What can the Left offer TOP?
I think skepticism towards TOP by the Left is legitimate, but I would note they recently over turned their rule about the Board over ruling the Caucus and how do we get to 51% in an overhang election without TOP?
We don’t.
Rather than doing the Tribal Left thing of rag dolling anything different, how about we consider what the Left could offer TOP so we can kick out this hard right Government with their anti-Māori, anti-Treaty, anti-beneficiary, anti-renter, anti-worker and anti-environment agenda.
Luxon’s blunder
By ruling out TOP, Luxon has misdiagnosed why voters are fleeing National in the first place.
TOP is drawing second generation migrant communities and Gen Xers locked out of the property market.
TOP voters are the kids of National voting parents who live in the cities.
TOP voters are the male voters the woke chased away from the Left.
They are too rich to vote Labour and not Māori enough to vote Green but they are horrified by the race baiting and cruelty of National, NZF and ACT.
They are leaving National BECAUSE they are disgusted by what National have allowed NZF and ACT to get away with.
Luxon trying to cauterise National losing more votes to TOP by ruling them out is a misdiagnosis about why they are fleeing in the first place.
If you have an education, aren’t held hostage by the farming lobby and believe in climate change, you know a vote for National is a vote for ACT and NZF, that is why TOP have popped and are so close to 5%.
The issue now Luxon has ruled them out is how could a Labour/Green/TPM/ TOP Government work together?
National exist to stop Labour getting in and Labour exists to stop the Left from ever gaining really policy wins.
TOP are disrupters.
So what can the Left offer TOP?
I think there are 3 very quick wins that could be offered to TOP.
1 – Free Public Transport for Students, the disabled, beneficiaries and pensioners with everyone else using Labours Public Transport Fare Cap.
2 – UBI for all Tertiary students.
3 – Feasibility study on Land tax. The current land tax proposal would see $17 500 from a million dollar valued land, (which works if UBI is used for everyone) but if you are only limiting UBI to tertiary students, that land tax is simply too high, but if if was .01 instead of 1.75, $1750 extra annually is far more palatable than $17 500.
TOP could gain a UBI for tertiary students, free public transport for everyone not covered by Labour fare cap and a Land Tax.
Those are wins TOP could bank and build upon.
They are also wins Labour, Greens and TPM could live with.
Independent Media is more important than ever, especially in the lead up to the Election. TDB is the largest Left Wing Blog in NZ and we have been operating for 13 years. We get zero funding from NZonAir and we don’t have no rich backers. If you can donate please do so here or directly into our account –12-3065-0133561-56
The public doesn’t need to ‘offer’ anything to a political party, they work for each and every one of us. Public policy isn’t a bargaining chip to be negotiated like a business, TOPs manifesto says as much. Politics does require voting capital though and TOP has yet to raise enough to use as a deposit to buy a beehive section. The bank won’t take promises and pledges as collateral.
Spot on.
TOP could gain a UBI for tertiary students, free public transport for everyone not covered by Labour fare cap and a Land Tax.
Really?
That’s not what they are interested in.
What can the Left offer TOP?
Deputy PM role. Foreign Minister role, at least three seats in cabinet.
Because that is what National will be offering TOP and Labour will have to match this offer.
In their transition policy the LVT would be 0.5% only.
UBI for students is way too middle class and counter the primary purpose of a UBI which is to lift all beneficiaries and low paid out of poverty and (more importantly) remove the whip of WINZ and low paying employers from peoples lives.
FFS Martyn, if the Labour Party offered some transformative policies, rather than just tinkering around the edges of neoliberalism, the left wouldn’t need TOP at all!
‘UBI for all Tertiary students: Feasibility study on Land tax. The current land tax proposal would see $17 500 from a million dollar valued land, (which works if UBI is used for everyone) but if you are only limiting UBI to tertiary students, that land tax is simply too high, but if if was .01 instead of 1.75, $1750 extra annually is far more palatable than $17 500.’
If the UBI were restricted to tertiary students it would abort the meaning of the UBI. Similarly, dropping Opportunity’s 1.75% land tax to 0.01% would render t meaningless.
There are other ways to make Opportunity’s land tax more palatable. For instance, the 0.5% intended for farms could be the figure applied to all land including domestic housing. This would then require topping up with wealth taxes, capital gains taxes, and inheritance and gift taxes (none of which Opportunity campaign for but others do) to provide the revenue for a UNIVERSAL basic income, and to restore our health service and make it free, accessible, timely, and effective for everyone.
And don’t forget the Fair Economic Return tax Susan St John and Terry Baucher have proposed as an alternative to both land tax and capital gains tax.
Thankyou John. FER is much better than a land tax. Land taxes have all the problems of rates. We need to broaden it to include housing and make it adjustable for individual circumstances. We must not encourage our scarce resources to flow into high end housing and fuel the next boom
FER was TOP’s original proposal, back in 2017 and 2020. It’s difficult to see why they changed their minds in 2023.