More worryingly is the kind of roles they're targeting eg Office of the Clark which is responsible for providing advice and generally providing checks and balances on over-reach. Removal of Regulatory impact statements was a chilling harbinger. These clowns are REALLY dangerous 😳
Ref Nick's first photo in the article, give Seymour white foundation and a shiny red nose and what have you got? ...no wonder people fear clowns if their hearts display this one's fiendishness.
And it doesn't work. The employed public servants end up as contractors doing their old job for more pay (no security). This has to happen to keep the wheels on the bus, never mind the train on the track. So gradually it all ramps up again, nothing is better. If they really wanted things to get better longer-term, instead of demanding 15% budget reductions from government agencies, they should give them a bit more to enable a cut to the consulting budgets! Lived through it. Can read the tealeaves.
Era is seared into my consciousness. I remember Richardson encouraging people to dob beneficiaries in if they were spending inappropriately
She said people on dole should not be buying chocolate biscuits. I remember it so well as my husband had lost a well paid job where he paid a lot of tax but then he wss made redundant so we were claiming unemployment benefit. It was a very harsh time. These clowns are despicable people
It was a very harsh time you are correct. Finding out that bloody Ruth Richardson is on the board of the Taxayers Union sent shivers down my spine. She defunded so many CommunityAgencies and people were scared to speak out. I was part of a Womens Action Group and we did a lot of our protests at night ala posters protesting their policies, and their effects It is hard toknow that we are back there now with this excuse for a government. Seymour acts ( pun intended )as if he has a mandate to change our lives. He got less than ten per cent of the vote.
Well said Nick. Ideology and cronyism aside it’s almost like the people in government don’t like ordinary kiwis and wish to punish them for their bad choices.
Well summarized Nick, the mid 80's (Rogernomics) through the 90's National Government ( Ruth Richardson's Mother of all Budgets) certainly were harmful to the average NZ household & Health System. Michael Cullen's Autobiography well worth a read too. On Sunday I read & watched the video of Seymor's State of the Nation address, what an arrogant, dangerous little man,. Seems to me that this current Government cannot be allowed to last 3 years.
My reaction too, Marilyn...gave me the shivers...so what pitiful percentage of the vote did ACT get??? Reminds me of the take-over of the National Socialist Party by Hitler.....so bloody blatant....
Most of those who voted to be "On Track" with Luxon are so blinded by the slogans that they have no idea that they bought a one way ticket to a train wreck.
I can't see that this government has actually "done" much other than the plan to send half a dozen Special Forces operatives to the Red Sea and annoy a lot of people. They have "undone" a lot but we have yet to see a plan, just vague general ideas.
Remember all of this historical stuff so well Nick, in fact would have been in the protest march over the Employment Contract Act. Two other consequences of austerity policies that have become obvious are education standards being lower thanks to generational poverty and the gutting of the rail service in Aotearoa with thanks to Richard Prebble. ACT have certainly had a line up of leaders who have done austerity well: Douglas, Prebble, Hyde, Brash and Seymour continues the tradition of beneficiary bashing. The Atlas Foundation must find this country a push over.
Ditto Mac, if Mark Mitchell ever bothered to wonder why there is so much crime being committed, so many in gangs, look for the origins of it right there in your comment.
Grant Robertson who was Uni student president at the timeleadmany ofour protests against the Employment Contracts Act. We carried out many sit in s at the National Party offices. Such a divergence for our time and energy. Now this lot have cancelle the Fair Pay Agrement before anybody could benefit from it. A list of businesses in Dunedin took out a page of the ODT to say they supported the Employment Contracts Act. They became targets of some protest activity-nothing too drastic. We always respected the concept of non-violent protest.
This article is the most powerful I have read recently. It illustrates the pain about to be inflicted on us, even those nice people who voted for them.
Having lived through the Thatcher years in the UK, I watched with horror from afar as the UK coalition did it all again, only this time much worse and much longer. In NZ we are entering another round as you say Austerity 2.0, but the rich, entitled, privileged people with lots of money from house flipping and rentals will be fine.
