Shane Jones didn’t ‘misspeak’, he knew exactly who he was talking to and why Labour will fight to stop coalition document from being released

ByMartyn Bradbury

The greatest photo of Shane Jones on Earth

Shane Jones took glee in pushing the work for the dole barrow on Q+A.

He knows full well that it isn’t a work for the dole program, he knows that beneficiaries will be paid the dole and the regional fund he has will top those benefits up to minimum wage.

While it isn’t a work for the dole program (because workers will be getting the actual minimum wage), Jones is reaching out to National voters and rewarding NZ First voters with all the rhetoric.

But that audience was secondary to who he was really speaking to because the real target of Jones was Grant Robertson.

NZ First are deeply convinced an enormous economic crash is looming and their nationalistic economic response sees Forestry as a crucial  part of the response to that looming economic crash. Jones wants to make it clear to Robertson that despite Grant’s public assurances to the Business community that he and the Greens will be subservient to our corporate overlords, NZ First’s agreement demands he steps outside that fiscal straight jacket and borrow the money for this developmental agenda.

This need to keep the business community pacified with austerity vs the realities of needing to borrow more to repair the vast social damage 9 years of National has generated is the real friction point in the new Government.

This friction point is at the heart of why Labour will fight tooth and nail to stop the coalition document from being released.

The reason NZ First want it released and the reason why Labour don’t want it released is because it is a far more radical document than Labour would ever publicly want spelt out.

Many still don’t appreciate how the negotiations shaped this new Government in ways most wouldn’t have guessed. It was Winston’s naked hatred of neoliberalism that decided the fate of this new Government. NZ First wants to go far further in reforming the hegemonic economic structure than Labour could ever imagine to suggest in public.

That’s not to suggest there aren’t some revolutionary sparks inside this Labour Government, but they are hiding until it’s time to flare up.

The trick for Grant Robertson will be to know when to jump from promising obedience to the business elites to an interventionist Government responding to the latest cascade failure of global free market capitalism.

NZ First are making it clear they are preparing for that eventuality, Labour are waiting to see it.

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21 Comments

  2. A thoughtful one Martyn.
    Do you think that much of what matters in the 38pages is contingency agreements? Like ” if and when the shit hits the fan globally and trade becomes impossible because the payments system has collapsed , this is what we do.”.. It would require quickly setting up an alternative money supply , state controlled , and the collapse would (will) provide the opportunity to do that. It would be almost impossible politically without such a crisis. Being ready with such a plan would be astute. I do hope something like this is their thinking.
    D J S

  3. Yes you are right Martyn. That is exactly what is playing out. I just hope that Nz First does get some more influence to get rid of Neo liberalism and get the smug smiles off these elites faces.

  4. YES A GFC IS COMING;

    Martyyn said this correctly; “NZ First are deeply convinced an enormous economic crash is looming and their nationalistic economic response sees Forestry as a crucial part of the response to that looming economic crash.”

    Yes Martyn so is water the comodity that will sustain our lives as without it we will all perish.

    So if these private companies are comming here to take all oiuur drinking water that alone sends us a signal a big global crash is imminent.

    TODAY:
    NAPIER IS OUT OF WATER.

    THIS AS THE MAYOR SENDS WRONG MESSAGE OF RESIDENTS OVER USE AND NO BLAME ON HEAVY COMMERCIAL USE OF WATER!!!!!

    Here are the real facts of Napier water shortage, – it is not because of residential over-use, it is because of two separate bottling plants over-extraction of water from our aquifer read below please, I called the news desk earlier on this issue.

    The extraction of our water is so large now that 250 trucks a day are being used to move export water through the port of napier for export and not one cent is given back to us for this taking of our water.

    “Free foreign water bottling extraction policy” – is now coming home to roost.

    FACTS;

    Two overseas owned large bottling companies Two years ago these global companies were given consent to use “deep well aquifer extraction of tax free water.

    My name is Ken Crispin a resident of Napier since 1951 and property owner since 1974, and have never had any water issues like this before during this time, 1974 to 2017.

    The blame for municipal low water uptake is because these overseas companies now are draining our HB plains aquifer systems using “deep well extraction’ now municipal water supplies are suffering depleted “shallow well extraction” as a result.

