MEDIAWATCH: Is Jack Tame’s public broadcasting privilege really the one to lecture us on petrol costs?

50
2262

Jack Tame: Petrol prices – Government cares more about polls than principles

Call me a sucker.

Last Sunday morning, the petrol gauge in my car dropped to one bar and I pulled up at Mobil and filled up with gas. It cost $150 to fill my 2012 Toyota hatchback. In 20 years of driving, it was the most money I’d ever spent filling my car.

Of course, it felt painful. But I figured I didn’t have much of a choice. The war in Ukraine looked set to continue and even if I waited, I knew I’d have to fill up sooner or later.

The next day, Labour cut petrol excise tax by 25c a litre.

Cutting the price of petrol for three months and halving the cost of public transport will cost almost $400m. The policy had almost no scrutiny or oversight. There was no regulatory impact assessment. The Ministry of Transport and Treasury have kindly agreed to a “post-implementation assessment”. They’ll tell us how it went, after it’s all over. Brilliant.

But although the Government has framed the tax cut as an urgent and nimble piece of leadership, we should describe it for what it really is: cynical and reactionary.

I love Jack Tame.

TDB Recommends NewzEngine.com

I think he’s one of the best public broadcasters second only to John Campbell.

I think his interview with Police Commissioner Coster saved NZ by talking down the Wellington Middle Class Marxists from screaming for the military to bash the dirty filthy smelly lumpenproletariat Nazi’s off Parliament’s lawns.

As far as I’m concerned, when Jack speaks, we should all listen.

But his latest column calling Labour’s 25cent cut to petrol prices as cynical and reactionary ends up saying more about Jack than Labour.

An incredibly well paid public broadcaster who has the money to pay for expensive petrol wants to lash the Government as cynical and reactionary for helping the poorest amongst us continue to exist is a rich white first world criticism ain’t it?

Jack has the luxury of criticising the Government because he’s paid an enormous amount from the taxpayer, but those living on breadlines welcome cheaper public transport and cheaper petrol prices.

Jack sounds more concerned by a Government that wants to help poor people immediately rather than the convoluted fuckfest that is raising welfare only to have most of that raise clawed back by MSD.

Oh to have as much money as Jack has to able to criticise as freely as he has.

All Jack showed here was his own privilege.

Increasingly having independent opinion in a mainstream media environment which mostly echo one another has become more important than ever, so if you value having an independent voice – please donate here.

If you can’t contribute but want to help, please always feel free to share our blogs on social media

50 COMMENTS

  1. The best way to help poor people immediately would be to crimilalise the ownership of more than a single residential dwelling.

    • I love it when total morons talk tough.
      You’re like the retards in Russian somehow thinking this invasion is showing the rest of the world “who’s boss” whilst ignoring the 2nd, 3rd, etc. order consequences.
      I suggest you consider a world without landlords and once you have reached the same idiotic conclusion I suggest for the sake of the rest of us, you impose self isolation for the rest of your life.

      • jays instead of lipping off like a bar room gobshite…..tell us all why a ‘world without landlords’ would be so bad..

        or is it just that you personally are on that little gravy train y’self?

  2. Jack is wrong.
    If he’d bothered to do his research he would have found that the oil price has been going up ever since Biden was elected. He instituted a series of moves that guaranteed there would be a shortage of oil, and in this he fell into line with many of his European counterparts. (Ukraine is but a blip on the chart that will come & go.)

    We have entered an era of artificial energy scarcity, created by climate zealots. Even while most of the decision makers fly around in executive jets. So remember when you empty your wallet at the pump, how you’re actually saving the planet. LOL

    • yep, that Tucker Carlson guy, always winning the argument with his unprovable facts, I mean, who needs inconveniences like truth to win an argument?

  3. It was a bit of both, things often are, but maybe he said, “ polls rather than principles” with an eye on his own polls. Nice shirt.

      • David George – Oh God. Do I have to analyse everybody ? On a Bloody Sunday ? I just saw that little shit Bill English in the supermarket, and he’s strutting more – fatter legs – cockier than the shabby little character who cringed around in dirty jeans after he exited the corridors of power having demonised every young male in New Zealand, stuffed their employment prospects, helped widen the gap between the haves and the have-nots, helped flood the country with exploitable immigrants, tried to privatise the health system, wanted unwanted babies to be born to quietly desperate women, pretended not to hear when Key shouted for other people’s kids to be sent to war in his suck-up to the US of A.

