The Taxpayers’ Union must have been horrified by the results of their first Political Poll of 2025, so horrified they slipped it out unnoticed on a Friday afternoon.

The results were an enormous wake up call to the Political Right who have horribly misjudged the electorate.

Kiwis were so angry with post Covid bitterness that they turned on Jacinda.

We didn’t have an election in 2023, we had a grudge fuck against Labour.

Labour won the Covid War but lost the Covid Peace

Covid lockdown was a unique universal event that saw everyone sacrifice equally in an unequal society.

The build back never matched the sacrifice while loneliness plus fear saw many dive down social media hate algorithm rabbit holes as alienating woke dogma fed culture war resentment..

Yes Labour spent money to save us from a once in a century pandemic, but every Government did.

The shockwave to global supply chains saw inflation surge everywhere and generate a cost of living crisis as free market dynamics kicked in.

I find it hilarious that Death Cult Capitalists like the Taxpayers’ Union and Libertarian cheerleaders like Damien Grant can bitch relentlessly about the debt Labour created combating Covid when both of them took the Covid wage subsidy that Labour offered…

Taxpayers Union Statement On COVID-19 Wage Subsidy

As confirmed by the Government today, the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union is one of the many employers that have accepted the COVID-19 Wage Subsidy. This decision was made on the basis of our ethical obligations to staff during the government-mandated economic shutdown.

The decision to accept this subsidy was not as simple for us as for most organisations. Prior to COVID-19, we have stated on the record that we would never accept taxpayer funding. That commitment was, of course, made in a time few New Zealanders could possibly have anticipated COVID-19 and the ensuing economic situation.

Businessman took wage subsidy despite believing company would survive without – won’t pay it back

An Auckland businessman says he claimed the Government’s Covid-19 wage subsidy for his business despite believing it could survive without it, but he has no intention of paying it back.

Damien Grant runs Waterstone Insolvency, which specialises in winding up companies, and he is also an occasional columnist .

He’s also a fireworks importer who last year argued against a proposed ban on personal use by the general public.

Speaking this morning to TVNZ1’s Breakfast, Mr Grant said he is a strong critic of the Government giving out the subsidy to struggling businesses – but also said he took the subsidy for his own company.

…so when the Right bitch about the debt Labour created to fight Covid, they don’t mean the money they got, they just resent the money poor people got as well.

With free market acolytes it’s always capitalism for us and socialism for them!

Because I’m a politics geek, I read the manifestos and I warned you all in 2023 that a National, ACT, NZF coalition would be a hard right ruthless Government with a privatisation agenda that would venally benefit their donor interests at the cost of the common good.

No one wanted to hear that because everyone was so bitter post Covid and wanted to blame Jacinda, but allow me to pause and note that the  ‘I told you so’ Express has turned up early.

This Government’s appalling promotion of legislation that slavishly worships their donors interests while implementing a blitzkrieg of abuse of power tactics to ram it through with as little oversight as possible, has manifested an extreme anti-Māori, anti-Treaty, anti-Worker, anti-Renter, anti-beneficiary, anti-environment agenda that Chris Luxon is just too weak to oppose as Winston and David run rings around him every single week.

The real danger for this cavalcade of political circus freaks is that the venal emptiness of laws that only benefit their donors kick in now just as the Economy predictably tanks from this Government’s Austerity program.

They have borrowed more than Labour did for their tax cuts while underfunding all public services by giving them less than they actually needed.

When National claim they have put more money into Health, that’s technically right, but it masks the truth that National gave more than the last budget, but the funding they did give didn’t match inflation or the ageing population so it is a cut back, and this sophistry is being played out in every public service.

There are of course Political winners and losers from this first poll of 2025.

 

WINNERS:

Greens – They have held up incredibly well over the Summer and have managed to keep a solid platform of criticism against the Government. Will probably over cook things with the puberty blocker legislation however, and when you consider how damning the Cass Review was, they risk providing the right with an enormous amount of political ammunition over that review.

NZF – This is a very strong showing for NZF. The challenge for Winston will be in sating his new antivaxxer voter base with some damning report from the Covid Inquiry. The collision between Winston’s economic sovereignty values and the InterIslander Ferry and National’s privatisation agenda could cause an early election.

Chippy – He has made it through the Summer without being rolled! He has kept his powder dry in terms of policy and by simply standing still have allowed the venal idiocy of this greedy right wing government to continue making decisions that are clearly only for the benefit of their donor mates! As pissed off as voters were with Jacinda, her kindness mantra forced state departments and her own Government to stay kind, where as National don’t give a fuck. The difference in what we came to expect with what we are getting now is very jarring. Chippy has been saved by Jacinda’s long shadow and Luxon’s bewildering shallowness. He has to step up now with a policy platform that is meaningful and not incremental or else he will led Labour to another defeat due to apathy.

ACT – While they dip in this poll, the moment National starts disintegrating, they will pick up more protest vote and their 6 month hate tour promoting the Treaty Principles Referendum will become a redneck jamboree. Expect them to pull double digits at the next election, whenever that is.

 

LOSERS:

Labour – I know, I KNOW, I know. How can I have labour in the loser list when they have beaten National?

Easy.

The danger with National being so bad is that Labour can sit on their Hands and do sweet fuck all in terms of policy and just expect to win back the Government because National fuck it up so spectacularly.

