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New Means Are Needed
Over the weekend, Bernard Hickey launched an initiative to brainstorm positive policies and ideas - it’s a relief for many, especially against the backdrop of seemingly never-ending negative news. Hickey’s posts are informative and well-reasoned and he has strong support for great reason.
I’d also been pondering new means and think something greater is needed - even beyond the scope of what we know.
One, our systems have been found to be deficient and the balance of power is over-weighted towards neoliberal, big money interests - although as a generically conservative thinker, I wouldn’t vote for throwing the baby out with the bath water. There are existing mechanisms that can be re-purposed for the good of the many.
Two, our climate change status requires strong, imperative changes and adapting our core habits - including wasting resources e.g. in fast fashion, large scale pollution, and our to-date perfunctory attitude towards nature. The Scientific Revolution is what introduced the West to the idea that nature was to be conquered and used - but many civilisations see the natural world with inclusiveness and respect - which more naturally extends to sustainability and longer term thinking.
Third, there’s immense disparities between the rich and poor - and that extends across countries.
Fourth, even if Labour/Greens/TOP/TPM etc. wins Parliament next term, the forces that ensured a right wing Coalition victory remain. I think Labour mis-interpreted public sentiment, lost control of communications, and left a huge gaping hole in their defences once they came under attack from very moneyed up right wing groups - frequently funded by, and with ties to, Atlas Network.
There’s nothing wrong with different opinions or viewpoints - including conservative opinions, but there’s something wrong when it’s driven by the agenda of corporations, oligarchs and/or foreign operatives. Worse when one realises that a country’s division is their actual profit ala Brexit and US style politics.
i.e. It’s the roots of corruption, dark money, misinformation, lies, that require sustained oversight here.
Bryce Edwards has a great article today about the findings of a political corruption study. And we shouldn’t forget the multi-year, expert Independent Electoral Review that was released this year, just in time for Paul Goldsmith to bury most of its components. That review made recommendations to address electoral interference, and promote better transparency in NZ, to prevent corruption.
Jacinda Adern initiated the electoral review after Luxon and Seymour accused her of trying to “screw the scrum” and ‘ramming things through without consensus’ - when Labour tried to improve electoral donation transparency back in 2022.
In hindsight, Ardern was just far too conciliatory.
And I’ve been thinking about what Garry Moore wrote on this publication the other day - the energy, drive, and the integrity of those who led movements to benefit people in the past is inspiring. And it’s needed. I know it and respect it. How do we initiate it here?
The taint of self-interest or ego, large or small, is always a risk, but each of us has to try, small or large.
I liked what Cindy said too - for each to utilise their skills and ideas to make changes, i.e. to contribute small or large, while we wait for those bigger opportunities.
Yes, I wrote “small or large” three times in short succession.
Coalition Tactics
The blanket of regressive policies from Luxon and co. are hard to cover, not least because I think 40% of voters still believe the Luxon government is simply ‘cleaning up the mess Labour left behind’ and/or ‘keeping out the crazies in TPM and the Greens’.
That’s certainly the narrative this government and its operators try very hard to keep up - and if you observe Willis, Luxon et.al, they seem to be talking single mindedly to those on the right and centre who still believe their version.
Die hard enthusiasts even buy into the Coalition government’s rhetoric that they are interested in advancing the causes of Māori, while the Luxon/Seymour/Peters trio systemically roll back Māori rights and policies aimed to support Māori progression.
They always do this in a way that gaslights Māori too - attempting to wrestle the moral high ground by lecturing Māori on education - even as Luxon/Seymour breach decency through advancing the Treaty Principles Bill without caring about Māori participation.
Luxon did it this weekend again. When asked questions around the divisiveness of the Treaty Principles Bill, he tried to pivot to a false claim that 88% of Y8 Māori kids can’t read.
As I explain in the video above, I think he just got mixed up with his other false claim around 22% of Y8 kids who can’t pass the maths curriculum.
(As a quick maths lesson 100 - 22 does not equal to 88.)
And to be clear, I don’t think Māori are perfect - no-one is, but to re-advance colonial or imperial tactics in our day and age is bordering on the worst type of form, in my opinion.
Last week, the excellent Gordon Campbell wrote: “The ACT Party won only 8.6% of the vote last year, so how come it seems to be driving about 75% of the government’s agenda?”
Yes.
Luxon and co. also know 15,000 teens work up to 50 hours a week to support families. They know their policies harm the poorest the most, and their budget & tax package will send 20,000 more kids into poverty - if not more, judging by their latest decisions to axe child and family service supports - as well as food banks, budgeting services, and the like.
But they refuse to address clear root causes - such as poverty and dignity - and consistently appeal to populism with failed, repeat strategies e.g. boot camps, while they worsen poverty and boost other causes of crime / unrest.