        There is still hope for Jack, I hope; he’s brainier than Bill, better taste in clothes, he’s been around, but the Mona Lisa does enigmatic better…

        • He is probably reasonably intelligent but enigmatic he is not.
          I’ve never heard anything interesting or original from him, a lot like the PM in that respect. Indicates a certain lack of imagination and authenticity perhaps.

          • David George – Enigmatic was how I thought the lad was trying to look; I don’t listen to him or see him, so I don’t know, but if he really thought that the cut in petrol prices was ‘unprincipled’ then I don’t think he’s all that smart – he looked to me like yet another victim player -he filled his petrol tank then they cut the price, diddums, ain’t life tough. Nice shirt though.

            • Cutting yet subtle Gentle Annie. David George perhaps is not an art afficianado? He would have been aware of the trope? of Mona Lisa looking enigmatic- there have been many ideas about what was on her mind while she was being painted!

                • David George Stop being mean. I recall Jack Tame reporting from the USA very well for a young guy – not sycophantic and impressionable like Key – or some of the tv girls they ‘ve sent to London – he’s not an idiot- give him time…

                  (How old’s Hosking anyway ? )

  4. Not quite correct, Martyn. Labour made two opportunistic moves in reaction to a couple of unfavourable political polls, one good, one not so good.
    The good one is ordering the halving of public transport fares on buses and trains (but not the Waiheke ferry that gives Winston’s Wealthy SuperGold pensioners the free ride to their island vineyard lunches). We must push for this to become entirely free fares for everyone, permanently.
    The not-so-good one was lowering the petrol excise. An astute kneejerk reaction by the Government, but no substitute for broadly easing the cost of living for the poorer half of New Zealand. The way to do this is to immediately introduce a meaningfully large UBI, or universal basic income, for every adult. If that is too much of a headscratcher, the alternative is to make the first $30,000 of income tax-free, and cover the fiscal cost of that by lowering the starting points for the 33% and 39% tax brackets. As the tax change, unlike a UBI, would do nothing for the precariat with little or no income to be taxed, it would need to be accompanied by significant increase in all social welfare payments.
    Either of these moves would require the introduction of an annual tax on all land, added to existing rates bills.
    A UBI and land tax would permanently help the poorer half of New Zealanders. Fiddling with petrol excise can only ever be temporary, and in the long term solves nothing.

    • Are UBI and land taxes going to fly any time soon?

      The immediate need is full employment. Currently, unemployment is 3.2% which Grant and Carmel consider Full Employment. There are 95,000 kiwis out of work living in poverty. Another 10% of the work force are under utilised and not getting paid a full whack. And no one would have a problem with the cost of living if New Zealand was a high wage economy.

      Why does this government distract itself from hardcore economic issues with bike lanes, pronouns and water ownership changes? The last time we had full employment was when Keith Holyoake could count the unemployed on one hand.

  5. It was cynical and reactionary. Full stop there.
    And it had nothing to do with the price of petrol or the price of public transport but the fact that Labour is falling in the polls, steadily a few points every other week.
    Cynical and reactionary is actually the best description of this current Labour government. A dollar short and several day late. Labour – we could anticipate and forecast, but that too is hard work. Vote 2023

    • Vote for which party creative sausage? You want cynical look at National. I can’t believe no one is making noise about Luxon s proposed solution to house prices touching the stratosphere. Bright line down to 2 years and allow interest deductions. That will help…not. Or we go back to good old John Key days. ‘Vote for me and I will fund ( HER2+) breast cancer treatment for a full year’, and then when he gets in ( funds Herceptin) but for other diseases says government should not interfere in PHARMAC funding decisions. That’s about cynical as it gets.

      • Wheel
        With all due respect, Bratwurst is banger on the money (Good one, eh BW?). I don’t think it’s possible to be more sneaky, dodgy and downright cynical than this ‘Slogan and Spin’ driven Labour Govt. Yeah, you can find bits and pieces in National’s strategy, but this govt takes the cake!

        • SK I would call a large part of the Nat tax package cynical. ‘Kiwis are doing it tough’ the Nats shout, but then give the bigger breaks to those that are not doing it tough ( relative to those that are). To top it off they understate the cost of their proposal. I am not arguing with the comments about labour I just think people are dreaming if they think National are different

        • Instead of laughing at your own dad jokes Sour,

          “A change is as good as a holiday.” eh Sour Unkraut?

          How about denouncing https://nuremberg.nz/
          This evil hate-speech site, is disgusting dirty politics, and you refuse to state that it is? Denounce it and say what you think of it?

