This messaging by the right, that the Left ‘splashes around cash’ highlights how bankrupt the debate on State spending has become.
New Zealand has an egregious infrastructure deficit in NZ!
Because our under regulated capitalism has been robbed of revenue by a rigged economic system that benefits the rich ,we are desperately needing more hospitals, more passenger rail, roads, schools, storm repair, tens of thousands still waiting for State Houses
The reality is that we are not spending nearly enough and we need a far larger State capacity, not less of it!
There is a class war happening right in front of our eyes as the wealthy pour millions in donations to National and ACT while Climate Denying Federated Farmers join ACT and National push for landlords to have the power to evict when some of their biggest donors are Real Estate pimps.
The political project of the right is to amputate the State’s capacity to raise revenue so that it can’t be redistributed in the first place.
There are 14 Billionaires in NZ + 3118 ultra-high net worth individuals with over $50million each, why not start start with them, then move onto the Banks, then the Property Speculators, the Climate Change polluters and big industry to pay their fair share before making workers pay more tax!
The top 5% of NZers own roughly 50% of NZs wealth, while the bottom 50% of NZers own a miserable 5%!
Are those stats that live up to the egalitarian dream of NZ?
The ‘cash was splashed around’ by Labour as the price paid to prevent a mass death event from a once in a century pandemic.
Pretending otherwise is simply rewriting history while denying the underfunded present which dooms us in the future.
We need a bigger State, not a smaller one.
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Amen
Unfortunately the last government has burned off any credibility by not only throwing away the chance of transformational change by making meaningful economic improvements in working people lives when they had a majority in the house, they are obsessed with alienating woke dogma, societal washing of every kind and a haughty disregard for their constituents.
We are about to get a rude wake up call when a change in government will be far worse for working people.
Bad to worse is not progress.
How about the Auckland Emergency budget being decreased under a ex labour MP and a full Labour national government? That is ok? Cause it was a Labour dude that oversaw that cutting of funds?
Low hanging fruit are the big tech companies; Apple, Google, Facebook/Meta – remember the furore from a few years ago when the low rate of tax was exposed. Then it all went quiet.
Apple didn’t pay a bean in tax for a decade or more. Things mighta changed but somehow I doubt it.
As Jeremy Corbyn put it–“For the many not the few”.
A bigger state is surely needed for the working class to get back a reasonable life–but embedded Rogernomics has to be booted to make it work–that is the political challenge of the next few years
/agreed.
But who/which party do you reckon are up for it?
For 3 or 4 years now I’ve been thinking it’s probable lil ‘ole Nu Zull that punches above its weight is going to have to go through another round of bullshit before it wakes up.
Labour and TPM are probably the closest in recognising things aren’t working, but Labour still has a large element in its ranks that have been captured by the neoliberal/3rd way.
And its a feature of modern NU Zull sussoighty (aside from its yea/nah apathy) and its political so-called ‘representatives’ and its civil service that have been captured by the superficial: things like branding, and re-branding, and bullshit and spin, and consultants that charge a fortune for delivering template reports stating the bleeding bloody obvious, or that are completely devoid of logic.
I mean – do you really care if NZ post delivers your parcel in a yellow and red van, or a red and blue one with a new logo? – all done at a cost to Tex Payer and gig worker on the breadline and rivaling the time those advocating efficiency and effectiveness criticised NZPO for getting a landline to you.
No, I suspect we may have to go through another era of BS before the natives get really restless. If so, so be it. The unfortunate thing is that the longer it takes, the more violent it’s likely to be
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