Dear Chippy, some thoughts on your debate performance & the inevitability of a wealth tax

By
Martyn Bradbury
-
91
2793

Dear Chippy.

It’s time to step up Comrade.

Your low energy vibe in the First Leaders Debate was a voting boner killer that allowed Luxon to shine.

Blaming Jessica Mutch the way some of the tribal Left have on Twitter for your poor performance is the philosophy of losers, and you Chippy ain’t no loser.

But you sure as Christ may be post October 14th.

Let’s be crystal clear what is at stake here Chippy.

National and ACT would represent the worst Government we’ve ever seen in terms of the public spending amputation they wish to proceed with.

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ACTs bullshit Referendum on the Treaty will start a God damned race war and Luxon is too thick to stop him!

In short Chippy.

You. Can’t. Fucking. Lose!

There is simply too much at stake for your cautious advisors to fuck this up for the country and wider Left!

I know who your advisors are and they are chumps.

Nice chumps.

But Chumps nevertheless.

We have 3 weeks and you need to surprise the electorate and shock this election back into life.

You need to U-turn your Captain’s Call on the Wealth Tax.

Maori Party have made it a bottom line and the Greens will the second the 3 of you have a majority.

There is an inevitability to it if the 3 of you = 51%.

You call an urgent Press Conference, look straight down the barrel of the camera and tell the Nation that getting out around the country has been rewarding and you have met thousands of good Kiwis getting on with their lives, but that what has struck you is the intense inequality you’ve witnessed and that as such, you are reversing your position on Grant and David’s Wealth Tax and you will now fight for every Kiwi to get their first $10 000 tax free and tax the uber wealthy for it!

You need to surprise the electorate and make them want to elect you.

GST off my banana during a 30 year high food inflation rate is bullshit.

What’s the point of Bread and Butter politics if no one can afford the Bread or Butter Chippy?

Give the Left a real reason to fight for you, to fight for Labour, to fight for the progress of a Liberal Democracy that taxes the wealthy to pay for the infrastructure of Society.

Is it a high risk move?

Sure is!

But that’s where we are now!

If NZ First slip under 5% and Labour can pull out a last minute voter surge, Labour + Greens + MP = the Government.

Fight for it Chippy.

I’ve known you for ages, you are a good man and this country can not handle the social carnage ACT and National will bring.

Fight for it Chippy. Fight for NZ. Announce David and Grant’s Wealth Tax and ignite the populism that made Bernie Sanders so powerful.

You are out of options, and this is the last play.

If the Left votes – the Left wins!

Give the Left a reason to vote for you Chippy!

 

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91 COMMENTS

  1. He could also promise to legalize and regulate cannabis in the first 100 daze and storm home in massive victory. Nothing else would get the numbers he needs voting for the left to get out to vote.

  2. I wrote this before the 2017 election, it was a post full of hope and now 6 years later, it makes very disappointing reading…

    “Tomorrow is election day, I am in Queensland so I had to do an overseas vote. I voted for the Green Party, to hopefully give a new Labour Government a bit bit more of an environmental flavour, as well as adding the Greens opposition to the TPPA. I also voted for the Labour candidate in our electorate so as not to split the vote and let National slide in, like they did in Christchurch Central last time round. If you haven’t voted, make sure you do, it is well past time for a change.

    Personally I am OK, I’m back in the upper tax bracket, we have no debts, reasonable retirement savings, medical insurance, a mortgage free home and no kids, whose future we have to worry about. Maybe you are OK too & are living a comfortable life. Maybe you think the status quo is alright and change sounds scary, but over the last three years I have met a lot of people who aren’t OK, people who struggle to put a roof over their head or pay for life’s unexpected turns, even when they are working full time.

    If National had solutions to the problems that currently beset New Zealand, they would have solved them in the last 9 years. If they were trying to solve these problems, it hasn’t been working. Unfortunately I don’t think that they are even trying. I am sick of seeing people begging or sleeping on the streets, people working full time & still struggling to make a living, a housing crisis, a booming meth trade, a failing mental health system & a climbing suicide rate, polluted rivers & contaminated drinking water. This isn’t the New Zealand I grew up in and if this is the direction we are travelling in, it is time to turn the boat around and find a new direction.

