Alternative Green Budget could kill Labour

By
Martyn Bradbury
-
42
1365

By jove I think the Greens have got it!

Co-Leaders announce plans to launch Green Budget this year

Green Party Co-Leaders Marama Davidson and Chlöe Swarbrick have announced the party’s plans to deliver a Green Budget this year to offer an alternative vision to the Government’s trickle-down economics and austerity politics.

“New Zealanders care about each other and the planet we live on. Our Green Budget will lay out the plan for an economy that respects and protects those things, instead of exhausting and exploiting both,” says Green Party co-leader and spokesperson for Finance Chlöe Swarbrick.

“Poverty, and all the social ills that stem from it, doesn’t come from nowhere. It comes from a tolerance of extreme inequality. It comes from the privatisation of profit and the socialisation of cost.

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“In December, we released He Ara Anamata, our Emissions Reduction Plan, which showed how we could reduce emissions five times faster than the Government’s proposed ‘plan’. It showed we can not only reduce the cost of living, but increase quality of life.

“Our Green Budget will build on that to continue to show precisely how a different world is possible, and entirely within our reach,” says Chlöe Swarbrick.

“More and more tamariki continue to fall through the cracks and live below the poverty line, as a result of this Government’s choices; the choices to gut housing for our most vulnerable, to gut school lunches, to gut our health system and put growing pressure on our health workers,” says Marama Davidson.

“We all depend on each other when times are rough. People want to care for each other – manaakitanga is part of human nature. This is the core value that will underpin our Green Budget.

“Our mokopuna deserve better, and we can deliver better by channelling community power and finally putting people and planet ahead of profit,” says Marama Davidson.

The tiny, tiny, tiny turn out to the ‘These Queers Bash Back‘ protest must have been a wake up call to the Greens that the identity politics tide has gone out.

The reorientation to the economy is where the real votes are, not one family living in poverty are sitting around the kitchen table cancelling each other for missing pronouns, they are trying to work out how the hell they are going to pay the bills!

The Greens did real damage to Labour in the last election.

Labour’s pathetic ‘GST off fresh fruit and vegetables’ only infuriated voters in Auckland because such a spineless offer made Labour sound like they had no idea of the pain caused by the cost of living crisis.

That hurt Labour’s voting chances with the working classes, but what also smashed Labour to pieces in Auckland was that massive revolt many Labour voters in Auckland’s middle class suburbs who had always provided huge political muscle got up and walked away from Labour and party voted Green BECAUSE the Greens wealth tax was far superior to Labour’s weak nothings.

The polling has lulled Labour into a false sense of security because this Government are so awful, that has meant Labour still have no new ideas while the Greens are presenting a very clever alternative Green Budget.

Progressive economic policy is desperately needed, Labour are missing in action, the Greens are taking the fight to the front line.

I warned Labour they better step up or Chloe would seize the opportunity.

Chloe has seized, Labour have choked.

 

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42 COMMENTS

  2. “. . . walked away from Labour and party voted Green BECAUSE. . . “ they couldn’t stomach either a third term OR voting National.

    Credit where credits due.

  3. Yes !:-)! The above may sway me to vote Greens instead of TPM next election. NZ’s finished except for the richos unless radical policies are started. 1. Wealth tax 2. CGT except for ones’s home 3. Stop privatisation robbing us blind with foreign investors clipping the ticket something that has made the U.K. impossible to live in ordinary Brits are parasitised to despair. The cost of living is impossible.

    ” So stoked to see that $400 profit that Mercury energy have posted trickling down to the rest of us by way of a 10%increase to the cost of energy this winter ”

    Real Eyes National’s Lies
    Well if it isn’t the consequences of her own support for governments who sold assets

  4. It was a wee bit disturbing to see Chris Hipkins visit Keir Starmer. Please NZ Labour, do not become UK Labour.
    We at the very least, need an actual social democratic party in NZ, rather than the neoliberal-lite offerings of recent Labour administrations. There is enormous opportunity on the political left of the spectrum, which has grown as media (both corporate and social) have forced the Overton window massively to the right in recent years. After all, wasn’t some idiot trying to argue the currents Nats were “moderate” or some such. Good grief!
    If the Greens ramp up their economic arguments, and dial right back identitarian distractions, then they will undoubtedly prosper.
    Even better, it would nice to see an actual socialist party arise, but that seems too much to hope for. A social democratic party will suffice in the meantime 🙂

  6. Bravo the Greens. Chippie’s ‘Captain’s Call’ to scrap the wealth tax was like a kick in the guts to Labour’s base, still hurting from the fall out from the covid crisis.
    If Labour really want this to be a one term government they need to embrace similar economic policies.