Talking to people at a recent local gala, all I heard was "I didn't expect them to do that first. (smokefree) or "if I had known Seymour and Peters would be running things, I would not have voted for them." (Treaty referendum etc) and finally and frankly most devastating, 'When will I get my tax cuts because it’s difficult to feed a family when the cost of living is through the roof." (buyers remorse)
I have some rich relatives, lifestyle property, rentals, big pension funds, previously high paid employment or contracts. They are over the moon a new government is in power because they know they will benefit from tax cuts already announced. Their properties will increase in value more than previously. And so on. I had audacity to ask why their government chose to stop smokefree as one of its first moves. A policy that will effect poorer households the most. Their staple answer I have heard for ever is,
‘It’s a lifestyle choice. Its their responsibility to earn more, get a better job, be more responsible citizens.’
Or, ‘Maybe the government doesn’t really want to do this and might change the policy.’
Good one that!
And finally which I have to say took the biscuit,
‘Everyone has the same chance, the same education and its not our fault they don’t make the most of it.’
My niece works for the local womens refuge having been a social worker before her children came along. The stories she tells of the family violence, absolute fear some women have of men, children withdrawn and unable to learn, moved from school to school. They are desperate for more room because more women need their help. It will only get worse as councils run out of money and donations to run the refuge dry up.
Our food banks are under immense pressure as the demand is increasing. Local food wastage is just ridiculous.
Is this a poor area like Northland? Hell no! This is our second city on the South Island!
But don’t worry, restaurants are full, new cars are rushing out of the showrooms, farmers complain as usual but buy ever bigger Ute’s and tractors. We are getting a nice new hospital, at least we will if this government can find a rich, asset management company to fund most of it. Hey, just call your Atlas Network friends and the Infrastructure Management outfits who will pay for it and then bleed the public purse even dryer as they have done around the world.
Firstly I have to say I love your music collection and knowledge Nick.
Thinking on this article made me think of "Don't give me culture" and "There is no depression in New Zealand," which the mental health crisis brings another meaning too now.
I remember these times well, as I started out my career to change the world :-)
But also I reflect on growing up in a low socio-economic street in a very affluent suburb. In the middle of that suburb the thought of the day, was to have one street and three cul de sac's off it, filled with State Houses. Housing at that time people could actually buy off the state.
I loved my neighbourhood and the mix of cultures and understanding. Bull rush on the street, back yard cricket, sharing lawn mowers, or walking to school together, whanau helping whanau by having a food cooperative, everyone connected and together.
What I never really saw until my late teens was the opinions others had of our street. Apparently we had a 'good end' and a 'bad end.' Yet all I saw was the joy described above. That sense of a community working together, whanau, aroha, awhi and joy slowly destroyed by values and judgements. Others decided everyone in the street was poor and on a benefit and all the inherent issues that come with it. It was not true, but others needed to believe it to see themselves as better.
Successive "right" policies made that street into what people wanted to see and the good stuff lessened and the neighbourhood changed.
But you know when I have had a really rough day, or need time to reflect, you'll find me there on the swings remembering the true values of humanity. My fear with the coalition of chaos is I may end up living on those swings just to keep myself grounded in those values.
Thankfully Nick so do your articles and peoples comments inspire me and I look forward to that daily dose of fighting for good
There is a saying "you look to your past, to see your future." I live in hope all the positive will flow back into communities and Aotearoa. But that will require our actions and voice to go against the wrong this government is actively promoting and completing. Kia kaha!
Dear Jo it did my heart good to read your response! Thank for sharing your happy life, just like I remember mine! There are many good people about, but they don’t say much these days..
In my opinion the problem in NZ politics began with coalition governments....'twas the thin edge of the wedge, and started with Rabid Rogernomics, and ends with Smirky Seymour. It allowed ideological wingnut fanatical yes-men (Ruth Richardson, at least, planned to bring in a Financial Transactions Tax to compensate for her austerity measures, but the Bolger Govt. immediately booted her out before she could do so) and upwardly aspirational ass-licking social climbers like Roger Douglas and David Seymour to be used by corporate lobbyists and capitalist overseas think-tanks to subvert the politics of other countries. We should demand to go back to the old system, which evolved exceedingly slowly, but at least had its natural ideological checks and balances. As Kirsty says, "These clowns are REALLY dangerous"....and I would add, they always have been....
All of the elections I've voted in prior to 2023 have been first past the post. I sure feel disenfranchised under that system. It's terrible when you know your vote matters not at all because you are in a non swing riding.
