Why The Left Has Been Stupid - The Right Has Been Busy

Plus some of today's key politics headlines

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It’s hard not to do it

It’s easy to become another rage baiter.

The actions of the government have been very poor in my view i.e. wasteful, divisive, appears to target the most vulnerable and marginalized, contributes to more Kiwis’ death and sickness, consistently goes against evidence, spreads misinformation and populist rhetoric, and most of all, appears to have an agenda of serving big money interests vs the people of New Zealand - all while painting it up as “tough love” and “good for NZ”.

Let me provide a few examples:

• Ready and willing to harm Kiwis. This includes setting aside $216 million to benefit Philip Morris, a big tobacco multinational, while crying wolf about having no money. They also plan to repeal 7AA despite the clear and persistent evidence it helps children, mostly Māori, from being harmed. The Prime Minister doesn’t even know what he’s doing there, which somehow adds serious insult to painful injury.

• Wasteful - Throwing away ~$1 billion on the Kiwirail fiasco - the i-Rex ferries would have arrived in 2026. Now we have nothing but a government set up to look at. Max Rushbrooke, for the Post, said due to cost inflation, NZ faces a potential $900m bill for two non-rail-enabled ferries instead of the agreed $550m on two rail-enabled ones. So that brings the bill up to ~$1.4 billion already, excluding added freight costs of millions a year, and significantly more emissions.

• Causing economic and climate harm while siding with industry - They are increasing emissions, tanking the clean car EV market (sales have fallen 75% in the first 3 months of the year compared to last), and in general, undoing all of our pro-environment progress under the guise of ‘we are listening to independent, expert advice.’

  National have already said they won’t be meeting our medium to long term climate change targets, and that has global trade implications - but somehow it feels like this government isn’t thinking that far ahead.

  • There’s a lot to cover, but even just briefly, so far they’ve:

    • Axed agriculture from the Emissions Trading Scheme.

    • Reset and weakened New Zealand’s methane targets in a move that has been called “problematic”

    • Cancelled new designations of Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) 

    • Cancelled Lake Onslow hydro energy project

Then there’s intentional policies that render at least 13,000 more children in poverty, while they quietly shrink child poverty targets under cover of darkness. Animal cruelty by reversing the live animal export ban for questionable economic returns after industry lobbying. And all the while, National-ACT-NZ-First gaslight us into saying how much they care about New Zealand and Kiwis. And travel to exotic locations on our dime.

Photo: Chris Bishop Facebook - Bishop is in Paris for the 2024 Olympics games as part of the NZ contingent

It all goes on and on, but frankly, we don’t have all day.

Yesterday, Chris Bishop and Christopher Luxon boasted on social media that they had helped 1000 children out of emergency housing and into secure homes. Advocates doubt that that is true, and the real way they are “reducing” children from emergency housing is making it too difficult to qualify.

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Labour’s McNulty: “Make it harder for people to get into emergency housing - where are they going to go? They're certainly not going to the houses that the government are building, because the government put a stop to it.”

Well this morning, Tama Potaka, Associate Housing Minister, was doing the rounds on NZME media anyway, boasting about this milestone, unabashedly.

And Bishop and Luxon received voluminous praise.

It’s hard not to rage bait, but it is important to hold a light to what is happening.

Ignorance is not an option.

The line between rage baiting and information is increasingly hard to balance, but if the shoe fits, I believe constructive, fact based, information continues to play an important role.

Becoming a left wing Daily Fail however, is not an option as I believe society benefits from building up deeper knowledge and awareness, not only appealing only to rote anger and dread.

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Is the left stupid?

Over the weekend, after doing some research and perusing right wing channels in NZ and elsewhere, I concluded that “the left is stupid.” And boy, ‘the right have done well.’

Listen below (audio) at how a right wing pundit treated a National Party leaning Mayor when he dared to disagree with the government’s approach to Māori wards. The Mayor, Grant Smith, said Māori ward legislation is an over-reach and that marginalizing 20% of our population will not improve NZ’s productivity. Note 2/3rds of all Mayors supported what the Mayor for Palmerston North said, but he was brave enough to try to convince a right wing pundit why. Smith even mentions - and is shut down over - Hobsons Pledge:

The right has been hijacked.

And it’s route is pure populism - going straight to the people with emotive slogans and partial information - in order to enact their policies under the name of ‘the people have spoken.’