    Blame the municipal Council and their regional council’s both for this current issue of a lack of water now so Napier Mayor Bill Dalton should not be blaming the residents for the shortage, but start blaming the bottling companies he allowed to take our free water in the first place.

  5. You know what they should do. They should treat it like the TPPA and only show a select group let’s say people who media loath to talk to like out of work DOC scientists or beneficiaries. Just not National.

  6. Very interesting Post!….young NZers must be employed one way or another and on a livable wage

    …I have always thought that NZF is more radical than Labour or the Greens as regards being anti -Neoliberalism

  7. “NZ First wants to go far further in reforming the hegemonic economic structure than Labour could ever imagine to suggest in public.”

    If this is true, and I hope it is, these are points where NZ First and the Greens have more in common with each other than either do with Labour.

  8. When you have The Donald in the White House push this through, which is likely to let the US Federal Debt spin out of control, the days for a massive Mega GFC are truly nearing:

    ‘Why it’s such a big deal the Senate tax bill would add $1 trillion to debt’

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/11/30/senate-gop-tax-plan-would-fall-1-trillion-short-of-trump-administrations-promises-congress-tax-analyst-says/?utm_term=.841e25d709ec

    “The Senate GOP tax plan would cause faster economic growth — about 0.8 percent more over the next decade, JCT found. But that amount of growth only covers about a third of the cost, far short of what is needed to have revenue-neutral tax reform, as the White House initially claimed.”

    “Corker is not the only person worried about America’s $20 trillion debt rising even higher (about $15 trillion is actually held by the public). Wall Street bank Goldman Sachs put out a warning Thursday morning that the U.S. debt is on track to hit unsustainable levels in coming years. Goldman’s note followed on the heels of testimony from Federal Reserve Chair Janet L. Yellen, who cautioned that the country’s growing debt is “the type of thing that should keep people awake at night.””

    All this to please the big donors (corporations and some rich listers) to the Republicans, so they can win the Mid Term elections.

    Wow, and the inter-dependency with China, which will lead to serious economic repercussions, once Trump bombs North Korea into submission, risking war with Mainland China and its likely ally Russia and even Iran, inciting wars there and in the Mid East, spreading to other areas, we will soon have DARK days fall upon us, indeed.

    Trouble is, when exactly will it happen, within a year, or two, or after 2020?

    Whether that was behind of what NZ First negotiated with Labour, and why Shane Jones talked tough on getting his couzzies off the couch and plant trees, I don’t know.

    1. Trump won’t be bombing North Korea into submission. All evidence is that they have the capability to explode a hydrogen bomb over Washington. The are in the clear.
      D J S

      1. How ridiculous an argument, that is the very reason why Trump will feel, he HAS TO bomb North Korea or rather its regime into submission or full destruction! Also, the US, like Israel, have missile defence systems.

      2. The US have patriot and other missile defence systems in place, and they will take out any inter continental ballistic missiles anyway, so the only worry would be the radiation fall out.

        1. They’ve left it too late. There’s too much doubt about whether a missile arriving effectively from space can be intercepted, and the risk is too great that it won’t work. How much faster do you think interceptor missiles move than ICBMs? Exploding it in the stratosphere might cause more harm than over the city.
          You can judge the likelihood of action by US as the inverse of the Rhetoric.
          D J S

    2. The trump tax cuts won’t stimulate much growth. Rich people save their tax cuts or spend on imports. However, the US government will never default on its debt. The Fed can buy all the debt whenever it wants. Deficits are generally a good idea when you have under utilised productive capacity and a lack of demand. They make up for all that deleveraging the private sector is doing. The deficit or the debt is not the problem. The problem is tax cuts for rich doesn’t stimulate demand greatly.

      1. Well it is NOT the deficit that is the problem, it is total accrued debt, my friend, if you get it?!

        Re-organising or re leveraging excessive debt will eventually end in depression or worse, as people will none the less be left with heaps of debt per capita, that will hardly motivate growth.

  9. Labour are good at talking trains, drains, roads and houses but they aren’t really connecting with or talking the ordinary kiwis language in the same way the nationals did after 9 years in office. I think if they did this they could create the real change in this country they say they want.

    1. John Keys official $50mln wealth figure makes sense when you consider he racked up $50bln+ in national debt. So not a great fucken example.

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