    So tomorrow, make sure you vote, if you haven’t done so already, and consider what sort of New Zealand you want to live it.”

  3. “You need to surprise the electorate and make them want to elect you.”
    Nope, you’d need a massive country wide outbreak of amnesia.

      • Agreed. Bradbury is dreaming. Hipkins and Labour are finished.
        It’s time to wind up the Labour party and establish a party genuinely committed to empowering the poor.
        We need to step forward to the past, when a genuine Labour party knew whom to tax.

        Here’s tax commentator Terry Baucher in a Post article on megalandlords:
        Terry Baucher said he had considered the likely impacts of an inheritance tax, starting by looking at the proportion of tax-take coming from inheritance taxes back in 1949.
        He chose this date because it was when the tax was still significant, and before it started to be degraded by law changes.
        “The amount of land tax, death and gift duties we were collecting back then was 5.3% of total tax collections, the equivalent of $5.7 billion in 2022.”
        The degradation of this form of tax, he said, was led by National, as the party reduced inheritance tax or introduced more exemptions, to the point where the gutted tax was scrapped entirely in 1992.
        “We subsequently got an explosion in the number of trusts, and we actually have seen an amount of wealth accumulate, and properties.”
        Baucher said New Zealand was unique in the developed world for a lack of estate duties, gift duties, capital gains tax, wealth tax, or stamp duties.
        “Not every jurisdiction has all of those, but some, like the UK and America, have three of them. We have no mechanism to prevent the accumulation of wealth, or tax the accumulation of wealth. It’s basically a lack of capital taxation in aggregate.”
        This was why investment in land and property had become so thoroughly preferred.
        Baucher said this was one driver of the growing inequality in New Zealand.
        He points to the work of French economist Thomas Piketty, which he said showed that between 1945 and 1980 there were very high tax rates in Western democracies, and inequality greatly decreased. Then in the 1980s, just as in New Zealand, many places reduced taxes, and inequality increased.
        Baucher did not have an opinion on whether New Zealand should have investors with hundreds of properties, and said what was more important was how landlords treated their tenants.
        “If tenancy rights were more secure and the quality of our rental stock was higher, I would have less issues around it. It comes back to the question: how much inequality are you prepared to accept?”

        And here’s Michael Littlewood:
        Auckland University tax law professor Michael Littlewood studied inheritance taxes in New Zealand, and said they were used from the 1860s till the early 1990s.
        He said for a period after World War II, Labour won elections by increasing it.
        “There were allowances, for the family home and so-forth, but above whatever this threshold was, your assets at death were taxed at a rate of 50% or a rate higher than 50%.”
        However, Littlewood said, “Whenever the National Party were in government they went about dismembering it until it was barely worth keeping.”
        “It’s just the way that democracy tends to operate is that affluent people, who otherwise might be burdened with tax, have been very successful down the centuries in persuading poor people that it’s a bad idea to tax rich people.”
        Littlewood said the wealthy had succeeding in propagandising the issue, and convincing the public.
        “It’s basically the same reason we haven’t got a capital gains tax, because if we had a capital gains tax it would be the richest 5% probably who would pay it, and the other 95% would consequently benefit either from tax cuts on their other forms of income, or from increased government spending.”
        “But obviously it would appear most New Zealanders don’t want a capital gains tax just as they don’t want a death tax.”

      • Many fools fell for the ” I will not raise GST” line many years ago .
        The same fools believed in the Brighter future” slogan and then the fools believed the ” closing the gap with Australia ” wage lie.
        So many promises National fooled voters with.

      • Given that the Maori Party, the Green Party, two Labour cabinet ministers, and probably many members from the wider party, support a wealth tax, a person would have to be a fool not to believe such an about turn.

    • Putting the fear of God into voters that the others guys will be even worse in government than we’ve been is hardly a winning strategy.

  5. There is no last play. That ship departed when the 3 Waters revist was even worse than the original dog and it’s then Labour redux and Chippy ceased to be relevant!

  6. Dropping the reduction in prison inmates is the latest abandonment of principles in quest of the baubles of power. I’m afraid Chippie is just an empty shell now

    • He had no choice because it was a stupid idealistic policy that failed us and that has led to law and order rating number 2 in voter concerns!

  7. I’m a little confused. How can Chippy do anything when you’ve said over and over that it’s the evil bureaucrats that have prevented Labour from achieving anything? And no he can’t U-Turn on anything at this point because this raft of policies that were impossible for six years and which have now suddenly appeared already look like a joke.

    The only thing that is more of a worry is the minor parties suddenly going quiet on their policies so as to not spook the voters. Of course if they get in they’ll do their best to unleash a raft of things that they didn’t campaign on.

    I have never been more depressed going into an election in my life. They are all dishonest, useless charlatans or in the case of Winston, they have gone far down some dark path from which there is no return.

  9. You’ve got it in one Martyn. It seems, given the limp performances on the campaign trail, labours strategy is to loose the election.
    I don’t know who is running Labours campaign, but on the evidence they couldn’t sell bananas to monkeys.
    The one thing this country doesn’t need is to get on the back track!

  12. “I know who your advisors are and they are chumps.

    Nice chumps.

    But Chumps nevertheless.”

    Therein lies the problem – from the Left’s political class to the muddle and senior management PMC in the administration.
    I keep wondering when it was when ‘nice’ blokes and blokesses necessarily meant they were competent.
    The latest at OT and changes at Ummigration NuZull just make me fucking despair.

  13. CHipkins changing his mind now on a wealth tax would only make him look mentally chaotic, completely untrustworthy, and incredibly desperate to say anything that gets attention.

    If he flips on the wealth tax now, how could anyone believe anything he promises?

  14. Chipkins looked a little bit lost the other night, he does not appear to be sure of himself and tried to be the smart arsed schoolboy. Labour have been particularly weak on Law & Order and a number of other Key Issues, however they are continually patting themselves on the back for a job well done.

    I am frightened the NACT First block will get into power at the next Elections and with reek Merry Hell on the the middle and lower socio-economic groups.

  15. Chipkins looked a little bit lost the other night, he does not appear to be sure of himself and tried to be the smart arsed schoolboy. Labour have been particularly weak on Law & Order and a number of other Key Issues, however they are continually patting themselves on the back for a job well done.

    I am frightened the NACT First block will get into power at the next Elections and with reek Merry Hell on the the middle and lower socio-economic groups.

  16. Martyn, love the little china dog in your pic.

    It will be good if the govt cuts spending if it is all the wasteful wfh back room public service jobs.

    A figure I saw was a 40% increase in public spending on bureaucratics. This is not on!

    I don’t think Luxon and Act are going to be as bad as you think, but will willingly apologise if you are right and I am wrong.

    The panel on The Daily Blog at the backbencher was outstanding. The range of positions really sums up NZ politics.

    Huge shout out to Fran O’Sullivan calling out the de platforming of certain topics as evil

  18. Winston is looking as if he could pick up some soft votes with the Undecided Voters as neither National or Labour are sounding very credible these days, both are making up shit trying to gather Votes.

    The quality of Politician’s these days compared to 40-50 years ago, is very poor especially when old Winston from NZ First is starting to sound credible. NZF may get 10-12% if Winnie doesn’t shoot himself in the foot again, like he normally does Pre Election ???

  19. “In it for you”
    Who came up with that? I’m serious. Who came up with it and who supported the use of it? Gag worthy hardly describes it. Insulting is getting there. Patronising and insipid plus gag worthy’s getting warm. Dumb, ignorant and demeaning to those who genuinely need politicians to do what their grossly over-paid positions might demand of them is warmer still.
    Chippy? How about “FUCK NEO-LIBERALISM! LETS HAVE A REVOLUTION INSTEAD?”
    Even though I’ll vote Labour, of course, I mean who else, right, I have no interest in what hipkins has to say because he was nothing interesting to say. I’m far more interested in the concept of telling hipkins what to do

    • Couldn’t agree more @CB. But we probably both already know.
      Most likely some POLS and Marketing millenial grad from a bums-on-seats tertiary institution, uber-ambitious but with bugger all life’s experience, and dreamed up over a delightful biryani at Havalli on the way home from a trip to London and the world.