And it’s been extraordinarily popular - “populism”:

Populism refers to a range of political stances that emphasize the idea of “the people” and often juxtapose this group against “the elite”.

A common framework for interpreting populism is known as the ideational approach: this defines populism as an ideology which presents “the people” as a morally good force and contrasts them against “the elite”, who are portrayed as corrupt and self-serving. Populists differ in how “the people” are defined … In other words, as Jan-Werner Müller stated in an article that the populist decides who the real people are; and whoever does not want to be unified on the populist’s terms is completely and utterly excluded.

This is how they will try to get the Treaty Bills law through too - spread racism, say it’s democracy.

No, the right is not the conservative movement of old anymore. Overseas, it’s clearer it has been taken over by a movement that’s exemplified by the figure of Donald Trump - brash, anti-climate, authoritarian, pro-big money, anti-LGBTQ.

And in the US to date - it can be summarised as a far-right-Christian-fascism movement with white supremacist overtones. But let’s be clear, Trump is just the face for it all. Even if he dies one day - which we all will - they will pick another person to be the face of the movement, and 2024 is their biggest gamble to date, pushed by an agenda Atlas Network calls Project 2025.

In Heritage Foundation’s own words, there will not be a chance like the upcoming US election for their movement.

That’s why I believe that regardless of the US election outcome, the far right wing conservative movement will move to put Trump into power - come hell or high water.

And it’s really time we on the left - around the world - change our definitions. Fascism is no longer marked by the attributes of the Holocaust and how it arose there - we are now seeing it in a modern context, and the US is the first cab off the rank.

Back to NZ - well our fate was sealed the minute National-ACT-NZ First got into power. And the implications of that have been clear - it’s a pro-big money, anti-climate, anti-Indigenous, anti-evidence, culture war, power grabbing, misinformation type of gang. And they haven’t even been great with their supposed forte - the economy and taxpayers money.

In NZ, we now need people like National Party, former NZ PM, John Key to tell this government to “take the temperature down”, casting the Treaty Principles Bill as ACT’s idea and saying this division isn’t good for NZ. That’s a shift in the right too. And the division isn’t good - except that’s what pressure groups are all about - creating it for agenda of free market ideology.

Just as Jordan Williams took credit for putting pressure on Jacinda Adern and getting rid of Capital Gains Tax in NZ, Atlas are here to nudge National Party, Luxon, and the country forward in its vision.

While still in its infancy stages in terms of laying down roots, a look at right wing channels online and in print in NZ, as well as the government’s rhetoric and policy, has seen an extraordinary moving-at-pace that aims to cement its corporate dominating, anti-environment roots into the future. The Treaty Principles Bill is integral to that plan. Seymour needs to see it through.

Their core power and engine to succeed is to change peoples’ beliefs and our nation’s culture through fear, anger, and stoking populist rhetoric - just as the far right hijacked the conservative movement in the States with resounding success. When former right wing political rock stars like Mitt Romney became considered fake Republicans and sell-outs to the right, you know you’ve succeeded.

That is what the Hobson’s Pledge, Free Speech Union and Taxpayers Union, and platforms like NZME, Sean Plunkett’s The Platform, and other popular far right influencers are really all about right now too - changing our culture and peoples’ beliefs, and indoctrinating far right beliefs:

Images from a popular right wing NZ channel on Youtube

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All this after-the-fact boycotting, left wing complaint, and noise is unimportant to them - and even if that noise comes from academics, nurses, doctors, teachers, judges, lawyers, it doesn’t matter either - experts are extraneous.

The new right only need to bring those who are partial to their side and in large enough numbers. The rest are riff-raff, and unimportant to their cause - and that includes voters from “the left”.

Sitting on the ‘left’ side of the spectrum myself, it’s not that hard to realise that I don’t mean ‘the left are stupid’ in a firmly insulting way. More of a ‘boy, have we been asleep and distracted’ way.

It’s just that while right wing groups are well organised, moneyed up, and fundamentally and single pointedly UNITED in their plans to change the world order to their image, the left pander over divergent interests, self-interests, moral posturing, and ready to shoot down anyone who isn’t of a pristine order.