So I find that their actions never seem to match up to their rhetoric.
But the other very challenging aspect to this is how much darn misinformation and outright lies (i.e disinformation) is contained in government communications or messaging.
Luxon’s frequent speakerphone maxim that National has invested “record numbers” into Health NZ - repeated by Lester Levy last week - misses the context that National’s investment in health is the lowest per capita in the whole century - as I noted on July 22, courtesy Peter Huskinson:
This weekend, Simeon Brown announced a “crackdown” on drunk and unruly drivers, with $1.3 billion in “new” funding, according to his press release.
But Greater Auckland reports:
Funding for road policing comes out of the National Land Transport Fund (NLTF), which mostly comes from fuel taxes and road user charges.
The total funding announced of $1.3 billion over the next three years may sound impressive – but actually represents a reduction on the last three years.
And even as Simeon Brown says he wants to crack down on road dangers, he also wants you to know he really cares about car drivers - by ensuring that all speeding Kiwis can avoid speed tickets by design while he implements blanket speed increases with abandon.
For those of you who follow Simeon, he is quickly becoming the next populist politician to raise ground from within the National Party. But there’s too much else to cover for now.
In a way one could say this is all just politics, but in my opinion, there’s something that crosses the line with this NZ government. I made the 5 and a half minute video above to look at some of Luxon’s seeming lies.
Is Christopher Luxon a liar? It seems to be so.
But their tactics have been clear from the start:
never apologise
never admit error
never back down (although their timidity is such that they still will if Newstalk listeners get unhappy e.g. the Premier House allowance and cancer drugs)
if you lose the moral high ground or logical rationale, change the topic and preferably, display a strongman/woman stance with attacks and claims of knowing better.
always minimize errors
always pivot to marketing talking points
This under 1 minute video I made from two months ago gives an insight into some of their tactics, and it has consistently played out.
From Chris Bishop’s gaslighting, to David Seymour’s ploy i.e. control narrative by posing a question and then speaking slowly and methodically like as in a sermon - to Luxon’s block and defend, their tactics are clear and persistent.
In the pre-election leaders’ debate last year, Luxon out-manouvered Hipkins 27:8 in blocking and diverting questions through phrases such as “What I’d say to you is….”
But it really shouldn’t be anyone’s job - even the media - to have to consistently fact check or contextualise our government.
The NZ government should lead by example, but we seem to be missing a few pegs in that space.
I would be remiss to not mention that I’ve sometimes reflected on Simeon and Luxon’s devout Christian backgrounds.
Now, I have family members and friends who are Christian and believe they exemplify their faith by living decent, moral lives.
I’m not sure that either Luxon or Brown demonstrate the genuineness of their words.. This is not meant to be a dig as much as a reflection I sometimes ponder - how despite our best intentions, some of us fall very short of what we claim to be true:
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Other
Paul Goldsmith has appointed a new Human Rights Commissioner with a record of transphobic, pro-Israel comments.
Also appointed was Dr Melissa Derby as race relations commissioner. Derby is a skeptic of Māori affirmative rights and appears anti-trans.
She previously wrote: “If systemic racism is the cause for a disproportionate number of Māori experiencing poor outcomes, why don't all Māori experience poor outcomes?”
In an April 2023 column by RNZ's Mediawatch on protests around anti-trans rights activist Kellie-Jay Keen Minshull, also known as Posie Parker, it was reported that Derby "liked a tweet calling for [trans activist Shaneel] Lal to be "locked up" and retweeted one saying the "trans movement" cannot be tolerated in civil society."
She is also also a founding member of Atlas Network Jordan William’s Free Speech Union.
Over the weekend, Lester Levy repeated a request he made last week. i.e. he again asked Kiwis to “pray for him” while he advanced unfounded conspiracies about there being “sabotage” and “resistance” from “disenfranchised” people within Health NZ.
His seeming paranoia, or just new line, arose when a 1News interviewer asked him why front line health roles were being frozen, which have been reported for many months on end now.
In response, Levy claimed it was from resistance or possibly sabotage.
Is this the type of manager we have in charge of NZ’s largest public organisation - one who would call highly trained and valued doctors and nurses, the resistance? No wonder Newsroom reported his style was “top down, controlling and destructive”.
Please pray for us instead, Dr Levy - that your will - and those of your bosses - will not be done.
I did already use the word “poor form” in this article, didn’t I?
New means.
On that note, here’s a quote from Ted Lasso and some food for thought -
“We used to believe that trees competed with each other for light. Suzanne Simard’s fieldwork challenged that perception, and we now realize that the forest is a socialist community. Trees work in harmony to share the sunlight.”
Coach Beard reading from Merlin Sheldrake’s Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures
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