THERE’S NO DISPUTING the shock-value of the statistics assembled by Bernard Hickey in his latest Kaka podcast. What they show is that, in responding to the Covid-19 pandemic, the New Zealand Government transferred vastly more money to the business sector and homeowners than it did to beneficiaries and the working poor. Or, as he puts it: “The Labour Government, supported by the Greens, presided over policies that accidentally on purpose engineered the biggest transfer of wealth to asset owners from current and future renters in the history of New Zealand.”
Well … maybe. The problem with statistics is that they are generally presented without regard to context. To be honest, that’s probably a good thing. I don’t think it would be all that helpful (or ethical) for the Department of Statistics to encase its data in a carapace of tendentious ideology. In the 1950s American cop show, Dragnet, the hero’s signature line was: “Nothing but the facts.” That sounds about right to me.
So, let’s not argue about the facts. I’m sure a financial journalist of Mr Hickey’s experience has got the numbers right. What I’m much less certain of is whether his interpretation of the facts makes a great deal of sense.
In a nutshell, what Mr Hickey seems to be saying is that in an unabashedly capitalist nation, a government elected on the strength of middle-class (i.e. homeowners) votes, made sure that the massive transfers of cash required to keep the economy afloat in the midst of a global pandemic went to capitalists, and the people whose votes they really, really, really didn’t want to lose.
Well, duh! Who would have thought it?
And, with all due respect to Mr Hickey, it is nothing short of facile to evince horror and outrage that the perpetrators of this exercise in maintaining class (and, let’s be honest, racial) privilege were Labour and Green politicians. Labour gave away its historical role as the workers’ friend in 1984 – nearly 40 years ago. What’s more, since the introduction of “Rogernomics”, the Labour Party has occupied the Treasury Benches for a total of nearly 14 years. In all that time, it has made no serious attempt to dismantle the neoliberal regime it created. Expecting Jacinda Ardern to behave like Mickey Savage is just silly.
Especially when you consider the makeup of New Zealand’s House of Representatives. Labour, an unabashedly capitalist party, holds 65 seats. National, another unabashedly capitalist party, holds 35 seats. Act, a fanatically capitalist party, holds 10 seats. The Greens, supposedly not a capitalist party, but one which has, to date, done nothing to suggest that it is an anti-capitalist party, also holds 10 seats. Which leaves the Māori Party, an ethno-nationalist party which appears to be okay with capitalism – but only if it’s Māori capitalism – with just 2 seats.
The question I would put to Mr Hickey is: How would he have persuaded this House of Representatives, composed more-or-less entirely of MPs committed to the preservation of New Zealand’s capitalist system, to adopt policies which differed in any meaningful way from those actually implemented by the Labour Government of Jacinda Ardern? Not forgetting that for the first few months of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Prime Minister was dependent on the support of NZ First – a party convinced that capitalism could, and should, do better.
Presumably, Mr Hickey believes that New Zealand’s parliamentarians, alerted to the sheer bloody inequity of their Covid response, should have felt obliged to come up with something much kinder and fairer.
But why would they feel obliged to do that? Just recently I learned that in the United States the friends of capitalism (about 90 percent of the country) not only believe in the doctrine of laissez-faire – French for letting the market rip – but that they also subscribe to what they call “lazy-fair”. Apparently, because so many of the underprivileged are lazy, it’s only fair that they’re poor. I know, I know, it’s an awful thing to say – although I’m sure it raises a good guffaw among the Country Club set. But, you know what? Although they would never repeat such an awful “joke” out loud, there are plenty of Kiwi MPs (some of them in the Labour Party) who subscribe wholeheartedly to the underlying philosophy of the “deserving” and “undeserving” poor.
Even worse, there are hundreds-of-thousands of ordinary Kiwi voters who subscribe to exactly the same philosophy – with bells on. The awful truth about New Zealand politics is that practically all of our political parties are just too scared to suggest anything like the massive transfer of wealth to the “current and future renters” whom Mr Hickey clearly believes the Government’s Covid response should have targeted.
The only way such a transfer could possibly have eventuated is in a political context dominated by the electoral success of a party aggressively representing the interests of the working poor and beneficiaries. Assuming such a party drew the bulk of its support from the 700,000 eligible voters who declined to participate in the last election, its impact on what politicians considered both possible and acceptable would be huge.
The problem, of course, is that every party which has tried to mobilise these voters has failed miserably. The Internet-Mana Party may have had a brilliant manifesto (so brilliant that I voted for it) but its share of the 2014 Party Vote was a demoralising 1.42 percent.
In other words, if all the “current and future renters” had voted for Internet-Mana in 2014, its ideological and political influence would have made the Covid-19 response delivered by Labour over the past 21 months unthinkable.
