Drop kick Chip made his own state of the nation speech at the weekend. At least I think that’s what it was. Everyone else had done their speeches – was he waiting for the relevance level to hit retro before doing the #SOTN meme? Was he trying to avoid it?
It must have been the weekend because he didn’t have a tie on, but then… who makes a major speech like he’s off-duty? Is he on or off, is it serious or not? Where’s the flag? Is this not a state of anything? Trying so hard and never looking the part. The demeanour: so surprisingly smug for someone who so recently shepherded their party into the jaws of defeat without any concerns at all – before or after. Seemingly oblivious. The secret soviet autopsy he ordered must have shown he didn’t do it. It wasn’t me – it was 27% when I got here, honest.
With the gravitas of a head prefect he makes this speech, shall we say, about the nation, rather than the State of the nation because: dude’s not wearing a tie and no flag, so what is it? There’s nothing stately about it.
Are you sick of the sight of him, not really listening anymore…? Is he just background static at this stage? What is he there to do – ultimately – to be a loser again but worse than Cunliffe?
The tax u-turn is all anyone is talking about; being a complete repudiation of his own “captain’s call” – an ill-judged, selfish veto his team was too weak to resist. It is the most important indication of what a re-built Labour movement might bring to a future government. Will Droppie McChipface still be there: 95% no. 20-1 on that. How can he be? He is an opportunistic hypocrite after what he said in his speech, and added to the loser dweeb vibe we grew to dislike, it amounts to a leadership change sometime next year.
As for the speech, it’s content and delivery, it was a mash. It had bits of everything thrown in with lots of sickly, sweet syrup to try to keep it together. The speech pitched and yawed, ranged and drifted from National’s bad m’kay to ANZAC Day to heart-rending tales from Labour’s motherland of heroes – school teachers – to the economy, to repudiating a tax policy that he himself, personally, was responsible for without any shame or apology. God, the carefully manicured absence of self-awareness to avoid accountability for what he was now calling “inequitable” and “unsustainable” was so egregious. It insulted the electorate’s collective intelligence, if not collective dignity. If only someone else – someone believable – was saying it instead of, you know, ginger dork boy over there, the guy with the sausage roll and no mates. Chris Hipkins is the Simeon Brown of Labour after all, that is the reality, one rare misstep after another.
“When even the IMF is saying our tax system is broken it really is time to do something.” And when Hipkins said that it immediately confirmed our worst thoughts: Labour will not fix anything until the IMF says they’re worried – fuck the 5 million people who live here and what they think. The cheek of this twerp. It’s only until Grant Robertson has resigned as an MP and finally cleared out his parliamentary office that they think it’s safe enough to start openly talking about a wealth tax within the party. That’s the chronology for what it’s worth.
Did it sound as though Hipkins believed what he was saying? He wasn’t admitting they, or he, were in the wrong for any of it. No hint of contrition at any point. Most tellingly was his cracking up under the pressure of the historic aspect of the tax reversal he had crucified the caucus upon less than a year ago. Hipkins provided the most excruciating moment:
“It’s not hard to contrast the commitment of my grandparent’s generation with the [*squeezed voice, drying up*] aggressive drive [*coughs*] towards individualism and dog-eat-dog competition that has prevailed since the 1980s.
Later this year we will mark a significant, and [*voice breaking up*] challenging, milestone in Labour’s history, [*To someone off-stage: ’Someone grab me a glass of water’* *coughs*] the 40-year anniversary of the election of the 4th Labour government.”
That’s more forced, eye-watering, hard swallowing and gagging than a Belgian porno. He choked on it, didn’t want to say it. Fucking say it! Phil and Helen etc were all part of it. They kept all of Roger’s stuff pretty much anyway. Take GST. Take it off? No. Never.
Labour ran the election on GST off fresh fruit and vegetables and yet they voted to kill the Maori Party Bill on GST that could have achieved a similar scenario. No. The Rogernomics they supposedly detest are all locked-in facets of the system that Labour believes can’t be changed unless National also agrees. Labour does things like ‘GST off’ reluctantly and in desperation when they are only completely sure they will lose and not have to do it – as we all know. The question is does Hipkins’ renunciation signal they have given up on winning the next election? Just, no, please. And check out the timeframe – they are bargaining on this troika government going a full term so the policy won’t be ready if there’s an early election.
No tie, not even a glass of water organised.
The speech has since been billed as a renunciation or break with neoliberalism. Khruschev denounced Stalin over four hours, but Hipkins spent hardly 4 minutes on neoliberalism and found Rogernomics ‘challenging’ for only about 4 seconds. Repudiation of neoliberalism would have taken more than our policy team will look into it. So, I cannot see it is a serious revision of anything other than reversing his own diktat on barring a wealth tax. And what else can he do? He isn’t to be believed or trusted. Hipkins hasn’t got any mandate to exercise any transformative agenda given the election result. The willingness of the caucus to keep him as caretaker does not mean he is an architect to design the next government.