That would be the worst case outcome. We need Labour ready to start with a radical new economic agenda that can properly fund our social services with extra revenue brought in by properly taxing the rich!

Māori Party – While they are scoring consistently over 5%, because of MMP, the extra advantage they provide with electorate overhangs from the māori Electorates  is chewed up by a large party vote. The strength of NZF means that if they remain wedded to their current Māori first values, Labour can cut a deal with NZF and leave the Māori Party out in the cold.

National – The fact the Caucus calls Simeon Brown ‘Golden Balls’ and have given him Health highlights all that is wrong inside National.

National are in so much trouble and the first political poll of the year spells that out and in a move of desperation, Luxon throws the luckless Dr Shane Reti under the bus for the massive political headache public health has become BECAUSE OF NATIONAL’S HEALTH BUDGET CUTS!

Remember:

The crisis in health funding is a manufactured one!

In the Budget, National allocated just 2.9% increase to health services but inflation was 3.3% and population growth 2.6% while an ageing population adds more to costs.

National gave 2.9% for health but we needed 8% to stand still, is the electorate dumb enough to fall for National’s latest manufactured public service crisis to introduce more failed free market reforms?

The Finance Minister says we can’t afford $1.4billion for health but we could borrow $14billion for tax cuts?

Believing Simeon bloody Brown is the solution to this manufactured crisis in public health is not serious politics!

Simeon Brown is currently raising speed limits around schools to ‘lift productivity’ FFS!

His literal Christian Faith creates a level of self belief utterly at odds with his actual talent and has only met expectations because he’s 4foot 11 and looks 14 years old!

The Kiwi public are only now waking up to his plan to weaponise our impatience (thanks to roading gridlock) by quietly privatising the roading network.

If sneaking road tolls and congestion prices while slashing public transport subsidies past sleepy hobbits who are triggered every time they see a cyclist is considered ‘competence’ in National, Chris Luxon is in more trouble than were have realised.

Making Simeon Brown the Health Minister is an act of desperation.

Race Relations – While there certainly is a solid 20% of the country who are genuine redneck racists, the vast majority of Kiwis are very laid back and non confrontational folk. Many who voted National did so hoping their house values would lift a little, they sure as Christ weren’t buying into a race war with the Indigenous population of the country!

John Key once described Kiwis as ‘wooly socialists’ when challenged by American diplomats over why we had such a large public service culture in the country, Key was smart enough to ensure crumbs from the big table got to some at the bottom to keep those egalitarian pretensions from erupting.

This Government is led by a Prime Minister who is simply too weak for that.

Economy – The damage this Government’s Austerity program has caused the Economy is far worse than understood.

National point to a lower OCR as proof of their economic stewardship, but that’s just so laughable it’s difficult to accept they are trying it on.

The inflation was generated by Covid supply chain shutdowns, as they have alleviated the inflation has dropped, but the global forces of American hegemonic capitalism is pushing inflation up as the West digests permanent trade inflation as Just-in-time supply chains become Just-in-case supply chains.

National are claiming a victory in forces they have zero influence over.

The truth is that by cutting off Government support for the building industry, thousands of Kiwis with construction skills have left NZ!

National were more focused on ideology than what was best for the NZ economy.

Key reacted to the Global Financial Crisis with a far larger state support program where as this Government has gleefully kicked the legs out from under many organisations and supply chains of labour who had Government contracts.

National believe the market will step in to fill this void.

Allowing the Free Market to provide is a myth that never worked and isn’t working now.

House prices keep dropping, the unemployment rate will soar, more and more people in need will quietly slip away from any interaction with the State, homelessness will explode as the full cost of dumping the building of public housing unfolds.

The biggest impact to the economy could be felt very shortly.

If Trump is serious about tariffs on Day One, it will mean the value of the American currency spikes up dramatically and very quickly. NZ buys its petrol in American dollars, the price of petrol will jump with price shocks that cause dramatic inflationary spikes and a crime wave.

There is nothing in the Treasury forecast that even remotely acknowledges this possibility, so they are prophesying impotent and feeble economic growth as the best case scenario.

Core inflation pressures and a strong employment rate in America has short circuited any belief in a Fed cut as inflationary pressures start forming into stagflation.

The Bond shocks in the first weeks of the year as the reality of Trump’s economic platform dawns on the market is a huge red flag in a sea of red flags.

The realities of the moment will all look far larger than the Government’s capacity to economically respond.

PREDICTIONS:  

By spending a year burning down everything Labour built, National have zero to show for it making 2025 their year of consequences.

Voters will look at the $12 a week tax cut they got and compare it to all the increased costs National have put on every where else and realise they’ve been fleeced.

Look, New Zealanders aren’t that smart (we are great at milking cows, playing rugby, cycling, swimming, masking alcoholism and hiding our alarming domestic violence rates, but not so much inside the Brains Department if you know what I mean. Bless) and can have their resentments easily manipulated, but if a Kiwi thinks you have maliciously deceived them, they turn like a packet of crumpets in a moist ill ventilated rental!

2025 is when this Government’s hard right free market privatisation agenda kicks off and more Kiwis will realise they’ve been taken for a ride.

The moment this trend is picked up by the TVNZ Poll there will be wide spread panic on the Right.

 

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