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Sally's avatar

The coalition is on track to burn this country to the ground by destroying the NZ image in the world stage and the fuel crisis is the perfect excuse to limit our movement so the 15minute cities will become more palatable. Now we have media ramping up fear of movement on cruise ships. It’s managed media hysteria to herd humans. “Their” agenda is still on course

Ian Dunn's avatar

That is the million-dollar question, isn't it Sally. Your touching on the classic great reset vs. great decay debate. When the government policy seems so diametrically opposed to the physical reality of fuel, education, and environment, there are really only two ways to look at it:

The Hidden Agenda (The Control Argument)

If you assume this is intentional, the purpose is usually Risk Management at Scale.

Logicly an independent, mobile, and sovereign population is an unpredictable variable in a world of declining resources. If you want to transition a society into a new operating system, like digital currencies or restricted movement, you first have to break their reliance on the old.

The purpose is to ocntrol isn't usually just for the sake of being evil; it’s the ultimate bureaucratic solution to instability. A herded population is easier to model, manage, and sustain on a spreadsheet than a million individuals doing their own thing.

or 2. The system decay (The Incompetence Argument)

This is the error perspective. It suggests there is no grand architect, just a bunch of people who have been promoted to their level of incompetence (The Peter Principle).

The Logic here is the people running administrative tasks have become so insulated by their own metrics that they’ve lost the ability to read the gauges. They prioritize the Budget (the spreadsheet) over the actual machine (the country).

assuming this is the purpose: There isn't one. It’s just entropy. The system is cannibalizing its own future (Fees-Free, Environment Ministry) just to keep the lights on for another day. It looks like a conspiracy because the failures are so consistent, but it might just be a total loss of literacy.

If it’s Control, then the fuel crisis is a Feature, designed to make us palatable to a restricted life.

If it’s Decay, then the fuel crisis is a Bug that the Government is too paralyzed to fix, and they're just using the 15-minute city concept as a convenient excuse for their own failure to maintain the infrastructure.

Either way, the result for the person on the ground is the same: A loss of agency. Whether it's a higher power with a hidden agenda or just a bunch of people blindly following a broken code, we’re seeing the Sovereign Gap widen. The state is retreating from its duty to maintain anything. leaving the individuals to figure out how to run it on their own.

Sian's avatar
2dEdited

I would like to think it's decay with a few self-interested lobby groups trying to take advantage, rather than conspiracy and control.

Nothing about this government leads me to believe they have any real competency in any area, never mind participating actively in some grand scheme.

Either way, they need to go, before they wreck us or rein us.

Kim Shaw-Williams's avatar

Spot on analysis, one of the best I've read...dealing with the ultimate setting up of a Semi-fascist/Neo-feudal/Digitally-run society in our times...and this NAct1st-think-later present ultra right-wing/John Key inspired/Atlas coup (over what little remains of NZ's post-WWII Socialist Democracy) is very busily trying to install the austere/anti-education/anti environmentally concerned political systems needed for its final establishment.

Ian Dunn's avatar

keep incouraging me, I'm just getting started

Rachel Merritt's avatar

It's getting more and more like controlled population Communism to me. Certainly, time to encourage the younger generation to make sure they are enrolled and then vote this neoliberal lot out. So, keep your comments coming Ian.

Ian Dunn's avatar

Thanks, Rachel. Whether it’s Neo-Feudalism or a new flavor of controlled Communism, the pattern is identical.

Encouraging the youth to vote is the necessary, but we also need solutions. If the next generation doesn’t reclaim the physical skills and sovereign resources being liquidated right now, it won't matter who they vote for—they'll still be running on a broken machine. I'll definitely keep the articals and comments coming.

Kim Shaw-Williams's avatar

Excuse me Ian, the pattern is NOT IDENTICAL...Communism required a huge controlled governmental labour-force to survive...which is exactly why it didn't, of course...we should stop being mentally trapped in old political tropes...what is coming if the Techbro Gangsters/Neo-Feudalists get their way is completely different

wikitoria's avatar

The push towards communities shouldering the responsibilities of govt, seems apparent with the defunding support of many social and service agencies.