      They’re probably even like you and me – about to vote Labour/Green because its the least worst option. Innit?

  20. Gangs and Drugs are the main causes of Mental Health Problems here in NZ, the sooner Politicians and the NZ Public wake up to the problem the better.

    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/p-easier-to-get-than-cannabis-in-rotorua-says-police-commander/IWGEMXTXLFGYPH23KNC53SMM54/

    Winston NZF is making sense outlawing Gangs as Terrorist Organizations and having/building dedicated Prisons for Gangs, were they can be reeducated and reprogramed, they are burden on NZ Society however they have been normalized over the past 20-30 years and are treated as if they are the Boy Scouts or Weekend Touring Motorcycle Clubs.

    • That’s why we should take Portugal’s lead and decriminalise all recreational drugs. If not for the gangs then for me. And in the unlikely event that some politician gets more of a rush of blood to the head and less of a rush of money to their pockets via lobbyists acting solely in the interests of the immoral riche, and that does happen, then we must firstly asset strip the 14 multi-billionaires, the 3118 multi-millionaires and the four foreign owned banks and increase benefits by 300%. But wait? There’s more!
      We send in a public, royal commission of inquiry to find out exactly how the 14 multi-billionaires, the 3118 multi-millionaires and the four foreign owned banks got to be 14 multi-billionaires, the 3118 multi-millionaires and the four foreign owned banks in a country who’s primary industry is family farming and AO/NZ’s entire population is only the size of Melbourne AU.
      Is it about now that I mention that one of the 200 hundred richest IN THE WORLD at 14 billion dollars is graeme hart who just donated equally to [our] four main parties? What does that tell you? That’s he’s lovely and cares for us? Or does that tell you that our four main political parties are all the same thing. That they’re all fucking dirty.
      @ Ngungukai. Gang issues are a symptom. Not the core problem and that core problem is simply that our politicians do what rich people tell them to do, and that is to enable they, the rich, to get richer, it goes without saying, not what we currently beg them to do. We must stop begging and start fucking telling.
      Remember when dirty little piggy ACT douglas and his bestie jimbo bolger dropped the deregulated union bomb on the working classes back in the early 90’s? From that point on, our wages earners would get as fucked as the rich pleased.
      Labour’s latest catch phrase is ” In it for you.” No, they’re fucking not. Chippy gets a salary of $471,049.00 That’s what he’s in it for. Chippy? There’s more to your role than meandering about holding up a fucking cheese roll. luxon’s so greedy and keen for a suck on the sav’ that all he needs to do is keep smiling that psycho smile while applying the head polish.

  21. ” You need to U-turn your Captain’s Call on the Wealth Tax ”

    Bomber Chipkins believes the free market economy is going to fix all the problems its created. If you listen to him talk its always about the ” market ” and he is a free market politician and they don’t advocate for the wealthy to pay their fair share of the tax burden which means as you keep pointing out the poor subsidize the rich. If not then where are the REAL changes that will address that rather than the timid tinkering he has delivered or promised to.

    January was his opportunity to repair the damage from the previous two years and he had the advantage that Luxon didn’t… he was in government with the power to change things and re set the agenda and drive the bread and butter message by delivering and articulating what people can expect from Labour economically in the next term despite some of the other unpopular decisions they were advocating.

    It was a golden opportunity with the current cost of living pressures everyone who matters are feeling to provide alternative to what NACT and their donors and supporters want which is a continuation of their control and influence under the guise of unregulated capitalisim.

    I appreciate you know Jacinda and Chris and I am sure on a personal level they are engaging and quite possibly care emotionally but that’s where it ends and you get the brainwashed person they really are. They are accountable for so much more as PM and neither one have backed their own marketing campaigns of transformation and bread an butter. They are products of the market their former colleagues and the business elite advocate and enforce. The free market and politics of the left are incompatible which is why we have new neo liberal Labour to be there to not harm or threaten unregulated capitalism but fool its many victims that they will stand by and govern for them.

