The reason Labour are so ineffective is because they had no reform agenda for the public service. They didn’t expect to win 2017 and Covid eclipsed all else so there was no way to fix the structures of the neoliberal state.
Hence they have been limited to and by the truncated neoliberal state who exist to ensure the poorest get less. The Wellington Bureaucratic Elite run NZ, the elected representatives are the masquerade of democracy so everyone continues to pretend the pantomime.
An idealogical blitzkrieg against Treasury was required, Māori Social Agencies with actual agency, a mass detoxification of culture in MSD, WINZ, Corrections plus a vast rebuild of a Ministry of Works wrapped within a work culture of 10 weeks holiday plus mental health days to help destress public servants enough so that they don’t start hating the people they are supposed to be caring for.
It is only once the Neoliberal State is reformed and refounded that you can start implementing genuine policy.
So.
Any Party promising a real Left agenda has to start at reforming the State, otherwise policy gets bogged down and robbed of its power.
Labour will hold the middle classes in 2023, but the Greens have an opportunity to take the desperate voters Labour have betrayed from Labour and snooker Jacinda into being reliant on the Greens for a majority.
Labour’s inability to actually do anything presents a genuine opportunity for the Greens to outflank Labour and force them to make changes.
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Yes agree and I repeat they don’t know what to do.
The Greens are consumed by and renown for identity politics and most voters cannot stand it. They are not the answer, they are a punch line to a bad joke.
They are accomplices in the litany of Labour’s failings. Whilst Golriz is tisking at a ban on travellers from India, homelessness skyrockets in places like Gisborne too because a combination of investors and idiotic government/ Reserve Bank policy dump cheap money into the real estate industry.
We are stuck in no man’s land of no one to vote for. And worse, no reason to vote.
Once again I agree with your comments. Greens are a bad joke Labour are been showing up as heartless liars National are struggling to find their path back to power while beset with in fighting Act have so many new members that need to prove themselves that it is hard to comment.
Is there a party in the wings that can fill the void?
“We are stuck in no man’s land of no one to vote for. And worse, no reason to vote”.
A failure of democracy? One premonition, seen on TDB, is that the populist Right will rise from the discontentment, as it did in the US. The more likely scenario is that the middle Right will again claim the swing vote. Historically that seems the precedent here. Yet these are strange times, on a number of counts.
Wow ! I just learned that only 18% of those enrolled didn’t go on to vote? I’m truly surprised…And a bit depressed if I must be truthful. I would have thought it’d a been a much higher non voter stat. Like 30% or more and in so doing support my demands for the introduction of mandatory voting.
But no. Proving me wrong, enrolled yet non voter turnout has been steadily decreasing since at least 2014.
It was 23% for 2014, 20% for 2017 and 2020 saw 18% of those able to vote didn’t so that number’s been steadily improving by decreasing since at least 2014.
Clearly, people see something worth voting for and what’s more they’re NOT VOTING FOR FUCKING NATIONAL OR THEIR SUNDRY GREEDY, FREAKY KlINGON HANGERS-ON PARTIES.
That’s worth a double whoop rather than a mopy Mr Misery Trousers I’d a thought.
I think it’s fucking great that we, the people, switched on enough to rid ourselves of the awful, horrible natzo’s and long may the natzo’s get fucked and not in that good way with the kissing etc.
Voting is the ONLY thing stopping us from falling into a white, far right, fascist, neoliberal autocracy presided over by people with Big Money and little diddles.
Check out this interesting old bugger from years ago?
The Guardian
“Wilhelm Reich: the strange, prescient sexologist who sought to set us free”
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/apr/17/wilhelm-reich-the-strange-prescient-sexologist-who-sought-to-set-us-free
For 2 terms the people voted for National as Labour destroyed itself with infighting . Were all these voters just greedy or did they make a calculated decision about who they gave power too . 2017 Laour was pushed into power by a politican wanting his last chance at power and was not the people’s choice.
2020 it is now National destroying itself but their day will return as they make themselves a solid choice again and Labour continues to be the do nothing government that is in charge now.
