What we need to do post Gabrielle vs what we will actually do vs what that will lead to

What we need to do post Gabrielle:

Doing nothing about climate change is no longer an option…

Failing to take decisive climate action could shrink economy by $4.4 billion – report

New Zealand’s economy could be $64 billion better off by 2050 if decisive climate action is taken, a new report by consulting firm Deloitte claims.

But failing to act could shrink the economy by $4.4 billion.

…it is not some theoretical thing happening at the end of the century.

It is here, it is now.

Cyclone Gabrielle has fundamentally changed the political debate in New Zealand.

Since Rogernomics, the neoliberal experiment has cut the NZ State back to the bone and the Right’s political agenda ever since has been to starve the State of revenue so there is no political expectation of redistribution.

The enormity of the storm damage and the ongoing threat that rapid climate change causes forces an entirely different perspective politically, economically and culturally.

This is now the age of consequences.

Business as usual simply can’t work.

Bernard Hickey argues that even if we agree to the neoliberal Wellington Consensus of 30% GDP debt, we could still borrow $60Billion and remain within that absurd ideological economic straight jacket so where should that $60billion be spent on resilience and adaptation?

We need future proofing ideas, we need a Ministry of Works to do it, we need big ideas and we need big new taxes to fund those big ideas, we need to build in self sufficiency, we need mitigation and adaptation.

Big ideas are needed, and Labour should use the MMP majority they still enjoy to force through some desperately needed regulation over the Forestry Industry, Trucking Industry, Telecommunications Industry, and the Industries who are emitting the gasses that are ultimately driving this catastrophic climate change.

We need to build resilience into a new infrastructure landscape that is urgently implemented with radical policies.

What we will actually do:

Tinker at the edges with no real plan while the Public Service panics and political class bicker amongst themselves to tell the population they’ve fucked up.

What that will lead to:

The disconnect between the enormity of what we face and the spineless response from our political leaders will finally cause a populist rupture on the Left that faces a legislative and political cascade of new regulations and frameworks driven by desperation and catastrophic climate events.

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