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Time to end West Papua atrocities, isolation – and back up its Pacific claims

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The “Free West Papua” item on TVNZ’s independent programme Tagata Pasifika. West Papuan membership of the Melanesian Spearhead Group is now critical.

David Robie also blogs at Café Pacific

THE TIME is long overdue for ending more than a half century of isolation for West Papua, after decades of systematic oppression from Indonesian “security” forces following Dutch colonial rule.

But instead of honouring the promise of The Hague for West Papuan self-determination, expansionist Jakarta send in paratroopers to Irian Jaya in a disastrous campaign in 1962, and “stole” Papuan independence aspirations with a sham Act of Free Choice under the United Nations banner seven years later.

A shameful betrayal by the West and the United Nations. Four decades of genocide has followed with impunity while the world has largely ignored the plight of West Papuans.

However, things are gradually changing. Social media and the increasing courage of eyewitnesses to speak out are producing a compelling dossier of damning evidence against systematic human rights violations by Indonesian forces.

Whereas in recent years, West Papua has been something of a “black hole” or “blind spot” for media coverage from countries such as Australia and New Zealand – and even much of the Pacific – the tide seems to be turning.

(My own reporting on West Papua as a journalist began in 1983 when at a nuclear-free and independent Pacific conference in Port Vila I interviewed Papuan leaders such as Rex Rumakiek. At that time hardly anybody seemed to be writing about the issues in New Zealand).

Journalists and human rights activists have long been barred from entering the two provinces that make up the region of West Papua and a new “more relaxed” policy introduced by Jakarta is flawed.

Stories need telling
It has also been shown to have not made any significant change towards “openness” in spite of the promise of a “new dawn”. This media policy has also made it difficult to report the many important development and socio-cultural stories that need telling as well.

Yet better coverage by other media in the world, by news services such as Al Jazeera, for example, and independent journalists, is raising the transparency of what is happening in West Papua.

This, in turn, is leading to more international concern, scrutiny and protest.

On Friday, Amnesty International welcomed the announcement by Indonesia’s National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM) that it would recommend the formation of a inquiry team to undertake a detailed investigation into the killings of four teenager students by the security forces and injuries to dozens of others in Paniai, Papua province, last December.

Victims and their families as well as human rights groups have been calling for justice since this outrage happened and there is now some “genuine hope for accountability”.

Also, last week the people and government of Vanuatu were awarded the John Rumbiak Human Rights Defenders Award for recognition of their work for West Papua.

Congratulations to the country that has almost alone stood in solidarity with the Papuans for so long in defiance of pressure from larger neighbours.

Calendar of change
Some recent examples in the calendar of change that were featured over the weekend by TVNZ’s independent Pacific magazine programme Tagata Pasifika in one of the rare episodes about the West Papua issue broadcast by mainstream media in New Zealand:

April 9 2015: New footage from the Minority Rights Group International Paniai massacre last December provided compelling evidence of the atrocity in spite of denials by Indonesian authorities. This was also a clear message that the military have been out of control.

April 2: Launch of the PNG Union for West Papua. Key spokespeople include Gary Juffa, Governor of Oro province, and Powes Parkop, Governor of the National Capital District. (I learned much from Powes when we were both academics at the national University of Papua New Guinea in the mid-1990s).

April 1: In London, a major demonstration led by the Indonesian human rights group TAPOL and others demanded “free and open access” to West Papua for international journalists, humanitarian agencies and human rights organisations.

March 31:  Leaders of the newly formed United Liberation Movement for West Papua leaders (including Benny Wenda, Octo Mote and Rex Rumakiek) met with Australian and some Aotearoa/New Zealand solidarity groups.

Their campaign for full membership for West Papua of the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) is critical in the hope of producing a positive outcome at the July meeting in Honiara, Solomon Islands.

secret deal made in hell westpapua page
The so-called “Agreement made in hell” between UN Secretary-General Ban-Ki-moon (left) and Indonesian President Joko Widodo to “conceal” UN General Assembly Resolution 1752. Source: Colony of West Papua website

March 28: Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Peter O’Neill called on the Indonesian government to fulfill the promise of its former president, Susilio Bambang Yudhoyono, to reduce the military stationed in West Papua.

O’Neill hopes President Joko Widodo·would keep the former leader’s  promise. President Joko has been a disappointment since his human rights pledges·when elected last year.

Never before has there been such “blunt talking” about West Papua by any previous Papua New Guinean leader.

March 19: Indonesian security forces shot four people, one of them being killed for attending a fundraiser rally in Yahukimo for the victims of Cyclone Pam in Vanuatu. Four others were arrested. The rally was organised by the churches.

New Zealand should be demanding more action from our government and media about West Papua and more accountability from the Indonesians. Our initiatives are too weak and ineffective.

The West Papuans are our Pacific neighbours and they need support from all Pacific Islanders.

Professor David Robie is author of Don’t Spoil My Beautiful Face: Media, Mayhem and Human Rights in the Pacific (Little Island Press, 2014).

Footnote: Andrew Johnson writes:  

In 1961, the Netherlands wanted the United Nations to assume responsibility for the colony as a UN trust territory, as explained in the United Nations Charter, Chapter 12. But the United States which had businessmen who wanted Papua’s gold and copper would not support the application to the UN unless it included an Indonesian text asking the United Nations to entrust the colony to Indonesian occupation.

That is why the “New York Agreement” makes all the promises which Indonesia ignored once it got its troops in.

My website has links to the US and other records.

Andrew Johnson is a  20-year veteran with the Australia West Papua Association, specialising in historical research and analysis.

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The closure of three prisons and loss of 262 jobs – five issues for the National govt

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The closure of three prisons and loss of 262 jobs

The closure of units in Waikeria, Tongariro-Rangipo, and Rimutaka Prisons, and the subsequent estimated loss of 262 jobs has been openly conceded as a re-distribution of inmates to the new, privately run prison at Wiri.  Corrections chief executive, Ray Smith, stated on 9 April;

I am also proposing to close units at three prisons – Rimutaka, Waikeria and Tongariro/Rangipo…

… With the opening of Auckland South Corrections Facility (at Wiri), and the subsequent reduction in pressure on prison capacity, we can now look at closing these end of life facilities.

The Wiri facility will be managed by multi-national corporation, Serco, as a profit-making venture, paid by the tax-payer.

Smith has blamed the closures and redundancies on the Waikeria, Tongariro-Rangipo, and Rimutaka Prisons being  “50 years old, surrounded by facilities that are 100 years old“. He claims “it would be uneconomic to bring them up to scratch“.

The closure of units at Waikeria, Tongariro-Rangipo, and Rimutaka is estimated to save the National government $165 million. This will be a godsend to Finance Minister Bill English, who admitted on 10 April that National’s much heralded promise of a budget surplus was looking more and more unlikely;

We’re (the Government) is continuing to manage the books carefully but lower inflation, while good for consumers, is making it less likely that the final accounts in October will show a surplus for the whole year.