Many have forgotten the damage Key and National did in nine years splitting our country into haves and have nots, home speculation rather than ownership. Because of this there are many issues coming to fruition now with the biggest of all being an overpopulated country. We are seeing this first hand in health and the massive underfunding has left our health system in tatters. If people believe National are the answer then we are asking the wrong questions.
Yes, certainly overpopulated in regards to housing them. What an indictment against the country that signed the U.N Bill of Rights that stated ‘All human beings have a right to a warm dry home’, eh?
Sadly while the Greens worry about identity politics and getting the rich and poor overseas nationals to NZ while crying out how much more taxes workers in NZ should be paying, they lack credibility.
Saw this article for example, US Film director James Cameron and his wife buying up land and getting NZ permanent residency/citizenship… https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/checkpoint/audio/2018791897/james-cameron-explains-dairy-cows-on-wairarapa-farm
No doubt promising to bring the usual jobs to the community etc, so it is in the public interest to approve his applications.
But wait, apparently the labour they intent to use in NZ is from Solomon Islands or Philippines…. not NZ labour in their farm. Was this clear in their application for the OIA and residency applications? You would think that with the amount of money these people have, they could afford real wages and conditions for local people and not need to bring in cheap labour, but I guess the modern way to get super rich is by being as cheap as possible for your own gain.
“Our plan to expand the veggie operation and get the animals off basically sort of got derailed by the pandemic, because we needed a lot more labour for the veggie operation than we do to run the stock, and our access to labour from the Solomon Islands or Philippines and things like that basically just went away. ”
We all know that the US was founded on bringing black slaves into the US to work the farms. NZ new migrants from all around the world increasingly seem to have a similar ideas, only the workers that they bring to NZ are not slaves but willing migrants due to being able to get NZ residency and citizenship and have free NZ health care, schooling and social care for their families (not paid by their employers) but the NZ tax pool. First it is the international film staff coming to NZ, now it’s the farm hands… next who knows???
And now he can apparently come and go form NZ as a resident here as he owns land here. https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/122362185/james-cameron-i-want-to-make-all-my-films-in-new-zealand
OK, not sure how this type of arrangement is helping NZ? Seems to be just increasing property prices, not running farms very efficiently by non farmers having a go, and giving out yet more NZ passports that gives overseas nationals and their families NZ citizenship, free health, education, superannuation etc while they flit in and out of NZ (with their dogs) when it suits them (aka Covid), with a probably loss making NZ businesses on the go, and bringing in cheap labour to NZ to make Kiwis provide for in the longer term?
In the film industry we know the bigwigs have already been busy removing decent employment conditions for locals https://www.theguardian.com/business/2010/oct/31/warner-bros-new-zealand-hobbit-film and bringing in more international nationals in the film (and now farm hands) to take up our housing, health and every other crisis in NZ from the above approach.
Like Sroubek somehow even without being a NZ citizens yourself you can start bringing in more overseas workers and getting them residency. It’s crazy. No wonder locals are turning to gangs, local jobs seem to be going back in time 100 years to being peasants toiling in the fields of some rich overlord.
Yet another Chef in the news as somehow their restaurant chain which no doubt were heavily wage subsidised through Covid any one who doesn’t agree is ignorant and racist (as reported by woke stuff).
Yep, that must be why sunset businesses like being a chef or a farm hand were one of the biggest migrant occupations coming to NZ…
the other day in the news a Chinese fish and chip shop family got their Chinese grandma without NZ residency into NZ using their 5yo child they left behind in the pandemic after getting NZ residency for themselves.
6 weeks holidays seem common in the restaurant trade, then these small businesses after getting NZ permanent residency seem to fail, and they and their staff are on social welfare and refusing to leave NZ.
Too many migrants seem to be coming to NZ via ‘food’ ventures that seem to have side businesses with drug importation, gangs and kidnapping. Aka https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/77491200/boot-fall-woman-dies-from-injuries
Seriously, the politicians in NZ need to take organised crime more seriously and who is coming to NZ and what prospects they have, (if any) and will they turn to crime to earn money in NZ if it looks easy? Criminal rings are targeting these people as a never-ending supply to help with their criminal enterprises.
