The other day I heard a passing mention on my car radio to some MP promoting legislation to ensure that immigrants upheld kiwi values. Good old NZ First as its worst, I thought. I listened on and heard that one of those values was a commitment not to campaign against the legality of alcohol. I nearly drove my car off the road. I then decided that I must have misheard or misunderstood and put it out of my mind.
It is probably time to call the Government’s flagship KiwiBuild programme for what it is – state sponsored gentrification of state housing suburbs. As such it is little different from the previous Government’s efforts in places such as Tamaki to extract value from the public housing estate under the guise of modernisation.
We are a bitter, petty folk who prefer counter productive policy to success if that success requires kindness and compassion.
It’s a vile and grotesque invasion of privacy that has no real checks or balances, but New Zealander’s have such an incredulous ‘if-you-have-nothing-to-hide-you-have-nothing-to-fear’ mentality to mass surveillance, it’s difficult to feel anything but sad apathy at the manner we hand such incredibly far ranging powers over to the all seeing state.
…why on earth were the officials under National actively trying to get Chinese companies to take our water?
This militancy when Labour are in power and cowardice when National are in is deeply detrimental to industrial relations and progressive politics because it feeds into a National Party narrative that Unions feel emboldened by Jacinda being in power.
While no one ever likes to agree with Damien Grant, he has a very valid point, this Government wants to parade our liberal values on the global stage while betraying them at home. The truth is that we will only solve synthetic cannabis use when we legalise the real version and on that front the Government is fecklessly rudderless.
There is no greater challenge to the Government than the rising price of petrol because the entire economy is at risk and those workers already trying to survive in a country where costs outstrip wage increases will quickly revolt.
What should have happened is that Kavanaugh should have been grilled over his views on abortion and whether or not he would ever make it more difficult for women to get them, instead it became an emotive media circus that created a toxic cultural backlash which risks benefitting the Republicans in the mid term elections.
Meka must grow up, dump the chip on her shoulder about how incompetent staff are a reflection of disdain against Māori women in power and get back to the excellent work for her constituents that she is known for. The Prime Minister also must ponder how woke activists in her own office could inadvertently paint her into a corner she can’t get out of.