    If they lose then the blame lies with Chipkins and his colleagues who have sat by on their comfortable salaries and parliamentary perks and out of touch and expected to be magically re elected by the managerial class and its slaves and serfs that feel their free market kindness and love.

    The sixth LINO government lost the election after the bread and butter promise and then fiddled and tinkered as the cost of living began to deny people their right to feed themselves and food becoming a luxury commodity then appointing a grocery commissioner to fix it while the extortion continues unabated.

  22. The idea that they were IN POWER for 6 YEARS with an absolute parliamentary MAJORITY, and achieved NOTHING of benefit to the average NZer is causing a severe outbreak of cynicism here.
    In it for the money.
    Their slogan should be
    Buy a dog and learn to bark…

    If we end up with the worst NACT government in recorded history it will be as a direct result of Labour’s lack of ability, not the voters.
    Put the blame where it belongs and I’ll see you all in the first gulag…

    • “There is no such thing as bad soldiers, only bad generals” Napoleon

      “If we end up with the worst NACT government in recorded history it will be as a direct result of Labour’s lack of ability, not the voters.” J S Bark

      In 1990, after being tossed out of government by the voters, instead of some self examination and internal reform, blaming the voters for their own failings in government is the Labour Party fall back position. Between 1964 and 1990 after serving two terms in government spent savaging working people, selling off state assets, telecom, electricity network, railways, to private investors who asset stripped and ran those previous public enterprises into the ground while slashed jobs and jacking up prices to maximise profits., On top of all that closing public hospitals, giving the rich tax breaks, imposing GST on the rest of us to make up the shortfall, bringing in student fees in an attack on young people, imposing the superannuation surcharge in an attack on pensioners. After doing all this, the Labour Party were dumped from office in a landslide election, to a lying National Bolger National party that had campaigned on a program to the Left of all that, with promises to reverse it. (but on winning the election broke all those promises and carried on the same policies).

      I remember attending union meetings, during the period when the Bolger administration was imposing the Employment Contracts Act, where invited self righteous Labour Party hopefuls would smugly self tell us it was all our fault for voting National and we should suck it up and not go on strike against it. Just vote Labour next time..

      • Yes brother, I remember all that too. I was a railway worker in those days. The greed was sharp and led to many cuts.

  23. Labour are broken, out of ideas, their “successes” are failures, many of their highest flying politicians have resigned in disgrace, they don’t want to win because they know what’s coming. They have no future. It’s over. New Zealand needs real change, not more chaos.

  24. Rents are at a all time high but National and ACT are proposing to roll back many of the wins against the last National govt that contributed to the current housing crisis.

    As it currently stands, there are a set list of reasons why a landlord may end a tenancy outside of typical lease clauses such as where a tenant has engaged in anti-social or illegal behaviour, is at least three weeks in rent arrears, or even when the landlord wants to vacate the property for them or a member of their family to move in. ‘No cause’ evictions mean that landlords would not have to provide any justification at all for kicking us out of our homes.

    ‘No Cause’ Evictions

    This policy further entrenches renters as second-class citizens in NZ/AO. You’re almost certainly familiar with that inescapable nagging at the back of your mind that cautions you against ever getting too settled. Knowing that your home is only yours at the whim of your landlord from day to day is dehumanizing and harms our ability to participate in our community. The return of no cause evictions destroys every single other right that we hold in practice. You can’t ask your landlord to make your home healthy, to only increase rents by reasonable amounts, or to respect any of the rules around tenancies if you can be evicted just for asking.

    There is always a reason, this policy just allows landlord to hide what that reason is. It means that landlords who hold discriminatory views or who are willing to evict someone from their home for the few extra dollars per week they might be able squeeze from someone else are empowered to do so. It means that renters are less able to assert their rights, and more vulnerable to abuse. It means that relationships between landlords and renters will become even more strained. It will weaken our local communities as more renters move more often. It will continue our failure to care for one another when it comes to housing. It will mean that we fall further behind our international counterparts on basic human rights for our people.

