Many actions of the current National Act NZ First pose threats to our democracy but in this post I’d like to draw your attention to the creation of the new Ministry for Regulation headed up by its founder David Seymour.
The argument that our lives are encumbered by lots of regulations and government would be far more efficient if it did not have to send proposed legislation out for consultation might, on a cursory glance, have some populist appeal.
On closer scrutiny we see
1) A NEW ministry employing MORE public servants tasked with more reporting under a Minister who says he wants LESS public servants and less paper shuffling.
2) What amounts to an attack on the democratic process of consultation.
A thoughtful observer might ask – why did David Seymour want to set up such a new ministry?
Part of the answer has to be surely that he doesn’t want to consult with stakeholders in our society he just wants us to do as we are told.
Democracy is messy for the good reason that people want to have a say about the effect any proposed issue will have on their lives.
Bryan Bruce is one of New Zealand’s most important and respected documentary makers.
A “Ministry for Regulation” is chillingly Orwellian. A “Ministry for Regulation” headed by a David Seymour already trying to dictate how people should parent their children, and a man who has been trying to justify why some children should be kept hungry, appears to be an assault upon basic human rights and freedoms. Existing legal mechanisms to address law breakers and regulation infringers are utilised on a daily basis.
Where they may appear inadequate or unconscionable, then a court of law is the appropriate place for this to be teased out, and it frequently is, and it is usually done so publicly. Another layer of bureaucracy, headed by this person, is simply not necessary.
That’s exactly what I thought. It already sounds very Animal Farm.
As Bryan says, democracy is messy. Sorry Mr. Seymour, we prefer messy democracy to your cut and dried dictatorial sounding plans.
The fact that Seymour and his minions cannot see how Orwellian this new Ministry of Regulation sounds and how utterly repellant, suggests they lack the political, historical and literary background necessary to even be in govt.
We should not be being dictated to or have our rights compromised by these cuckoos in the nest. They have basically usurped the govt. most people voted for. They need to be reined in very, very soon. Is Luxon so weak and short sighted than he doesn’t know this? Does he think he will be able to control them for long once they have weakened every entity which might stop them? He is so used to underlings agreeing with his every utterance, he has forgotten to listen to the underlying whispers.
In the end it will be Luxon and his so-called National MPs who bite the dust first and get swept aside.
Question is, who will it be who does that?
I hope the Governor General is listening too.
Joy. Orwell’s “ 1984”; I’ve loaned it to somebody who asked me for it, and who rarely returns lent books. Doesn’t matter, we can live it out under Seymour.
Last government did similar, replacing the always highly qualified independent Commissioner for Vulnerable Children, with an assortment of back room pronouns from the public service.
Was it ‘1984’? Haven’t read either of them since late ’60s.
But don’t think Seymour has read either of them, ever. Or he’d know how grotesque he sounds and is.
He really needs to read ‘Winnie-the-Pooh’ to see how people ought to behave.
He is Rabbit, trying to organize all the silly unruly, real people (friends and relations) around him.
Winston Peters thinks he’s Owl (Wol) but I think he’s more like Eeyore. A poor sad old thing.
Pooh and Piglet represent the general population. A bit messy but well-meaning and quite flabbergasted by Rabbit’s officiousness.
Jacinda is Kanga.
On second thoughts, Seymour might be Tigger, especially in the story In which we find Tiggers don’t climb Trees. Over-confident and not well qualified. That means VV must be Roo. Silly.
We need a Christopher Robin now because the Christopher Hipkins and the Christopher Luxon were found to be faulty and we’d like to send them back to the manufacturers. Especially the Luxon, it’s too slimy to hold onto.
THANKFULLY Seymoure has not been able to breed .Imagine another generation of mini Davids .As a boomer I am ASHAMED at the generation of self centered uncaring arseholes we have given NZ .Sadly this is the worst thing us boomers have done to NZ .Apart from the crazy old fart Winston the current government is made up of our off spring .SORRY NZ
Seymour has no real work nor life experience. Like being gifted Epsom, he has never needed to achieve on his own behalf. He is embarrassing.
Yes, and the lack of life and work experience isn’t limited to Seymour either. The Greens have had one or two shockers, as have the Nats – I put Bill English in that category too.
Looks as if he’s going to load yet another level of bureaucracy onto school principals/ admin in addressing truancy issues, with the only particularly clear outcome being the recording of absenteeism. Any assumption that getting pupils into schools results in them receiving a quality education is proven wrong, day by day, by the ignorami in Parliament.