Did not know that...but I do remember that a lot of older Canadians had that 'true north strong and free fuck voting, governments always win' attitude...also just found out from my son that I was technically wrong about the infamous Lange/Douglas government: it was purveyed as a Coalition in political parlance and freely owned up to in public discussions before the election, between ACT and Labour, but was not yet MMP. Sorry about that silly senior moment....but anyway the memory came back to me that I was working at fruit-picking with a fellow ex-student traveller from Leeds University in the UK (from a staunch Union family) and I was crowing about how Lange had just gone anti-nuke.....he said "They are just softening you NZ Lefties/Greenies up mate, now they are going to really fuck you over." The discussion went on for the whole picking season...as whenever we were picking in the same tree he described what had been happening under Thatcher in the UK. By the end of the season he had me convinced, and I told him so.
So checked it out, and discovered the first official MMP election was in 1996...which was when Whimsical Winston had the power and decided to support Bolger and Ruthless Ruth!!!! No wonder I could not remember, simply did not want to....and now he has just done it again!!!! God help us all.....he is the worst yes sir/three bags full sir of the bloody lot of them! And yet he is the only member of the Trio of Treaty Twisters that could conceivably be still induced to pull the plug on this Neoliberal Nihilism we are facing....but then all his supporters would actually have to get their shit together, ignore tribal loyalties, and collectively push him into it....or any little smidgeon of power is better than none when obsessed with tribal history, maybe?
You write good stuff Nick! I grew up in the 50's and 60's, later the times of David Lange, from 1984, when "neo liberals" sold their particular Spin, ( the 1984 prophecy was right in a way). Today the neo liberals are still convinced they are right. Just look at the Banking stats released rbnz.govt.nz - at the end of 2023; 17 million bank accounts holding an average deposits of $106,842, that's a total of $1,802 billion, not actually tangible though, just numbers as a record in computers. Of no value in anyway, until it is exchanged to something of value, yet we still promote the concept on wealth being NZ$, when wealth is only in the things of value, Air, Food, Water and Kilowatts, an oversupply of those components is waste, because we cannot use more than we need.
It is the same for Government finances , my equation would be GOVT DEBT = GOVT REVENUE, where Revenue includes Public services, Taxes, etc. The standard Corporate method of cutting costs by cutting jobs, does not apply, it is incompetence to believe it does, English Lit or Journalism does not provide a background for Govt finances!
I was at a meeting last night where a young woman consultant mentioned she’d applied for a raft of jobs for which she’s qualified, with no joy. It’s happening and I feel more powerlessness than I can recall since the betrayal of Douglas and Prebble ushered in the ghastly years of societal destruction that followed, which you describe so well, Nick. This cabal will be as blind to civil disobedience as their predecessors. But we can still vote and I pray the poor folk who got sucked in by the slogans will turn on their betrayers as they did in 1993 when Helen Clark’s government was voted in. That hope is keeping my head held high.
"It’s not a great long term economic plan" ... it doesn't even factor in the ongoing consequences of climate change on all New Zealanders (including the top 1%, or those with 7 houses to flood or fall victim to land slips, or the rural sector facing crop failures and EU compliance rules for their intended exports). So lacking in so many ways. I'm amazed at the lack of intelligence on show here. Not to mention any acknowledgement of the impact of a tense and fragile world, global power shifts, wars, increasing forced emigration. NZ is an island nation but we are very much part of the global world and will be affected. Join the dots. Do some properly informed horizon scanning and analysis before jumping straight into quick fix so called 'solutions'. The old grab bag no longer cuts it on any level.
Well said Nick and I wholeheartedly agree with you- my worry is that many of those who voted for these clowns will have indeed known what they were doing and don’t give a damn!
More worryingly is the kind of roles they're targeting eg Office of the Clark which is responsible for providing advice and generally providing checks and balances on over-reach. Removal of Regulatory impact statements was a chilling harbinger. These clowns are REALLY dangerous 😳
Ref Nick's first photo in the article, give Seymour white foundation and a shiny red nose and what have you got? ...no wonder people fear clowns if their hearts display this one's fiendishness.
And it doesn't work. The employed public servants end up as contractors doing their old job for more pay (no security). This has to happen to keep the wheels on the bus, never mind the train on the track. So gradually it all ramps up again, nothing is better. If they really wanted things to get better longer-term, instead of demanding 15% budget reductions from government agencies, they should give them a bit more to enable a cut to the consulting budgets! Lived through it. Can read the tealeaves.