And that’s what I mean by statistics shorn of context not amounting to very much. For the only people who counted – the people who voted – Jacinda Ardern’s and Grant Robertson’s Covid response was good enough to see them returned to office with 50 percent of the Party Vote. That Mr Hickey should be surprised that the values of politicians tend to reflect the values of their supporters is, itself, surprising.
If he wants a revolution, Mr Hickey will need to do more than excoriate Labour and the Greens on Substack – he’ll need to organise one.
Chris, I accept that you don’t like the current orthodoxy however I have yet to see a clearly outlined alternative that would successfully replace it. There are aspects of liberal capitalism that are hard, as ‘the market’ is an unforgiving and harsh mistress yet it appears to be the least bad of our options.
I am one of those who has done incredibly well from the splurge simply because I happen to own a house in Auckland however I have two kids and I despair at the scale of the mountains they’ll have to climb to catch up even if I help. For those without family able to do so, it must seem impossible and unjust.
It would be good if we could Abolish the left wing land boundaries, invest in huge upgrades to our roading systems to make huge areas of land attractive places to live, knock over those race courses, golf courses and collapse the price of land. Incentives for businesses to relocate to central Auckland would drive efficiencies into public transport making that work better. Here’s another crazy thought, compulsorily purchases of whole streets of 1/4 blocks along major public transport routes, bowl those 1950’s houses, replace with modern, warm terrace houses
Problem is, all these student and career politicians have no idea how to get the markets to behave as they’ve never been at the pointy end having to make hard calls and then galvanising others to deliver success.
If the twentieth century was the to coffin of every leftwing project, then the twenty first century will be every right to wing projects coffin.
We was all supposed to work as one or not at all. But this monster grew in the shadows namely private capital and every tool we had to fight private capital got the privatization.
The only thing left to do now is quicken capitalism’s death until every pulse and breath leaves it’s lifeless corpse. The some incantations and fire and brimstone to make sure.
Yeti – If you’re saying that the student and career politicians have never had to endure ‘ the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune’, then I agree. That may be why they enter politics, and why they appear disconnected from the realities of everyday life, and why we need to develop the resilience to deal with them.
What do you mean you are “one of those who has done incredibly well from the splurge simply because I happen to own a house?”
The house is still just a place to live as it was pre-splurge. Because it’s worth more? So you sell it and have to spend all the money you’ve been paid to buy an equivalent place. You’ve done incredibly well because you’re in a different house but you’re in the same financial situation?
If he wants a revolution, Mr Hickey will need to do more than excoriate Labour and the Greens on Substack – he’ll need to organise one.
So, Bernard or anyone else should not bother speaking the truth unless they are able, instantly, to align the world according to the ‘way it should be’.
What the???
There is a desperate need for food equity in AO/NZ right now! More than ever before, as a part of the health response to the pandemic.
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2022/01/24/rising-food-demands-rising-incomes-for-food-equity-health-coalition-aotearoa/
Bernard H’s comments drawing attention to the disparities are very much appreciated!
But Kheala, one of the official bits of advice dished out to citizens faced with the possibility of being in a corona affected household advised them to stock up on noodles. Noodles. Nutritious noodles ?
And still they shy away from dumping the gst on food which places such a big economic and health burden upon those who can least carry it.
15% GST on essential foods and medicines!!
Right down the line – every step of the way from planting a seed etc etc. The govt’s cold grubby grabby hand taking taking taking from our children, from our poor, from all of us!!
Aus doesn’t do that; UK doesn’t do that; Canada doesn’t do that.
Why are we here in AO/NZ being singled out to carry such an insane burden?
I’m guessing… “Baaaa… baaaa…baaaa”
We in AO/NZ grow Vitamin C-rich food, fruit and veggies which are prized around the world. Yet too often, especially in rural areas, fruit and vegs are a LUXURY that only the rich (as in the comfortable middle class) can afford.
Rural stores rarely stock fresh fruit or veggies except an occasional dried up orange or plastic-looking apple or sticker-covered imported banana (unless some kind local brings in something they’ve grown). Why don’t the stores get them in? I’ve asked – Fruit and veggies are too damned expensive!!
The kids are hungry for real food. How to they build up any immunity if they can’t get basic fruit and veggies?
Successive govts have caused this unhealthy situation, which is so wrong in a land that grows so much fresh produce.
“Never let a good disaster go to waste” or something like that?
Yes, representation for ethnic and religious minorities, but not for the largest minority… filthy renting peasants. Labour in Name Only? Absolutely.
I’d been thinking that some of the menu details leaked during the first Ardern wedding debacle sounded elitist. Fresh venison and so on featured in the early 20C at my grandmother’s wedding, when the evil colonialists hunted, fished, or grew all their own food in a way no longer practicable or necessary, but good food beyond the reach of so many now, and provided by the whole parish back then.
