What a Zamdani NZ Left Policy platform would look like

ByMartyn Bradbury

Chlöe recently toured the Intelligentsia of the Global Left, let’s hope she can learn their lessons on social justice vs economic justice.

The dominance of Identity Politics with their alienating woke pure temple politics has driven many males into the arms of the reactionary right.

Trump’s astonishing victory proved that.

Turns out, ‘All men are rapists’ and  cancelling people for misusing pronouns wasn’t the vote winner many decolonisation vegan cycling feminists thought it would be.

Social Justice with its cancel culture minefield of hashtags is pure temple politics which alienate.

Economic Justice is Broadchurch solidarity that can bring voters to the Left.

It’s not that Identity Politics isn’t an important personal journey that explores power dynamics, it is, but if all you have when you get to the table of representation is a a tribal allegiance to your skin colour, genitalia or sexual orientation, then what use are you to the revolution comrade?

Zamdani has harnessed diversity without diluting the fact he’s a Muslim Socialist, but he hasn’t made his identity the issue, he’s made his economic cost of living policies the issue.

In NZ, Labour have shunned the radicalism of Zamdani in favour of UK Labour Keir Starmer incrementalism because all the Wellington Mandarins are capable of is incrementalism…

All wrong with Labour in one photo of mediocrity

…so it is up to the Greens (and te Pati Māori if they’ve finished self-mutilating themselves) to take up the lessons of the Global Left Intelligentsia and push Economic Justice before Social Justice, which will be very difficult for the Greens and te Pati Māori because to date all they’ve had to offer is alienating Identity Politics.

If Zamdani’s policies were adopted in NZ we would see:

  • Free Public Transport – Almost 25% of the poorest people in NZ spend their weekly wage on public transport. We already have free public transport for Boomers, we can do it for everyone.
  • Nationalise ECE – It is outrageous that Early ChildHood Education in NZ is dominated by private companies charging working parents a fortune to simply look after their kids while they work, we need to nationalise ECE and take it away from the private operators.
  • Government backed Supermarkets – I’ve been banging on this drum for a long time. Poorly regulated capitalism has allowed a mass surveillance empowered duopoly to dominate and price gouge us with mafia tactics used against food growers. We need a 2 Degrees solution with Iwi to create a 3rd chain with high prices for growers, low prices for consumers and high wages for workers. A state/Iwi backed 3rd supermarket chain would force prices down.
  • Rent Freeze – Fuck the Landlords and speculators.

Not one identity politics hashtag in sight!

We need to use the power of the State to subsidise the cost of living, it’s time the Political Left stepped up and offered Kiwis policy difference from the Right who are focused on strangling the common good for the interests of their donors.

The time for policy courage is now.

Increasingly having independent opinion in a mainstream media environment which mostly echo one another has become more important than ever, so if you value having an independent voice – please donate here.

Similar Posts

- Advertisement -

9 Comments

  2. The attitude that government must operate like a business is a fallacy. Take your pick; a composition fallacy or a false equivalence fallacy. Government should operate for the public good and not by the ‘balance the books’ fallacy and tax for an income then spend fallacy. The government does not operate like a business. The government spends money into the economy for the public good, only then can it tax back some, deleting that money from circulation and thus avoiding inflation. Government must ensure the resources required exist not the money which it creates. The money the government spends must be the creation of the government and not have to pay any interest for it. The money created must be rationed to the available resources of the country.

    Banks which must be regulated are provisionally given the right to issue IOUs that the Government will recognise as legal tender and therefore accept in payment of taxes and the discharge of other debts within its own national territory. Depositors account in a bank are a banks liability, not an asset that can be lent out. Banking issues of debt affect the macro economics of the nation and are not managed by the nation. Banks sometimes exceed their authority and escape legal processes by payment of a fractional penalty fee. These banks should be the first to loose their money creation licence.

    For thousands of years affluent people have been able to use their collateral to borrow money to use capital as a way of getting more wealth. This is the reason why there is the permanent inequitable distribution of wealth, income, and power. It is basic arithmetic of an amplifying feedback enabling the rich to become richer and the poor unable to borrow and develop their options. The banks right of creation of money should be ceased and replaced with a mechanism where government lends its own fiat money for legitimate banks at an interest paid to the government at a rate dependant on the purpose related to public good. As banks lend to the affluent, the interest portion paid to the government will be a form of tax they will pay and be impossible to avoid. This form of tax will not be a cost on those who are unable to borrow. As a public service the government must operate the one and only deposit and transaction bank. Banks, building societies, and financiers would have to have accounts in the government bank and operate with transactions wholly in the government bank. Money laundering and other types of fraud will become easier to detect.

  3. This is how to fix a city.

    From YouTube:
    Mayor Zohran Mamdani Holds Press Conference to Make an Announcement
    NYC Mayor’s Office

    Father Studzinski Square,
    Brooklyn, NY

    99,67 views
    Streamed live on Jan 4, 2026, (yesterday)
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9M9JvnKC0s

    @31:54 minutes:
    …..This is not and will not be the extent of the work that we will do to make this city safe. We will make it safe for pedestrians, for cyclists, for drivers, for New Yorkers across the five burrows. And I say that as someone who has at different points in my life been different one of those things.
    And too often I have felt that my safety is in question depending on what street that I’m on. I live on 35th Street in Atoria.
    I would bike to 32nd and 24th Avenue. I had two options and I would always take, not the one that was most convenient, but the one that was safest. That kind of decision-making has to come to an end. And I’m excited, frankly, in having our commissioner here alongside me because when I was interviewing him, we did not simply ask him about fulfilling that which has already been put forward. We asked him, what will it take to make this city the envy of the world when it comes to our streetscape and our public transit?

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9M9JvnKC0s

    Maori Proverb:
    What is the most importent thing in the world?
    He Tangata! He Tangata! He Tangata!

    1. Oh, so 4 hours into his job, he’s fixed NewYork?? Let’s reconvene in a few months when NY resembles the downtown wasteland of drug fuelled San Fran or Vancouver.

      1. Kia ora Krautet, we definitely will need to reconvene in a few months to assess how much progress Mayor Mamdani has made on implementing his affordability program, it will be interesting to see what progress Mamdani has made on his promises to New Yorkers to deliver them Free Buses, Free Childcare, and a Rent Freeze, paid for with taxes on the rich. Hopefully the Left Parties here, will be able to make an assessmento of Mamdani’s sucess a in time for our elections.
        If Mamdani’s affordability program is proved to be succeeding, then the Labour Party, The Green and TPM will have a proven successful affordabilty template to present to New Zealand voters, distinct to that of the current government.

  4. Yep bring back State Advance for home loans and rural bank for farm finance for a start and let the government finance all major projects by printing the money required instead of borrowing from the gouging banks .Those three things would save a shit load of money going off shore .Set up a government owned bank for the business as per homes and farms .

  5. Well, lets hope that he doesnt get co-opted by the corporate democrats and then sells his soul for a political career.

Comments are closed.