          Why won’t you denounce this racist, hateful, misogynistic site Mr Kraut?

      • Any third party that you would like. The game is MMP and not FPP. And you have a choice there, they may not make it into government granted, but it is your choice to rubber stamp any of the three parties of the yesteryears, L, N, G – all three are way past their used by date, or you could vote for A, mind that too might not be the nicest party to vote for, or you could choose Top, MP, NZF, Legalise Aotearoa, Outdoor party, conservative party, social credit etc.
        In essence all you show is your binary thinking beliveing that anyone who is not voting for the L/G Party must default to N. So sad, so pathetic and so so lazy.

        • The original discussion was about examples of cynical policy, but yes you are right you could vote for any party. The last sentence is not really necessary RB

          • No the last phrase is important actually. It is so damned lazy to believe that anyone not on the L/G train or the N/A train must either vote for one and the other.
            to many assume that these Parties are the only ones in town. Lol.
            Personally i opt for putting ‘non of the above’ on the voting papers, but i can see why our 4 official parties would not like to see that option given. It would remove validation from all of them with one tick.

      • so just like the blairite, luxton proposes basically doing nothing other than pandering to LINOs pet bourgeoise voters, nothing for everyday kiwis

      • This looks like Key’s brand of Dirty Politics at play again, replace John Campbell with Jack Tame.

        It is evident that Key got rid of Campbell during Key’s reign as smiling assassin, who pees in the shower and hates our flag. He also wanted to make New Zealand the money laundering capital of the Pacific. Oh and his 435 lies https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2016/06/04/435-lies-by-john-key/

        Remember the “Bring Back Campbell” campaigns when John Campbell was fired/knobbled?

        It’s easy to join the dots. Campbell is unparalleled at cutting through lies, obfuscations and the Dirty Politics branch of the National and ACT Party wants him gone by lunchtime.

        Martyn has already noticed and shown that Jack Tame lacks Campbell’s unbiased eviscerating skills. “So the reason I [Martyn] tune in, to see Ryan and John eviscerate powerful people

        There’s no way Dirty Politics 4.0 wants Campbell anywhere near Luxon and his 8 house, Luxon and his ultra-right wing evangelism.

        Martyn has analysed Jack Tame’s bias elsewhere on the Daily Blog, and Jack is not in the same street as Campbell in terms of Campbell’s objectivity and incisive mind, that will follow up a BS answer, before going on with his own line of questioning, no matter what colour tribe they belong to. Recently Martyn notes : “But his [Tame’s] latest column calling Labour’s 25cent cut to petrol prices as cynical and reactionary ends up saying more about Jack than Labour. and Jack sounds more concerned by a Government that wants to help poor people immediately rather than the convoluted fuckfest that is raising welfare only to have most of that raise clawed back by MSD.
        Oh to have as much money as Jack has to able to criticise as freely as he has.
        All Jack showed here was his own privilege.

        Campbell also showed his advocacy for the common Kiwis screwed over by EQC a,d cemented himself in the hearts of Kiwi battlers, as a sensitive man of the people in Christchurch during the earthquake and its EQC bullshit.

        Campbell annoyed Nats with his advocacy journalism and there’s no way they will let him near Chris Luxon.
        https://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/john-key-dismisses-campbell-live-as-entertainment/OQ67UM5MMRIBO45ATGWDS7BPYU/

        Sharpen your pencils, it’s time to “Bring back Campbell” BEFORE Campbell is cancelled. Tame, Jack is installed by the Nats on Q&A to fire their patsy questions and no follow-up like Campbell, John would have done.

  6. There’s a vast gap in understanding of what it’s like to be among the poor, – here in NZ at this time. The same blanked out space in understanding is preventing otherwise well-meaning people in the media and in govt from grasping the significance of removing the gst from fruit and veggies. “It won’t make much difference”, they say. It would make a massive difference, but they cannot comprehend this. The ‘Marie Antoinette syndrome’ is widespread, and Jack Tame is not immune to it.

        • It would cost more money to implement the change of GST on some products then to a. reduce it or remove it altogether. Computer systems would need to be updated, individual food and vegetable items would need to be identified to qualify, this would need to be fed into a new system to assure pricing is correct etc etc etc.
          By the time they are done prices go up to keep up with the costs accrued in dropping the GST a point or two on a select few items. You achieved fuck all in the end.