Those leaked menu offerings have a snob value dispelling notions of left wing being grass roots, but eagerly embracing the trappings of the privileged rich to whom it may appeal, in much the same sort of way that the Greens seeming-obsession with sex and gender may be calculated to entice the young and naive who are still learning of such matters – in Grandmother’s day, they were working hard, and learning on the job.
Capitalism – the only game in town.
Unless you have a better plan Chris?
Not with his property portfolio…
My “property portfolio”, J S Bark, consists of a single house, located in a middling Auckland suburb. It is my family’s home. No lodgers – except an importunate cat.
That’s it.
Sorry to disappoint.
The wage subsidy, which was $12 billion of the $20 billion, was only paid to businesses as the conduit. They had to pay it all to their employees, in fact they had to maintain 80% of the wage in order to claim the subsidy.
So to call the wage subsidy a payment to businesses is a serious distortion of what actually happened.
The bigger impact on assets prices was QE, which was a Reserve Bank initiative. This really boosted the capacity of banks to lend on mortgages, which dramatically drove up house prices over the last 18 months, particularly when it was coupled with the lowest interest rates for over 100 years. So all house owners got a big boost in their wealth. This has dramatically increased inequality, which has especially impacted those who are not house owners. Their share of the wealth pie has substantially declined, if not in absolute terms, certainly in relative terms. And of course has made it much harder for them to actually become house owners, especially in the major cities.
Ok Wayne, but it is still possible to live equitably in rented homes, as millions have done elsewhere for generations , and many of us have visited and stayed in such places, and they functioned well. Here, government blathers about not doing it unless they can do it “properly “, so they mess around while renters often have no security of tenure, and the rents which they may pay, unfortunately, often cater to the ‘ Greed is good ‘ mantra. There’s little middle ground, and no excuse for this.
I agree that renting can be a long term option. 60,000 Kianga Ora clients are testament to that.
However, it inevitably means that they miss out on the biggest opportunity to build wealth, which is owning your own house. At least in NZ, where housing has always been a store of wealth, a significant increase in those who permanently rent will increase inequality.
Whether government should provide long-term or permanent accomodation as per Kaianga Ora is a separate and difficult issue, but ironically those most in need of it, whose least concern may be the accumulation of wealth, appear to be the worst catered for and left at the mercy of the community which can be rather ruthless.
But still, people do choose to live as renters in some of the great cities of the world, and the not so great cities, and enjoy a reasonable quality of life not money focused in the way that now, here in New Zealand, paying for accommodation, whether owned by oneself or by another, consumes whole pay packets.
This sort of scenario destabilises society, and that might be what it’s all about, divide and rule.
“However, it inevitably means that they miss out on the biggest opportunity to build wealth, which is owning your own house.”
Is it actually the house that is the source of this “wealth”, or the land that sits underneath it? Isn’t the problem the fact that they are claiming ownership of something that should be regarded as a “common” , and which should be subject to a tax, or leased from the state.
I agree, and as interest rates increase, the wealth of the property investors who are leveraged in their investments will decline, this there will be less inequality between homeowners and renters.
House price increases of 20-30% in one year.
Labour should be ashamed of themselves.
They rule out any measures that would be effective,tinker around and hope.
Hopeless.
Covid made the NZ rich $952 billion (make it $1 trillion) richer and the poor $480 million more in debt. Looks like the biggest wealth grab since the land wars. Why? It’s so unfair…
Here’s some context as they say
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2020/03/10/guest-blog-dave-brownz-from-coronaviris-to-the-commune-how-to-save-humanity-from-destruction/
Actually, workers pay for the bloody lot with their labour even before gov’t put the rich on the benefit.
Explanation is here.
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2020/05/19/guest-blog-dave-brownz-budget-whinging-vs-socialist-planning/
Time for workers to stop paying for the bosses shit.
How to reverse this shituation: some ideas
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2020/04/07/guest-blog-dave-brownz-business-as-usual-no-thanks/
Spoken like a true landlord Chris.
Remind me to doff my cap when we pass in the street…
Yes Covid has made the rich richer but really the entire economic system is set up to benefit those with money and assets.
So, we have a middle to upper class party and an upper class party, with the former keeping the unrepresented in check. Yeah, this all makes sense. We can see why neoliberal economic policy was both introduced by Labour and remains unchallenged by Labour. And now I can also see why mandates and divisive Covid measures, that disproportionately effects the working class, were introduced. Labour are a better right-leaning party than National, this deserves to be said, but the Left really does need a Left-leaning party that stands separate from the pretend-to-be-Left Labour party.
