The Waterstone 2020 Election Podcast – special guest David Seymour
Kia ora ladies and gentlemen, good evening and welcome to The Waterstone Election 2020 podcast.
I’m your host, editor of The Daily Blog, Martyn Bradbury with me in the studio is libertarian political commentator and Stuff columnist, Damien Grant and our special guest this week is leader of the ACT Party and the only white male told he could keep the cultural appropriation after everyone saw him twerk – David Seymour
Well, we are now 60 days away until the 2020 election after the Prime Minister pushed the election date out to October 17th in response to a new outbreak of the Covid 19 virus meaning the entire election is shaped by the Covid management.
Damien – Our Podcast ended last week with you declaring it will be a dull week in the campaign, 30minutes after we filmed our podcast, the country was plunged back into Level 3 after an outbreak in Auckland.
Does that highlight the impossible job of trying to call this election?
LABOUR:
David – Jacinda was under pressure by National, ACT and NZ First that the September 19th date was unfair because it would rob them of news oxygen – Jacinda put the country’s need for a fair election over her own Party’s drive to win didn’t she?
Damien – We’ve seen loopholes in the quartine process but if you drill down into each of those breaches the issue is the mandatory testing of workers – will the electorate tune on Labour for not forcing medical procedures on individuals?
NATIONAL:
David – While Jacind led, the National Party spent last week spinning conspiracy theories and then backing away from those conspiracy theories – how dangerous has misinformation and conspiracy theories become in this election?
Damien – Judith claims she needs more media time but every time the media focus on her, the voters recoil in horror, wouldn’t National get a higher vote if no one saw Judith for 60 days?
GREENS:
Damien – with Jacinda once again shining and taking all the news oxygen, the Greens are screwed aren’t they?
David – Can Chloe Swarbrick win Auckland Central? Did the Merv fiasco hurt National’s chances?
NZFIRST:
David – Did Winston force the PMs hand over the election date change?
Damien – With more time to panic, how far away is NZ First from cutting a deal with National in Northland to get Shane Jones in?
ACT:
David – What does it say about the waste land that is NZ politics if the ACT Party can out poll the Greens?
Damien – ACT launched their bus this week, how full is it going to be on election day?
Final word – David – predictions for the week ahead?
Damien – predictions for the week ahead
Our next Election podcast is Tuesday next week and we are now going weekly through until the end of the election campaign.
It is worth considering the conditions in which social media is being censored. The 2018 documentary ‘The Cleaners’ follows Facebook moderators in the Philippines, who work ten-hour shifts for pitifully low pay checking posts flagged for violent or explicit content. They do not receive any trading or support for coping with the frequently disturbing material they censor: as you can imagine, many develop severe mental health problems. Furthermore, they are sacked for the slightest mistake, meaning that most regulators will err on the side of caution as far as ‘nudity’ is concerned. Most ominously, the paranoid atmosphere created by Duterte’s government has created an intense paranoia around anything that could be deemed controversial. It is this context that the photographs were deleted: exploited workers, frequently traumatised, caught between a neoliberal social media factory and a toxic political climate.
The main reason social media can not be supported is that there are tweets and posts about 5G conspiracy, sexual deviance, or something after shooting by the kind of low IQ individual that is being carried away by American media corporations as if people disappear on bouncy castles and other left-right extremists.
But all this can be mild and factual based on studies and empirical claims and doesn’t have to be that much of an opinion. I don’t think the social media world was that supportive of Black Lives Matters and there can be research papers for or against. So it is a strategic mistake to pander to these marginal groups. Raising the minimum wage to a living one fixes this and you won’t even have to engage with them.
This is difficult. I am not used to thinking of Seymour as one of the saner MPs. (So, a long pause before commenting.)
However, in stark contrast to Ms Collins’ hysterical cries of “Catastrophe!” reverberating through the parliament, Seymour sounds remarkably, even radically “sane”. (It’s just the contrast, I’m telling myself.)
If I were a Nat trapped in the theatrics of their new regime, I’d be sizing up the safe-ish exit that ACT now represents.
And his ref. to Taiwan, Yes. Their way is one that seems to be working. (Lots of masks and temp checks..)
David Seymour and Act certainly have their appeal .. I’ve been tempted to vote for them .. honestly there is still a chance I’d vote form them. I know my sister is, may the baby Jesus help her.
.. I won’t vote for a party polling less than 2% so TOP is out. Really is a political wasteland. I want cannabis reform – so I guess the Greens?
It mean, obviously I care about a great many issues .. but I know cannabis reform is something they mighty ACTUALLY be able to get done!
If Act said they would make passing the cannabis-law-reform a condition of any coalition agreement, on pain of having a second election – I’d vote for them. But Act doesn’t have the stones, so they are nothing.