It’s not uncommon to hear those on the so-called left opine disapprovingly of people who have crossed small lines. Or compete against another in moral stature, policy, or popularity. Or rush to show how ‘balanced’, ‘fair, and ‘even handed’ we are so we can tell ourselves it’s true.

Take what happened to Michael Woods as an example. Last year, he was dumped from Cabinet after repeatedly failing to disclose $13,000 in airport shares. And the left moaned and groaned and generally felt Hipkins did the right thing by removing Woods for the ethics of moral integrity/posterity.

I know what I’m talking about: I was one of those people. ‘Tut tut,’ I said to whoever was standing beside me that day, ‘he looks silly, and it was the right thing to do’.

Or Golriz Ghahraman. I never piled on but there was no shortage of us who made sure people knew we thought she did the wrong thing, although admittedly it appeared voices from the right were most incendiary. Stealing billions from taxpayers to give to companies that kill us - that part is OK though - ‘just the free market in action. Trickle down will work for us.’

On Reddit, my co-moderators and I pained for hours over how to keep political discussions ‘balanced,’ ‘welcoming for all sides,’ and generally a safe zone to reach mutual understanding. It was so important to us - at the time - that we sought to bridge gaps and come together as Kiwis, and I believed that in my bones - we are Kiwis foremost, everything else after.

What I didn’t abide was intentional disinformation and trolling, but that’s something I’ve already covered in a far-too-long write up.

But as I struggled to bridge what I felt I was witnessing, with what I wanted to believe i.e. we have a good chance - it was clear to me something was amiss. As a novice, It took me some time to bring my intuitive side to the intellectual expression.

Others I saw around me on the left side, were also at pains to be careful, be balanced, be fair.

Meanwhile, over in reality:

• Casey Costello gets to act for Philip Morris with pure impunity, implementing policies that are known to kill people, with direct defence from the PM, Seymour, Goldsmith. Winston didn’t even need to lift a finger - it was a true team effort.

• David Seymour aims to lock in 10 year contracts for privatised charter schools, defend them from OIA requests and financial transparency - all so he can take money and resources from state schools, while continuing to malign public teachers and the system as useless.

  When this government funds public schools at the same per student ratio, maybe then Seymour and his ilk can talk.

• If it looks like a duck, and sounds like a duck, we are all too scared to say it is a duck.

  “Maybe Nicola Willis is just incompetent.”

  Or maybe it was always just part of the plan. Just as with Kāinga Ora, if the government continues to drop liabilities and spend from its books, that helps corporates get their hands on our market, and Willis to manage her budget after the tax cuts, which let’s be honest, cannot work smoothly anymore, bar measures like this.

  Courtesy Brett Cooper:

• And it gets better - this is how Atlas Network trains its politicians with a huge dose of projection.

And while not to the same extent yet, we see anti-climate, never-back-down-never-admit-wrong styles in our politicians here, it’s almost as if they are media trained..

And it’s all real - no, this is not a drill, nor is it a new chapter of Megamind.

Yet we are on the left are scattered by a few thousand divergent interests and our standards of morality and fairness. And that’s not a bad thing. Just like an ethnicity, or people, our diversity is our strength. And we wouldn’t be ‘the left’, if we didn’t care. Our values do matter, but perhaps an operating system update is also required to meld it all into unity and a bigger vision.

Over 5 years ago, Barack Obama warned progressives to avoid becoming a 'circular firing squad'. He was astute, but who heard him?

But while we have been asleep, the turnaround in global affairs and the implications of that has been extreme.

Over seven months ago, soon after I became interested in local politics, I wrote about ACT’s connections to Atlas Network. It was before RNZ asked Seymour about his links to it - but I knew we had stepped into some doo-doo and I wanted NZ to be aware too - so was very thankful to Mihingarangi Forbes for doing her job bravely. But the government has exceeded my expectations, I believe they are playing the tapes from overseas here, just as I’d forecast.

Yet if you look further back, Newsroom had covered National and ACT’s links to Atlas pre-election in an excellent article called ‘Chiding in Plain Sight’. It didn’t make mainstream news unfortunately.

Balance, you know. Careful editorial oversight by the media experts

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The Fifth Estate

Talking of which, this weekend, I listened to a recap of political affairs on RNZ.

In it, RNZ’s Chief Political Editor Jo Moir criticized Labour leader Chris Hipkins for asking questions about Todd McClay’s Mexico dig at Greens MP Menéndez March, and for asking about Paul Goldsmith’s removal of Te Reo from Matariki invitations etc.. Moir said it was “weird” and “off”.

