only the ferking START !!!

      FFS !!!

  9. Most comments and discussions I have heard refer to the numbers coming here and their impact on housing and services and not the origin of those people. We have one of the highest, if not the highest rate of immigration in the developed world. The UK has immigration levels at 1/6 of ours over the same period. I need not mention what happened there. There is now effectively an open door on unskilled labour. This is now extending into skilled roles as well. Instead of skill shortages translating into businesses promoting or training up people into roles and higher salaries they now simply run to government and demand they be allowed to import someone. Hence our pay and conditions continue to fall. As we don’t have any proper economic or industrial policy, business largely runs on supporting the new arrivals. At some point if we don’t diversify the economy the supply will dry up and we will be left with a plunging economy. Immigration is of benefit up to a certain point, we need to work out what that point is.

  10. No here one will be offended by me saying that letting lots of super rich people into the country will bring increased corruption with it and most would agree that we want that happening – except that it is.

    If however I point to a group of immigrants seem to me be very hard-nosed about everything I could get a lot of flack.

    A lot of people emigrate because life is extremely hard where they come from, they have to fight hard to get even the most basic needs met. If lots of people with this approach to life come to NZ what happens? Does our culture change? Do they change? Does the unwelcoming attitude from racist NZers make them harden up even more? Do their children inherit their attitudes or are they more relaxed because they grow up in NZ where life is not so desperate?

    Questions like this are worth asking but the debate gets closed down really fast every time it comes up. Ironically enough it is the people who are demanding we be open minded to other races who are completely closed off to these discussions.

    • So,…bloody India where they have the atom bomb and a large elitist class , – some of whom are rich listers yet meanwhile maintain a caste system and further out in the boonies,… whole tribes / family’s pumping fucking water from a dirty, muddy shithole in the ground?

      How long has India been around? What changes has the world seen in human / social / economic rights over the last few decades?

      Where the fuck were India’s policy makers in social reform been in that same time frame?

      Lining their nests?

      If that’s the sort of society you want here , bud, – go live in New Delhi.

      And campaign to make the poor of India’s plight easier. What say you?

      Too hard basket?

      Too hard getting their own fat fucking rich cunts to care?

      So we have to take on a nation of 1.2 BILLION people? That what you want us to do ? – or China’s 1.3 BILLION people ??!!??

      REALLY ?!!? , – SERIOUSLY ?!!?

    • …” Ironically enough it is the people who are demanding we be open minded to other races who are completely closed off to these discussions”…

      My apologies.

      I thought you were for those ‘other ‘ woke ‘ creep neo liberal fifth columnists.

      Obviously not.

  11. FWIW I have voted NZ First the last couple of elections, and Jones’ boorish comments make me less likely to vote for them again, not more.
    It all reeks of hollow opportunism from a party that supported the TPPA and the Global Migration Pact, both of which went against everything for which NZF purports to stand.
    It might appeal to the uneducated lowbrows among their support base, but it is increasingly obvious that only ACT is offering an authentic alternative to the prevailing regressive, authoritarian ‘woke’ zeitgeist.

    • My thoughts exactly except of the National party. Trying to be relevant by their angry at gangs media bonanza, their roads of mass destruction policy , tax cut and their anti everything Labour media time. Boring, boring, boring!
      Remembering the appalling 9 years of their dictatorship, no thanks.

    • Which bank? One of the Australian ones who sucked 6 billion dollars out of the NZ economy?

      Or some other FOREIGN BANK we haven’t heard of yet?

      And in case you haven’t done the math’s, National isn’t known as National – no – friends for nothing . Labour will be returned to power along with NZ First and the Greens in the next election. Whether you like it or not.

      The Bill English driven, John Key led 9 year term was more than enough to remind NZ’s of the odious years of Roger Douglas and Ruth Richardson. The fact they , nor National under Jonkey did not see how odious they were to the general public is not our concern. The fact they were voted out is entirely THEIR concern. Not ours.

      The fact National are struggling now is not the voters concern either.

      You fuck with people ?, – you get shat on in return.

      You bludge off the taxpayer with handsome salary’s and live the high life at our expense and deliver nothing except for your mates?- then expect to get dumped. You have been let off lightly. In other country’s you would have been summarily executed.

      Think on that the next time you are tempted to welch on the good nature of New Zealanders.

      Even our patience has its limits.

  13. –There is a thirty year old underclass in this country, more than somewhat to do with displaced workers from the original Rogernomics and Ruthanasia sacking binge of productive workers including public sector, and sometimes subsidised industries like car assembly. These people were never seriously retrained as a group, they were essentially discarded, and then pilloried by WINZ/MSD as it became, and public opprobrium approved by the state. Junior Stasi “Dob in a bludger” ads were on TV during the Shipley years. And then…migrant workers appeared, not their fault individually, capital crosses all borders why not labour–if it is low paid obviously…

    –Bums on seats education since the 90s means paying customers are required and encouraged. That is why private providers sprung up in addition to state schools and existing Tertiary.

    NZ First does not seem to have the ideological firepower to make sense of all this, but they can certainly exploit their niche as Chris alludes to.

    • … ” Junior Stasi “Dob in a bludger” ads were on TV during the Shipley years ”…

      Yes ,… yes ,… I remember that Hitlerite mentality very well. Similar to the sort of totalitarian mentality of the current leader of the CCP.

      Man this small country has put up with so much shit from these neo liberal arseholes.

      I think its time we had retrospective trials for all these fuckers on treason charges. Hand em down 30 year sentences. That should see most of them die in prison. But that doesn’t go far enough, – all moneys, assets in trusts etc to be commandeered by the state and put towards housing projects for the working poor. That would ensure their grandchildren don’t see a penny of it and have to struggle under the very same conditions their grandparents imposed on the current generation.

      I’d call that about square, wouldn’t you?

  14. No comments I have seen here have paid any attention to the essentially dishonest philosophy, ‘where we try to score the best and the brightest, irrespective of the race” I have seen statistics claiming that the cost of educating a Kiwi from birth to a tertiary degree level is many tens of thousands of $$. How would you feel if, as soon as that person has achieved his degree, he is snaffled by a more prosperous nation? The losing nation gets no return on its massive investment. The nation that snares him gets a highly expensive asset scot free. Its essentially theft, yet that is what nearly all these comments propose, without, as far as I can see, any twinge of conscience.
    Our duty in this climate change era, is to produce our own people, better educated but not more numerous and stop stealing the ‘best’ of other nations.

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