Two photos just 6 years apart of new MPs being welcomed to the House reveals the significant shift towards diversity in our country in that short time.
I also think the two photos reveal why National is facing more than just a leadership issue – because they are increasingly looking like a monocultural party in a nation that has clearly becoming multicultural.
This in turn reveals why Labour shouldn’t worry that by implementing more progressive changes they will somehow lose voters who once supported National but chose to vote Labour this time around.
Why? Because ,political ideologies aside, the future is in diversity – and that is where the numbers are.
So if Labour wants to be returned to power in 2023 they would be wise to seriously review it’s rejection of the recommendations of its own tax working group.
They really do need to demonstrate this second term that they are prepared to govern in the interests of the many, not the few.
Bryan Bruce is one of NZs most respected documentary makers and public intellectuals who has tirelessly exposed NZs neoliberal economic settings as the main cause for social issues.
Diversity bar the largest minority… renters. How well represented in the Wage Slave Labour Party? *crickets chirping* Less icing, more cake, please….
“The Democrats and their liberal apologists adopt tolerant positions on issues regarding race, religion, immigration, women’s rights and sexual identity and pretend this is politics. These issues are societal or ethical issues. They are important. But they are not social or political issues.”
Social justice without economic justice is right wing.
i can use the covid app ‘ scan , not because i ‘ have to but more because – i don’t mind and feel like it’s becoming the normal .
give covid the kick
the rest of the world burns while life here can still be livable .
a good observation Bruce and in diversity there can be unity
As an oldie who is pretty tech savvy, I’m getting tired of the criticisms of those who don’t use the Covid app. I would love to.I can surf the net on my phone, exchange emails and texts and messages and calls, take and edit and share high quality photos, plus a myriad of other things. But whoops! Hang on. My phone is 4 years old – too old to take the app. So, would someone like to buy me a new phone? Or would someone like to devise a Covid app which is more easily available and user friendly?
As an oldie who is pretty tech savvy, I’m getting tired of the criticisms of those who don’t use the Covid app. I would love to.I can surf the net on my phone, exchange emails and texts and messages and calls, take and edit and share high quality photos, plus a myriad of other things. But whoops! Hang on. My phone is 4 years old – too old to take the app. So, would someone like to buy me a new phone? Or would someone like to devise a Covid app which is more easily available and user friendly?
exactly
and it is only through a new phone i am able do this 🙂
@RosieLee
How about some straight talking here? That group of 2014 Nats look like something out of the twilight zone, which is exactly what they turned out to be. I wouldn’t want to look at them again, and that’s for sure.
Give the anaemic sods a feed of liver and onions, and usher them off to profitable care homes where they can wander around in nappies making others like themselves rich, while the once-outliers sing, ‘Laugh and be merry.” Amen.
(What’s with the guy with the pink tie anyway? Daring to be different ? Oh no, a rebel.)
“…political ideologies aside, the future is in diversity – and that is where the numbers are”.
Yes, I agree. The Labour caucus is becoming far more diverse, in terms of gender, ethnicity and religious beliefs. And what a difference when compared to the National image of 2014 (gone also is the corporate grey suit, the neoliberal uniform).
Gender aside, AO/NZ IS becoming more ethnically and religiously diverse, especially in Auckland and Wellington. Along with the ongoing involvement of Maori, the tangata whenua, this new diversity has fed into political representation … and I will diversify even more. However, the reference in the piece to “the future is in diversity” refers not to the make-up of the caucus (as depicted in the image), but to the diversity of the electorate.
Here, in my mind, it becomes a little more complex. I go back to a previous post on TDB about political ideologies (Wayne Hope, Oct, 22nd). The argument was used to ideologically position political parties and politicians but I think it can also be usefully applied to the electorate and where they stand…although the resulting picture has far less clarity.
Looking at the economic side of things I can’t help thinking it is the few, not the many, who pull the strings – irrespective of what government is in the Beehive. Just what that few may look like in terms of diversity I am not quite sure. While we do live in a democracy is it fair to say that many economic decisions (including those directly related to the distribution of wealth) are made without consultation with the electorate? This was certainly the case with the Fourth Labour government, but arguably that was a special case. To be sure, the wealthy have vested interests, irrespective of diversity. Especially the very wealthy.
But people do not vote on economic issues alone. Many are equally concerned with moral issues and social rights, eg, in relation to race, culture, gender, sexual orientation, alcohol/drug use and freedom of speech. As covered previously in TDB that continuum stretches from radical social liberalism to extreme moral conservatism. Diverse views exist. But is this kind of diversity related to cultural or social diversity … to where “the numbers” are? Do all Muslims think the same way about moral issues and social rights? Are migrants and refugees (and their children born in AO/NZ) disposed to a particular way of thinking about moral issues and social rights? Are all who identify as Maori the same? Does gender matter? Sexual orientation? I don’t have the answers and I suspect not all that straightforward.
” They really do need to demonstrate this second term that they are prepared to govern in the interests of the many, not the few ”
Yes Bryan we live in hope.
National 2014 … male and pale, making for an extremely stale, drab lot, in comparison to the 2020 colourful and diverse version of the new Labour team.
Labour 2020 … simply put, a voice to speak for all NZers.
National 2020 … just doesn’t get it. Nothing new. Nothing has changed. Still no diversity. The rot has infested the party to its rotten core for yet another term. Oh well …
It would seem Bryan and others here are celebrating diversity as a self evidently good thing. Is it though? I’m not convinced for or against because I see no evidence of diversity being either positive or negative.
Do I prefer diversity 2020 style to 2016? Yes but I question what diversity means to our unity and cohesion as a polity? My observation is that we haven’t yet completed addressing Maori Pakeha relations through Tiriti process.
To this we have newer overlays. Hopefully it plays out well but I have reservations because I have never heard the issue discussed, let alone openly without rancour and a diversity of opinion.
More diverse in some many respects, and that’s great, but probably increasingly less diverse in some others including work and educational backgrounds.
Good point
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