That sums Seymour up perfectly. Thanks.
gordon walker. I take exception to you blaming an older, wiser, hard-working, self-sacrificing, and more independent generation for the entitled misfits currently peopling the Beehive. There’s doubtless a myriad of causes for the spoilt brat syndrome of some MP’s and weirdo city councillors, but the paradigm changed post Roger Douglas, IMO, another little state house boy who pulled the ladder up after him, and what has trickled down since is best confined to lavatories. All major parties have contributed to possibly the most foolish thing of all, the dumbing down of the education system, and their inability to see that this is in nobody’s best interests is mystifying, to say the least.
Eh? Does Muldoon form part of your thinking?
Thanks for the insight Gordon but the problem is a little deeper than that. NZ has managed to avoid major conflict – really since the Vietnam war and, apart from Covid 19, there has been little since WW2 that has shaken our population and forced us to consider what is really important to us as New Zealanders.
After the terrors of WW2 and it’s predecessor, international efforts were made to avoid similar such conflicts and, by and large, this has been successful.
Enter the fall of the Berlin Wall, the collapse of the Soviet Union, the skirmish in the Middle East (Kuwait), more issues in the Middle East (Iran/Iraq – then Saddam Hussain), the war in the Balkans (Serbia uber ales was not going to sit with Croatia and Bosnia), and more recently the Russian invasion of Crimea and Ukraine and most recently the Iran back-Hezbollah shenanigans in Israel and the previous 50 years of relative world peace have been severely eroded and these actions. This has had the by-product of supply lines becoming inconsistent with the related costs variances and impacts on inflation. But much more importantly, this recent round of explicit hate has turned us against one another- including within countries (just look at the situaiton in the US).
The way forward is far from simple or set.
One can assume Seymour is like his buddy Tim Jago. That kind of people don’t consider having normal relations and producing children to be ‘breeding’, they prefer to corrupt other people’s kids.
Ahh, we can’t have any of that ‘populism’ can we?
Where ‘populism’ is when large swathes of the population have had a belly full of diktats from Wellington and having to pay for it in the form of high taxes and economic stagnation.
I just want political parties to tell us what they propose. Then we vote on it.
Then they do it- even if they make a few mistakes at least something gets done.
That’s where Labour went wrong with 3 Waters. Never ending consultation.
Also child poverty. Jacinda said “this is why I got into politics” then she was too timid to implement clear recommendations to end poverty that she said she agreed with.
That would be good Michael particularly when Luxon said he would ” govern for all New Zealand “. Sadly that was a lie.
Well we’ve heard a lot about economics over the last 4-5 decades. During that time NZ has gone backwards. Nor are our self-styled economic geniuses being invited to lead the IMF or the World Bank. This may be because they don’t know what the fuck they are doing – which would go a long way to explain their results.
Hahahah, yeah bro. The fact that we’re being crushed by petrol and diesel prices has nothing to do with you American-lovers and your slavish support of the Zelensky/Netanyahu regimes, of course it doesn’t.
What do you call what’s happening now, if it’s not your ‘dicktats for Wellington’? sic.
Only difference is, that this time it’s a true would-be dictator who is issuing all these instructions.
We aren’t taxed highly and some entitled people think they are too special to pay their fair share.
Every economy is struggling at the moment. Do you never read any international news or discuss things with people who live abroad?
It’s where Libertarianism leads to. Less regulation is sometimes warranted, for example, in improving efficiency. Efficieny is good, isnt it. Reduces waste and makes us all the more productive. Well, that’s the Libertarian argument when its wedded to neoliberalism. No wonder it has popular appeal.
Cutting the red tape also has supporters from those who just see some regulations as plain silly, a complete waste of time. Some of the traddies I have met think like this. Maybe they have a point.
But cutting red tape in the pursuit of efficiency should not be at the expense of well being, safe and sound construction and personal safety.
Funny, because although regulations are not popular, most of them are there to protect the public. Not that Seymour cares one whit about the public – at least not the ones that don’t have any money.
Mr Seymour is a well trained Atlas Graduate according to their online photos, reports and captions. So he comes from the filthy ideological tradition of Hayek, Friedman, the Chicago Boys, Pinochet, Thatcher, Reagan, Douglas, Richardson and a thousand later imitators.
Brutal neo liberalism is his game–war on the poor, Bennie and Māori bashing, shrink the state, expand contracting out, militarise the cops, private prisons, suck up to Western Imperialism etc.
