There is a lot of pain on the Left at a sense Jacinda has failed us, that the transformative change passed us all by.
The screeds of minute extras that have been held up by Labour as evidence of their attempts all pale into nothing when the MSD, IRD and WINZ clawbacks are all taken out as inflation explodes.
Yes Jacinda saved us from the Covid War, but she’s losing the Covid Peace.
I think that most voters don’t understand how NZ politics work and they don’t understand how Jacinda is failing when Labour have an MMP majority.
They are legitimate questions and are valid ones, how can a Party with an unprecedented MMP majority still seem to do sweet fuck all on the big issues confronting us as a society, economy and culture.
It starts at the 2017 election.
In an act of desperation and true leadership, Andrew Little handed Jacinda the leadership months out from the 2017 election which was strategically designed to eliminate the Māori Party and United Future and on election night the specials and overseas vote weren’t counted leaving a deflated Jacinda to tell the country we hand’t won when in fact the specials and overseas vote were always going to go our way and I believed Winston was going to go with us.
The strategy of knocking out National support parties won us the 2017 election but because no one in the Labour leadership expected to win, there was no 100 day legislative agenda to ram through the moment you get into Parliament and if you don’t do that, the Wellington Bureaucracy will kill off any of your reform agenda for their own interests.
This is what most NZers don’t understand about NZ politics, winning power is VERY different from managing power. If you don’t arrive on day one with with a clear legislative agenda and enough mana to intimidate the Wellington Bureaucracy, you get nothing done.
Representative Democracy in NZ is a masquerade so that you will participate and give it legitimacy, the truth is that the Wellington Bureaucracy runs the country and their middle class neoliberal pandering decides policy implementation, not the feckless and easily manipulated Ministers.
Labour didn’t expect to win 2017 and they didn’t expect to win an MMP majority in 2020, so they’ve had no real 100 day legislative agenda to ram through and as such have been stymied ever step by the Wellington Bureaucracy.
Jacinda may be kind and she may really want transformative change, but if you don’t come to Wellington with a clear plan as to how to force the Bureaucracy to implement your manifesto, then transformative change becomes a virtue signal of aspiration rather than actual policy.
Kindness becomes Neo-Kindness that aggrieves rather than inspires.
The Greens must avoid this by clearly telling voters now what they will force Labour to pass in the first 100 days of a Labour/Green Government so that the Wellington Bureaucracy can be thwarted. Unfortunately the Greens are socially connected at the hip to the Wellington Bureaucracy and have all the offensive capacity of slow growing moss.
The last chance for Left progressive policy is a list of bottom line first 100 day laws to force Labour into being more Bernie Sanders than cautious Grant and Jacinda are confident to attempt.
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I think Labour are gone come 2023 so it’s all academic what the anti vote Greens think or do. Labour/Green/Maori combo are definitely not a vote winner.
So in 2017 the promises Labour made were empty words? Horse shit to be polite. And it is unforgivable in that case that all those years in opposition they did not ever study what it takes to be in government, even though they had the experience still there at the time to know exactly what it is like.
The trouble for Jacinda is she promised the earth in transformation in such a genuine inspirational way and not only didn’t deliver anything, especially when handed an absolute majority but then turned out to be yet another nothing politician keeping the seat warm for the next Prime Minister. I, as voter, feel very misled.
From that point on, last year I suggest, her credibility was shot and her brand similarly finished.
Its going to be a slow agonising end to this government.
The determination to upend the ongoing failed neoliberal economic experiment simply isn’t in the current Labour Party. Otherwise they would have done it.
Ardern is now our Obama. And consequence could be the horror of a Key v2.0
And it can’t come soon enough.
Helen Clark was a pretty good PM, but she is to blame for encouraging this incompetent fool to run for the position.
Adern is looking more and more stressed as the days pass, because she is completely out of her depth and now knows it.
Trouble is whilst I am sure Luxon is a lot more competent, he is no Clark or Key IMO.
Both sides can say what they want about those two, but they were both very competent leaders.
Was about to type the same thing xray.
I actually think it’ll be a blood bath and won’t be a close run event at all.
Pretty depressing when you look at National and Act.
And worse, Jacinda and her empty promises have turned a lot of middle left of voting left for a very long time.
But the red team has had their chance, they’ve done sweet fark all so they deserve to be kicked for touch imo. (I really never thought I’d say that)
Martyn
I think it’s more basic than that. Jacinda is not a boss. She doesn’t enjoy the boss thing. She doesn’t like bossing people around. She doesn’t like heavy responsibility and the prospect of being unpopular. It’s not in her nature. She shouldn’t be PM of a country that needs all this important and difficult work done. She’s a nice person, but totally the wrong type of person for the job. It’s patently obvious.