With the  planned sale of state houses to the  Salvation Army, and other social services, having collapsed, English’s expectation of reaping big cash dividends from the housing sell-of has evaporated.

As I wrote in October 2014;

Meanwhile, Bill English was outlining National’s true agenda, whilst Key was putting on his benign face to the New Zealand public.  As TV3’s Brook Sabin reported,

A big state-house sell-off is on the way, and up to $5 billion-worth of homes could be put on the block.

The shake-up of the Government’s housing stock will be a key focus for the next three years, with Finance Minister Bill English to lead it.

On the block is everything from a tiny 75 square metre two-bedroom state house in Auckland’s Remuera, on the market for $740,000, to a three-bedroom home in Taumarunui for just $38,000. Thousands more properties will soon hit the market.

The reason for putting up to  $5 billion-worth of homes  on the block?

Crashing dairy prices had left a gaping hole in the National Government’s books, and their much-vaunted Budget surplus next year was under threat. Remember that  Key was candid in the implications for the economy and the  government’s tax-take; when he stated – also on 6 October;

It can have some impact because if that’s the final payout, the impact would be as large as NZ$5 billion for the economy overall, and you would expect that to flow through to the tax revenue, both for the 14/15 year and the 15/16 year. My understanding is Treasury is working on those numbers for the incoming Minister of Finance, which fortunately is the same as the outgoing Minister of Finance as well.”

Faced with the imminent sinking of one of National’s cornerstone election promises – a return to surplus by 2014/15 – $165 million saved by the closure of prison units will be  a relief to an increasingly frustrated Bill English.

Key and English couldn’t flog of $5 billion of state housing to social services. So now they are looking at what is effectively privatisation-by-stealth with our prison services.

And bugger the inevitable consequences…

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Five issues for the National govt

The closure of units at Waikeria, Tongariro-Rangipo, and Rimutaka Prisons will not be without dire consequences that impact on nearly every aspect of New Zealand society, regions, and the economy.  Even the political landscape may be altered if this ill-considered plan goes ahead.

1. Sending “clients” to a private facility

There is something decidely immoral about up-rooting hundreds of prisoners whose freedom of movement and freedom of choice has been curtailed by State sanctions, and handed over into the hands of a private corporation – Serco – where the prime motivator is making a profit for shareholders. (Overseas shareholders, to be precise.)

In no way can this dystopian scenario be considered part of the “free market”, as all forms of choice have been removed from the prison “clients”.

Serco have been handed “clients” into their “care” whether wanted or not by the prisoners. Not since the slave trade from the 16th to 19th centuries have human being been treated as commodities by Western nations.

Make no mistake; private prisons turn human beings into “things”, to be used by business as investment commodities.

How long before prisoners are sold, bought, and traded by competing corporatised prisons? How long before their labour is sold to other businesses, for profit?

2. Regional economies and job losses

The loss of 262 jobs in Upper Hutt (Rimutaka),  Waikeria, and Tongariro-Rangipo will impact considerably on those regional economies already badly hit by loss of industries, closed businesses, population moving away, and continuing down-turn in the dairy industry.

It is this sort of regional neglect that resulted in Northland voters abandoning the National Party and electing NZ First leader, Winston Peters, as their electorate MP.

Waipa District mayor, Jim Mylchreest, was frustrated and angry at National’s further under-mining of what remained of regional economies;

Here they are with a major change and not even bothering to let us know plans are afoot.

I assume that they’ve done their sums and it’s more efficient for them but they’re not looking at New Zealand in terms of what are the benefits to try and keep employment in the regions.”

Mayor Mylchreest has every right to be angry – closure of a high-security wing at Waikeria Prison will  result in the loss of 148 jobs – creating considerable impact on nearby Te Awamutu (pop: 10,305), only sixteen kilometers away.

Is this how the National Party “supports” the regions?!

It seems that National has not learned a single thing from the Northland by-election.

Rimutaka may well be a safe Labour seat. But it also delivered 15,352 Party Votes for National – now at risk as Upper Hutt will be hard hit by job losses at Rimutaka Prison.

National may have mis-calculated the political fall-out from this move.

3. NZ First/Country Party

A loss of 262 jobs. Millions lost from regional economies. Small towns losing more people. Businesses closing, through lack of turn-over. Which, in a vicious circle leads to more job losses…

A recipe to increase NZ First’s re-positioning on the politicalk spectrum as a de facto “Country-Regional Party”?

It certainly sounds like it.

National may have handed Peters an early Christmas gift to campaign on. Disaffected voters seeing hundreds of jobs lost in their communities – with  subsequent closures of down-stream businesses in their town Main Streets – may wonder why on Earth they should keep voting for National? What’s in it for them?

Not much it would seem.

“Vote National – Lose Your Job” would appear to be the new slogan for National for the 2017 elections.

I have no doubt that even as I write this, and you the reader are reading my words, that Winston Peters and his NZ First strategists are already working on how to maximise these events for their own political gain.

I have no doubt whatsoever; the “Northland Experience” will be repeated throughout the country – much to Winston Peters’ delight.

4. Prisoner’s families

National’s Corrections Minister Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga has stated;

I understand that this proposal may be unsettling for affected staff but Corrections will have extensive support and assistance in place should the proposal go ahead. I also believe that the proposal reflects our commitment to providing safe and secure working conditions for staff and a safe and productive environment for prisoners.

Prisoners have a much better chance of successful rehabilitation in modern facilities where they have access to education, training and employment opportunities.

Being close to their families is an important factor in rehabilitation for some prisoners.”

However, transferring several hundred prisoners from as far afield as Rimutaka, to Auckland – a distance of some 650kms – is hardly “being close to their families”  and one can only imagine how increasing isolation from family and community will give  “prisoners […] a much better chance of successful rehabilitation”.

The distances involved are considerable, as this Corrections Department map illustrates;

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[6] Waikeria Prison [8] Tongariro/Rangipo Prison [13] Rimutaka Prison
[6] Waikeria Prison
[8] Tongariro/Rangipo Prison
[13] Rimutaka Prison
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Minister Lotu-Iiga needs to explain why he thinks that isolating prisoners in this manner, can possibly assist in their rehabilitation and reintergration back into their communities?

It seems that transferring prisoners out of their communities flies in the face of the Minister’s assertions.

It may also prove more expensive, as prisoner’s families make increased calls upon the Child Travel Fund;

The Child Travel Fund provides financial support to eligible children traveling to visit a parent in prison. The fund also supports parents traveling to visit a child who is under 18 years of age and in prison.

Does National even care?

They should. Increasing prisoner’s alienation from family and communities undermines every effort made by the judicial/corrections system to rehabilitate prisoners.