Now our prisons are full of people like Sroubek with his juice business with MDMA on the side and this guy on the run after being in jail https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/117863584/guarded-prisoner-uditha-punchihewa-escaped-from-hospital-toilet and was in todays news again with the word ‘daring escape’ (sounds like Stuff is glorifying dangerous prisoners escaping custody?) https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/124833664/the-inside-story-of-a-prisoners-daring-escape-from-a-hospital-toilet
LINO is not left wing. They managed to co-opt the Alliance which was left wing. We need a new genuinely left party such as the Alliance was.
Right on there Editor!
The State Sector Act, Reserve Bank Act and all the rest opened this country up to international capital a long time ago, and the passage of time is a problem in itself, selfish neo liberal hegemony is now as natural as the falling rain for many.
Greens are not going to go class left all by themselves, so everyone needs to participate in developing allies and unity for a 2023 electoral push back against the monetarist state. The Māori Party may be into it and there are certainly thousands of alienated of all ages, and generation renter and student loaner to be recruited.
No time for defeatism–yes Climate Disaster is upon us, yes even the sun will collapse on itself one day eventually–but not this day! Labour has had more than their bloody chance to serve the working class of Aotearoa NZ and they have not only squandered it–they have offered a one finger salute to the 50% that own around 2% of the wealth.
LINO Adern and company will do ZILCH to address ANY of the fundamentals that are driving the collapse of NZ society and collapse of the environment.
To do so would involve taking on the banks and corporations that run the show, and the absurd and dysfunctional theories of mainstream economists and. as you say Martyn, the business-as-usual bureaucracy that is actually scared of its own shadow but will never admit to the fact and will keep pounding away with mutually exclusive concepts like ‘protecting the environment’ whilst promoting tourism and conversion of arable land into suburbia.
Once you recognise that none of the politicians or bureaucrats have any real idea what they are doing and that it’s all just a vast shell game embedded in a Ponzi scheme, you know exactly what to do.
“Until you change the way money works, you change nothing.” -Mike Ruppert (and many others)
Labour fails at everything they attempt, but worse they want hate speech laws which sound more like Communist Russia than real totalitarian Russia ever did. It is no longer a conspiracy theory to worry that Labour might suppress anti-Govt viewpoints in future, which would be a disaster for everyone in NZ and could be used by future NZ Govts to stifle dissent whether they be far laft, far right and everything in between. All NZ citizens should be very scared of what Labour are trying to do in this area. ACT alone are standing up for free speech. This single issue might see ACT rise dramatically next election.
Both Labour and National no longer represent their traditional value bases and are hopelessly stuck in woke bs. Both deserve to be replaced by something new, preferably something representing NZ values. It is a sad reflection on NZ democracy that there is no political party worth voting for, all we can see is which party will do the least harm. And it is an odd thing to say that right now, the party that will do less harm might well be ACT becasue of free speech, freedom etc issues.
Mana scared the c**p out of the other political parties, was a real alternative in the left space without woke BS and would have surpassed the Greens by now. Seriously Mana should come back. They could get over 5%. Look how ACT who got less than them, turned around their fortunes on some different pathways from other parties.
Well some political entity will need to be the pointy end of the spear. I was a Mana supporter, as were many leftists. Thanks to the disastrous loss of Te Tai Tokerau in the “Dotcom” election–ably assisted by the whole political establishment turning on Internet Mana, & Labour sloshing resources into the West Auck end of the electorate, the brand is likely poison and a “new & improved” front will be needed.
Hating Dotcom and punishing Mana for it is just falling into John Keys hands.
Mana took a risk, and it very nearly paid off, but didn’t because of dirty politics. At least they tried.
ACT was on less that 1% of the party vote at the time now on 8% and Greens were on 11% and NZ First on 9% so there was a lot of competition for votes.
In 2014 Mana had higher party votes than both ACT and the Maori Party so it was a shame that Hone Hawawira is still punished and considered a failure by the lefties instead of supporting him and asking him to stand again. He could have done an ACT and be a contender by now with more support.
I hope Mana come back and combine old Greens and NZ First policy, because there are a lot of missing voters out there who are looking for a party that has a different approach than neoliberal based growth, growth, growth.