If Jacinda walked past one of the ever growing food banks but their was a rich prick outside in his Ferrari I am sure she would go and talk to the rich prick before even acknowledging the food bank. She is one of them, not us. Always was always will be.
Well no, that would be your chauffeur driven Mercedes limo shinyman Luxo!!
Jacinda fought to get food into schools – school lunches for lower deciles – against the cries of the Nats.
Kheala. Thank you for reminding me that it was the Nats who stopped the free milk in all New Zealand primary schools throughout my childhood, on very spurious grounds. There were also free apples back then – I think they tried to say that it was a temporary war or post-war measure, so they stopped the apples as well.
It was a group of local mothers who started up the free lunches in schools in Porirua, paying out of their own pockets, and then other femmes complained to the Dom-Post that the lovely ladies were making non-nutritious luncheon sausages sandwiches.
Luxon in his big black car is wonderfully funny optics, even Granny chuckled over that one. Mind you, if he drives in his cruddy holiday jandals, the roads are safer if he does use chauffeurs instead.
I didn’t mind when the milk went – If the crates were left out in the sun too long it went off (and I didn’t drink it – had an allergy). We didn’t get apples, but we did get hot cocoa in winter – and one time they handed out vitamin E pills.
There were wild peach trees down the back of the school, so we’d raid them in summer.
Sometimes someone would bring a whole smoked kahawai and share it, and once a cray. At the end of the year we had a big hangi on the school grounds.
Fucking Brilliant! Always read CT articles because you will regularly hit gold.
“The Internet-Mana Party may have had a brilliant manifesto (so brilliant that I voted for it) but its share of the 2014 Party Vote was a demoralising 1.42 percent.”
Probably the only genuinely left wing party we’ve had in recent memory and a terrible loss from the political landscape. To gain traction in the political system you need to have a middle class voting base – for left wing party’s that means lot’s and lot’s of “champagne socialists” who vote on behalf of those with less.
How do we convert more of NZ’s middle class into champagne socialists? That’s what we need to figure out.
I don’t wish to be a cunt @ Marama, but I just saw you on ONE News (YOUR news! with Max Headroom and the team).
It looked suspiciously like you bleach that set of crockery occupying your jaw. I realise it’s not as ample as others who can’t actually help the disability they’re lumbered with. but it reminds me of a Mangaweka viaduct before the deviation.
Actually, I take it back – I’m quite happy to be a cunt until you and James get your fucking shit together
OnceWasTim. You’re just semi-articulate, abusive, and crude, that’s all. Take some vitamins, or do some pruning or something.
It’s not really Once Was Tim’s fault but the constant government inaction that does it. Some people need to have scatalogical language thrust at them before their cool, dignified reserve can be breached and you find out whether there is a real person in there or just some well-modelled doll with hidden wires coming out of their arse.
I’m so pleased you’re concerned @GA.
Unfortunately there is a growing number of people sick to death of a kind and transformational government that’s prepared to be “crude and abusive” to the most vulnerable in their team of 5 million.
And while I believe JA is genuine in her intentions, it’s clear the ‘cistern’ in which she operates means any progress is sometimes impossible.
Robert Reid hit the nail on the head:
“No one mentions that every government is a coalition between the elected governing party(s) and the senior bureaucrats.
The bureaucracy acts as more of a handbrake than NZ First ever did.
But most ruling parties let it continue to dictate policy”
It has become far worse since the 80’s reforms.
The abused and undeserving should know their place in the pecking order and just be very nice and accepting of their lot eh @GA ?
Cindy is slipping in the Polls. Great job on Covid but its time to end the fear. Its time to really care, care about housing, prices, putting food on poor tables. Cmon Cindy, preventing something is fine, doing something is better.
Nick you’re revealing more about yourself than you may realise when you refer to the PM as “ Cindy”. Not a good idea.
So it’s “Solve all the nations problems at once” then, immediately if not sooner, at the same time as having saved the lives of many of us.
All Righty
I see the right wingers especially the granny herald, tv 1, some zb hosts, media and commentators are salivating over themselves with the poll results. The govt made sure everyone kept their job and I saw that with my nephews and others working through the pandemic. At the end of the day Jacinda and Labour have saved the lives of thousands of Aotearoans and kiwis should be more appreciative – 52 deaths verses UK 150,000 and USA 500,000. Yes we are lucky – lucky that the hopeless greedy Natzact coalition losers arent in government worshipping the $$$ because a year ago NZ would be a failure like the UK, Aus and the USA having to rely on RATS as their only tool of last resort. The Natzact would be importing body bags now not vaccines. What country does the greedy right say to follow now – Sweden, Denmark, Ireland, UK, Australia. I’m loyal to Aotearoa and listen to the scientists not the uneducated right wing Qnon BS.
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