This creepy guy with his excessive interest in school kids and the lifestyles of their parents is only there because the Natzos handed Epsom to Act on a plate years ago. He will be found out eventually and booted for sure–he has lied about home ownership, his ancestry, and has a motley crew of MPs indeed including gun lobbyist Mrs McKee who has been caught with her tweeds down lying about semi autos.
Control Ministry would be the name for his new pet Ministry–no Māori name needed eh Atlas Dave.
Ae! He’s a pathetic little runt when it all comes down to it. Which is rather depressing in a way. How could we “us” have let this interloper in – other than revenge voting. But then there’s Brooke van Vixen as well – she ALMOST captured my great nephew (abused in state care). An evil bitch even though she’s so self-unaware she wouldn’t have a clue. Fark! How did it come to this. The revenge voter and apathy has a lot to do with it.
But on the positive side of life (‘cos that’s just the kind of specimen I am even without P Piss Prozac and Pot), one hopes Winston might come to his senses and pull the plug. SLIM chance, I know.
Was thinking the same about Winston, once he has to hand over Deputy PM possie to Atlas Dave he could well turn on them. Pre the last election he had a letter prepared for the Governor General withdrawing support for PM Ardern, which he never sent in the end, but he is certainly capable of being the worm that turned.
If you look at David Seymours Ministry of Regulation, you have to ask yourself if a certain book from Orwell inspired him.
And if so, has the clock struck 13?
100%. The clock struck one, a rodent ran down, hickory dickory David.
We also have public schools for sale, roads, more state housing land and social services we need to keep an eye out as the coalition of chaos will be rewarding their mates in appreciation of them donating millions with substantial contract.
Luxon said social investment was in his parties DNA. And it’s easy to make targets appear better than they are by making people ineligible (changing the criteria) as they did with HNZ/Kainga Ora waiting lists. To add to this families will be kicked out of motels therefore becoming a burden on already stretched whanau and communities. All this at time when times are tough not good policy. Look at tricolas face she’s realized the enormity of her tax cuts but is saving face.
Yes, and here is an example of those imported views and values is Parmar Parmejet from the act party comments quote from her interview on Moana last night.
“So, the thing is, if you don’t get exposure to some cultures, some ethnicities, obviously you’re going to form some views about them. This is going to create mistrust and create friction. But when people work together, they understand each other, where they’re coming from, it’ll create that environment of harmony. And that is what I would like to see.”
Parmjet sounds like she is talking about herself she’s the one that needs to do some reflecting and get some exposures. She comes across as arrogant, pompous and I know best but has no qualifications in this field she has a science degree hence talking about exposures like exposures to a chemical or pollution.
Well done watching her. She comes from a crippling caste system and nor has she had a Kiwi university experience and she doesn’t know what she is talking about. They can all theorise until the sacred cows come home, but words come easy,
Well done watching her. She comes from a crippling caste system and nor has she had a Kiwi university experience and she doesn’t know what she is talking about. They can all theorise until the sacred cows come home, and they do, but words come easy as politicians know and usually – unlike poets – they have paid minions to write them for them, and to tell them what to say. As such they have less value than the night soil which can at least grow the vegetables which nurture.
The devil isn’t in the detail it’s in David.
The good news is NZ is starting to realize this is an appalling dictatorship government.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/350237521/nz-politics-live-poll-sees-slight-dip-national-act
And gobshite Newstalk ZB horrible husband and wife duo continue to be found out spewing bile racist comments. First it was Hosking on Tamahere and now his idiot wife..
https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/350239551/bsa-finds-kate-hawkesby-comments-maori-and-pasifika-misleading-and-discriminatory
Unfortunately a large number of idiots that listen to ZB will only remember the bullshit espoused by this hack.
Yep that would be Bob the first, he idolizes Hosking.
Yes, Chris and TDB warned us voters were going to turn and they were right and now we are facing the worst government in our entire history. In the meantime, Luxon is slyly preparing for the next election with his targets noting they are six-year targets this implies he’s hoping to get back in to finish us off. And we know he will blame his coalition partners while at the same time leaving a mess of debt and environmental destruction.
I’m truly surprised many of the comments here forget we had a PM who ruled the country by regulation for almost nine years. Only problem was, he forgot regulation is a subsidiary form of law. So when he went too far, some smarty pants took him to court and won, embarrassingly. Anybody remember Piggy? What’s the bet Dumb David will do the same? He’s not half as smart as Piggy Muldoon was.
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