Yes absolutely. The Ruth Richardson
Era is seared into my consciousness. I remember Richardson encouraging people to dob beneficiaries in if they were spending inappropriately
She said people on dole should not be buying chocolate biscuits. I remember it so well as my husband had lost a well paid job where he paid a lot of tax but then he wss made redundant so we were claiming unemployment benefit. It was a very harsh time. These clowns are despicable people
It was a very harsh time you are correct. Finding out that bloody Ruth Richardson is on the board of the Taxayers Union sent shivers down my spine. She defunded so many CommunityAgencies and people were scared to speak out. I was part of a Womens Action Group and we did a lot of our protests at night ala posters protesting their policies, and their effects It is hard toknow that we are back there now with this excuse for a government. Seymour acts ( pun intended )as if he has a mandate to change our lives. He got less than ten per cent of the vote.
Well said Nick. Ideology and cronyism aside it’s almost like the people in government don’t like ordinary kiwis and wish to punish them for their bad choices.
Well summarized Nick, the mid 80's (Rogernomics) through the 90's National Government ( Ruth Richardson's Mother of all Budgets) certainly were harmful to the average NZ household & Health System. Michael Cullen's Autobiography well worth a read too. On Sunday I read & watched the video of Seymor's State of the Nation address, what an arrogant, dangerous little man,. Seems to me that this current Government cannot be allowed to last 3 years.
Absolutely and how does he get to call his speech the state of the nation speech!
Excactly. 'THE NATION' did not vote for him. He would not be in government now if Luxon wasn't so desperate to become PM.
My reaction too, Marilyn...gave me the shivers...so what pitiful percentage of the vote did ACT get??? Reminds me of the take-over of the National Socialist Party by Hitler.....so bloody blatant....
Most of those who voted to be "On Track" with Luxon are so blinded by the slogans that they have no idea that they bought a one way ticket to a train wreck.
I can't see that this government has actually "done" much other than the plan to send half a dozen Special Forces operatives to the Red Sea and annoy a lot of people. They have "undone" a lot but we have yet to see a plan, just vague general ideas.
Agreed- very vague plan!
Yep-me too-a vague plan.
Remember all of this historical stuff so well Nick, in fact would have been in the protest march over the Employment Contract Act. Two other consequences of austerity policies that have become obvious are education standards being lower thanks to generational poverty and the gutting of the rail service in Aotearoa with thanks to Richard Prebble. ACT have certainly had a line up of leaders who have done austerity well: Douglas, Prebble, Hyde, Brash and Seymour continues the tradition of beneficiary bashing. The Atlas Foundation must find this country a push over.
Ditto Mac, if Mark Mitchell ever bothered to wonder why there is so much crime being committed, so many in gangs, look for the origins of it right there in your comment.
Well said but then insight isn't their strength eh. Just blame, blame, blame someone else for everything
True, and when Kiri Allen did commence looking into prevention of crime cause issues look at what was done to her.
And with weak leadership like Cluxon/ the right wing can run rampant
Grant Robertson who was Uni student president at the timeleadmany ofour protests against the Employment Contracts Act. We carried out many sit in s at the National Party offices. Such a divergence for our time and energy. Now this lot have cancelle the Fair Pay Agrement before anybody could benefit from it. A list of businesses in Dunedin took out a page of the ODT to say they supported the Employment Contracts Act. They became targets of some protest activity-nothing too drastic. We always respected the concept of non-violent protest.
This article is the most powerful I have read recently. It illustrates the pain about to be inflicted on us, even those nice people who voted for them.
Having lived through the Thatcher years in the UK, I watched with horror from afar as the UK coalition did it all again, only this time much worse and much longer. In NZ we are entering another round as you say Austerity 2.0, but the rich, entitled, privileged people with lots of money from house flipping and rentals will be fine.
Talking to people at a recent local gala, all I heard was "I didn't expect them to do that first. (smokefree) or "if I had known Seymour and Peters would be running things, I would not have voted for them." (Treaty referendum etc) and finally and frankly most devastating, 'When will I get my tax cuts because it’s difficult to feed a family when the cost of living is through the roof." (buyers remorse)
I have some rich relatives, lifestyle property, rentals, big pension funds, previously high paid employment or contracts. They are over the moon a new government is in power because they know they will benefit from tax cuts already announced. Their properties will increase in value more than previously. And so on. I had audacity to ask why their government chose to stop smokefree as one of its first moves. A policy that will effect poorer households the most. Their staple answer I have heard for ever is,
‘It’s a lifestyle choice. Its their responsibility to earn more, get a better job, be more responsible citizens.’
Or, ‘Maybe the government doesn’t really want to do this and might change the policy.’
Good one that!
And finally which I have to say took the biscuit,
‘Everyone has the same chance, the same education and its not our fault they don’t make the most of it.’
My niece works for the local womens refuge having been a social worker before her children came along. The stories she tells of the family violence, absolute fear some women have of men, children withdrawn and unable to learn, moved from school to school. They are desperate for more room because more women need their help. It will only get worse as councils run out of money and donations to run the refuge dry up.
Our food banks are under immense pressure as the demand is increasing. Local food wastage is just ridiculous.
Is this a poor area like Northland? Hell no! This is our second city on the South Island!
But don’t worry, restaurants are full, new cars are rushing out of the showrooms, farmers complain as usual but buy ever bigger Ute’s and tractors. We are getting a nice new hospital, at least we will if this government can find a rich, asset management company to fund most of it. Hey, just call your Atlas Network friends and the Infrastructure Management outfits who will pay for it and then bleed the public purse even dryer as they have done around the world.
Tony, So true. As Nick says they are "Leeches"
Firstly I have to say I love your music collection and knowledge Nick.
Thinking on this article made me think of "Don't give me culture" and "There is no depression in New Zealand," which the mental health crisis brings another meaning too now.
I remember these times well, as I started out my career to change the world :-)
But also I reflect on growing up in a low socio-economic street in a very affluent suburb. In the middle of that suburb the thought of the day, was to have one street and three cul de sac's off it, filled with State Houses. Housing at that time people could actually buy off the state.
I loved my neighbourhood and the mix of cultures and understanding. Bull rush on the street, back yard cricket, sharing lawn mowers, or walking to school together, whanau helping whanau by having a food cooperative, everyone connected and together.
What I never really saw until my late teens was the opinions others had of our street. Apparently we had a 'good end' and a 'bad end.' Yet all I saw was the joy described above. That sense of a community working together, whanau, aroha, awhi and joy slowly destroyed by values and judgements. Others decided everyone in the street was poor and on a benefit and all the inherent issues that come with it. It was not true, but others needed to believe it to see themselves as better.
Successive "right" policies made that street into what people wanted to see and the good stuff lessened and the neighbourhood changed.
But you know when I have had a really rough day, or need time to reflect, you'll find me there on the swings remembering the true values of humanity. My fear with the coalition of chaos is I may end up living on those swings just to keep myself grounded in those values.
Thankfully Nick so do your articles and peoples comments inspire me and I look forward to that daily dose of fighting for good
There is a saying "you look to your past, to see your future." I live in hope all the positive will flow back into communities and Aotearoa. But that will require our actions and voice to go against the wrong this government is actively promoting and completing. Kia kaha!
Dear Jo it did my heart good to read your response! Thank for sharing your happy life, just like I remember mine! There are many good people about, but they don’t say much these days..
You are most welcome. I am glad it brought joy as the world needs more of that eh :-)
I have lived through the times you are remembering too, Nick, and I remember them well! It was scary! We need a new Helen Clark!!
Listened to Helen Clark on RNZ this morning, she sounded so rational and wise compared to what we have.
Yes she’s always worth hearing!
My children left school in the 1980s. They struggled to find work. It was a tough time.
In my opinion the problem in NZ politics began with coalition governments....'twas the thin edge of the wedge, and started with Rabid Rogernomics, and ends with Smirky Seymour. It allowed ideological wingnut fanatical yes-men (Ruth Richardson, at least, planned to bring in a Financial Transactions Tax to compensate for her austerity measures, but the Bolger Govt. immediately booted her out before she could do so) and upwardly aspirational ass-licking social climbers like Roger Douglas and David Seymour to be used by corporate lobbyists and capitalist overseas think-tanks to subvert the politics of other countries. We should demand to go back to the old system, which evolved exceedingly slowly, but at least had its natural ideological checks and balances. As Kirsty says, "These clowns are REALLY dangerous"....and I would add, they always have been....