    If the Labour Party are listening to their constituents, they would realise that their constituency are not content with National-lite. Even if National-Lite is marginally better for you, if National-LIte is so good, you might as well vote for the “the Real Thing”,

    https://www.creativereview.co.uk/its-the-real-thing-coca-cola/#:~:text=Coca%2DCola's%20'It's%20the%20Real,brand's%20advertising%20and%20communications%20strategies.

    Coca-Cola’s ‘It’s the Real Thing’ campaign was a way of consolidating the vast swathe of changes being made to the brand as it entered the 1970s. Coke’s then brand manager, Ira C Herbert, heralded it as a new direction that “responds to research which shows that young people seek the real, the original and the natural as an escape from phoniness.”

  7. `Alternative Green Budget’.

    May kill Labour but it would completely destroy the New Zealand economy in doing so.

    No win win there.

    • The New Zealand economy has ALREADY been completely destroyed by failed neoliberal economic theory. The only reason it’s being persisted with is because the donors for National & ACT benefit from its continued implementation.
      Unemployment, unaffordable housing, collapsing underfunded health, education and public transport services, and record migration of Kiwis across the ditch are all symptoms of the neoliberal train wreck. Now we have the climate crisis to deal with as well (as if the Covid pandemic wasn’t bad enough).

      This current administration has been found wanting & caught floundering with idiotic austerity measures that have plunged us into recession.

      • That’s right. Heard of a mechanical engineer with 25 years experience about to be made redundant. Large company but shrinking business because nobody is wanting to build new schools or hospitals in NZ. They did a lot of govt. work.
        I guess Aust. will be glad to see them.

        That’s the ‘squeezed middle’, Chris Luxon. Got any answers? You said you did before the election. Were you not being realistic or even truthful then.

    • I’ve met and talked with Chloe Swarbrick a few years ago now and the impression I came away with was that primarily, Chloe Swarbrick is genuine. She’s a real and actual human being. What she says and does is a reflection of who she is. What more could one want politically? But wait, there IS more. She’s formidably intelligent in that kind, confident way but wouldn’t suffer fools, she’d just stay a mile ahead of them.
      Farmers connecting with Maori and having Chloe Swarbrick as PM would be transformational. It would in fact herald in an AO/NZ Renaissance.
      We need Chloe Swarbrick to bleach and cleanse the institutionalised lineage of the greedy, lazy arse holes we’ve had to endure for generations now with this current lot being the creators of the lowest base line we can’t afford to be allowed to fall below.
      Luxon. A self confessed faker and an unintelligent one at that. seymour. A ghastly little roger douglas clone, so no need to further explain. And peters. A slimy old lawyer and Machiavellian confederate who orchestrated this whole neoliberal omni-shambles to line the pockets of his clientele by selling the stuff and things we paid for with our taxes! I mean, really? peters has zero interest in you and me. He’s there to make sure the lid remains tightly fastened down on rogers gruesome bucket of neoliberal lies and treachery. Aye boys?
      A tiny population of 50,000 being our primary exporting industry and yet we have 14 multi-billionaires, 3118 multi-millionaires each with a base line net wealth of $50 million and what were three AO/NZ banks; asb, anz, and bnz are now Australian owned and are the second most profitable banks in the world and do I really need to point out that Australia is our fiercest market competitors to our agricultural produce? Is that a fucking conflict of interest or what? The fourth bank is westpac and has always been Australian owned since 1865-ish thus what the fuck? Putting Chloe Swarbrick into that environment would be like dropping a meth addict pit bull terrier into a cage full of freshly groomed poodles. Or Koala Bears. Hmmm think about that one?

    • Hey pdm February 27, 2025 At 7:34 am
      I noticed you had a few typos in your comment.