So, what do you call the party that had 9 years in Opposition before 2017 to develop their plan AND 3 years in Government yet brought nothing to the table when they had an overwhelming expectation they would win after polls endorsed their mandate for Covid?
Wilful competence is just the starting point.
Or an alternative explanation is that the pre-2017 Caucus was very lazy and didn’t do the research and preparation to know what it wanted to do and what were the barriers to that happening- e.g. KiwiBuild. Or Auckland LIght Rail.
Another reason is that there is very little intellectual capacity in the Cabinet apart from David Parker.
And the Prime Minister and Finance Minister are not prepared to be tough, take a hard decision, and risk being unpopular for a while.
Greens aren’t a party, they’re a cult. Forced donations, genetics counting more than ability, these are signs that these people are disingenuous and cannot be trusted.
A vote for the greens is a vote against your own human rights
And the same for ACT, a cult.
Example?
Rogernomics
That was Labour bert.
Lest we forget.
And it was Roger Douglass that started ACT.
That was lies by wolves in sheep’ clothing, Richard Prebble et.al. lest we never forget who ACT really are
Gun protection, Charter schools , rich wealthy donors, very cult like.
Rogernomics
Hmmm
Act support Law abiding NZ citizens from being able to own a rifle, perhaps go hunting, and provide ethically sourced meat for the table.
Labour claim taking the same said guns from these law abiding citizens makes us safer….
They spent how many hundred million in a fruitless gun buyback only to have more gun crime than ever.
Guess what Bert, legislating against law abiding citizens isn’t helpful. Cracking down on criminals with illegal weapons?
Charter Schools. One of the greatest oxygen thief’s of all time, Kelvin Davis, staked his job as an MP when in opposition; on protecting Charter Schools, they were so beneficial to Maori. Oh and what happened? He became an MP in Govt, forgot about the good they can do, and flipped, not only on Charter Schools but his promise.
And when “rich pricks” like Robert Jones and Co donate to the Labour Party, I presume you’re on the hotline to Trev telling him to give it back?
Oh and where’s the findings in the dodgy dealings with money donations and Labour? Taking an awfully long time isn’t it?
Poor Bert, you feel a bit under the weather? So scared of Act you are. That is not healthy dude.
Nah all good, just stating facts, I know you struggle with that.
Yes agree! But a great cult! Focussed on making the country more efficient – nothing wrong with that…unless you worship govt and politicians.
I know right, the Greens are a great cult, we agree on something.
ACT doesn’t know how to make anything more efficient. Proof is the debacle that was the massive blowout in costs that accompanied the transformation of Auckland into the SuperShitty.
Of course, such massive waste would have made ACT’s supporters a massive profit so they probably viewed that as efficient.
Amen to that! If a political party with years of experience can be thwarted at ‘the off,’ by the agenda of entrenched bureaucracy, then that party, whatever its stripe, doesn’t deserve to be in government. But hang on, if that be the case, what have all the repeated accusations on TDB about this Labour government simply being a neo-liberal clone of its National counterpart been about? Or is that the fault of the bureaucracy too?
Jacinda Aderne is a Blairist with a faux furrowed brow and a big enamel smile. And whatever Covid catastrophe we may have avoided due to her her, the cost, especially to those who Labour purports to represent, is going to be such that there may be little difference from what would have been if she hadn’t bothered.
Spot on Malcom!
“faux furrowed brow and a big enamel smile”
Well put, Mr. Evans.
Yes, very clever!
We’re seriously in the shit then because the conservative blogs say National is just the same as Labour. It’s seems we are all aligned on that.
Oh my goodness can you just imagine the wails and beating of chests by the right wingers if this had actually happened
Bob would be in meltdown!!!
To summaries your excellent comment Malcolm.
We’re still in the year 2017 in 2022.
Did we really avoid a COVID catastrophe? Or with the benefit of hindsight did we just delay it?
The budget did bugger all for the poor
Lol, it was not intended to. It is a budget for the well to do class with trans kids, working from home with full pay who get their groceries delivered by the poor.
Was about to type the same thing xray.
I actually think it’ll be a blood bath and won’t be a close run event at all.
Pretty depressing when you look at National and Act.
And worse, Jacinda and her empty promises have turned a lot of middle left of voting left for a very long time.
But the red team has had their chance, they’ve done sweet fark all so they deserve to be kicked for touch imo. (I really never thought I’d say that)
You might want to revisit the Jacinda saved us from Covid line. Up to 1000 deaths now.
