There are times when movement around us seems to slow down.
And the faster things get, the slower it all appears.
And so it is with the whirlwind of early year political activity.
They are harbingers for what is to come:
Video: Wayne Wright Jnr, funder of Sean Plunket, talk growing power and influence through “The Platform”
Wayne Wright Jr was profiled in 2022 as the “secretive richlister” family bankrolling “The Platform” - a media platform unencumbered by the BSA (Broadcasting Standards Authority) or apparently, revenue issues.
He / his family own 75% of Sean Plunket’s platform.
The Platform regularly hosts conservative and populist voices, including Holocaust denier Candace Owens and ACT’s David Seymour.
The Wright Family fortune is estimated at $400m - mostly as a result of their sale of their Best Start ECE business to their charity, the Wright Family Foundation.
They are the largest ECE provider in NZ.
Their charity ‘conversion’ earned their business tax free status, as well as their insistent demands that e.g Taupo council reduce their rent by up to 95%.
Matt Nipert reported that in the year to March 2024, Best Start made a tax free operating profit of $34m.
$37m was then paid to its founders, the Wright Family.
The charity has also made significant loans to private companies and trusts connected to the family - for example, $84m worth in 2021.
In 2021, Best Start received $211m of government subsidies.
And in 2022, 73% of its revenue base was also taxpayer funded i.e. $242m came from the government.
During Covid, Best Start also claimed $26.9m in additional wage subsidies - more than the amount claimed by SkyCity, The Warehouse and Fisher & Paykel Appliances.
So it was interesting to see Wayne Wright Jr and Sean Plunket last year not only celebrate their growing political influence at NZ Parliament, but also Wright passionately advocating that folks should not expect “state support”.
Wright Jr. previously told the Spinoff his family empire was large enough to be protected against cancellation, and that he believed Te Tiriti (Treaty of Waitangi) is “not relevant to his vision of New Zealand.”
It’s also worth mentioning that one of David Seymour’s first projects as Regulation Minister was to cut “red tape” for the ECE sector.
He stood by his changes despite widespread opposition and concerns for child welfare.
One of his cornerstone changes will mean reduced rates of pay for relief teachers i.e. reducing the costs for those that run ECE.
Last month, his own Ministery criticised his changes as putting children in early learning ”at an unacceptable risk of harm due to gaps in the way the sector is monitored” - as well as “excessive and confusing”.
One has to ask: who is our government really working for?
Treaty Principles Bill
The Treaty Principles Bill online submission process has closed.
An extension is on the cards however, due to technical malfunctioning on the Parliamentary website.
The final decision on an extension will be made this morning.
Meanwhile, NZ Human Rights Commissioner Stephen Rainbow called the interest in the Treaty Principles Bill positive (emphasis mine):
"The (Treaty Principles) bill is clearly an example of looking at the future of the country and how we work together to create a successful future for all the people that live here.
And the fact that so many people actually are interested in that, engaged in that, want to submit, I think is a very very positive sign.”
His characterisation of the Bill as “an example of looking at the future of the country and how we work together to create a successful future for all” has overtones of ACT talking points - just as I find University of Wellington Associate Professor Bryce Edwards’ Democracy Project does.
[Sean Plunket calls Bryce Edwards “our mate from the Democracy Project” on ‘The Platform’]
Rainbow, for those of you who may not recall, is the hand picked ACT Party and Paul Goldsmith appointee who failed multiple, independent HR recommendations and processes for the role of Human Rights Commissioner.
He knew he didn’t get the job in May 2024.
But - as revealed by Madeleine Chapman, he was miraculously appointed anyway by Paul Goldsmith -the Treaty of Waitangi Minister - whose principles and friendships appear deeply in concert with ACT.
Project 2025 mirrors NZ Lite
Friendly appointees is a theme of right wing populist movements around the world.
One of the fundamental pillars of Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 is purging non-allied public sector servants and leaders, and replacing them with conservative loyalists.
That, and the effective take over of government by authoritarian interests - commonly allied to tobacco, fossil fuel, arms industry, and big business, among others - under the guise of country and God.