      `Alternative Green Budget’.

      May kill Labour but it would completely destroy the billionaire economy in doing so.

      No win win for billionaires there.

      There y’ go, fixed it for ya.

  8. Neither the Greens nor the Labour Party are electable in their current forms. They’re only looking reasonable in the polls because Luxon is so bloody awful, but he will be gone by Christmas.

    • Wrong.

      The Greens are looking reasonable because they have developed a policy platform that is constantly being expanded and developed over the last 3 elections.
      People are waking up to that fact and realising both Labour and national are empty shells of piss and wind.

  9. Their State of the Nation speech gave me a sense of hope for our future.

    It was a real pleasure to watch. I highly recommend it if you haven’t already.

  12. Pointing out that the Green Budget was a long time in the making, way before the tiny crowd you speak of, so it’s a false equivalence to draw any conclusion from that, just sniping. I hope you are right about Labour and the Greens. Maybe Greens can become what Labour once was and can form a government with TPM. That would be incredible.

    • Nice try, self-proclaimed “man of letters”.
      Try and pin Nationals faults on someone else.
      But as you can see, it is National’s economic election policies that failed to pass scrutiny.

      From https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/election-2023/497974/economists-analysis-rubbishes-national-s-foreign-buyers-tax-numbers, we see:

      “Questioned by reporters in Auckland on Wednesday, Luxon remained confident.
      “I’m really confident that we know what we’re doing,” he said.
      “Because I’m absolutely rock solid that we know what we’re doing, and we can deliver this.”

      And then (from the same article):

      None of those documents amount to solid evidence, calculations or data to back up the costings, however – and asked to produce those figures, Luxon again would not: “We’ve given you what you need to see.”

      And when questioned by Jack Tame (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29M55HbJOTI&t=906s) and Nicola Wright (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLCrYMmpacM), he was unable to provide the numbers behind Nationals mythical economic policy.

      And now, as the poor fools who voted these charlatans in have discovered to their great cost, National are the one’s “not capable of putting out a budget” that even adds up, let alone be good for the country.

      The myth of “good economic managers” has been well and truly busted. They are utter rabble.

      • Bob can’t even see the playbook when it’s right in front of him. Trump is doing exactly what Luxon has done to us – on steroids. Bob comes across as too broken to be in the capital class, so he’ll just get shafted like the rest of you. bwa haha. Bid up those asset prices boys, have I got a watch to sell to you.

  14. In the US in wake of the invisibility and failure of the Democratic Party leadership to inspire the electorate, Bernie Sanders has stepped up to lead the charge against the Far Right Trump backlash, and the failed neo-liberal politics that spawned that backlash.

    What is notable to me is that Sanders has been joined on the stage by union leaders. (Green Party Aotearoa, take notes)

    Overflow Omaha crowd launches U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders’ ‘Fighting Oligarchy’ tour
    Jamie Reiff
    Sat, February 22, 2025 at 8:28 PM GMT
    5 min read

    OMAHA – U.S. Sen Bernie Sanders kicked off his “Fighting Oligarchy” nationwide tour in Omaha Friday night, drawing an overflow crowd of more than 2,500, with hundreds more turned away…..

    Originally set for the Laborers International Union building, the event was moved to the larger Marriott to accommodate a turnout estimated at 2,580 in the ballroom and two overflow rooms. Organizers said hundreds of others were turned away due to space constraints…..

    Before Sanders took the stage, Eric Williams, Omaha Public Power District board member, Precious McKesson, executive director of the Nebraska Democratic Party, and Ron Kaminski, business manager for the Laborers International Union Local #1140, spoke about how policies coming out of Washington D.C. create a “dangerous divide” between the nation’s richer population and the working class.

    As the crowd chanted Sanders’ name, the lawmaker took the stage and spoke about how Trump’s actions reflected those of oligarchs. He spoke about how Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and other billionaires are receiving tax cuts while working-class Americans pay to make up for them.

    Sanders also spoke about how many in power do not understand what it is like to struggle, recounting his childhood living in a rent-controlled apartment.

    No stranger to Nebraska, Sanders has visited as a presidential candidate and high-profile draw for progressives…..

    https://www.yahoo.com/news/overflow-omaha-crowd-launches-u-072804947.html?