You can’t have it the she saved everyone from Covid yet she bares no responsibility for those that did die. It’s one or the other
Then you might want to revisit the housing market, grocery monopolies and public transport costs.
You can’t complain and then demand a dollar each way.
Eh? What’s that for to do with the price of fish in China?
No revisiting is required she did save us. By simply winning the election she saved us from a Trump-like covid response from the right that would have seen in excess of 10,000 deaths already. Luxon wouldn’t have stopped airlines flying in new infection. Key wouldn’t have closed the front doors of any bank or any business. Seymour wouldn’t have provided free vaccines he’d have let Pfizer extort $1000 per shot.
Work it out BG. If you’re trying to burst Arderns bubble of saving lives its an appalling attempt. If you look at the things I’ve mentioned they are on the improve, are you willing to congratulate Ardern as well as bag her for covid deaths?
Correct.
Who are the people that make up the Wellington Bureaucracy?
JA
Here you go, take your pick. As of June last year….add more onto that by now: “The public sector employed around 436,700 people in 2021, 18.9% of New Zealand’s total workforce (2,313,400), as measured by Stats NZ’s Business Demography data. The majority (88%) work central government* (384,400) and 12% in local government (52,200).”
I agree. But why did Labour not expect to win these two elections? John Key had been in power for three terms. That is, nine years of increasing privatisation of our State assets, and reducing the budgets of health and education.
That is Labours failure not recognizing the fake princes bubble would burst and be ready when that happened. Health and education needed billions immediately they took power, the same amount under invested by Key whilst his friends made hay.
Key knew what his true legacy was , thats why he bailed. This blog gets more right wing by the day.
This is how a salty person takes an L. admits error but makes sure to cast further shade, as if maybe we shouldn’t correct political bias? lol
So what you’re actually saying is the health system today is worse than compared to that of Keys government that cut health funding.
My reply to that is yes the health system is worse than under key.
The greens must avoid this and have a 100 day agenda ? What for 2032? Certainly not for 2023. This governments over. Done.
You can tell it’s finished and even they know it because they are bringing back the hate speech legislation that they threw out because it was too unpopular.
They are going to ram through as much unpopular technocratic constitutional and social engineering reforms as possible because they know they’ve lost the election and can’t/won’t do anything on economic policy reforms.
One could even say they want to tank the govt on unpopular social policy simply do national gets elected and has to do deal with the economic fall out of COVID and securing the economic status quo for another decade which might not be secure under a labour green or labour green maori govt but will under a nat/act govt.
If labour thought they had a shot at a third term do you think they’d be pressing on with constitutional reforms that noone wants? No they’d be fighting to be competitive and offering alternatives to what national is offering. Instead they are doubling down in social engineering, anti democratic reforms noone wanted or voted and to what most of the country sees is an asset grab.
Vote labour for housing, working and Keynesian economic reforms. Get woke neoliberalism.
Tomorrow’s budget is their last chance if there’s no GST cut or living cost help to middle and working class. Good bye tofu pie.
Totally disagree Martyn.
The ideological Identity Politics raced out the gate and has been hammered home one after the other with no-one able to stop any of it. That is not a party without a plan. That is not being led by the Wellington bureaucracy. It is a wilful and arrogant position that says, “we cant change anything without a culture change and then all the other changes will just happen so much easier”. No pain, no gain – the little people will thank us for it later.
Will the little people survive? Or is that something we should not worry our little heads about in this cultural revolution?
she and her party are ideologically opposed to helping the poor…and yes it is that simple
and nats/act will be even worse given the chance…we have a choice between a shit brioche and a shit sandwich.
Neo liberalism and vested interests control this country …there is no escape for the kiwis who are prisoners of the all powerful free market.
The sooner we accept that people like Key , English and Adern are only there to keep maintaining the status quo to give the illusion that your vote to change anything is actually only a vote to uphold more of the same.
Adern and Robertson and their colleagues are only interested in their legacy and perks. They really have no actual comprehension that it is the economic system that has betrayed what the party they used to represent actually stood for.
It was never compassionate conservatism that we have now.
Reacting t’ headline like I often do. I laughed exteriorly. Too funny for words.
She’s not actually failing me since I didn’t expect anything from her.
The hypocrisy is an assault, however.
I will never vote again after voting for the liar in 2017.
She’s a liar but she highlighted a principle. I remember spoiling my ballot in the eighty-seven election — my numbers, let alone brackets don’t work on my overworked computer. Voting is the people’s peaceful way. When we’ve had enough otherwise we only have violence. See Ukraine.