Actually, if MANA do come back, I’ll vote for them, – failing that? , it’ll be Social Credit.
I will no longer support the two largest party’s.
Had enough.
Ben what do you know about Russia. Last look I had it certainly was not communist.
Have I missed something.
NZ had a government that made massive structural changes in the 1930s and the people were right behind it. A raft of social legislation was put in place that we still benefit from what is left of it today.
Act. What do they point towards.
Orr is pulling Jacindas strings to please Queen Bindy.
We agree.
The Wellington Bureaucratic Elite run NZ, the elected representatives are the masquerade of democracy so everyone continues to pretend the pantomime.
and it has been this way for decades!!
Have you considered the infiltration of the public service with neoliberal bias when appointments are made.
There is https://www.top.org.nz/policy – as a disillusioned Labour/Green voter I’m giving TOP serious consideration for the next election.
Yes Peter TOP have my vote secured for next election.
I was going to vote for them last year but was worried about them not reaching 5% and my vote would be wasted. I decided to vote the greens instead so Labour would have a left wing leash around its neck but unfortunately they got the majority and my vote was wasted anyway.
To me, TOP has the best policies for the future, and it appeared the greens cheery picked some and renamed them in a rush up to the election to try to present some actual policies besides identity politics.
From the TOP website: ‘CLIMATE FRIENDLY RECOVERY’
What does that mean?
Kill the Earth a little more slowly?
Ha!
There is no recovery possible to the chronic and widespread damage done and continuing with BAU.
Extinction doesn’t recover.
The evolution of a new human space for a much smaller human group in a depleted environment is not a recovery but is the only thing that looks like hope. And that’s well after this present system collapses and its fucking with the biosphere is over.
Runaway is well beyond collective human power to control but it hasn’t taken human cohesion of purpose to start it.
Labour got popular by actually putting a tiny bit of help for the people that nobody had seen from the Natz who were only interested in their 100k donations and which ethnicity gave them the most money.
Labour set off a glimmer of hope for the public, AKA no building consent for buildings under 30m2 etc…. trying to subtly turn off the mass immigration experiment, try to help huge levels of injustice aka Pike River, but since those days… rot seems to have set in….
The helicopter pilots who helped save lives at White Island are now being investigated by work safe. The average person thinks these people should get a medal.
Everyday another screw up and a Kiwi number 8 wire mentality, being punished. Today’s news.
“A Christchurch City councillor has been fined $300 after digging a trench to solve a street’s flooding problem that had gone unfixed for 10 years.”
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/christchurch-councillor-phil-mauger-fined-over-trench-dug-to-fix-10-year-flooding-problem/CHNBSLRIVE6MVG2OIGZGQFGB64/?utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=nzh_fb&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwAR3KmzWgqFm3P4dEkP6pL5aGuzXQMZiO6qgJoBWLi5-i1MrO0zeIVjxYpfc#Echobox=1618440528
Apparently people in CHCH want this man to be mayor now!
The mood of the public are they are tired of do-nothing politicians that do nothing but stop other people solving problems that are not hard to solve! 10 years sounds like a significant amount of time for the CHCH council to have to fix a drainage problem themselves but they can’t be arsed to do that, but quick to give a fine to someone who tries to help! After 10 years people actually get a tad desperate and most people can relate to that.
Imagine the public burning and Labour appearances of the much publicised ‘swamp house’ of a landlord, but councils can have swamps for 10 years and do as little as they like, it seems.
Central government and the culture from councils is getting worse and worse… and they also have significant effects on people’s lives. Selling off assets and expanding debts for private rich individuals (sleepyhead estate, Fletchers fast racked) while the average person who plays by the rules, has the right consents to do things, is being screwed over while getting zero help with anything from government and councils. Then the bastards will take the building labour of normal houses off other projects and import a mass amount of overseas builders who will clog up the roads, housing, hospitals, doctors etc… Then there will be special rates and taxes to pay for the above that the local community can’t afford.
