So where the bloody hell are you? Oh now middle classes want to talk about regulating Capitalism in NZ after Fletchers collapse?

FFS!

TDB has been arguing about our poorly regulated capitalism for a very long time, yet it’s only when the middle classes take a hit from the collapse of Fletcher’s that we suddenly need to talk about it hu?

How come the Left have to lecture the Right about bloody Capitalism as well as all their other deep failings?

NZs crony under regulated capitalism is forever being deregulated by donors to the Political Right (and at times the Left) and it goes well beyond Fletcher’s.

The dominant position the Supermarket Duopoly has built ensures they control the market and that the power of competition doesn’t allow for consumers to enjoy the fruits of capitalism. Their ability to introduce mass surveillance into their stores so they can exploit it highlights their total dominance.

Meanwhile migrant labour is being exploited and the lack of policing the existing rules by the Government is laid bare…

‘The system is f…..’: Immigration staff say bosses knew visa system didn’t work, and ignored it

Immigration New Zealand staff have been warning their managers for a year that the under-fire Accredited Employer Work Visa(AEWV) system has major flaws and is a recipe for migrant exploitation – but were ignored.

Concerned INZ staff say employers are being allowed to bring in migrants without any paperwork or financial checks, even when immigration officers fear jobs may be fake, paid for with illegal premiums, or the migrants will be exploited.

Instead, they say, they’ve been told to focus on faster processing times.

Then we have the Commerce Commission investigation into the Drainage Industry and market dominance of a few players…

Commerce Commission to investigate Drainage monopoly while Kāinga Ora fuels it

The Commerce Commission has agreed to investigate monopoly practices inside the drainage industry while Kāinga Ora continues to fuel it.

The insanely under regulated NZ industry allows for monopolies and duopolies and oligopolies to form and there is a huge one inside the drainage industry, but because it’s all under ground, the full costs of this uncompetitive market is hidden.

…we can’t keep having under regulated capitalism that creates duopolies, monopolies and oligopolies!

We aren’t asking for sweeping new powers or over the top communism here, all we are looking for is the industry as it currently exists being properly policed!

Supermarket duopolies shouldn’t be screwing us because of a lack of competition, Migrant workers shouldn’t be getting exploited and the cost of housing should be brought down by increasing competition in the drainage industry!

There are basic solutions to all these issues, I’m not looking for socialism from the NZ Government, just basic regulated capitalism!

Max Harris’s work on a Green Ministry of Works is a step in the right direction…

Rising To The Challenge: A Ministry Of Green Works For Aotearoa

Two of the biggest crises of our times – housing and climate change – could be the target of a new Ministry of Green Works that would integrate important responsibilities related to safeguarding Aotearoa’s future, according to a report released today by FIRST Union.

A Ministry of Green Works for Aotearoa New Zealand: An Ambitious Approach to Housing, Infrastructure, and Climate Change is a policy report commissioned by FIRST Union from co-authors Max Harris and Jacqueline Paul that considers Aotearoa’s systemic infrastructural problems and how they could be addressed by a new governmental entity that builds on the former Ministry of Works and integrates several key departmental responsibilities to future-proof the country for significant challenges to come.

“From our experience in workplaces, we know that contracting is a broken model that has driven down wages and led to massive inefficiencies in construction and infrastructure,” said Jared Abbott, FIRST Union Secretary for Transport, Logistics and Manufacturing.

“As the report describes, the private sector doesn’t have the capacity to deliver on large-scale housing projects and inevitably there are now worker shortages due to poor conditions in the sector.”

“Finally there is insufficient coordination to tackle climate change under the current model – the public sector has limited powers to ensure green building standards in housing and infrastructure, and it’s not equipped to respond to other unexpected challenges, like quickly building managed isolation facilities, for example.”

The report argues that the right response to these problems will be consistent with seven values: honouring Te Tiriti o Waitangi; manaaki whenua, manaaki tangata; Indigenous innovation; collaboration and coordination; creativity; safety and accessibility; and transformation of our economic model. The authors note that any new Ministry of Green Works must learn from its historic namesake and considers twelve risks related to its establishment.

The report contains feedback and interviews with experts including Ganesh Nana, John Tookey, Rosslyn Noonan, Len Cook, Andre Brett, Matthew Scobie, Syd Keepa, Judith Aitken, Susan Krumdieck, Alexis Harris, Murray Parrish, Jen McArthur, Troy Brockbank, Brendon Harre, Joe Gallagher, Ben Schrader, James Muir, Patrick Cummuskey, Andre de Groot, Ben Ross, Huhana Hickey and Nick Collins.

The report is being launched as the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) begins in the United Kingdom over the upcoming weekend.

“Even with our best intentions to fix our housing, infrastructure and climate problems individually, we will miss the boat if we don’t consider their interrelatedness and set firm goals that integrate core functions of all agencies – this is where a Ministry of Green Works comes in,” said Mr Abbott.

“When the last Ministry of Works was cut up and sold off during the extreme ‘reforms’ of the 80s, we ended up a decade later with the leaky homes scandal and a lot of pressing questions – we can’t afford to wait for the consequences of climate change to set in before we act.”

…alongside regulation that is actually policed we could reset our rigged Capitalism.

ACT and National are promising to gut MBIE because MBIE employs the people who regulate New Zealand’s poorly policed and under regulated capitalism!

27 000 Bosses were given the power to import migrant workers and exploit them, of that number only a handful have had their exploitation scams ended and that’s because there is no State policing the current regulations we have!

We see this time and time and time again, State regulators who are supposedly policing the under regulated markets with barely enough staff to look into anything at all!

Max Rashbrooke highlighted the horror of NZs under regulated market…

The bad news is that, to investigate 200,000-300,000 terrible rentals, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) has employed a frontline inspectorate numbering … 37. Each inspector will have to check somewhere between 5000 and 8000 rentals.

ACT and National’s bullshit dismantling of Capitalism’s police tells you all you need to know about the deregulated hellscape a National/ACT monstrosity would birth into this world!

Wanting to talk about how under-regulated and under-competitive Capitalism when it’s middle class investors getting burnt highlights who controls the narrative in this country.

When poor people are getting fucked over, no one cares, the second middle class investors are hurt – SOMETHING MUST BE DONE!

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