Political analysis and commentary shaping the progressive debate in Aotearoa New Zealand, focused on power, policy, and accountability.
Thanks to my socioeconomic privilege, it is unlikely (not to say impossible) that I will ever end up as dependent on our corrupt welfare system as Metiria once was. And I don’t pretend to know exactly how that dependency felt for Metiria, because I can’t know. Maybe I can’t know, but I can guess. Because I can guess, I can empathise with her.
Conservative voters in the regions are much more willing to tolerate foreigners prepared to work their land for low wages, than they are indigenous New Zealanders preparing to reclaim their patrimony. As Bill English noted of National’s and NZ First sudden shifts: “the policy direction is going to be driven by the strength of the economy”.
Wealth is not created from thin air. It is made from manipulating the wealth created by working people. In other words, you and I and every person living in New Zealand has been fleeced $1,489 more this past year so these bloodsuckers can build a bigger pile of unearned income. And they don’t pay tax on it.
By now you’ve probably heard about the deaths in occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank following protests at al Aqsa mosque. That’s because violence makes for great headlines. What received almost no attention from English language media was a historic legal procedure.
It’s been touted as the most “historic pay rise” in history. But the actual mechanics of the deal; the “fine print”; and other undisclosed facts may raise questions as how much of a “historic pay rise” the deal actually is.
Metiria is guilty of a crime – but not the one John Armstrong rails against. Her transgression was to break ranks with the socio-political formation that has kept Richardson’s and Shipley’s welfare cuts bleeding and raw for more than quarter-of-a-century.
I was a little surprised when NZ First leader Winston Peters announced that a binding referendum on the abolition of the Maori seats and reducing the size of Parliament would be bottom line issues for him. It is impossible for Labour and the Greens to agree to these terms. That means NZ First is saying that they will only form a government with National – assuming they agree.
With Winston exhaling anger, and Metiria Turei breathing hope, Andrew Little and Labour need to offer the New Zealand electorate something more than a deflated ideological balloon.
As we head into this year’s election NZ First has dangled the carrot of a binding referendum on whether the Māori seats should be abolished. Given it has been NZ First policy to abolish the seven Māori electorates for some time the position taken just over two months out from an election is not surprising.
The poor are ground down by a welfare state more befitting the 19th and 20th centuries than today. But there is at last a bright spot. There were two breathtakingly bold policies buried in the depths of the Green’s paper Mending the Safety Net that have scarcely been discussed: