This is my first and possibly only response to any Substack writer.
Please keep up your great work, even though at times you must feel so despondently tired of enlightening others to the deceitful behaviour of this dishonest governing coalition.
I’m sure they believe in what they’re doing. Will those who think “we’re getting back on track” ever take time to remove the scales from their eyes.
Thank you so much for your “heavy lifting “ Tui. We have arrived at a crossroads and it’s people like you with your research and publication of the results that provide the optimism during these dark times.
Levi appointed by Reti, both have financial and management interests in private healthcare. Both have clear but hidden agendas, privatisation of health services.
Yes Levy famously championed running health as a business in the 1990s.
And Ian Powell, the ED referenced above, had also noticed Luxon and Levy are “two peas in a pod” with very similar communication styles and ways of looking at things.
yes Ian has a series of articles talking about Dr Levy... I recall hearing that Dr Levy's appointment was driven by the office of the PM and Cabinet, not the Public Service Commission or even the Treasury. It was done very much to drive the agenda of the ideological "right-sizing" of Health, not because of any actual financial mismanagement. It would be enlightening to hear from Rosalie Hughes, but I am sure her settlement would have included an NDA.
Health care is such a no-win area as you have little control over what comes in the door, you just need to try and deal with it. I could understand the constraints if there was a concerted effort to improve the primary health of our people, through compassionate efforts, making healthy food more available, enabling better ways of living ( warm, dry housing etc etc.) that means that we all have a better chance of staying out of the back end of the health system. Of course, we are seeing cuts at both ends, and with the charity sector (and primary health care) on its knees there is going to be more rather than less demand for support through secondary and tertiary health systems. Nurses are striking for their collective agreement at the moment and SMO's collective agreement is up next year, and initial offers are going down as well as a jug of slug slime.
<<initial offers are going down as well as a jug of slug slime. >>
I can imagine!
The thing is, this treatment of our health professionals just hurts all of us - people with choices and skills can leave - and often will if things get too bad.
And I agree - and from the outset, it's been sadly clear how contradictory all their policies are - from crime to economy to prosperity to education.
Motivation and intention are so important in my books for the reason you state, Dave:
"Health care is such a no-win area as you have little control over what comes in the door, you just need to try and deal with it. I could understand the constraints if there was a concerted effort to improve the primary health of our people"
i.e. Yes, it's not easy but there is a big difference between trying to do what you can with limited resources versus intentionally losing our best and brightest, and rolling back years of investment and re-build - that type of process is really expensive to rebuild from.
Let alone peoples' lives and well being are all stake.
Saw an article years ago where Bolger said the unions needed more power. I thought that was a wild thing for a Nat PM to say but I reckon he clued into a lot of these consequences faster than anyone else… I miss having PMs who I genuinely believed were working for (in their mind) the good of the nation, and not the good of their own back pocket.
Sapphi ☀️ Well I hear him. I’ve never been part of a union nor understood too much about them. But as the year progressed and the opposition seemed frustratingly unheard in media, I started noticing it was the unions constantly speaking up. It was the unions with insights. It was the unions organizing protests and in fact whenever I looked speaking truth.
As part of the CTU protest which included health workers I was able to make contact with some unions and learn more of their very significant constraints but also see the work they did for people like Dr Payinda - and I’ve come to a new appreciation
Kia ora, great piece on the creative accounting by Reti/Health NZ - all in aid of privatisation. On that note, I wanted to draw attention to the far right's reframing of privatisation as "asset recycling" - wow - how clever to claim a word from the world of environmentalism. A couple of papers have been released recently by Infrastructure NZ and others, now Nick Leggett is doing the rounds including this piece in NZH today, "How asset recycling can boost New Zealand's infrastructure and economy - Nick Leggett"
Yes Valerie! Thank you for making this significant point.
This is what they have started - I recall Richard Prebble, the former ACT leader they appointed to the Waitangi Tribunal, wrote the other week how the answer is to sell off our assets….in NZH too of course
And ACT have been advertising on their social media pages about the benefits of privatization for a fair few weeks.
I get the sense that this Govt beats to the drum of NZ initiative so thank you for pointing out this article and also this term they adopted
I was not aware of that.
It’s unfortunately not surprising - they have co-opted so many words for their own benefit and twisted the meaning - and I suspect those strategies arise from their affiliated right wing “think tanks”
Tui you are so onto it with the “personality vs policy”. It’s wrong to say you are voting for policy over personality and that we SHOULD only focus on policy, because policy is not the be all and end all — you are quite literally voting for a representative to make law on your behalf, and that includes laws that you cannot right now foresee (eg the pandemic). It’s a relationship of trust, one in which one person is expected to work in the interests of an entire community, and that is not just about policy, that’s about integrity and predictability and understanding a politician or party’s wider values.
Watch Grant Duncan’s video today for more about that relationship between representative and citizen, but I’m glad you pointed out that voting is not just about policy — voting purely on policy is what got us here. People took National at their word that the numbers balanced and that the benefits would be what they said they would, and they shouldn’t have.
I am a late comer to the left, retired and now have time to read & learn!
Thank you Luxon for putting me off the right wing FOREVER! I have found a more caring bunch of decent individuals on the left, people who believe that social justice is important, as well as economics!
I have also learnt that the right wing are NOT the best fiscal managers!
I rest my case, on the evidence of the last 12 months!
So true Leonie - it's been a wild education and yes, they are not only not the best fiscal managers, their incompetency gives off Liz Truss (right wing Tory conservative) vibes...
It is really hard to get a take on cluxons end goals, other than his own ego. He reminds me of those old shop fronts, when we had strip shopping, bloody great front facing facade with a little tin shed attached behind it.
He certainly isn't there for the benefit of NZs citizenry.
No I don’t believe he is at all - and he’s also not competent at all.
All he clutches is a few talking points and numbers in his head and repeats them ad nauseum. It works for some people perhaps but it’s a one trick pony and won’t benefit our country as a result.
He says: ‘An ancient brand of amoralism now haunts the world. Authoritarian-style leaders like Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping embody a kind of amoral realism. They evince a mindset that assumes that the world is a vicious, dog-eat-dog sort of place. Life is a competition to grab what you can . . . Morality is a luxury we cannot afford . . . It’s fine to elect people who lie, who are corrupt, as long as they are ruthless bastards for our side’.
There come times in societies, often catalysed by political leadership (the fish rots from the head), when values like honesty, inclusivity, kindness, caring, kaitiakitanga, generosity, humility, gratitude, love and care go so far out of fashion that they even can evoke ridicule as ‘woke’, pollyanna-style immaturity and “unicorn kissing” (Shane Jones). This is when society falls into serious jeopardy. It happened when Thatcher pronounced that Greed is Good.
It is when politicians (and others) exercise power without moral compass that people like you (and we) get very concerned. It’s actually moral compass that we vote for at elections. It was New Zealand’s moral compass (even if a bit dodgy by then) that brought inspired immigrants in droves when Lange championed nuclear-free and we were the plucky little country boxing above its weight to support the underdog and be a moral beacon. We loved ourselves, as we did early in Jacinda’s reign and everybody else loved us. This is the best of us.
It really matters.
Almost everything this government has done, has been mean, cruel, transparently corrupted by powerful interests, deceptive, racist, destructive, fraudulent and irresponsible. What is precious is not valued. This has to be called out, named.
Because we all have a moral compass, actually, everyone who voted these folks in actually has one. If it can be seen that this government is betraying foundational values of decency, then people have a chance to wake up out of the populist myth. Of course values are important, basic morality and care is important. This is what makes us human and worth saving.
Yeah some folks have a thing about anger and criticism being bad. It’s crap.
I think it’s a kind of post-New-Age thing, based on visualising only what is good, and then that happens. I dunno. Just ignore them.
And thank you for being you. This window on your mind is such a privilege, Tui.
Your comment really touched me, and it's people and feelings like this that constantly propel me forward. Thank you for your generous and thoughtful comments, Susie. I appreciate it.
👌💯Spot on as usual 👍 "Personalities" only matter in-so-far-as it reflects their CHARACTER 🤷 As recently evidenced after the Trump 1st term, there were people who basically believed in (old style) Republican policies & so were on board with him in some respects, but their CHARACTER would not allow them to continue to stay silent and/or carry out cruel & harmful policies outside of the norm. I don't think "party" matters near as much as "personality" - Jim Bolger was mentioned & I recall one of the Maori Treaty Settlement negotiators saying it was his leadership that cut through the BS on the Crown side to enable an outcome instead of endless blocking & nit-picking by Crown negotiators. He saw that the Maori negotiators had done their homework, proved their arguments, and the best outcome for everyone was to have a settlement finalised so the Iwi in question could get on with using it to support their whanui - ironically various Iwi promoting education & providing scholarships to rangatahi is what might de-fang Seymour et al 🤣🖤🤍❤️
Over the years I have voted for several different parties, & different MP & Party vote at times, & of course policies come into it, but also whether I TRUST the person/party to do their best for the good of our people & country - one year I went in and voted for no-one, to show it wasn't because I was disengaged, but because I didn't like ANYONE on the ballot that time 😱
Yes - integrity and motivation is so important. We are all human, and we are all swayed by parts of our own ego - whether jealousy, greed, fear and the like. But it is character and our values that determine how we choose to act when faced with the smaller parts of ourselves.
In the case of the current lot, I'm not sure they have enough self-awareness to care and as long as they enjoy and crave power and the rewards they see before them, it is unlikely we will see much of a change.
I noted today that as per my earlier writings, we've now seen 4-5 Ministers lie/be deceptive - and found as such from the Chief Ombudsman to the Waitangi Tribunal to the Attorney General - in this Government. Not to mention Luxon, whose record is longer than a kid's Christmas wish list - and I say that with regret, not glee. Such a pity really.
Thank you MT. I’ve been told that the person who pointed out to Reti that his creative accounting (trying to shift cost/debt to a previous year to make it look as though it occurred under the previous govt) wasn’t legal accounting and complained to the auditor general, has been forced to resign. Do you know anything about this?
Kia ora KSJ - yes it was the former CFO of Health NZ who the Govt previously implied was at fault for the deficit. And fired, of course.
Last year she was awarded as “ CFO of the year in NZ”. Her name is Rosalie Hughes and reports confirm she spoke to the AG. The top Newsroom article also goes into detail about the attempted accounting ….uh … technique.
Thank you Mountain Tui.
This is my first and possibly only response to any Substack writer.
Please keep up your great work, even though at times you must feel so despondently tired of enlightening others to the deceitful behaviour of this dishonest governing coalition.
I’m sure they believe in what they’re doing. Will those who think “we’re getting back on track” ever take time to remove the scales from their eyes.
Your writing, Mountain Tui, is vital.
Do not give up.
Again thank you.
Thank you for writing me. I appreciate it John.
Agree with what John said, amazing work.
Though I am empathetic that it will take it's toll.
Hope you got plans to rest & decompress over the Xmas break.
Thanks for your Mahi, Mountain Tui
John love your rely, wholeheartedly agree with you! How would we survive without MT??
Thank you so much for your “heavy lifting “ Tui. We have arrived at a crossroads and it’s people like you with your research and publication of the results that provide the optimism during these dark times.
Thank you drfang.
Hear hear!
Levi appointed by Reti, both have financial and management interests in private healthcare. Both have clear but hidden agendas, privatisation of health services.
Yes Levy famously championed running health as a business in the 1990s.
And Ian Powell, the ED referenced above, had also noticed Luxon and Levy are “two peas in a pod” with very similar communication styles and ways of looking at things.
A little scary to be honest!
yes Ian has a series of articles talking about Dr Levy... I recall hearing that Dr Levy's appointment was driven by the office of the PM and Cabinet, not the Public Service Commission or even the Treasury. It was done very much to drive the agenda of the ideological "right-sizing" of Health, not because of any actual financial mismanagement. It would be enlightening to hear from Rosalie Hughes, but I am sure her settlement would have included an NDA.
Health care is such a no-win area as you have little control over what comes in the door, you just need to try and deal with it. I could understand the constraints if there was a concerted effort to improve the primary health of our people, through compassionate efforts, making healthy food more available, enabling better ways of living ( warm, dry housing etc etc.) that means that we all have a better chance of staying out of the back end of the health system. Of course, we are seeing cuts at both ends, and with the charity sector (and primary health care) on its knees there is going to be more rather than less demand for support through secondary and tertiary health systems. Nurses are striking for their collective agreement at the moment and SMO's collective agreement is up next year, and initial offers are going down as well as a jug of slug slime.
<<initial offers are going down as well as a jug of slug slime. >>
I can imagine!
The thing is, this treatment of our health professionals just hurts all of us - people with choices and skills can leave - and often will if things get too bad.
And I agree - and from the outset, it's been sadly clear how contradictory all their policies are - from crime to economy to prosperity to education.
Motivation and intention are so important in my books for the reason you state, Dave:
"Health care is such a no-win area as you have little control over what comes in the door, you just need to try and deal with it. I could understand the constraints if there was a concerted effort to improve the primary health of our people"
i.e. Yes, it's not easy but there is a big difference between trying to do what you can with limited resources versus intentionally losing our best and brightest, and rolling back years of investment and re-build - that type of process is really expensive to rebuild from.
Let alone peoples' lives and well being are all stake.
Saw an article years ago where Bolger said the unions needed more power. I thought that was a wild thing for a Nat PM to say but I reckon he clued into a lot of these consequences faster than anyone else… I miss having PMs who I genuinely believed were working for (in their mind) the good of the nation, and not the good of their own back pocket.
Sapphi ☀️ Well I hear him. I’ve never been part of a union nor understood too much about them. But as the year progressed and the opposition seemed frustratingly unheard in media, I started noticing it was the unions constantly speaking up. It was the unions with insights. It was the unions organizing protests and in fact whenever I looked speaking truth.
As part of the CTU protest which included health workers I was able to make contact with some unions and learn more of their very significant constraints but also see the work they did for people like Dr Payinda - and I’ve come to a new appreciation
Another superb article Tui, holding this incompetency to account.
Thank you Lyn
Kia ora, great piece on the creative accounting by Reti/Health NZ - all in aid of privatisation. On that note, I wanted to draw attention to the far right's reframing of privatisation as "asset recycling" - wow - how clever to claim a word from the world of environmentalism. A couple of papers have been released recently by Infrastructure NZ and others, now Nick Leggett is doing the rounds including this piece in NZH today, "How asset recycling can boost New Zealand's infrastructure and economy - Nick Leggett"
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/dynamic-business-realising-assets-to-deliver-infrastructure-nick-leggett/Q6RQSEQZVBDUBKSGDTBEQOP7NQ/
Don't worry about taxing the rich/CGT or breaking up monopolies, let's just sell off everything and then we can buy new stuff.
Yes Valerie! Thank you for making this significant point.
This is what they have started - I recall Richard Prebble, the former ACT leader they appointed to the Waitangi Tribunal, wrote the other week how the answer is to sell off our assets….in NZH too of course
And ACT have been advertising on their social media pages about the benefits of privatization for a fair few weeks.
I get the sense that this Govt beats to the drum of NZ initiative so thank you for pointing out this article and also this term they adopted
I was not aware of that.
It’s unfortunately not surprising - they have co-opted so many words for their own benefit and twisted the meaning - and I suspect those strategies arise from their affiliated right wing “think tanks”
Thanks again - I’ll take a look later.
Tui you are so onto it with the “personality vs policy”. It’s wrong to say you are voting for policy over personality and that we SHOULD only focus on policy, because policy is not the be all and end all — you are quite literally voting for a representative to make law on your behalf, and that includes laws that you cannot right now foresee (eg the pandemic). It’s a relationship of trust, one in which one person is expected to work in the interests of an entire community, and that is not just about policy, that’s about integrity and predictability and understanding a politician or party’s wider values.
Watch Grant Duncan’s video today for more about that relationship between representative and citizen, but I’m glad you pointed out that voting is not just about policy — voting purely on policy is what got us here. People took National at their word that the numbers balanced and that the benefits would be what they said they would, and they shouldn’t have.
Thanks Sapphi - really appreciate seeing you here. and the easiest example on this one is - in a job interview - character ALWAYS matters. Always.
Why? Precisely what you laid out.
In fact I’d argue character is priceless. Cheers.
I am a late comer to the left, retired and now have time to read & learn!
Thank you Luxon for putting me off the right wing FOREVER! I have found a more caring bunch of decent individuals on the left, people who believe that social justice is important, as well as economics!
I have also learnt that the right wing are NOT the best fiscal managers!
I rest my case, on the evidence of the last 12 months!
So true Leonie - it's been a wild education and yes, they are not only not the best fiscal managers, their incompetency gives off Liz Truss (right wing Tory conservative) vibes...
All I know about Liz Truss is that she dod not last long, I will put a great deal of energy to hoping the same happens with this lot!
They must be really scared to do so much harm, to paint such a “Labour’s fault” picture!!
It is really hard to get a take on cluxons end goals, other than his own ego. He reminds me of those old shop fronts, when we had strip shopping, bloody great front facing facade with a little tin shed attached behind it.
He certainly isn't there for the benefit of NZs citizenry.
No I don’t believe he is at all - and he’s also not competent at all.
All he clutches is a few talking points and numbers in his head and repeats them ad nauseum. It works for some people perhaps but it’s a one trick pony and won’t benefit our country as a result.
Dear, valued Tui
Just over a year ago, I read this: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2023/09/How-America-got-Mean which in itself is a very interesting read, though sadly, the Atlantic went paywalled. But in it the writer also says something that I think is relevant here.
He says: ‘An ancient brand of amoralism now haunts the world. Authoritarian-style leaders like Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping embody a kind of amoral realism. They evince a mindset that assumes that the world is a vicious, dog-eat-dog sort of place. Life is a competition to grab what you can . . . Morality is a luxury we cannot afford . . . It’s fine to elect people who lie, who are corrupt, as long as they are ruthless bastards for our side’.
There come times in societies, often catalysed by political leadership (the fish rots from the head), when values like honesty, inclusivity, kindness, caring, kaitiakitanga, generosity, humility, gratitude, love and care go so far out of fashion that they even can evoke ridicule as ‘woke’, pollyanna-style immaturity and “unicorn kissing” (Shane Jones). This is when society falls into serious jeopardy. It happened when Thatcher pronounced that Greed is Good.
It is when politicians (and others) exercise power without moral compass that people like you (and we) get very concerned. It’s actually moral compass that we vote for at elections. It was New Zealand’s moral compass (even if a bit dodgy by then) that brought inspired immigrants in droves when Lange championed nuclear-free and we were the plucky little country boxing above its weight to support the underdog and be a moral beacon. We loved ourselves, as we did early in Jacinda’s reign and everybody else loved us. This is the best of us.
It really matters.
Almost everything this government has done, has been mean, cruel, transparently corrupted by powerful interests, deceptive, racist, destructive, fraudulent and irresponsible. What is precious is not valued. This has to be called out, named.
Because we all have a moral compass, actually, everyone who voted these folks in actually has one. If it can be seen that this government is betraying foundational values of decency, then people have a chance to wake up out of the populist myth. Of course values are important, basic morality and care is important. This is what makes us human and worth saving.
Yeah some folks have a thing about anger and criticism being bad. It’s crap.
I think it’s a kind of post-New-Age thing, based on visualising only what is good, and then that happens. I dunno. Just ignore them.
And thank you for being you. This window on your mind is such a privilege, Tui.
Your comment really touched me, and it's people and feelings like this that constantly propel me forward. Thank you for your generous and thoughtful comments, Susie. I appreciate it.
💗🎵💗
👌💯Spot on as usual 👍 "Personalities" only matter in-so-far-as it reflects their CHARACTER 🤷 As recently evidenced after the Trump 1st term, there were people who basically believed in (old style) Republican policies & so were on board with him in some respects, but their CHARACTER would not allow them to continue to stay silent and/or carry out cruel & harmful policies outside of the norm. I don't think "party" matters near as much as "personality" - Jim Bolger was mentioned & I recall one of the Maori Treaty Settlement negotiators saying it was his leadership that cut through the BS on the Crown side to enable an outcome instead of endless blocking & nit-picking by Crown negotiators. He saw that the Maori negotiators had done their homework, proved their arguments, and the best outcome for everyone was to have a settlement finalised so the Iwi in question could get on with using it to support their whanui - ironically various Iwi promoting education & providing scholarships to rangatahi is what might de-fang Seymour et al 🤣🖤🤍❤️
Over the years I have voted for several different parties, & different MP & Party vote at times, & of course policies come into it, but also whether I TRUST the person/party to do their best for the good of our people & country - one year I went in and voted for no-one, to show it wasn't because I was disengaged, but because I didn't like ANYONE on the ballot that time 😱
Yes - integrity and motivation is so important. We are all human, and we are all swayed by parts of our own ego - whether jealousy, greed, fear and the like. But it is character and our values that determine how we choose to act when faced with the smaller parts of ourselves.
In the case of the current lot, I'm not sure they have enough self-awareness to care and as long as they enjoy and crave power and the rewards they see before them, it is unlikely we will see much of a change.
I noted today that as per my earlier writings, we've now seen 4-5 Ministers lie/be deceptive - and found as such from the Chief Ombudsman to the Waitangi Tribunal to the Attorney General - in this Government. Not to mention Luxon, whose record is longer than a kid's Christmas wish list - and I say that with regret, not glee. Such a pity really.
Shared
Thanks Tui, you do good work
Thank you.
Thank you MT. I’ve been told that the person who pointed out to Reti that his creative accounting (trying to shift cost/debt to a previous year to make it look as though it occurred under the previous govt) wasn’t legal accounting and complained to the auditor general, has been forced to resign. Do you know anything about this?
Kia ora KSJ - yes it was the former CFO of Health NZ who the Govt previously implied was at fault for the deficit. And fired, of course.
Last year she was awarded as “ CFO of the year in NZ”. Her name is Rosalie Hughes and reports confirm she spoke to the AG. The top Newsroom article also goes into detail about the attempted accounting ….uh … technique.
Thanks for that👍
Welcome Judith!
Thanks MT
Quite profound!!
I felt sorry for our DG of H having to sit through that.