Under the leadership of Kruschev the Communist Party apparatus would have organised some water for his speech to the party faithful – Hipkins and Labour cannot provide even that. The irony of a man proclaiming Labour’s 3 waters would have worked when his own party can’t supply one glass to its leader in a speech about the nation is subconsciously absorbed by the audience.
Did anyone else wince when Hipkins went on about the ram raids, dairy owners and criminal justice? What a mess.
“I’ve heard people say they think Labour is soft on crime. Nothing could be further from the truth. But a race to outbid each other on longer sentences won’t address the underlying problem of why we have so much crime in the first place. If we want safer communities, we need to tackle the causes of crime.
When I speak to dairy owners who have been the victims of ram raids they are at the end of their tether. Their businesses aren’t just where they work, they’re also often their homes too. They work so hard and they shouldn’t have to endure the fear and insecurity they currently experience.
But when I talk to them, they also express concern for the future of the kids who are doing the ram raiding. They often know the kids’ families, they know their backgrounds, and they want to know we are going to do something to give these kids a better future, not one where they spend a lifetime in and out of prison. It’s expensive, it doesn’t work, and it’s such a waste of human potential.
Investments in our people are investments in the future prosperity of all of us.
If we really want to be tough on crime, we should spend a lot more time and energy breaking the cycle before people offend.”
His own Justice Minister, Kiri Allan, is on a TVNZ interview saying she was suicidal over the cabinet decision changing the law to lower the age of jail for ram raiders… That was the first thing I thought of – I wonder if anyone else of the tens of thousands who saw that interview was thinking the same thing? How empty is Hipkins’ rhetoric when that sort of real life is streaming. Sacrifice some kids for the optics, it’s what the focus groups and the Karendemographic want. That was the government Hipkins ran – ran into ground. In his last reshuffle he couldn’t even fill 20 spots in the cabinet – useless.
The speech was mainly awful, hypocrisy, diversions, platitudes and corny bullshit filler, but I did enjoy the women’s choral parts where they say ‘no!’. Winston has quite a vocal female following and their synchronous responses are louder than Labour’s rent-a-mob, they’re a bit quieter – still determined, but quiet almost mumbling apologetically. Hipkins, as Winston does, employs the call and response very early to get everyone on-side. Hipkins posed four in a row to get Noes and then asked a rhetorical question (which, of course, they still responded to). The questions were about National and references “the incoming National Government”. In doing so Hipkins has framed the contest as between the big two and ignoring everyone else as much as possible.
“Did New Zealanders voting for change vote to wind back our world-leading smoke-free laws to fund tax cuts?
Did they vote for billions in tax breaks for landlords while threatening to cut free school lunches?
Did they vote for National’s new drivers’ tax and higher fuel prices while winding back almost every measure our Labour government put in place to tackle climate emissions?
Did they vote to suspend work upgrading our schools and hospitals and to stop the building of new state houses?
I’m pretty certain they didn’t vote for the Prime Minister to talk about tough love for others whilst claiming a $1,000 a week housing allowance he doesn’t need.”
Funny thing is, yes, New Zealanders voting for change did know most of that, or at least expected as much – it was going to be National plus necessarily Act and/or NZ First and this is what it looks like, no one is shocked by anything that National has done. All the shock and awe is coming from Act and NZ First. The shock is National are so weak they – and Luxon in particular – have no control over them. As for Luxon’s housing allowance rort – same stunt the last National PM did (when he was Finance Minister). They might not like all of it, but it is what they voted for. They weren’t going to vote for Hipkins and Labour then and those same voters gone to National won’t vote for Hipkins and Labour at the next election either.
I will guess Labour will replace Chippy this year, another 2-3 polls that show Labour still in the 20’s and greens eating their votes, him being the leader is only a caretaker position.
And he will ‘step down’ due to family commitments of course….that’s always the go to excuse, or the even more absurd…’no gas left in the tank’ (but plenty left to do a lucrative speaking tour of course)
He will definitely be replaced,the problem the Labour Party has is,by whom.
The two right wing trolls Bob and the nobody Im wrong commenting on Chippy’s demise, wahahahahahahaha!!! He’ll be there well after 7 houses, one Mercedes, $52,00 accommodation supplement, non politician is gone!!!
I think the writer is just pissed at chippy, breathe…
I think I’m right is right – 100%. Of course that might mean that Labour won’t do it as getting things right isn’t one of their leading skills.
Slogan – Labour – Doing you down since 1984. Oldies might remember – LV Martin’s one was – “If it’s not right, then we’ll put it right and it’s the putting it right that counts”.
Actually I think NASC is 100% right, Chippy will outlast Luxon because Chippy is in the game to make a difference, Luxon to make money.
Luxon has money…wants a knighthood.
The other way round Chippy needs a job whereas Luxon is self sufficient.
@ TS.
Well, that says it all really… Excellent Post @ T.S.
There is one thing, however.
Come to understand where our money comes from, and then where it goes to.
Go to a farm and take hold of a handful of sheep wool and then set it free but follow it. Follow it to its final destination, which will be on the arse of some fancy cunt. Then, follow the money they’ll happily pay for it that the sheep nor the farmer will ever see. Follow the money if you can.