It should definitely be cause for concern for  the corporate managers of Wiri, for whom rehabilitation and reduced re-offending is part of their contract, according to Corrections chief executive, Ray Smith;

They can earn up to $1.5 million in incentive payments if they can reduce the rate of reoffending by up to 10 percent more than the department can do.”

According to Derek Cheng at the Herald, writing three years ago;

For Wiri, Serco will face stiff financial penalties if it does not meet rehabilitation targets – which will be set at 10 per cent lower than public prisons.

The Corrections Department has a target to reduce re-offending by 10 per cent. If that is achieved, Wiri would have to achieve a rate 20 below the current rates or face fines, which have yet to be set.

Though Finance Minister Bill English – quoted in Scoop at around the same time – was more cautious;

It will also face financial penalties if it fails to meet short-term rehabilitation and reintegration measures including prisoner health and employment targets, and safe, secure and humane custodial standards.”

However, speaking to Paul Henry on Radio Live, Corrections chief executive, Ray Smith, was more circumspect when asked directly what penalties were involved in prisoners re-offended after release;

(@ 7:35)

Henry: “If rehabitation rates, if recidivism rates deteriorate, is there a penalty?”

Smith: “Well they just can’t earn the incentive payment if they can’t [meet the targets(muffled)].”

Henry: “So there isn’t actually a penalty?”

Smith: “[Stuttered words]...the penalties are associated with failure on security. The incentives are geared towards having to actually achieve better outcomes than the Department.”

So unlike penalties associated with prisoner escapes, where Serco actually has to pay the government, the only “penalty” associated with not meeting rehabilitation targets is foregoing $1.5 million in incentive payments?

Under Serco’s contract to manage Mt Eden Remand Prison, it is fined $150,000 each and every time a prisoner escapes, as happened in 2011 and 2012.

Under the contract to manage Wiri, it appears that the “penalty” is foregoing incentive payments.

The two “penalties” are not exactly the same and Minister English was being less than clear when he referred to Serco facing “financial penalties“.

Repeating the question – does National care? Not in the least, one may rightly guess. After all, chances are that National will no longer be in government when the ‘chickens come home to roost’ on this little social time bomb, and John Key will be writing his memoirs somewhere on an idyllic Hawaiian beach.

5. Relocating staff?

There seems to be confusion as to what will happen to the 262 staff who will lose their jobs from  Waikeria, Tongariro-Rangipo, and Rimutaka Prisons.

In his interview with Paul Henry on Radio Live on 10 April, Corrections CEO Ray Smith offered to do his best to find replacement jobs at other facilities for 262 redundant staff.

Suggestions that staff would be relocated to Auckland, with a “$20,000 relocation assistance-payment” appears to be farcical for two reason;

1. $20,000 payment to a Corrections staffmember living in a small town, where properties are worth considerably less than the over-heated Auckland housing market, is unhelpful. There is a worsening housing shortage in Auckland, and it seems to be verging on incompetence for this government to be adding to the housing problem by encouraging more workers and their families to move to the the city, thereby adding to congestion.

2. According to various media reports, the new Wiri facility is already fully staffed;

And unfortunately for staff who will be laid off, the opening of a large new prison in South Auckland next month is no consolation as all jobs are already filled. – TV1 News

A new prison in south Auckland will pick up the relocated inmates, but it is already fully staffed.TV3 News

So where are the jobs? Certainly not at Wiri.

Which makes this statement from Corrections Minister Lotu-Iiga unconvincing;

It should also be noted that the number of prisoner places is not reducing and will in fact increase with the opening of [Wiri]. We will have a net increase of 433 beds.”

The closure of three facilities; 262 redundancies; and contracting out to a private provider all reeks of National’s mania for cost-cutting.

As with many other cost-cutting exercises, it is New Zealanders; their families; and economically-fragile regions and small towns, that are having to pay the price. Treating prisoners as commercial commodities adds a particularly nasty aspect to this exercise.

Meanwhile, foreign-owned Serco stands to gain $30 million of tax-payer’s money, per year, from managing the new Wiri prison.

Someone is benefitting, and it is not us.

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Prison facts and statistics – December 2014

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Number of prisoners in each prison - nz prisons

Source

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References

Fairfax media: Up to 262 prison jobs may be cut in major Corrections restructure

TV3 News: Union – Prison staff can’t afford to move to Auckland

TV1 News: Budget surplus looking increasingly unlikely this year, Bill English admits

TV3 News: State housing sell-off worth $5B

Hive News: Treasury re-crunching Budget numbers for low Fonterra payout

National Party: Remaining on track to Budget surplus in 2014/15

Wikipedia: Serco

TV1 News: Town’s fury at being left in dark over prison closure

Wikipedia: Te Awamutu

Election Results 2014: Official Count Results — Rimutaka

Department of Corrections:  Sustainable Development Framework

Department of Corrections:  Travel assistance for visits

TV3 News: Union – Prison staff can’t afford to move to Auckland

NZ Herald: New private prison at Wiri given green light

Auckland Scoop media: Amazing promises for new Wiri prison: less offending, better safety, superior service

RadioLive: Around 260 staff face redundancy at Waikeria, Rangipo and Rimutaka prisons (audio)

Auckland Scoop media: Private operator of Mt Eden fined $150,000 for prison escape; security improvements made

Radio NZ: Serco fined after another prisoner escape

TV3 News: Govt criticised over prison job cuts

Radio NZ: Serco expects $30m revenue from Wiri prison

Department of Corrections:  Prison facts and statistics – December 2014

Previous related blogposts

The lunatics are running the Asylum

Housing; broken promises, families in cars, and ideological idiocy (Part Rua)

 


 

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140105 Housing in prisons

 

 

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Disability can be invisible

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There has been a lot of publicity about able-bodied motorists stealing disability car parks and only a little bit about those who are entitled to these spaces yet are accused of abusing the right to it.

A woman in Masterton was accused of ‘not looking disabled’ when she parked in a disability parking spot and showed her permit.

To be fair, the look of the permits has changed. The bright orange permit has been replaced with a more subtle green and white card. Since this change is fairly recent both cards can still be used and not many people know about change. This is causing more questioning to people who have been issued the new card.

There hasn’t been much publicity about the new cards, which is probably the reason for the confusion – I didn’t even know about the change until my old one expired and I got my new permit in the mail.

However, this issue didn’t start with the issuing of the new permits. People with subtle or invisible disabilities have always been accused of ‘not looking disabled enough’ to park there. It’s not really anybody else’s business what somebody looks like. If a person went through the rigmarole of applying for a permit, they obviously need it.

Nobody deserves to be doubted about such a personal and private matter. Nobody is under any obligation to answer your narrow-minded and self-serving questions.

There has been an increase in outrage over real abuses of the parking spaces, which is great. Energy would be better served cracking down on these scenarios rather than interrogating people who are already struggling and are just trying to go about their daily business.

