Winston, Luxon and Judith all tangle themselves in woke – outcome is hilarious

ByMartyn Bradbury

Judith Collins warns against ‘putting labels’ on people, assuming they’re appointed for diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI)

Public Service Minister Judith Collins wants people to stop “putting labels” on others or presuming someone is appointed to public service roles for diversity reasons “when they’re actually appointed on merits”.

It comes as New Zealand First attempts to introduce legislation that would remove “diversity, equity and inclusion” (DEI) regulations from the public service. The Public Service Act includes several conditions for diversity to be considered during appointments for department roles.

Asked on Tuesday morning for his thoughts on NZ First’s Member’s Bill – which still needs to be picked from Parliament’s ballot before being debated – Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said the Government had someone “who’s definitely not woke in Judith Collins as our Public Service Minister”.

“We’ve got a rewrite on the Public Service Act coming. We want to change quite a few things on that and look at that piece of legislation, and we’ll certainly look at the bill,” Luxon said.

“When we took the keys to the place, it was pretty woke. It is entirely appropriate we look at what else we can do to make sure the public service delivers.”

I just think Luxon likes saying something is woke without any understanding of what the term means.

Asked what was “woke”, Luxon referenced the previous Government’s “Wellbeing Budgets” and targets to reduce prisoner numbers. He wouldn’t, however, give an example of where someone had been appointed for diversity reasons rather than based on merit.

The Wellbeing Budget and reducing prisoner numbers ARE NOT WOKE.

Seeing as I’m the political blogger who popularised the term in NZ because I was watching what the middle class woke were doing on the Left, the Wellness Budget and reducing prisoner numbers is NOT a ‘woke’ thing.

‘Woke’ is when you eliminate class solidarity in favour of seeing the world through the lens of identity.

The Wellbeing Budget was an attempt at a more holistic approach to the individual by the State, that’s not woke that’s compassion.

Reducing Prisoner numbers so that people don’t become warped by the institution is NOT WOKE, it’s basic social policy.

Realising that he’s on thin ice he pivots…

“There’s incredibly talented people in the public service. We need to make sure we’re developing them the right way and they’re getting opportunities based off merit.”

…Collins has to race in and protect the Public Service as the Minister and clean up from Luxon…

“I think the public service reforms we have got coming will be heartily rejoiced about by many in the public service as well as the wider public,” she said.

But her view was that people “work really hard” and “really do need to be looked at as humans, not just as putting labels on people”.

“I think it’s always the best people for the job, and treating people with respect is what I think people need. People want respect, they don’t want labels.”

Collins also made the point it was “important to presume that the people who have been appointed have been appointed for their merits”.

“It’s sometimes easy, and you’re seeing this all around the place, that when something goes wrong and it’s a person who might not meet what someone else thinks someone should look like, whether it’s a ship captain or something else, [people] go straight down that path of presuming someone’s appointed for some DEI reason when they’re actually appointed on merits.”

Collins is referencing the case of HMNZS Manawanui Commander Yvonne Gray. Following that ship sinking off the Samoan coast, Gray faced what Collins called “deeply misogynistic” comments from “armchair admirals”.

“The one thing we know did not cause [the sinking] was the gender of the ship’s captain,” Collins, also the Defence Minister, said in October. “I’m appalled to hear our women in uniform are being abused in the street because of this incident.”

A report later found the crew of the vessel didn’t realise the Manawanui remained on autopilot, resulting in it maintaining a course towards land, eventually grounding.

…cough.

What is and isn’t woke is now suddenly an open topic after NZF’s latest attempt to pander to the petty bigotry of culture war MAGA talking points with their attempt to remove any DEI programs in the public service.

In the latest polling, NZF are on 5.1%, they need a reactionary punching bag to gain news oxygen to stay above 5% or they are under the threshold and out.

They are trying to play the same MAGA cheat sheet but I think they’ve harvested as much ion that reactionary vote as they can.

The Economy is bleeding and people are hurting. Voters care less about a Lesbian co-parenting couple running a Government department than they do about how to pay the bills.

This just makes Winston sound old and out of touch while real issues confront Kiwis.

Bickering over the definition of woke as a legitimate policy discussion is like scribbling on a napkin and pretending it’s performative art.

This is intellectually bankrupt.

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29 Comments

  2. Just another smoke screen to cover the fact they are doing fuck all for the five million .They have scraped well being budgets because they dont understand the term well being for anyone other than themselves .Nz needs to get back to being a nation of 5 million that looks after 5 million not just 100 at the top

  3. So does “ not putting labels on people” apply to public servants, or to the general populace ? Seems to me that Chris Luxon is pretty adept at labelling people himself, including airily proclaiming New Zealanders to be negative, whiny and inward looking, deprived persons to be bottom-feeders, and describing the Wellington City Council in street slang unbefitting a politician who expects to be taken seriously.

    2. Plus we are the hermit kingdom at the bottom of the world

      1. If he said that, then he got that wrong too. The Hermit Kingdom of Nth Korea, has a government which tries to stop people from exiting it. New Zealand has a government which drives its people out.