    • Go Bernie. Bernie is great – I recommend The Bulwark and the MeidasTouch Network for an insight in to how not only liberals but conservatives are fighting back against the affront to Democarcy and the 1st Amendment that this Trump Administration is. Luxon has done exactly what Trump and DOGE are doing on steroids. Attack the bureaucracy for nickels and dimes whilst paying themselves out with deficit funded tax cuts and bidding up the prices of everything to hold the masses down.

  15. There is a better than even chance that Trump is going to crash the world economy in his second term ,,,, and sooner rather than later with the way king Don is carrying on ….

    Luxon and his NActFist govt of entitled bent bullshitters will be disastrous in such circumstances ,,,,

    We dodged the bullet of the 2008 global financial crisis ,,,, because China kept buying our exports.

    This time around Luxon the slap-headed moron has tied us more tightly to the Five I’s (five idiots) alliance ,,, despite having a blotchy old primate
    with a bad attitude and bad hair leading the show ,,, King Don.

    The Chinese would be quite entitled to tell us to get that not so great white ape to come to our rescue this time around….

    The Greens would be a much better Government to have come the next crash ,,, NActFist will be a pack of rats overseeing dog eat dog….

    Citizens arrests for the rats and traitors sounds like a good idea in such circumstances ….

    And should Trump wreck community s and society in the Usa to the extent that the Peter Thiels and Musk type uber richdecide to come running here,,,. to their Nz bolt-holes or lifeboats. as they call them…

    Then we should arrest them too ,,,,

    ….. “If knowledge is power, how powerful would one person be if they accumulated control of the data collected by the governments of North America and Europe. What if that person was known to support anti-democratic ideology, was one of the largest political donors in the world and had a long record of using big tech for systematic abuses of human rights? This isn’t a hypothetical, welcome to the world of Peter Thiel.”

    https://counterdisinformationproject.substack.com/p/peter-thiel-and-the-privatised-surveillance

    https://www.mintpressnews.com/peter-thiel-gaza-ai-war-white-house/288372/

    https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/us-jd-vance-peter-thiel-founded-company-helps-israel-kill-lists-palestinians-gaza

    https://julianmacfarlane.substack.com/p/futuredude

  17. At least you are laying off the Greens today. And unions. Labour’s turn? Your assumptions are heroic to say the least.

    • It would be really good if Labour could be heroic and actually present some solutions rather than merely point out how bad National are.

      • The Green’s alternative Budget is getting ready for a response to the Budget in May I assume. Labour will have one too. It will have many policies as the year goes on and into election year, when people are really listening. Wasn’t that long ago that people were criticising Labour for not being loud enough in opposition to National. Sigh.

    • It seems you mistake TDB for The Standard Darien, Martyn is a green supporter not Labour…..I may not agree with 80-85% of what he posts, but I disagree with 100% of the sycophantic postings at The Standard, and anyone disagreeing with the thread/author or party line is banned, healthy debate is not allowed.
      I’m wondering why you come here and complain?
      Stick with The Standard, it’s your kind of slavish devotion over there.

    • All of us who have been taking notice have no time for rich-rule-respecting Labour. How do you help us at this stage? Labour has long been over, but it got you a job — the whole problem.

  18. Labour are now the plaything for Willy Jackson. But the Greens in charge of our budget? Just think of USAID.

  19. Compulsory Unionism, start, back when, truth, my boss would not do that to me, eh!, union card, understand, your boss would do that, and continues to do, so how bring back that card union, compulsory. How your productive work casual minimum paid, NOT PAYING THE RENT, YET CASUAL,who, we.

  20. It’s simple really: Vote NACT and you vote for full privatisation of utilities/public services and modern-day feudalism. Just look at the UK/USA (and even NZ) for the disastrous results of privatisation. Labour/Greens need to adopt a tax wealth not work policy- the only way to solve many of the problems in NZ is to initiate a redistribution of wealth, period. This should be the number 1 topic/policy.

  21. Go the Greens. I’d be happy to pay a wealth tax. Just a few % off the bottom line while you all scrabble to pay mortgages and rent on over inflated assets you don’t even own, to support the dividends of NAB and CBA stocks.

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