Political analysis and commentary shaping the progressive debate in Aotearoa New Zealand, focused on power, policy, and accountability.
So this suffrage day, celebrate 125 years, mourn those no longer with us as a result of domestic violence, whisper in the ear of men friends who seem to be overly possessive and let’s work towards a violence free future.
HOW DID IT HAPPEN? Where did she go? The Jacinda Ardern who rocked our world? Where did she lose her sparkle and her stardust? What, or who, took from her the qualities that had so decisively interposed themselves between the centre-left and almost certain defeat?
let us acknowledge that it has been a long harsh winter for far too many children. The Families Package was too slow coming, and for the 140,000+ children below the very lowest 40% poverty line it has been a drop in the bucket. Without a longer-term goal of systemic reform, short term improvements can seem like tinkering and band aids. Or even worse, they may create the illusion the problems are solved.
These are the ongoing effects of 30+ years of neo-liberalism, a political philosophy aimed at shifting wealth from the poor to the rich in New Zealand. It has been a most successful movement. Even though, as Max Rashbrooke shows, the bottom 90% of New Zealanders are worse off, most people still think that it is the best economic model.
New Zealanders appear to have rejected National’s on-going carping at the Coalition government’s ‘Kiwibuild’ programme.
The crucial political failure of Labour and the Greens is that they have yet to appreciate that without the realisation of the radical conservatives’ programme, the chances of a radically progressive programme succeeding are nil. Until the slums of neoliberalism have been cleared, a New Zealand fit to live in cannot be built.
The government has decided to miss an important opportunity to increase workers rights as part of the proposed changes to the employment relations act.
Over the past year or two, I’ve endeavoured to popularize the concept of “Jihad Vs McWorld”. If you want a really tangible demonstration of “McWorld” in action, look no further than the McDonalds workplace policy brought to light by Newshub this evening – wherein Maori staff responding to Maori customers attempting to place an order in Te Reo Maori, was firmly clamped down upon by McDonalds’ management, on grounds that “English is our McLanguage” .
Members of the Christchurch Progressive Network will attend todays Christchurch City Council Meeting from 8.30am to protest the proposal to spend an extra $220 million on a rugby stadium ahead of rebuilding council rental housing destroyed in the earthquakes.
NEW ZEALAND GOT POPULISM early. If you count Rob Muldoon as this country’s first no-holds-barred populist, then the start-date is 1974. If, as most people do, you date the rise of populism in New Zealand from the advent of the NZ First Party in 1993, then our populist-in-chief is Winston Peters – and he’s been kicking around for a quarter-century.