        1. He has said it before however he said it in parliament when either Marama or Chloe were asking questions about the economy stupid
          ( that’s what he called them in so many words )

  4. It might not be woke but the well being budget was a dismal failure. All metrics got worse. Another massive fail of Jacinda in a long list of many.
    No wonder she is over hiding in the most capitalist of society’s, living off the manufactured success and delusion.

    1. Well I suppose you could ask the Aotearoa newly homeless as to what well being means for them is it bringing up their children in a motel or on the streets. This government hasn’t built a single house since election all their new houses were funded by Labour . So one wonders how well their being will be in a years time when there will be no more new state houses because didn’t you know that school lunches and state houses are woke

  5. If this stops the Greens and te Pati Maori designating all white people time-transcending land-thieving colonialists and white cisgender males violent thugs, that should reduce divisive racist politics a bit.

    1. Yeah but in the Greens and particularly TPM can no longer blame everything on ‘whitey’ who will they blame instead?

      1. James Brown If they stop playing the victim, then they won’t have to blame anyone, and they can get on with their lives the way most self-respecting adults do.

    3. “If this stops the Greens and te Pati Maori designating all white people time-transcending land-thieving colonialists and white cisgender males violent thugs”

      It can’t stop them from doing that because they’ve never done it in the first place. I’d allow that as a right-wing head-banger you are going to come up with a disingenuous misinterpretation of everything that the Greens or TPM might say, but “b>all” is much more untrue than a bit of harmless bias.

      1. You were obviously not in CHCH when Davidson blamed white men for the massacre at the Mosque. TPM are constantly crying about colonialism being the cause of every problem Maori have .

  7. If we view things fairly, Maori have EVERY right to be disenchanted with the treatment they have received from the European Settlers. It was appalling and Gov. George Grey, in his second tenure, was the perpetrator! Just read this book from front to back [No Ordinary Man – the extraordinary life and times of Arthur Purchas by John Steele] and the article about the “taking”of Hagley Park in Christchurch when Maori were never compensated [https://my.christchurchcitylibraries.com/hagley-park/]. Only 6% of NZ is now owned by Maori! The stats speak for themselves.
    In saying that, the damage has been done and we all need to move forward in a more conciliatory manner led by a government that is there for ALL the people not just the privileged! That is now our problem; there is no equality, no fairness, just greed, selfishness and arrogance from those who should know better. Shame on you.
    Come on NZ, as Martyn has said many times, you are better than this?
    ps I’m assuming Joseph your label ‘Trougheeders’, s/be troughfeeders and refers to those at the top sucking the life out of our lovely country!

  8. Given how tight the polls are, all parties are no doubt looking to find any gain. But to watch members of the coalition trying to show which of them is the least woke of all, it’s pretty lame-o.

  9. Never ask a man his salary, a woman her age, or an anti-woke person to define wokeness

  10. …[people] go straight down the path of assuming someone’s appointed for some DEI reason…
    The RIGHT immediately makes these assumptions. I hope Judith is speaking sternly to THEM.

    It was Luxon, her own dear leader, who used the phrase ‘bottom-feeders’. Now that’s a nasty label and shouldn’t be used on the wrong people.
    Since then, he’s let every true bottom feeder and his dog make money from our difficult circumstances. Landlords, politicians including himself, foreign companies, foreign banks, people wanting fast-tracked consents…endless list really.

  11. ” ‘Woke’ is when you eliminate class solidarity in favour of seeing the world through the lens of identity. ”

    Well good to see a tacit admission that anyone on the left who has carelessly bandied the word ‘woke’ around in the last few years without proper awareness of this fairly tight definition, has been foolish and unhelpful. In fact I’m not convinced that anyone on the left who has used the word ‘woke’ has been sufficiently careful in doing so and has done anything other than hand a loaded gun to the far right.

  12. You were obviously not in CHCH when Davidson blamed white men for the massacre at the Mosque. TPM are constantly crying about colonialism being the cause of every problem Maori have .

    1. Trevor. And at Albert Park, Auckland, Davidson declared that white hetero males were responsible for all violence, while blokes in frocks were bashing and terrorising women, and filmed doing it.

    2. Oh Trevor you “woke” person you best change your vote to uncle wokeless in NZfirst because uncle wokeless is going to need all the help it can get

  13. “stay woke” is from the southern states of America where northern friends who came to visit would be warned to “stay awake, cracker will kidnap and murder you.” How appropriate that right wing crackers of today use it as a pejorative term. Fuckin hicks should be called out on it.

  14. Pretty soon the right will see that fighting woke is a vote winner and they will be clamouring to eliminate wokery from NZ.
    Luxo ignores this at his peril.

  15. Peters the stupid old prick is shameless. He voted in support of this supposedly woke legislation less than five years ago. It’s just f’ing bullshit.

    1. Funny the old senile hypocrite is happy to cancel greyhound racing because of welfare yet the same welfare exits with horse racing. Perhaps it’s because he is a multiple owner of racehorses and the industry donates heavily to his party. He’s just another right wing crook and the sooner he’s laid to rest the better.

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