Helen Raskin's avatar

Sally please define"their"

Sally's avatar

Rothchilds WEF WHO Bildeberg group globalists take your pick

Dean Reynolds's avatar

In 1936, NZ was the first country in the world to establish free tertiary education across the board - Universities, Polytechs, Nursing & Teacher training, all Apprenticeships, professional accounting qualifications, etc. We were coming out of the Great Depression & heading into a World War. If we could afford free tertiary education then, I'm bloody sure we can afford it now. When Winston Peters says that the money 'saved' will be put into trade training, he's just a lying, senile old hypocrite who was happy to receive a free law degree back in the day & happy to make this generation of students pay for their education.

Darien Fenton's avatar

The Fees Free from Labour as originally introduced was never about enabling only poor kids to attend university, as being positioned by Luxon, Seymour, Peters et al. It was about not sending young people go into their future with a world of debt. Since fees free was introduced: the number of NZ-based Kiwis with student loan debt has fallen by 113,000 & their total debt has fallen by $550m. And for the record, fees free applied to trade courses run by Polytechs, along with the Modern Apprenticeship scheme. This is a deliberate and shocking twist being promulgated by the CoC, hoping to promote downward envy.

Kim Shaw-Williams's avatar

Thanks again for more highly clarifying factual info, Darien

Liz Francis's avatar

To think that all this neolib agenda began with Douglas et al in the 1880's. He and his peers had had a free tertiary education, but then set about introducing fees little by little. Looking back, I would never have achieved a degree which provided me the tools to consider politics in a more critical light, had I been faced with the level of fees students are expected to find these days. What's more, in those earlier times, students could rely on reasonably paid jobs during the summer which provided for their living expenses - not so these days. Will this mean university education becomes largely the domain of wealthy families? If so, I guess we can look forward to a much more docile citizenry in future - educated to do rather than criticize. Serfs.

Anita Taylor's avatar

In full agreement, Liz. The writing was on the wall once Douglas, Prebble, and co. took control, only to be further engineered by Richardson.

Sian's avatar

Absolutely.

Kim Shaw-Williams's avatar

Serfs is the perfect word for the coming AI-run Semi-Fascist Techno-Oligarch Neo-feudalism, Liz, in my increasingly Dystopian estimation...

Ian Dunn's avatar

We’ve officially hit the threshold for a fuel stock drop that should trigger Stage 2, yet the PSC claims there’s no reason to act. It’s like watching a maintenance light flash red on the dashboard and deciding to tape over it because the office policy says we have to keep driving. You can't run a society on bureaucratic settings when the actual fuel hardware is running dry.

Disestablishing the Environment Ministry and cutting Fees-Free just confirms the pattern: the Establishment is sacrificing long-term physical resilience and human capital just to balance a ledger today. As the Stones song says, it’s "no mystery" while the foundation rots.

Trading away our sovereign energy security for a short-term budget win is a high-stakes gamble with $200 oil on the horizon. It’s the ultimate double standard, the people in charge are rewriting the rules to protect the institution while the next generation is left to deal with the failure.

Wouldn't matter where I look at the moment, the state is in decay. Question is what are we going to do about it?

John's avatar

I think the government has no option but to keep fuel consumption at business-as-usual levels as we lack the storage to accommodate both reduced consumption and the arrival of the stock we have 'on the water'. If we used less, we'd be obliged to ask our suppliers to slow down the pace of delivery, and that might lead to the cancellation or delay of shipments... Not excusing the government, but I think that's the rock and the hard place policy stupidity has placed us between. This, by rights, ought to be the budget where measures to break our reliance on fossil fuels forever are announced. Excuse me if I don't hold my breath...

Ian Dunn's avatar

Sharp point, John. You’ve highlighted the ultimate failure: we’ve traded domestic processing and storage buffers for a just-in-time 'on the water' model with zero margin for error.