    Do not fall for National and ACT’s spin. While we still have a chronic undersupply of housing it is disingenuous at best and gaslighting at worst to say that the reason that our community’s needs aren’t being met by the private rental market is because it’s not easy enough to evict someone. While there does exist vague and rarely enforced rules around rent increases within tenancies, there are no rules around increasing rent between tenancies. This policy incentivises evictions for profit.

    • National historically have created the greatest divide between the haves and have nots. No one should ever fall for their corrupt practices again. Only the brainless would vote for a party which created poverty and homelessness, people living in cars and under bridges all during the self promoted rock star years. Now we have Bishop promoting Landlords to gain greater profits.
      National and ACT have never governed for all New Zealanders partly because they’ve never ever had any talent.

  25. I’m hoping that if things are even enough, and the Greens are one of the kingmakers after the election, then they should insist on canabis law reform being their bottom line, and we may end up with a NatGreen laid back govt. Shaw and Luxon, both former sucessful pragmatic bussiness men and not career politicians, arn’t that different. I’m sure they could pragmatically do canabis law reform tokegether. The Greens wealth tax and Nationals foreign property buyers tax, also arn’t that different.

    • Given that we need to go green and not rely on Gas, Lex Luther’s a shoe in because he’s full of hot air.

  27. “ National and ACT would represent the worst Government we’ve ever seen in terms of the public spending amputation they wish to proceed with.”

    As opposed to the last 6 years of the worst Government we’ve ever seen.

    • Yes a political game of limbo – but I’m betting it’s going to be a long time until the bar gets as low as Labour has sunk it and their sitting ministers are drink driving and getting chased down by police dogs.
      To say nothing of the division they gave caused in NZ.

  28. “National and ACT would represent the worst Government we’ve ever seen in terms of the public spending amputation…”

    Indeed it would, but that’s great news for hard working taxpayers.

    • Yes until you have to pay for $70,000 to $450,000 for an unfunded Medicine for yourself or your kids or your private hospital operation goes wrong and you need public hospital care which you cant get because the health system is fucked. Thanks to your favourite parties bullshit. All you Nat fans are the same scream about to much tax then scream blue murder when state services fail you.

  29. PS. And reinstall the independent Commissioner for Vulnerable Children, and dump the Free Speech Extremist Censors instead.

  30. Even my dad who is hardly a leftist has ruled out voting Labour because of Chippy’s defunded the ETS, we need to vote Green or TPM this election!

  32. You do have a point.

    My thought: how is that NZ is, out of every other OECD country (as I understand), the only one the doesn’t have a capital gains tax?

    And yes, the first 10k of income tax-free is vastly more sensible than cents off bananas, and the dog’s breakfast otherwise of deciding which foods are GST-included/excluded.

    I’m standing as an Independent in the Taieri electorate, a region of the country those up North seem barely aware of. If you’re curious, check out my platform here: votemacgardner.net (mostly about the awful cuts being made to our new hospital)

    Here’s a scenario: the left and the right are level-pegging on election day, Winston scores 4.99%, I achieve a mathematical miracle, and I can choose: whichever lot will support my proposals. Well OK, dreams are free.

  33. Oh and the other story being ignored.

    ” Back in June, we learned that Kiri Allan was a Parliamentary bully. And now there’s another one: Labour MP Shanan Halbert ”

    ” This is another incident where the Labour Party has attempted to cover up and not investigate bullying. They need to look hard at themselves, at what sort of behaviour they are willing to tolerate in their MPs, and at how they keep selecting these sorts of arseholes as candidates ”