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An unwelcome blast from the past

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Last week I wrote about the serious threat to the people of Christchurch
with the council proposal to sell the city’s assets to make up a projected
budget shortfall of $1.2 billion.

Opinion polls consistently show three quarters of Christchurch residents
are opposed to asset sales so the mayor and council along with local MP
and government minister Gerry Brownlee have led a scaremongering campaign to frighten citizens with massive rate increases unless these prime assets are sold.

So what figures are these elected representatives using to back up their
position?

Early last year KordaMentha provided an independent report on the
council’s financial position after newly elected mayor and former Labour
cabinet minister Lianne Dalziel said she wanted to “open the books” on the
council’s true financial position.

KordaMentha said the council could get through the earthquake rebuild
without radical financial measures. Yes there were financial risks and the
council would need to take on more debt but with the sort of prudent
financial management citizens should expect from their local council the
city would get through fine.

Brownlee poured scorn on the report and a second review – this time by
well-known right-wing merchant bankers Cameron Partners – was sought.

The Cameron report gave Brownlee just what he was after – a projected council budget shortfall of $1.2billion. Since then the mayor and Labour
councillors have allowed themselves to be railroaded and last December
voted in principle to privatise a huge chunk of the city’s assets. But a closer look at the Cameron report shows only $106 million of credible debt – the rest is pure speculation – designed more to scare than illuminate.

Vile

So who are Cameron partners?

Rob Cameron who started the firm in 1995 has a long grubby career of dodgy
dealings – the most despicable being the billion dollar rip-off of
taxpayers in the 1990 sale of Telecom. Cameron advised Fay Richwhite on
buying Telecom and then played the other side as adviser to the government
on selling Telecom. Here’s how Cameron Partners tell his story…

“Prior to Cameron Partners, Rob headed the Corporate Finance Division of Fay Richwhite. A highlight of his time there was leading Fay Richwhite’s involvement with Telecom New Zealand where Rob advised the purchasing consortium in the privatisation of Telecom in 1989, which saw Fay Richwhite also take an ownership stake. Rob then led the New Zealand team
advising on Telecom’s IPO in 1990 – at the time the largest public
offering ever in the New Zealand market and the first integrated global offering of shares in a New Zealand company.”

What Cameron doesn’t say is that Telecom was sold for $4.25 billion in
1990 and in the following decade made it’s private buyers over $12 billion
in profit – most of which went overseas to the US firms, Bell Atlantic and
Ameritech, which were the majority shareholders. At the end of that first
decade they sold Telecom for $12 billion. The size of this taxpayer
rip-off is eye watering.

In any self-respecting country Cameron and all those involved would be
serving long prison sentences but here he is again – a nasty blast from
the past – preparing the ground for Christchurch ratepayers to be ripped
off just as he did for New Zealand taxpayers 25 years ago.

Rust never sleeps and neither does the cold-hearted drive for unearned
wealth under capitalism.

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TDB Political Caption Competition – Todd Barclay

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Mediaworks – ‘Brighter Right’

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The Daily Blog Open Mic Monday 13th April 2015

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Announce protest actions, general chit chat or give your opinion on issues we haven’t covered for the day.

Moderation rules are more lenient for this section, but try and play nicely.

 

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Mediaworks statement on news

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Malcolm Evans – American Pie

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What are we actually fighting for this ANZAC Day?

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Everywhere one looks there is flag blinded cheerleading for ANZAC Day in the mainstream media. Little is being done to critically evaluate the manner in which NZers were failed by the British, little to critically evaluate our invasion of Gallipoli, little to critically evaluate what exactly have we learned from throwing our best and brightest into the mincer of war.

We need our myths and we need to blindly ignore the lessons. That wilful ignorance is made more galling because Key has decided our price for being in the 5 Eyes Club is to reinvade Iraq.

So who are our allies in this secretive re-invasion of Iraq? We are on the side of the Syrians who have tortured to death tens of thousands of their own. We are on the side of Iraq whose brutal crackdown on the Sunni led to ISIS gaining power in the first place. We are on the side of brutal Iranian backed Shia militia who are slaughtering people, beheading them, throwing them off tall buildings, and putting their crimes on social media.

The glorious dead who lie silent while we mouth hollow promises to never forget must truly mourn our inability to learn from their graves.

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A response to Police Commissioner Mike Bush

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Police Commissioner Mike Bush has reacted to the excellently researched critique of the NZ Police force by Bryce Edwards with all the alpha male privileged arrogance that remarkably underscores Edwards argument.

Let’s dissect Bush’s insincere sophistry column by column…

I challenge Dr Bryce Edwards to get out from behind his desk and see first-hand the outstanding work 12,000 New Zealand Police staff do every day.

…ahh, the good old ‘wimpy intellectual sitting behind their desk’ argument. Nothing deflects well thought out criticism in NZ better than by appealing to our anti-intellectualism. Bush may as well call Dr Edwards a commie pinko, because writing his criticisms off with such a broad statement is designed more to attack the messenger and focus attention on them than what is actually being said. It’s a tactic Key uses every time he is caught out lying about a mass surveillance lie.

I have no doubt this would give him a better-informed picture of modern policing, rather than re-visiting a selective handful of high-profile issues dating back over the past 50 years.

…Oh that’s the defence is it? These events took place half a century ago? Luckily for Bush, BLIP at the Standard has recorded every abuse of Police power since 2008. Let’s have a brief look shall we?

05/12/08 – Wellington police officer Jason Manu Casson is discharged without conviction for stealing $90.

11/12/08 – Another police chase, another crash.

16/12/08 – Palmerston North police officer Timothy Hesketh, 27, who lied during investigations and showed no remorse was found guilty of breaking a prisoner’s neck yet escapes a jail sentence.

09/02/09 – A police recruit escapes assault charges and is permitted to graduate with any sanction or note on his personal file. He first posting was South Auckland.

11/02/09 – Lower Hutt police leave confidential documents behind after executing a search warrant putting witnesses at risk of gang violence and then fail to own up at a subsequent IPCA enquiry. The inquiry noted: “The conflicting accounts given by the two officers, and the facts that no officer has taken responsibility for the loss of the Operation Order and that the Police investigator has not been able to identify that officer, are undesirable. Whilst there is no evidence of criminal conduct in relation to the loss of the order, its loss does amount to misconduct.” The Mongrel Mob say they know who left the report behind but were never interviewed.

17/03/09 – The IPCA criticises police for their continuing failure to develop procedures for the prompt drug and alcohol testing of officers involved in serious incidents.

27/03/09 – A Christchurch officer broke a number of police protocols in the lead up to the fatal shooting of Stephen Bellingham. The IPCA finds that the unnamed officer: did not tell his communications controller he was going to the scene, nor did he advise them he was armed, failed to brief two other officers who were on their way to the scene so that he could tackle Bellingham with support, and, crucially, a dog patrol unit, which would have been a huge asset to the effort to contain Bellingham, was diverted to another crime.