It’s the height of administrative irony that we're forced to keep consumption high just to prevent a logistical pile-up at the ports. We didn't just stumble into this rock and a hard place, we engineered the trap by prioritizing short-term fiscal efficiency over long-term sovereign resilience. Until the storage and refinery capacity is addressed, any green budget moves are just adding broken parts to a broken machine.

John's avatar

Remember the mantra of the 1980s? Private enterprise does it better.... the market will provide. Yeah, right.

Ian Dunn's avatar

and now we’re finding out the hard way that you can’t outsource your sovereignty to a just-in-time global supply chain. The market provides right up until it doesn't, and we're the ones left holding the empty tank. So what do we do about it? as just voting alone might not do it.

Kim Shaw-Williams's avatar

I and certain old Labour/Green stalwarts I know are just recently rather desperately contemplating support of a huge political (and probably non-politically partisan movement, if introduced in the right manner, of course...as just being our only hope of maintaining some degree of our sovereignty --like Tasmania,that is...so we speculate) to become a State of Australia...

rather than be sacrificed to the Techbro Oligarchs aspirations to turn NZ into a safe tax-free bunker country for them in the fear of their forthcoming establishment of AI-caused social mayhem...which has recently become far more urgent due to the extremely rambunctious development of WWIII by their political pawns, Trump and Netanyahu.

John's avatar

I'm not sure Straya would save us, though, Kim. If they acquired us as a state, I'm sure they wouldn't need much convincing to flog us off to the highest bidding fugitive techbro.

Denise Davis's avatar

I totally agree!

Diane Shaw's avatar

Luxon is incapable of making a proactive decision around the fuel supply issue - totally lacking in any leadership abilities. He's a failure as both a PM and a CEO. Imagine how he would have reacted if faced with the COVID epidemic.

Sian's avatar

The second single, Rough and Twisted, is pretty good too.

Tova had the perfect opportunity on Breakfast this morning to really put Seymour on the spot when he was ranting on about people having to pay for the education of others with their taxes.

I would have loved to see her ask if then he did not believe in investing in the future of the country, since he sees it as paying for individuals with no return, and following on that theme.

I just knew when this lot of toerags changed the fees free year from 1st to 3rd that they were planning on ditching it.

Nick Rockel's avatar

Yeah I considered “Rough and Twisted”, good track but didn’t fit so well.

Sian's avatar

Oh for sure, not a comment on the selection, just on liking the tracks released so far. I'm keen to see what else this album has.

Darien Fenton's avatar

I thought Tova was soft on David Seymour. He's enjoying it. WTF is Luxon thinking giving him a free platform every week?

Sian's avatar

Luxon doesn't think. Therein lies the whole problem with this government. All of them do as they are told by their corporate masters.

Kim Shaw-Williams's avatar

I think the truth is far more Dystopian/Atlas-planned than you two, i'm afraid...in other words, Luxon is doing exactly what John Key's CEO Gangster/Techbro (Peter Thiele) Neoliberals told him to do...be the Lugubrious Enabler...a very cleverly constructed political coup when you see it my way...

Sian's avatar
2dEdited

You could well be right. I just hope not. I hope it is more opportunistic and less planned. I hope it's just the perfect storm of stupidity and avarice. And I hope we can all begin to see it, say "enough", band together, and show them we will not participate in their deluded idea of society.

It's time, after 40 years of neoliberal bullshit that isn't working, to burn it all down and start again.

Kim Shaw-Williams's avatar

Sian, mate, I think your phrase "burn it all down and start again" is unfortunately right on the button: it is called WAR...and we are now entering WWIII, just like when WWI and II heralded the end of "Laissez-faire" Economics at the setting up of the 20th Century...bloody hell, I wish we would all wake up and stop letting the effing Post Victorian capitalist pigs/now Techbro 1%er Fascists like Thiele and Musk keep doing this shit to us!!!!

Summerhaze's avatar

Yes, Kim. Yes, yes, yes.

Denise Davis's avatar

I believe that Luxon and Seymour are of the same ideology. They would both be much happier if NZF weren't there, but power is what drives them. I am cringing at the likely prospect of NZF being kingmaker again, and the high possibility of this Government getting another term.