All of the elections I've voted in prior to 2023 have been first past the post. I sure feel disenfranchised under that system. It's terrible when you know your vote matters not at all because you are in a non swing riding.
You will also see that voter turnout is a lot higher in NZ than in Canada, though I don't know how much of that is the voting system.
Did not know that...but I do remember that a lot of older Canadians had that 'true north strong and free fuck voting, governments always win' attitude...also just found out from my son that I was technically wrong about the infamous Lange/Douglas government: it was purveyed as a Coalition in political parlance and freely owned up to in public discussions before the election, between ACT and Labour, but was not yet MMP. Sorry about that silly senior moment....but anyway the memory came back to me that I was working at fruit-picking with a fellow ex-student traveller from Leeds University in the UK (from a staunch Union family) and I was crowing about how Lange had just gone anti-nuke.....he said "They are just softening you NZ Lefties/Greenies up mate, now they are going to really fuck you over." The discussion went on for the whole picking season...as whenever we were picking in the same tree he described what had been happening under Thatcher in the UK. By the end of the season he had me convinced, and I told him so.
So checked it out, and discovered the first official MMP election was in 1996...which was when Whimsical Winston had the power and decided to support Bolger and Ruthless Ruth!!!! No wonder I could not remember, simply did not want to....and now he has just done it again!!!! God help us all.....he is the worst yes sir/three bags full sir of the bloody lot of them! And yet he is the only member of the Trio of Treaty Twisters that could conceivably be still induced to pull the plug on this Neoliberal Nihilism we are facing....but then all his supporters would actually have to get their shit together, ignore tribal loyalties, and collectively push him into it....or any little smidgeon of power is better than none when obsessed with tribal history, maybe?
Sorry, that last quip might be too bleak and cynical.....I certainly hope so....and hey, what can an old immigrant Canadian actually know....
You write good stuff Nick! I grew up in the 50's and 60's, later the times of David Lange, from 1984, when "neo liberals" sold their particular Spin, ( the 1984 prophecy was right in a way). Today the neo liberals are still convinced they are right. Just look at the Banking stats released rbnz.govt.nz - at the end of 2023; 17 million bank accounts holding an average deposits of $106,842, that's a total of $1,802 billion, not actually tangible though, just numbers as a record in computers. Of no value in anyway, until it is exchanged to something of value, yet we still promote the concept on wealth being NZ$, when wealth is only in the things of value, Air, Food, Water and Kilowatts, an oversupply of those components is waste, because we cannot use more than we need.
It is the same for Government finances , my equation would be GOVT DEBT = GOVT REVENUE, where Revenue includes Public services, Taxes, etc. The standard Corporate method of cutting costs by cutting jobs, does not apply, it is incompetence to believe it does, English Lit or Journalism does not provide a background for Govt finances!
I was at a meeting last night where a young woman consultant mentioned she’d applied for a raft of jobs for which she’s qualified, with no joy. It’s happening and I feel more powerlessness than I can recall since the betrayal of Douglas and Prebble ushered in the ghastly years of societal destruction that followed, which you describe so well, Nick. This cabal will be as blind to civil disobedience as their predecessors. But we can still vote and I pray the poor folk who got sucked in by the slogans will turn on their betrayers as they did in 1993 when Helen Clark’s government was voted in. That hope is keeping my head held high.
"It’s not a great long term economic plan" ... it doesn't even factor in the ongoing consequences of climate change on all New Zealanders (including the top 1%, or those with 7 houses to flood or fall victim to land slips, or the rural sector facing crop failures and EU compliance rules for their intended exports). So lacking in so many ways. I'm amazed at the lack of intelligence on show here. Not to mention any acknowledgement of the impact of a tense and fragile world, global power shifts, wars, increasing forced emigration. NZ is an island nation but we are very much part of the global world and will be affected. Join the dots. Do some properly informed horizon scanning and analysis before jumping straight into quick fix so called 'solutions'. The old grab bag no longer cuts it on any level.
Well said Nick and I wholeheartedly agree with you- my worry is that many of those who voted for these clowns will have indeed known what they were doing and don’t give a damn!