    https://norightturn.blogspot.com/2023/09/another-labour-bully.html

  37. I hope to hell Chippy is reading the Daily blog & your very sensible suggestions Martyn? Hipkins has nothing to lose now & everything to gain by adopting the things you stated! A Wealth Tax & a Financial Transactions Tax on the Banks would be a great start & especially removing Tax on the first 10k of income Tax! And Rent Freezes please & after this the rent rises can’t be higher than the Consumer Price Index, these scumbag Landlords are price gouging Tenants & charging Rents higher than the Inflation rate, this must be stopped! Hipkins low wattage performance must also improve, he needs some fire in the belly & needs lessons from Jack Tame, Rebeca Wright & especially Lloyd Burr, on how to stick it to Luxon, Chippy is too passive & affable, the excellent Newshub Political reporter Burr showed how to needle Luxon for walking away & not answering questions on his dodgy Tax plan, badgering him that if he wanted to be PM, he has to be transparent & explain himself to the NZ people & voters instead of running away, watch his interview it was great? Desperate times call for big calls & Hipkins needs to make some by making some ballsy Policy decisions like the ones you suggested, fortune favours the bold not the bald?

  39. Wow!! You’ve scared the crap out of the usual ganglet of amoeba brained “real kiwis” with what amounts to more common sense than a good tory could stomach….
    The level of ignorance of any history, let alone political history, combined with the confidence of the true moron, and topped of with a heaping helping of the rank arrogance, and bigotry that characterises the best of the colonial descendants, on display in the comments section of this opinion piece, is actually depressingly normal for this country… NZ has, by and large, shown itself incapable of governing itself, as shown by how rapidly, and enthusiastically the support for making itself dependent on outside help to even feed its population is manifested through the colonial press, to a wave of “erudite” nodding and tail wagging from those worthy peasants who still crave a pat on the head from the “masters”…
    Pathetic little puppies and kittens pretending to be grownups, without a clue what that means…
    No prizes for guessing why all the smart ones are running away as soon as they can…. It’s bleeding obvious once the wool is removed…

  40. It not even about policy, chippy and his crew are just seen as losers, inept and unappealing as individuals. Ardern stories popping up as the Queen of dislike in the labour crew, only triggers people more

  42. I love labour

    It not even about policy, chippy and his crew are just seen as losers, inept and unappealing as individuals. Ardern stories popping up as the Queen of dislike in the labour crew, only triggers people more

  43. Dear Martyn
    Let’s be crystal clear what’s at stake here. Another 3 or even 6 years under this kind of govt, added to that the economic madness of TPM and The Greens, and this lovely country will be even more fucked than it already is. And it’s pretty well fucked, so that would be extra double fucked.
    You see, you lefty socialists are counting on the state to make you happy and deliver you the promised land…by collecting taxes as your main revenue???? How fucked is that! That’s precisely why NZ is fucked. It earns fuck all money by world standards. It’s a poor country. Socialism is a good and well – as long as there are enough capitalists to pay for it. There simply aren’t!

  44. I made the following post 6 years ago, it hasn’t aged well…

    “Tomorrow is election day, I am in Queensland so I had to do an overseas vote. I voted for the Green Party, to hopefully give a new Labour Government a bit bit more of an environmental flavour, as well as adding the Greens opposition to the TPPA. I also voted for the Labour candidate in our electorate so as not to split the vote and let National slide in, like they did in Christchurch Central last time round. If you haven’t voted, make sure you do, it is well past time for a change.

    Personally I am OK, I’m back in the upper tax bracket, we have no debts, reasonable retirement savings, medical insurance, a mortgage free home and no kids, whose future we have to worry about. Maybe you are OK too & are living a comfortable life. Maybe you think the status quo is alright and change sounds scary, but over the last three years I have met a lot of people who aren’t OK, people who struggle to put a roof over their head or pay for life’s unexpected turns, even when they are working full time.

    If National had solutions to the problems that currently beset New Zealand, they would have solved them in the last 9 years. If they were trying to solve these problems, it hasn’t been working. Unfortunately I don’t think that they are even trying. I am sick of seeing people begging or sleeping on the streets, people working full time & still struggling to make a living, a housing crisis, a booming meth trade, a failing mental health system & a climbing suicide rate, polluted rivers & contaminated drinking water. This isn’t the New Zealand I grew up in and if this is the direction we are travelling in, it is time to turn the boat around and find a new direction.

    So tomorrow, make sure you vote, if you haven’t done so already, and consider what sort of New Zealand you want to live it.”

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