Martin Garrood's avatar

Time to invest in our young people, our environment, and our own energy resources - kick the fossil fuel addiction to the kerb once and for all

The electricity market isn't working for consumers - so your choices are to change the rules to incentivise better behaviour, or roll your sleeves up and get in there and compete by building new generaiton. I would like government to invest that proposed $1bn of electricity levy into some new state-owned generation - that would help keep the other market players "honest" - otherwise they will continue to only build new generation "just in time" to keep prices up. And at least all the profits from more government owned generation goes straight back into the government coffers, rather than to shareholders.

I would go for woody biomass and geothermal for electricity and industrial heat - dispatchable, baseload generation that is good in dry winters. Adding value to logs here, rather than sending them to be made into cheap furniture overseas, would be a win. And keep working on liquid biofuels from woody biomass for those hard to decarbonise uses where electrification doesn't yet seem likely to be an option. Scion, or whatever they are called now, can do it, and create high-tech jobs that help keep some of NZ's talent here, through providing good jobs - we could be 100% energy self-sustaining without having to search for more oil or gas

Rachel Merritt's avatar

The message sure is "Ditch the Pricks in 26" and we can all encourage people to check that they are enrolled, then vote.

Jendr's avatar

There's a couple of mills in the Far North that are under threat of being mothballed by their current (offshore) owners. Imagine returning them both to local ownership -coops perhaps - and continuing milled timber production in one and converting the other to biomass processing / biofuel production. The potential gains for local communities, industries, economies make big 'madcap' ideas worth considering at the very least. Time to flex our imaginations.

Martin Garrood's avatar

I don't think that is madcap in the slightest - the government could take over and run the mill, even at only breakeven point, or just pay a lot more unemployment benefit to the workers made redundant when it shuts. They could use some of Shane Jones's latest rural development slush fund to do it. Securing some more of our energy and lumber needs would be a good outcome

Kim Shaw-Williams's avatar

Yep, I've envisioned a similar energy supply scenario, Martin...it just makes practical AND political sense, eh...

David Rees's avatar

No words for this punch down on our future generations for short term gain for the already sorted 😡 Hearing something new from the Stones was a nice cheer up though!

Russ Sewell's avatar

Having punched down on women (pay equity) the environment, these vandals are now putting their steel toecaps into our young people.

Hateful, spiteful, mean spirited tossers.

Summerhaze's avatar

And they've punched down on Māori too. Rawiri Waititi made a great speech about that in parliament a while back.

Russ Sewell's avatar

Absolutely. Not fit for government. Let's dispatch them come November

Summerhaze's avatar

fuelclock.nz's figures differ significantly from those put out by MBIE and they include the comparison with every update (usually daily). The website etc. was developed by someone associated with The Taxpayers Union. I guess the real fuel stock amounts are somewhere in the middle.

Thanks, Nick, for another great read, and it's so good to hear the Stones.

Mac Stevenson's avatar

Today’s news has been really depressing and especially the thought that the great hypocrite and his pompous sidekick look odds on to be in a position to win the next election.

John Farrell's avatar

I would take any predictions about the election result from The Herald with a very large grain of salt.

Kim Shaw-Williams's avatar

Whole-heartedly in agreement with you John...

John Farrell's avatar

I haven't read the article - but to my mind any sort of prediction, given the state of the world, is merely wild speculation.

Shell's avatar

If you wrote this stuff as a movie script about an abhorrent government, people would say it's too far-fetched. Much like Trump's America.

Lorraine's avatar

Great article, Nick. It's hard to keep up with this government's speed of deliberate collapse of all things good. I feel punch drunk at times. Thanks for entertaining us even as you inform us in these dark times - great wry jabs and love the cartoon selection today.

Nick Rockel's avatar

Thanks Lorraine.

Heather Thompson's avatar

Fees free was all types of tertiary study trades, polytechnics and universities. So nurses, plumbers, doctors, teachers etc

Gloria Sharp's avatar

Again I say ‘what next from these rogues’. Most upsetting to hear that Peter’s party heading again as king maker. Those who vote for him are selfish nasties alright.