I’ve spent the last 2 months travelling the country hosting pub debates around New Zealand and I wanted to express some thoughts.
Every single day, new National, ACT or NZ First policy gets released that will cause social carnage + voters don’t care because they are embittered Jacinda saved NZ from a mass death event!
We are a tiny, low-imagination-horizon juvenile settler country with all the cultural maturity of a can of day old coke cola.
Research shows Jacinda and Labour’s leadership saved 20 000 lives. Damien Grant in his column over the weekend deriding our covid response doesn’t understand the concept of a shared sacrifice because as a Libertarian, he doesn’t understand the concept of sharing.
It’s Old Zealand vs New Zealand this election, and let’s be crystal clear, National + ACT + NZF will be the worst Government in NZ History.
This self inflicted wound of a possible new Government has been driven by the rage of frightened voters who have had their pain and ignorance manipulated for far right interests using social media hate algorithms.
The Left have been ineffectual at scaring the Public Service into productivity and Labour’s incremental glacial change does nothing to heal the cost of living pain many feel because the capacity of the state to do anything meaningful has been underfunded by the right for decades.
Labour’s cowardice to tax the rich mixed with toxic woke middle class identity politics has burnt the left and provided culture war ammunition that the right have crucified us with.
Meanwhile the planet boils as catastrophic climate change becomes an immediate reality.
If you think National + ACT + NZF is the solution, we as a Nation have a problem.
We are a lesser people for this Election and the worst angels of our nature have been aroused by political interests and astroturf rural dissent.
National get caught hiding the fact that only 3000 people will get their $250 per fortnight tax cut, while apologising for falsely framing everyone would get that tax cut, Luxon accidentally framed it that way again. He’s a one trick pony without a trick or pony.
After refusing to rule Winston out, then ruling Winston in, National begged the country not to vote for Winston.
I’ve never seen such an appalling set of stupid decisions all made in combination to create a toxic brew of egos.
Winston is threatening Jack Tame for asking him hard questions.
National will stop building State Houses.
ACT want to rob you of January 2nd stat holiday.
National can not fund their foreign buyers tax but will allow foreign speculators to price the next generation out of home ownership.
NZ First just dumped a candidate who compared Covid vaccinations to Nuremberg trials.
National will give Landlords the power to throw tenants out without notice.
NZ First will misuse the Terrorism Suppression Act to designate domestic groups for paramilitary policing.
National will start riots and bloodshed at Funerals attempting to take Gang Patches from funerals.
National will rob 2 year olds, mutilate public transport and literally steal from climate change funds to give Landlord’s a $250 per fortnight tax cut!
ACT will start a race war with their racist referendum.
National and ACT will steal 2 years of our pension from Gen X.
Winston claims Māori aren’t indigenous.
ACT want to spark domestic meth cooking so they can pimp for big Pharma.
National will give bosses the right to sack after 90 days.
National, ACT and NZ First will all punish beneficiaries.
National, ACT and NZ First have used Māori as a punching bag.
National, ACT and NZ First will slash the public services while claiming they aren’t slashing public services.
National, ACT and NZ First will abandon all climate change legislation and allow the planet to burn.
National, ACT and NZ First are taking millions in donations from the mega rich.
National’s ‘plan’ isn’t trickle down economics, it defies political gravity and demands trickle up! They are taking $2b from the poor and giving it to the rich! This isn’t a plan, it’s Egalitarian vandalism!
In the first 100 days, redneck knee jerk left tough on crime rhetoric will be imposed that will cause an explosion in violence by the State which will shame kiwis!
National, ACT and NZFirst will throw thousands out of state homes with no where for them to go, while cutting 15 000 public service jobs while cutting 140 000 off welfare with sanctions!
If this is honestly your political preference because you are embittered Jacinda protected NZ from a mass death event and saved 20000 lives; have had your co-governance ignorance manipulated; and fear of crime exploited – then we have a problem as a Nation!
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“ After refusing to rule Winston out, then ruling Winston in, National begged the country not to vote for Winston.”
For a country with an MMP consensus-based, coalition-dependent, electoral system, it’s quite dispiriting how inept New Zealand’s politicians are.
They’re simply bad at politics.