Housing is not that hard. Planning is not that hard. AKA you build higher density along main transport lines in the central cities…You train people and employ experts who know what they are doing so you have a steady flow of labour. You have conditions to reward experience and keep workers in the industry. NZ’s money making venture seems to be buy some cheap farm land, then lobby the powers that be, to build on it , and the infrastructure and what ever else is needed, in the middle of nowhere for private gain. If you go into liquidation, no worries!
The majority of time, when these high profile people get unusual political help it all turns to mud or flames aka Skycity… huge delays, never gets built as promised, burns down and takes out the city, gambling and social harm increases…. The biggest mall being built in NZ is now is in receivership… more people who seem to know nothing about development somehow get a grandiose idea and then the public funds it in some way, (or the banks and set of GFC) instead of what they should be funding and what people pay their taxes and rates for.
The covid testing is now a disaster. Labour will be pummelled in the media if we get another lockdown from the OZ bubble and all the strange folks who seem to be taking up the MIQ places aka wiggles, Russian fishers, covid carrying pensioners coming from India, sportspeople, blah, blah .
This type of situation is where people get angry at the stupidity. Labour briefly looked like they might help the average person and get someone a house this year to rent or buy but the opposite is happening, same old, same old, people flooding into NZ with heaps of cash but little income and then bringing more and more of the same with them. Labour has faded quite a lot this term after a better start previously.
Here comes the nutshell !!!
————–
…” The mood of the public are they are tired of do-nothing politicians that do nothing but stop other people solving problems that are not hard to solve! ”…
—————
The problem is people who think a pathetic and failing Centrist ideology has any relevance to a Leftist ideology.
yep…
Or the problem is people who think a pathetic and failing Centrist ideology has any relevance to a Rightest ideology !
ROFL!, Jest kiddin, but you can see how it rolls!
At this rate, Housing is going to be an issue forever. It doesn’t get any better. More mental health issues, more crime and an increase to the 11.7% unemployment rate too. How can this government fail anymore? $900k per week in motel spending and a $33bn Welfare bill for Labours failure of a government. It’s ackshully worst than when National was in government!! Bubble Economics and Toxic Positivity ideology gets you nowhere.
1 Million could have been better spent converting abandoned buildings for housing.
Round the clock security for abandoned psychiatric hospital has cost more than $1 million
https://www.stuff.co.nz/waikato-times/news/124818332/round-the-clock-security-for-abandoned-psychiatric-hospital-has-cost-more-than-1-million
…”ackshully ”…
A legacy word from the Key era.
” Labour’s inability to actually do anything presents a genuine opportunity for the Greens to outflank Labour and force them to make changes ”
I have no confidence in the Green party doing anything ground-breaking even if they are in a position of authority post 2023.
It will be the Greens who are outflanked.
The neo liberal social democrats and their masters will not allow the insipid Green MPs or their supporters one ounce of credible involvement in the make up and direction of the next Blairite administration other than the usual token gesture of indulging them just a little with seemingly important posts outside cabinet that are only symbolic.
The Greens will never hold a gun to the Social Democrats heads because the sight of blood would be to much to bear.
A new party with the determined objective to deliver on a real programme of social , environmental and economic justice and will not be cowered by the immense power of the ” market ” rather face it head on and communicate the message that it is the economy and how it is structured around everything being about profit in the provision of social services for example is a good place to start.
A new vehicle will immediately come under sustained attack as did Corbyn in the U.K but the fight has to start from here and soon and have the tenacity , strength , and resources that can harness the many who are in desperate need of hope and a party determined to act on their behalf and use MMP to force real change.
…”The neo liberal social democrats ”…
I like that. You have coined it well. In that one small sentence you have encapsulated the oxymoron that is neo liberalism , as THEY would have you believe!
That they are at once, not ‘democratic’,- nor are they ‘social’.
We had a “new” party with a strong social agenda and structural change lead into a state bank.
It was firstly Jim Anderton and he wasn’t supported then Mana and all the existing parties ganged up on getting rid of Mana.
The average Kiwi takes his thinking from MSM which is rigidlt controlled by factional interests. RNZ put out US/Reuters propaganda and that becomes the mindset of Joe and Mary Blow.
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