30/03/09 – Nelson police officer Anthony Dale Bridgman is convicted of two counts of dangerous driving after he pulled out in front of two motorcyclists, seriously injuring both.

24/03/09 – Another police chase, another crash.

19/05/09 – Head of the Police Prosecution Service Superintendent Graham Thomas steps down after it is revealed that he refused to undergo a breath test.

29/05/09 IPCA states that Auckland Police officer Constable Aaron Holmes was breaking the law and ignoring official policy when he seriously injured innocent teenage Farhat Buksh.

20/06/09 – An unnamed police officer is reprimanded for writing out the employment details of a driver on a speeding ticket as “kitchen bitch”.

25/07/09 – Northland police run down two pedestrians, killing one and injuring another.

15/08/09 – An Auckland constable is suspended after it was alledged that he leaked sensitive information to help a known criminal to avoid arrest. The unnamed officer was in a squad which targets “volume crime”, in particular burglaries, and had access to the police intelligence database.

…and the list goes on and on and on. So let’s knock this rebuttal by Bush on the head right away shall we? We are not talking about issues that are half a century old, we are talking about an ongoing and worsening culture whereby the Police have become a law unto themselves. To suggest Bryce is basing his argument on ancient issues is false and misleading.

Back to Bush’s column.

Space does not allow me to respond point-by-point to his assertions, nor am I in a position to re-litigate the historic cases.

Well let’s take up some space here shall we Mike? How about the over 300 woman who were sexually assaulted by the NZ Police Force? How about the Police Association Cheerleader Greg O’Connor describing being held to account for the implementation of the recommendations to stamp out the sado-masochistic gang rape culture of the Police as ‘ritualistic humiliation’ manages to sum up everything wrong with the Police? Simply shrugging off most of the evidence Bryce is using because Bush doesn’t have the space is convenient.

I can, however, say he grossly misrepresents New Zealand Police, particularly our victim-focused frontline staff who work tirelessly every day to prevent crime and deal with the worst behaviour in our communities.

I’m sorry what? In the wake of the appalling manner in which the NZ Police framed Teina Pora and the RapeBuster case, Bush – who praised the Detective who planted evidence in the infamous Crewe murders– dares to pull the ‘victim focused frontline staff’ line is he? Let’s ask the young woman who were victims of the Roastbuster rape club if they feel they were victim-focused?

I can, however, say he grossly misrepresents New Zealand Police, particularly our victim-focused frontline staff who work tirelessly every day to prevent crime and deal with the worst behaviour in our communities.

Police staff make difficult decisions every day while displaying courage and resilience.

On behalf of the communities they serve, they deal with situations which, thankfully, most of the public don’t have to experience.

Every year police respond to 1.94 million phone calls for advice or assistance and about 772,000 emergency calls.

I am proud to say the overwhelming majority of these are dealt with in line with our core values of professionalism and empathy.

This is ridiculous. Yes there are plenty of officers who do amazing work in trying situations that most NZers would have difficulty identifying with. The job is stressful, emotionally damaging and dangerous, and for those doing that job well we offer our support and thanks. BUT we aren’t talking about those cops, we are talking about the cops who are abusing their powers, we are talking about the cops who turn a blind eye to those abusing their powers, we are talking about an alpha male complex that sees their actions as above the law. The cops doing their jobs properly aren’t the problem, holding them up to deflect attention on the problem ones is again simply misleading.

This is why New Zealand Police has levels of trust and confidence that are the envy of most equivalent overseas jurisdictions.

This is so important to us that we continually measure public perceptions of police using the independent research company Gravitas.

The overall result for last year showed “high” or “very high” trust and confidence at 78 per cent, from a sample of 9260 members of the public.

But don’t just take our word for it.

Recent reports from the State Services Commission and the independent research company UMR ranked police highly on public perceptions.

The police force was the second highest Government institution in which the public had “a great deal or quite a lot of confidence”, according to UMR.

This is pure sophistry. NZers have an authority worship complex, they slavishly side with cops no matter what the issue, and that’s part of the problem . Holding up stats that show the sleepy hobbits of NZ are easy to con isn’t any proof NZ Police not being corrupt, these are the same sleepy hobbits who elected John Key despite knowing his office colluded with the SIS to falsely smear the Leader of the Opposition months before an election.

As Commissioner I am not complacent about these numbers. We can only achieve the best outcomes for communities – that they be safe and feel safe – if we have the consent of the public.

This is why our overall vision is to have the trust and confidence of all.

We must earn that trust every day, and be continually focused on achieving it.

Trust is also built on owning and being accountable for our mistakes. We don’t claim to get it right every time and our staff are only human. We apologise and work hard to put things right when we get it wrong.

Remember all those top cops who were rolled out onto current affairs shows to lie about their incompetence over the Roastbuster case? Where was this leadership last year? Has it just turned up now has it?

Police is rightly one of the most scrutinised of any Government agency, be it from the courts, Government, media, the public or other agencies, especially the Independent Police Conduct Authority.

I reject outright any suggestion that police is “thumbing its nose” at the IPCA. The authority is vital in helping us learn from our mistakes and continuously improve.

Oh come on! The bloody IPCA is still cops investigating cops, and when they are critical it’s a mere slap on the wrist recommendation that is issued. The cops don’t need to thumb their nose at the IPCA because the IPCA can’t do anything meaningful.

I must also challenge two other points Edwards raised.

Does he really think that a 100 per cent resolution rate for murder is just a “box-ticking” way for police to “prove themselves”?

I’d say it is something the public should rightly expect.

This is selective rebuttal that still doesn’t address Edwards core criticisms.

And are 23,000 incoming social media contacts from the public every week just a product of “slick marketing” as he seems to think?

In my view, our 40-odd Facebook pages are vital tools for engaging with local communities to prevent and solve crime.

No, Bryce is referring to the crime porn reality TV you produce that is little more than outright propaganda that keeps the sleepy hobbits bound to the myths that Police authority should never be challenged.

Edwards may be one of the minority who just don’t like police. I have no issue with that and we have broad shoulders when it comes to criticism.

Oh this is nonsense, Edwards is an academic who has presented a well researched critique of the Police, insinuating that he is some anarchist who dislikes the Police is shallow and petty.

But I take issue when he undermines and misleads about the good work of modern police staff.

I will leave the final word to a young constable who contacted me directly after reading the article.

He represents the New Zealand Police of today, not 50 years ago.

“As a cop who is 2-years in, I’m learning to tolerate negative and inaccurate media reporting. But this article is the worst I’ve read since joining.

“It just bugs me that my colleagues and I bust our guts to catch criminals and help victims, yet all we get is negative publicity. Having said that I’m still loving the job.”