According to the Wall Street Journal — another Atlas Network allied empire - Project 2025 had an operating budget of US $22m (NZD $39m) to work its magic.
That overshadows one of NZ’s Atlas Network partners, Taxpayers Union, which The Standard reports had an operating income of NZD $2.9m in 2023.
In 2018, Jordan Williams also reported income of around NZD $2.8m and given its increased presence and activism, I find it hard to believe it’s not more.
But, as Presland reports, the real issue is there is no transparency on what their numbers truly are - nor their sources:
“Unlike political parties it does not have to release details of its donors. This is a major weakness because for all of this money may have come from Atlas for all that we know. An entity that so overtly injects itself into our political system should be up front about how it is funded.”
On Reddit, a user who regularly attacked and complained about me when I was on there, came out to defend Williams.
The poster claimed TPU’s funds were from grassroots donors - and this user’s source was none other than Jordan Williams himself!
It is hard for me to believe that an average Kiwi would defend Jordan Williams and use his words as testimony against the obvious corruptability questions that arise - but here we are.
A few years ago, Taxpayers Union finally admitted that it received funding from global tobacco after a Guardian investigation - but Williams didn’t voluntarily disclose that interest for years, despite frequently railing against taxes on tobacco companies in NZ.
And when Sean Plunket called for a “pogrom” i.e. massacre of anyone who doesn’t support the current government - he was speaking for the same conservative interests and methods they now employ:
i.e. go for broke - it’s all about the take down of the “radical” left ideologies of the past half century, and breaking the furniture and deck chairs is of no concern at all.
Neither are people infected with ‘woke’.
Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos bend the knee
Ex-Washington Post cartoonist Ann Telnaes drew a cartoon last week that hit the nail on the head - Jeff Bezos, Zuckerberg and other titans bending the knee to Trump.
Her cartoon was rejected on the grounds of duplication by Washington Post - even though there was none - but the masthead is owned by Bezos, and she resigned in response.
Her cartoon was made well before the world’s 3rd richest man Mark Zuckerberg, sported a USD $900,000 watch to announce that the days of fact checking Meta (Facebook) were over.
Meta started fact checking in December 2016, after Trump was elected to his first term, in response to criticism that “fake news” was spreading on its platforms. It worked with more than 100 organizations in over 60 languages to combat misinformation - including Russian disinformation - but those associations will soon end.
Expect more right wing ideology, less facts, more lies and out of context sensationalism designed to stir anger and fear.
Meta has also appointed close Trump ally Dana White to the Meta Board, and promoted conservative Joel Kaplan to head of policy in Facebook.
Trump is pleased, telling media that “Meta, Facebook have come a long way”.
It’s ironic that most of us obtain our news and information from empires1 and publications owned by those on the right of politics - and the game is truly becoming weighted towards a right wing populist movement that kicked off with the post-Brexit Tories.
i.e. governments and news media and information outlets are becoming stirringly allied in terms of personal and professional interests.
Before Trump won, Jeff Bezos praised Trump for “grace and courage” and later said he was “optimistic” in Trump’s 2nd term, because Trump could do a lot to cut regulations.
That’s the same line Gina Rinehart - Australia’s richest woman and mining magnate - used about her hope of eradicating Australia’s Labour party this year.
Regulations = bad.
Right wing Liberal = good
For Gina.
And others - look around….look around….
The Scales Have Shifted
In an economy and system where money is primary, we’ve been well and truly out-manned and out-gunned.
Perhaps it’s always been this way, but most of us didn’t notice.
This year - and the next - it will be increasingly hard not to.
In the UK, Elon Musk, the real election winner and global archetype of what happens when money and power becomes limitless, is battling Nigel Farage, a key political face of Brexit - because Farage wouldn’t comply with Musk’s endorsement of Tommy Robinson - a jailed far right figure even Farage thinks is too radical.
But Farage is keen to mend fences, and will use an upcoming trip to the US to bend the knee back.
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