If you like tropical tax havens you’ll have an awesome time. If you like laundromats then you’ll fit right in. If you like puffing and wheezing over a GnT, and a line of coke with a top-shelf hooker chaser or meeting with high end low life’s you’ll not only learn far more than you could ever wish for but then you’ll have to struggle to forget it.
National. Labour. ACT. The Green Party. The Maori Party. NZ First. RBNZ. IRD. Etc.
They’re all the same thing. They’re a managerial system through which farmer money is laundered then rinsed and redistributed through the 14 multi-billionaires, the 3118 multi-millionaires and the four now foreign owned banks then dried off through the domestic property mortgages scams. Or at least that’s how I see it. I could be wrong, of course. But I’m not. Aye Boys?
Farming kept the lights on when there were 3 million of us, with 5 million now we need something more productive to pay the bills. Australia can dig its wealth out of the ground (never mind the climate cost) so while farming is still a major part of our economy the outcome will be less money to spread around so we can all feel better. I am not anti-farming & support most initiatives to make it more productive but to actually get a major boost to our living standards we need industries with GDP/employee significantly higher than farming can produce.
A major problem hindering a productivity boost is the property ponzi industry that allows people to profit from land prices while ignoring the damage that does to a large part of the population.
“Farming kept the lights on when there were 3 million of us, with 5 million now we need something more productive to pay the bills. ”
Balls.
Farming, specifically traditional farming, not the industrialisation of land and animals i.e. dairying, is about as vital as it gets and it’s been reported here that our farmers, in their present state of their shameless exploitation, can feed forty million people. As for ‘ keeping the lights on’. For whom? The 14 multi-billionaires, the 3118 multi-millionaires and the four now foreign owned banks you mean?
We’re already more than reasonably productive. We just need a politic that isn’t lazy and corrupt to make sure more money gets back to farmers and less being stolen on the way by the 14 multi-billionaires, the 3118 multi-millionaires each with a minimum $50 million net and the four now foreign owned banks literally swindling $180.00 a second net 24/7/365 from us.
I’m reasonably sure that you either have no idea what your writing about or you’re running defence for a cartel of greedy Kiwi criminals.
I passed the BAg Com farm management degree in the early 1980s, I didn’t do valuation which would have been a better choice but I was more interested in partying than planning for the future back then.
As you say the middlemen take the cream of the profit & will quickly abandon their suppliers in difficult times, animal products are declining in popularity in regards to food supply & alternative proteins will increase their market share, you claim that farming is productive & a good farmer might take $100 of inputs (labor, materials) & produce $150 of output, smart manufacturing can take $100 of inputs & produce $10,000 of output. There are better farmers & worse manufacturers so the best outcome is probably to make new products from what we grow that command a premium price.
Farming “kept the lights on” when the UK was a largely captive market for our agricultural exports, but things seemed to change in the early seventies when they joined the EEC.
Tim is a blunt instrument with little class analysis as per usual. There is a lot more to politics than the Parliamentary variety–as NZ’s version of MAGA–Groundswell and Te Pāti Māori have recently demonstrated with direct action.
Of Course Chris Hipkins is a place holder head of the Parliamentary wing of NZ Labour. He must go and the party make a grovelling apology to the NZ working class if they are ever to be a credible party again. What is needed now is organisation and fightback against this vandalistic Govt. Nothing much will change if you just sit in front of a keyboard.
Join a union, participate in a pro Palestinian demo, bang on the windows of a restaurant if you see a tory MP or particularly Atlas Dave in there stuffing their faces…
Sadly, for some, it’s all about attention seeking. Especially in the age of the narcissist. Look at moi look at moi. Expert in everything.
A bit like Winston in a way. Any good he’s ever done (such as the wine box affair) he’s now chosen to shit all over, desperately trying to remain relevant.
I often wonder how many that comment here below retirement age, and not near deaths door are members of a union for example
Ditto, but it is not the done thing to out people on line, which is fair enough in some cases, but those that generally just make one line cynical comments illustrate the problem of everyone being a potential publisher these days.
“Every village has an idiot but social media can connect them with 25,000 other idiots in seconds”…I heard a media expert say recently.
There are still a lot of practical things that you can do in daily life that make a difference.
“Tim is a blunt instrument with little class analysis as per usual.”
the same as Bob and Im righteous?
I’m taking that as a compliment,thank you NSC.
it matters not who the lab leader is..people don’t want the same old neolib policies they don’t work so unless they seriously up their game they remain irrelivant
Irrelevance it is then.
just to point out bob the last the natz are neolibs too
I believe Bob the last was self confessing.
Tim is a blunt instrument? No, Tim is brilliant. I just love his style…brutally honest.
When you have nothing to say it is better to say nothing. Most politicians these seem to have nothing to say; but some are better at saying it than others. That’s politics.
I guess it’s summed up when the interviewer is considerably more smart than the Leader of the Labour Party Chippy,a former Prime Minister.
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