Hiding behind a young bushy tailed bright eyed cop to deflect criticism simply confirms this as a puff piece. Who polices the police is a fundamental issue in a democracy, it is not the ravings of niche academics who supposedly have a chip on their shoulder with cops, that Bush has not responded in any meaningful way is as disturbing as it is empty. The vast powers that Key has handed the police and the manner in which the Police are consistently abusing those powers demands a response far better than this shallow crap.

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The Daily Blog Open Mic Sunday 12th April 2015

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Announce protest actions, general chit chat or give your opinion on issues we haven’t covered for the day.

Moderation rules are more lenient for this section, but try and play nicely.

 

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LIVE EVENT: Table Talk – Making Sense of the Campbell Live Affair

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IKA Seafood Bar & Grill + the Coalition for Better Broadcasting

+ The Daily Blog present

Table Talk: Making Sense of the Campbell Live Affair

6pm Tuesday 14th April

Join host Wallace Chapman at IKA Seafood Bar and Grill, 3 Mt Eden Rd, Eden Terrace for a public discussion on the implications for journalism and broadcasting with guests…

-Former head of TVNZ news and current affairs, Bill Ralston
– NZ Herald columnist Fran O’Sullivan
-Metro Editor Simon Wilson
-and blogger and media lecturer, Phoebe Fletcher

5 pm – bar opens, complimentary nibbles, Showtime 6 – 6.45 pm, followed by dinner service for those who have booked a table.

Seats are limited so the discussion will also be live streamed on thedailyblog.nz

To guarantee a place book a table for dinner – which will be served on a first-booked, first served basis after the show has broadcast. There will be some capacity for bar-only guests, but the doors will close once capacity is reached. Bookings can be made here.

“The threatened demise of Campbell Live demonstrates how fragile the position is of news and current affairs in a market-driven television environment. It further underlines the need for a state-funded public television broadcaster to ensure that quality news and current affairs programmes, which are the lifeblood of a vigorous democracy, do not disappear to satisfy the interests of corporate profit.
The Coalition for Better Broadcasting is calling on TV3 to be a responsible broadcaster and retain nightly current affairs in primetime.
Equally we’re calling on the Minister of Broadcasting to stop demanding profits from TVNZ and instead demand serious nightly current affairs.”

Coalition for Better Broadcasting

If you want to hear the smartest media minds discuss the ramifications of the Campbell Live Affair for public broadcasting and political journalism, watch online or turn up in person.

 

UPDATE: Tables are now booked out – limited space at the bar on the night available – be early

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GUEST BLOG: Douglas Renwick – Really Existing Capitalism and Global Warming

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The word capitalism is among many other words used in political discourse that are often used in many different ways with different meanings. By using the phrase ‘Really Existing capitalism’ I refer to how our current political and economic system actually functions, which is called a capitalist democracy.
In the mainstream media there is a doctrine that is accepted without question that ‘capitalist democracy’ is flawed, but is the best possible political and economic system. The idea that people should not critique their own political and economic institutions is one that traces back to the Greek philosophers. It was Aristotle, in his book ‘Politics’ who thought the ideal education system for a state would be to ‘mould a citizen to suit the form of government under which he lives.’[i] And the idea that one should be trained to obey a political and economic system is one that seems to me to have prevailed from the Greek philosophers up to the present.

The trait of being unable to criticize your own political and economic institutions is no intellectual defect. For it would be easy for someone in the New Zealand mainstream media to see Maoist famines in 1960 as a result of a centralized and totalitarian state. On the other hand, when global warming is debated in the New Zealand media, there is no discussion on how our own political and economic system is causing grave threats to human civilisation. This does not meet what the philosopher Noam Chomsky called the ‘acceptable framework of discussion’. In the acceptable framework of discussion, you have those on the right end parameter, the more obvious propagandists like Mike Hosking who flat out deny man-made global warming. On the more left end of the spectrum, you have the so called liberal media, and in the print media you have people who note that the government’s response to global warming is poor, but with no further analysis or deep critique into society’s current institutions.

Here I would like to analyse the political and economic system, of ‘really existing capitalism’, and its indifference towards global warming. I think any good analysis would start by examining the internal structure of an institution that doesn’t get analysed enough, the corporation. What is a corporation? A corporation is a totalitarian hierarchy, run by a board of directors and a CEO at the top. The Nobel laureate and economist Milton Friedman expressed the correct operation of a corporation, saying that it has no social responsibility, and its only value being to maximize profits for its owners.[ii] At the bottom of the corporation’s hierarchy you often have people who get to choose between starvation and submitting their human capacities so that they may only be used for the corporation’s short term goal of maximizing profits. That’s called wage labour, or wage slavery in more honest days.

In a corporation, those that get the idea of behaving in a way that does not conform with the goal of short term profit maximization get filtered out of the institution. Their behaviour is a defect to the one that is required by the institution and its owners. Milton Friedman in his opinion piece bluntly titled ‘The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase its Profits’ gave examples of behaviour that is intolerable to the owners of a corporation, such as making expenditures on reducing pollution beyond the amount that is in the best interests of the corporation. In effect, a person who makes decisions within a corporation must always behave in this pathological way, no matter what their moral dispositions are in real life – even if they are the nicest person outside of the institution, or care about the environment their children are inheriting, if they try to do something about it, they are kicked outside of the institution and replaced by someone else. The behavior inside a corporation can be radically different from outside. Indeed, even the CEO of Exxon Mobil Rex Tillerson quietly joined a lawsuit against fracking-related activities near his $5 million Texas home, claiming it would lower property values.[iii]

Another way that will explain the behavior of corporations is competition. In economics competition is an ambiguous word. There are two types of it. One type of competition is the competitive market place, in which a business cannot manipulate the price of its goods and gain some sort of monopoly advantage. The other competition is rivalry between corporations, where they compete for profits and behave in ways that will make them survive while the less successful ones won’t. These two types of competition might seem contradictory, since the corporation that competes for profits is one that will try as hard as it can to establish some kind of monopoly. One way this competition for profits is destroying the environment, is if a corporation is successful in getting cheap fossil fuel energy, and can profit a lot from this, it will put energy companies that are investing in renewable energy out of business. Or will force those energy companies to switch to fossil fuels. The most successful energy corporations are not the ones that invest in new technologies. The biggest ones for example, simply bought out the smaller fossil fuel corporations that pioneered the use of fracking.[iv]

Actually, a much better business decision than investing in renewable energy, is to trick people into thinking you are investing in renewable energy. Some economists argue that a corporation must protect its reputation to survive. And in many ways this is true. Although there are two reputations it must protect. One reputation it must protect is the reputation it has for its shareholders, the other is the reputation it has for everyone else. So for example, Naomi Klein points out in her latest book ‘This Changes Everything’, that investors got alarmed when Shell let themselves go without a huge reserve of fossil fuels, and that to convince its investors that it was making the right decisions, it did so by ceasing new investments in wind and solar energy[v]. To protect its reputation from everyone else, these same energy corporations engaged in massive propaganda campaigns to convince people that they were investing in renewable energy, while BP adopted the slogan ‘beyond petroleum’ in the year 2000, and Chevron declaring “It’s time oil companies get behind renewables.… We agree”.[vi]

