"No Aotearoa" As Old World Order Continues To Collapse

Updates on Politics, Health, Brooke Van Velden, & Atlas Network

Here are your morning catch ups in health, workplace, environment and politics.

And then later, a must read critical piece from No Right Turn on the government’s attempt to expand police powers follows.

ENVIRONMENT

• New Zealand's glaciers have shrunk by 29% since 2000: The grim news - published in scientific journal Nature today - showed glaciers were retreating world-wide at an increasing pace, with New Zealand's ranking third highest in percentage of glacial mass loss since the start of the century.

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HEALTH

• The government’s negative health budget per capita continues to bite - patients with bowel cancer symptoms are waiting months for a colonoscopy, even as hospitals go into crisis. “It’s been left so long without treatment”, worried patients say.

• Bowel cancer is NZ’s second most fatal cancer, with 3000 patients diagnosed a year. Of those, over 1200 will die from the disease.

• Last year, Christopher Luxon and Shane Reti promised to lower bowel cancer screening in their first term of office. And despite funding for it from prior budgets, the government has so far refused to follow through.

• Bowel Cancer NZ has criticised the government’s reluctance, pointing out "Bowel cancer screening is a $30 test that prevents an $80,000 deadly cancer... The financial logic of bowel screening is absolutely bullet proof."

• This comes on top of news that in pain 80 year old patients are being kept off waiting lists due to lack of resources, and rejections based on BMI alone are rising rapidly.

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WORKPLACE

• Brooke Van Velden, who once said NZ put “too high a value” on human life during Covid, is defending her assault on workers’ right to strike, after the government passed legislation in December to reduce pay during partial strikes. Van Velden said the reintroduction of pay deductions gave employers the option to respond in "a more nuanced" way. ACT’s push is part of a suite of Atlas Network playbook tools - and is on cue for their ideology.

• The relatively newly appointed Public Service Commissioner, Sir Brian Roche, communicates that NZ will find it hard to keep public service pay arrangements. In a December letter, he told public service bosses that then-Minister for Public Service Nicola Willis had "expressed concerns about the growth in personnel costs arising from pay progression systems, which cannot be limited through employer discretion".

• This is not unexpected. Last year, I wrote “Why more economic and social pain is coming for us all”. And the punchline is that Nicola Willis’s borrowing of $12bn for $15bn of tax cuts - and her insistence on reducing the deficit while sacking staff, and reducing government revenue - was untenable. And she and National would take this out on public services. It should be obvious that we need talent and competency. in the public service - but weakening the public service is another core part of the Atlas Network junk tank ideology.

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POLITICS

• Chatter about Luxon’s imminent disposal as Prime Minister have been gaining speed. This week, NZME’s Simon Wilson added to that by suggesting Luxon is increasingly moving into “oblivion”, and pointed out there are “four senior MPs” waiting in the wings if and when Luxon falls.

• While I didn’t agree with all of Wilson’s takes, I agree Luxon will go. In fact, I’ve considered him a political liability for National since October and said “Au Revoir”. There is no Prime Minister that is less popular, liked or supported than Luxon - nor did his party ever receive one bump or honeymoon period despite widespread exasperation with Labour. Luxon’s bullying, haughty style when challenged, and pent for pathological lying doesn’t help. And it’s just a matter of when, not if.

• That said, I think the odds are shifting on the replacement figure.

• NZ First have doubled down on their racist attacks against Green MP Ricardo Menéndez March for being a migrant - this time gaslighting March for using the words “Aotearoa” instead of “New Zealand”. "

• Why is someone who applied to come to this country in 2006 allowed to ask a question of this Parliament that changes this country's name without the referendum and sanction of the New Zealand people?" Peters asked.

• In a farcical display of House rules, the Speaker gently suggested that March use “Aotearoa - New Zealand” in future. This was tapered down for ‘further consideration’ when Labour’s Kieran McAnulty interjected, who said in any other instance a direct translation from English to te reo Māori was permissible.

• While NZ First and others snigger, I can’t help but reflect that this is all changing the culture of the country - where openly attacking migrants and people of colour is increasingly seen as “status quo”

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GLOBAL

• Trump’s attacks against Zelensky and Ukraine escalate. Yesterday, Trump falsely claimed Ukraine started the war that is killing its citizens, and lied that Zelensky only had 4% popularity in Ukraine (It’s ~50% after falling from 75% last year - I presume the drops are because Trump is so critical of him)

• He then called Zelensky a “dictator” - which is precisely what Trump is and always aspired to be, after keeping books on Hitler’s speeches in his bedside cabinet for many years.

Do you think Trump is bad, or Luxon is a fool? Don’t be fooled - they’re all just figure heads. The real power lies behind and around them. Don’t be fooled by the masks in front, Aotearoa.

Reflections