Was it, Moir?

She went further, calling Hipkins “hypocritical” for not asking a Labour MP to take down a personal attack against the Prime Minister.

But when I looked closer, it turns out RNZ’s political editor was just parroting NZME’s Audrey Young, who earlier in the week labelled Hipkins “petty” regarding the same.

Is it petty to call out racist undertones, Audrey and Jan - especially in light of this government’s dogged determination to undo policies that help Maori heal and potentially do better in our society.

Well done, but it gets better.

RNZ's Peter Wilson repeated, pretty much verbatim, Young’s high assessment of National MPs under the title ‘Cabinet Scorecard’ this week. Yes, Simeon Brown deserves high praise for his successful attacks on road cones and raising speed limits around school zones.

I won’t delve into that because how much time do we have?

There’s nothing quite like balance and fairness in the light of what we are facing, is there?

I value our media - and I want it to be strong.

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Next steps for a positive future ?

Now finally I end this all with some contrast.

I don’t think that we on the left need to pat ourselves on the backs when we find agreement. Finding agreement on our own side is easy - rage bait or even just reporting information from policies often feels regressive and damaging is often blood pressure inducing, although I hasten to add, rage is not the answer at all.

But the greater challenge lies in how we can - very quickly - reform our own habits, assumptions, proclivities and competition - to unite and come together as humans that want a better future, not only for ourselves, but for our children, and theirs to come.

My own answer - to date - has led me to be a fervent supporter of information and why I consistently ask readers to do so, not because of the resource in question, but because it’s a guard against those who would divide us through hate and misinformation.

It’s a defence against a strong, well resourced offence.

But there is an important seed that is taking effect too. It’s in its infancy but it demands that we collectively ask the question - what next?

What is going to happen if it does turn into hell in a hand-basket? What is after that? Because there is always a dawn. There is always a stream of light behind the dark clouds, waiting patiently for us to see its rays.

There is always hope, even when it feels dark. And that light can only be forged by those same people who care now. And I believe it will require the resource of deeper, constructive thinking.

Once I asked an “anarchist” what their vision was. The person spoke of high ideals but when I prodded further, he resorted to violent language. You see, it’s easy for all of us - and I am included in that - to posit or talk idealistically, but it’s much harder in practice. Which means we will need our sharpest minds, and our most fervent hearts, but most of all we will need to put aside differences, self-interest, and long-standing habits to enact a future we can be proud of.

For the children and those that come after.

Perhaps then, this episode will have all been worth it, after all.

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EXTRA

This morning’s key political headlines so far (except NZME):

• Police Association urges PM to strip gun reform portfolio off Nicole McKee (RNZ) - The Police Association wants responsibility for firearms reform taken off ACT Minister Nicole McKee, saying she's a former gun lobbyist and has excluded police from consultation.

• David Seymour's ‘whole of society’ plan for tipping millions of dollars more in to Pharmac - and Big Pharma (RNZ)

• Visa fee revenue more than four times Immigration NZ's forecast deficit (RNZ) - Immigration Minister Erica Stanford is refusing to comment. National had promised during the election campaign to make Immigration New Zealand (INZ) a fully self-funded system. Stanford's statement announcing the changes said it would bring in more than $563 million over four years.

• Critics doubt govt claims 1000 children now in homes, not emergency housing (RNZ)

• Labour was working on a new security agency, Hipkins reveals (Newsroom)

• Record-shattering numbers of young people leaving New Zealand - Every month of 2024 has broken brain drain records as young Kiwis chase better pay and sunnier climes. And nowhere is feeling it more than Wellington. (Newsroom Pro $)

• $200m of Kiwis’ money supporting weapons and illegal Israeli settlements (Newsroom Pro $) - Fresh figures have sparked renewed calls for KiwiSaver and other investment funds to divest from companies contributing to the illegal Israeli settlements in Palestine 

• Consumers benefited from axing Auckland fuel tax, study finds (Newsroom Pro $) - Speculation the end of the fuel tax wouldn’t benefit consumers was misplaced, but significantly larger increases are on the cards

• Labour vows to 'get rid of' charter schools if it regains power

Cartoons

Cartoonist: Sharon Murdoch

Encore