Another way a corporation’s goal to maximize short term profits can destroy the environment, is for them to threaten to go overseas to a different country if a government tries to regulate their carbon emissions, thus creating a world with little environmental regulation. One can see this in New Zealand with the actions of the multinational corporation Rio Tinto who in 2008 threatened to go overseas when the Labour government introduced the meagre emissions trading scheme.[vii]

The goal of short term profits must also overcome a problem that is at war with the corporation’s goals. The excessive rationality of the general population. Through scientific reports, people have begun to understand that what these energy corporations are doing is in fact destroying the chances of decent human civilisation. This is a huge problem for the corporate owners, and they have reacted accordingly, through developing a society that is leading a massive assault on scientific thought and rationality. Through large funding of private donations by anonymous billionaires into think tanks[viii], they have managed to convince a significant portion of the western population, (particularly in America) that man-made global warming is a liberal hoax. Actually, if you take a look at this propaganda, the exact opposite is the case. It is the elite, including the liberal elite, who have all the opportunities to do something about the disaster that is being created, but they are barely doing anything about it. And it is actually the poorest people who are trying to keep fossil fuels in the ground, such as the indigenous population in Ecuador, who are in fact risking their lives to do so.[ix] When we take a look at the so called liberal elite, we can observe no such concerns with the ominous prospects human civilisation is facing. Barrack Obama for example, gave a speech in 2012 to America’s main oil town Cushing, in Oklahoma, and drew considerable applause for this speech, when he announced with satisfaction that:

“Now, under my administration, America is producing more oil today than at any time in the last eight years. That’s important to know. Over the last three years, I’ve directed my administration to open up millions of acres for gas and oil exploration across 23 different states. We’re opening up more than 75 percent of our potential oil resources offshore. We’ve quadrupled the number of operating rigs to a record high. We’ve added enough new oil and gas pipeline to encircle the Earth and then some.”[x]

In Canada, Stephen Harper has conducted a war on scientists who want to inform citizens about the disastrous effects that activities from oil corporations can have, with relentless slashing of their environmental monitoring budget. Since 2008, more than two thousand scientists have lost their jobs as a result of the cuts.[xi]

In New Zealand, the war on rationality is not as prevalent. However, we do face the ideologies that persist in the mainstream media that the market knows best. One of the problems with the market and the fossil fuel industry is what is called an externality. An externality is what happens when two people make a transaction, and a third party pays a cost. So when someone agrees to sell a car on the market to another person, there are externalities. When lots of people buy cars, it creates congestion, and pollution. Lots of these externalities adds up over time, and it amounts to ruining the planets environment.

There is also a lot of enthusiasm about how markets increase choices, but in crucial areas they restrict choices and decision making to individual consumption. If someone wants to choose how they travel, the market offers people an array of cars to choose from. It does not offer people the opportunity of using a subway system, which is both good for the environment and saves other people time through reducing congestion.
And throughout New Zealand history state planners have consciously designed New Zealand’s infrastructure in a way that enables these externalities to persist. In the 1950’s for example, Auckland city was designed in a way that would maximize individual consumption and therefore enrich the property developers and Ford factory owners and so on[xii]. There were two options presented: one in which the city could be designed with an electric rail system, and co-operative businesses; and the other was one with sprawling motorways. The decision for sprawling motorways and shopping malls has also created a very passive and atomized society, where people are locked into their own suburbs and encouraged to be individual consumers instead of active citizens.

Well, with all this analysis we can see what’s happening. Human beings are aware of the coming catastrophe, and the richest and most powerful people in society are actively exacerbating the crisis. While many of the poorest people in the world are actively challenging it. And if some future historian was to look back at the human race and see how it behaved, they may conclude that in the years leading to a global catastrophe, the human race behaved in a totally insane manner – not regarding importance on the lives of each other. But I think it is that sane people are operating within institutions that would be called totally insane if psychiatrists could diagnose institutions. If human beings value the future of the planet and its inhabitants, then they must step outside of these insane institutions and challenge really existing capitalism.

[i] P300 Politics: Aristotle
[ii] http://www.colorado.edu/studentgroups/libertarians/issues/friedman-soc-resp-business.html
[iii] P314 This Changes Everything: Naomi Klein
[iv] http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/08/201388151721676330.html
[v] P147 This Changes Everything: Naomi Klein
[vi] P111 ibid
[vii] http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10509681
[viii] http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/feb/14/funding-climate-change-denial-thinktanks-network
[ix] P410 This Changes Everything: Naomi Klein
[x] https://zcomm.org/zcommentary/beyond-the-carbon-death-knell/
[xi] P327 This Changes Everything: Naomi Klein
[xii] P200-226 No Left Turn: Chris Trotter

 

“Douglas Renwick is a young adult studying mathematics and philosophy at Victoria University. In matters of politics and economics he is entirely self educated. His political goal is to defend humans from the massive assault on rationality led by corporate and state institutions.”

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Rhetoric For An Empty Stage: Sir Michael Cullen Offers Labour Some Suitable Synonyms for Socialist Terms

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THERE ARE FEW NEW ZEALANDERS better placed to speak knowledgeably about their country’s political future than Sir Michael Cullen. Finance Minister in Helen Clark’s ministry (1999-2008) he wrestled with New Zealand capitalism up-close and personal for nine years and is generally acknowledged to have emerged from the experience, if not unbeaten, then, at the very least, unbowed. The surpluses amassed under his stewardship armoured the New Zealand economy against the raking fire of the Global Financial Crisis; a barrage which could easily have sunk as less well-protected vessel. John Key and Bill English owe Cullen a lot.

Retiring from the hurly-burly of parliamentary politics in April 2009 to take up the Chair of New Zealand Post Ltd, Cullen has maintained a discreet public silence on both the new National Government’s conduct of political and economic affairs, and, more importantly perhaps, on the internal turmoil debilitating the Labour Party he joined 40 years ago.

Which is not to suggest that Cullen lost interest in his party, merely that he was wise enough to restrict his interventions to below-the-radar discussions with trusted friends and allies. When it came to the long-running feud between the supporters of David Cunliffe and the “Anyone But Cunliffe” (ABC) faction of the Labour caucus, Cullen came down firmly on the side of Mr Cunliffe’s opponents. He was an early supporter of David Shearer and, in the latest leadership contest, of Grant Robertson.

Cullen’s endorsement of Grant Robertson was the former Finance Minister’s first public intervention in the politics of the Left for many years – and he paid dearly for it. Widely tipped to lead the committee charged with reviewing Labour’s disastrous performance in the 2014 general election (the worst in 92 years!) Cullen was very publicly snubbed by Labour’s NZ Council, who gave the job to the more overtly left-wing party elder, Bryan Gould.