The planning for a social democratic Third Party run in 2026 should start right now.
Agreed.
Maybe TOP plus the tax-reform minded Labour folk (peeling off thanks to all those “captain’s calls”), plus the section of the Greens that’s less hooked-into culture wars & more economically/wealth distribution minded?
We have two already, they’re called the Green Party and Te Pati Maori
Exactly and I agree 100%.
it is the reason I gave up on Labour 9 years ago and Joined the Greens in 2019.
Labour are a lost cause for progressive left economic change.
Thanks for keeping us informed and entertained over the last couple of months @ MB. I’ll leave the last word with you. It’s how it should be. But cant help myself in saying the last word will be with voters. Don’t beat yourself. Labour and the Greens will hold their own in the electorates and attract a good proportion of the party vote, sufficient to make it a close race. On the polling not enough? Oh well, well see just how accurate the more recent polls are at predicting the result.
That saddest part is National are so f’ing useless that Labour start looking the less worse option in terms of major parties. How is that possible! At least under labour you get a semblance of CGT on property, and all this shit about landlords reducing rent if they get tax relief is something not even Nicola Willis believes. It’s stupid treating interest the way they are because they are gutless on speculation but here we are. Yes Labours GST policy is stupid.
Nationals tax cuts are a farce and ACTS tax cuts come with such a cost we will pay big time. I’d like to see the state sector given a good rark up but Seymour is only really doing it to let any industry run wild. It’s not about good management. The Treaty stance and the gun stuff is just f’ing stupid.
The Māori have some policies like, the prison one, that are nuts and although I have time for Shaw, Swarbrick, and Genter, the fact that Davidson is co leader of the Greens just leaves me cold.
TOP just feels like you are almost not voting and the rest are just idiots.
Labour have to win this because National only support the 1%. They want kids who cannot go to the bank of mum and dad to leave NZ. They will rent forever. They give them no other option.
A lot of people are going to be systematically screwed over by a National government. I hope a miracle happens tomorrow, even know I know there is no such thing.
Great stuff Bomber. The debates were an awesome eye opener to the depth of talent from all parts of the country and political spectrum. See you on the other side.
If National win, I will probably step back from commenting for a few months, at least until the dust settles.
Catch you all whenever I guess….
“Jacinda protected NZ from a mass death event and saved 20000 lives.” Martyn Bradbury.
But you wouldn’t know that from this election.
Labour didn’t fight this election on Jacinda Ardern’s record. It was never mentioned.
Labour are so committed to neoliberalism that they were too ashamed to campaign on the fact that Jacinda Ardern was prepared to put a spoke in the wheel of capitalist profit taking with the shutdowns to save lives.
The old Labour are still committed to the fantasy of white colonial supremacy that they were too ashamed to campaign on the fact that after the Christchurch massacre Jacinda Ardern said, “they are us” of the Moslem community.
On taking the premiership Chris Hipkins carried out what was called in the media a ‘bonfire’ of Jacinda Ardern’s policies, and her achievements were scrubbed from the Labour Party’s collective memory, especially her vision for this country, as a leader in climate justice.
Jacinda Ardern wasn’t perfect by any means, no great disruptive leaders ever are. But Jacinda Ardern would never have made a “Captain’s Call” to cancel the wealth tax. That I am absolutely sure of. Even if she had been under political pressure from the wealthy big business lobbyists. Even if the conservative permanent heads were advising her to, Jacinda Ardern would not have buckled to the rich. Not least because Ardern had publicly committed herself to a personal mantra of “kindness” which such a captain’s call would have completely negated.
The Labour government didn’t lose this election because of Jacinda Ardern’s legacy but because of their refusal to defend it.
Good points Pat O’D. It seems that with everyone living longer, and perhaps like Robert Mugabe, supposedly taking monkey glands, the uglies never die they just eventually dry up or bloat and destroy themselves. But not having had a new thought or questioned themselves since they were 55 and succeeded in some way, they carry on in their self-satisfaction as a shining example of how good their chosen policies are. We need different ways for choosing our wise ones and limiting their time of management, and later influence. That would be a civil war in itself.
My cousin was killed in a car crash. Your idea of “fantastic ” is insular.
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