          However we could advocate simply for an overall reduction in GST on all products or remove GST altogether as the ‘sales’ tax that it is, which serves no purpose other then to generate tax revenue. Immediate gain. On everything from food, to electricity, to water, to transport, school uniforms, lunches and so on and so forth.
          Goods and services lol, the biggest tax cheat ever imposed on working people.

          • the biggest tax cheat ever imposed on working people.

            Yep. We’re on the same page there. And 15% is a particularly greedy grab. Canada is 5%; Aus is 10%, both exempt foods.

            However, fresh fruit and veggies is NOT too hard to sort out. Straight down the line. There is NO EXCUSE for them to not at very least see this through.

  7. Meh. Is he just another neoliberal-capitalist swerving around the dead body of what was once our state owned infrastructure? I think yes. Yes he is.
    Toyota you say jack? I wonder how BIG mike hosking is getting on filling up his Ferrari then?

    • careful tho’ @ CB.
      He’s the shape of ‘some green shoots’ (in this space, going forward).
      He’s captured a following and a few believers as a result. Kick back @CB, and see where and how it all pans out.
      Plus, he might be getting some competition as the media ‘ecosphere’ is about to be set in turmoil.

      Whoar! It’s really all too too much for me to handle /sarc

  8. It reeked of privilege and yet it’s objective was lost on me. Where the hell was he going complaining the government hadn’t put the tax cut plan and public transport subsidy through the MoT bureaucracy? They did the smart thing and bypassed it. It’s THE best thing Labour has done since being elected.

    The huge excise tax cut, that encompassed both several Labour and National imposed rises and bus fare halving was exactly the right thing to do at exactly the right time. I’ve never seen National do that, it’s always a calculated jack up of tax cuts for core Nat supporters.

    And that it instantly deflated Luxon’s rich mans tax cuts argument was a welcome bonus.

    I get the feel Jack was pissed Labour went so off script. They were meant to be mired in months of indecision and controversy of how out of touch were, while the economy tanked.

    And is Jack really so naive that he never noticed that politicians are cynical?

    • Strongly agree, XRay, I really hope we see more of this kind of decisive action!
      Bureaucracy and the media need to be cut right through at times – it’s the ONLY way to achieve anything significant in a timely manner.

  9. Hey Jack! Can I say I just lerv that shirt. And the pose. It’s making me wonder whether or not I should take you seriously from here on in. But of course I will – probably because I’m not a total cunt (or even a prick).
    Have you considered taking places with Kamahl?
    Must be around time. Too late for Jesus Christ. Surely there’s not going to be a surfeit of a battle of the egos in this space, going forward. Ryan Bridge, Jonas Cambullus, Jakus Tamious, Kamahlus Santamarious, Charlottle Belusius, plus the old standards trying to remain relevant – most of whom lobby to to be heard on the various ‘the Panels’

    Fuck! Soot me please!

  10. Good point. I think it also speaks to a wider malaise. The middle class are bored of Labour now and so must find things to criticize them for no matter how petty and trivial it might be. I”d put Tame and Johnson in the same basket on this one. They change in polling numbers may also reflects this.

  11. I don’t know about Tame too much and I agree with you about John Campbell, to a certain extent. That being his taking over Checkpoint and later Breakfast — too much ebullient niceness for an adult to keep down. So glad for the new person at Checkpoint after the two previous. Some genuine hardnut interviewing among other things.

    Can’t say I respect TV 1’s news people’s insights. The reporter in America doesn’t have the ideas to comment. Intelligence and knowledge is vital to reporters. Caught Tame’s interview of a successful Afghani refugee this morning and thought him too gushy friendly. I suspect he’s young, still.

    • “Too friendly” with an – urgh … “Afghani refugee”….

      Oh the shock. Oh the horror.
      Lock up your daughters, peeps, there are rabid “Afghani refugees” on the loose.

      Give me a break, Sums. You’re better than that, surely.

      • It would have helped the interview for Tame not to be so effusive. The interviewee was an excellent human and, secondarily, and so, an excellent New Zealander. I’ve been complaining about the duffery of TV news since 84. America has puked up Trump and authoritarianism but their news would’nt stand for our second rate intelligence there.

  12. So, are you ever going to admit that Tame is just another tory apologist, who happens to be more skillful than most of the others? That’s been my impression from the first time I watched him (on your recommendation)… I personally would rate Gordon Campbell as streets ahead of Tame when it comes to real journalism… But Gordon won’t ever get a prime time slot on the colonial channels… For the obvious reasons..

  13. Tasmania announced basically the same thing just now – free PT for 2 months or whatever. Did they both get the idea from the oil companies, I wonder….

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.