That rather petty decision to exclude one of Labour’s most experienced and intelligent kaumatua has now been remedied by Cullen’s recent co-optation on to the review panel. Whether the decision to rehabilitate Cullen was made before or after his delivery of a speech entitled “Labour: whither or wither?” is unclear. What cannot be denied, however, is that this 5,000+ word analysis of where Labour finds itself in 2015, and where it needs to be by 2017, more than justifies his inclusion.

The mission Cullen proposes for Labour is nothing less than to instil in the New Zealand electorate what the American political philosopher, John Rawls, calls the “reasonable hope” of living in a “practical utopia”.

It is difficult to conceive of a phrase which better sums up the historical aspirations of the New Zealand Labour Party. In a country that has never had much time for grand ideological systems, the notion of a down-to-earth, do-it-yourself, No.8-wire utopia; a practical utopia designed to meet the reasonable hopes and dreams of ordinary Kiwis, is as near to a perfect recapitulation of Labour’s mission as it gets.

And the need to recapitulate Labour’s mission in a twenty-first century context; deploying words and concepts acceptable to a twenty-first century audience; is central to Cullen’s argument. He uses his own family history to demonstrate how, in the space of just a single century, the solidaristic working-class culture out of which both the British and New Zealand Labour Parties were born, has been broken up and dissolved – not least by the comprehensive social and economic reforms Labour struggled so hard to introduce.

As was famously said of those Labour governments, writes Cullen: “success in improving the lot of working people began to move many of them into the camp of those who at least believed, or could be persuaded, that they had more to lose than gain from further change. And, associated with that, the centre-right began a long process of capturing the language of politics – for example, by talking of a property-owning democracy.”

These are the voters Cullen urges Labour to woo and win in the run-up to 2017. “To form a strong, stable progressive government Labour still needs to aim to get around 40% of the vote.” For those party comrades who argue that the gap between Labour’s 2014 result and Cullen’s target can be made up by mobilising the non-vote, Cullen has nothing but scorn:

“The missing 15% is not going to come primarily from non-voting socialist fundamentalists as some in recent time seemed to believe. We certainly need to motivate as much of the non-vote as we can to vote for us. But the bulk of the increase has got to come from recapturing votes from National, as they did from us in 2008.”

The Labour Party capable of reclaiming these lost sheep, Cullen argues, will have “a clear philosophy, an intelligent strategy, appealing and relevant policies, effective and coherent leadership, and, above all, better emotional connection with a majority of the population.”

To secure that connection, Cullen suggests “capturing the ownership of some emotionally resonant words and concepts which we have all too easily allowed our opponents to expropriate.” He lists these words and concepts as:

· Choice

· Aspiration

· Responsibility

· National Pride
These concepts, says Cullen, need to be “associated with and to suffuse our more traditional ones of fairness, equality, opportunity and (more recently) sustainability.”

Easier said than done, one might reasonably object. Because, on the face of it, the concepts Cullen is promoting all possess a distinctly conservative flavour.

It is all very well to argue, as Cullen does, that “Choice” can be re-translated to mean “a form of democratisation but only where it is available, as far as possible, to all.” But, for most voters under 40, the word will continue to mean “what I want”.

The concept of “Aspiration” faces similar difficulties. Can it really be redefined to mean “opportunity for all”? For most New Zealanders, aspiration is what John Key’s life-story embodies. It’s all about a little boy raised in a state house by his widowed mum, who went on to make $50 million and become New Zealand’s prime minister.

The concepts of “Responsibility” and “National Pride” are likely to prove even more resistant to redefinition. Cullen, himself, concedes that” “there is a tendency on the left to think that this is just a cover for beneficiary bashing or some other kind of judgemental approach to life.” Well, yes, there is, and with very good reason!

But Cullen indisputably has a point when he says: “At the very heart of social democracy surely lies the notion that we have responsibilities to each other. That is, that we are social beings who wish to pursue the common good – again the idea of a practical utopia. We reject the idea of atomised individuals perpetually striving to climb over each other, that what matters above all is where we end up within a hierarchical society (in essence, alas, a practical dystopia).”

Cullen is equally eloquent when it comes to the concept of “National Pride”: “In brief, we need to own a new national pride around our identity as a proudly diverse nation, around what we can do to create a better world, and around a focus on independent, morally-based action in a dangerous world that we cannot opt out of.”

When he speaks like this, Cullen recalls his younger self. As a history-lecturer at the University of Otago in the 1970s he thrilled his students with lectures on the English radical tradition; of a world turned upside down. Clearly, it is a tradition that Cullen is reluctant to disown.

“The notion of inherent equality allied with the common good stretches far back into the English radical tradition which, at least for some of us, is part of our heritage. As far back, indeed, as 1381 when John Ball posed the searching question “When Adam delf (i.e. dug) and Eve span, who was then the gentleman?” (A reproduction of the woodcut by the great Victorian socialist artist, Walter Crane, asking exactly that question, once held pride of place in Cullen’s university office.)

But if the sort of world in which “what matters above all is where we end up within a hierarchical society” is one deplored by Cullen as dystopian, then why did he allow himself to be made a Knight Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit? Being lectured to about the central tenets of social democracy by someone called “Sir Michael” is just a little disconcerting.

Equally unsettling is Cullen’s studious avoidance of the central role played by the trade unions in the development of both British and New Zealand social democracy. Only twice in his paper does Cullen make reference to trade unionism.

The first reference is to the New Zealand worker’s supposed lack of faith in unions – as evidenced by National’s decisive victory in the snap-election of 1951:

“Increasingly, sections of the working class began to see at least trade unions other than their own as inimical to their interests. The public reaction to the 1951 waterfront dispute typified that development.”

The second reference occurs as part of Cullen’s explanation for the Clark-led Labour Government’s failure to roll back the neo-liberal revolution:

“But the neo-liberal revolution was central to intensifying trends that were already clear. In terms of legislation, the most important and decisive was the Employment Contracts Act which decimated the trade union movement, at least in the private sector. And so profound was the success of the Act in completing a long term change in public sentiment that it was impossible to fully reverse its effects after 1999.” [My emphasis.]

Given that the destruction of organised labour has always been, and continues to be, the key objective of neoliberalism: the one great “reform”, out of which all other neoliberal “reforms” flow and endure; Cullen’s flawed historical observations, and his failure to address the future of organised labour in his recent lecture, are absolutely critical omissions.

What they confirm is that, in spite of his sage and often persuasive advice concerning Labour’s electoral rhetoric, Cullen, and the faction of the party he represents, is not yet ready to challenge the singular foundational achievement of the neoliberal era: the expulsion of the New Zealand working-class from the nation’s political stage.

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