Opening Night
No dole queues, no racism, no sexism...
We have no dole queues
We have no drug addicts
We have no racism
We have no sexism
Sexism, no, no
There is no depression in New Zealand
Songwriters: Donald Bain Mcglashan / Richard Paul Leigh Von Sturmer.
Once upon a time, when Muldoon was the Prime Minister, a group of Blams wrote an ironic song about the lack of depression in New Zealand.
I remember it being revived under the Key government, as many of the things mentioned in the lyrics grew worse. Fortunately, these days, under Christopher Luxon and Nicola Willis, there is no need to sing such songs, and everything is, as the PM likes to say, ‘wonderful’.
Insert advertisement for insipid swill here.
We have no dole queues.
Hmm, perhaps that’s not the best place to start. I guess it would sound wrong to say we’ve got the worst unemployment in decades; the lyrics wouldn’t scan. Seriously, though, this is the sort of problem our government feels is best left to sort itself out.
Unemployment is at record highs, worse than during Covid, worse than during the Global Financial Crisis, and it’s especially tough for young people trying to gain a first footing in a crowded market. Youth unemployment is running at 15.2%, compared with 5.2% for the general population, and we have 156,000 young people not in work.
So what does the government do? They cancel funding for a programme that has successfully helped these very people into employment for over a decade.
Youth Inspire, in Lower Hutt, has lost its funding despite working with 150 young people at present. MSD says other providers will do the work, presumably ones without such a record of results, and I’m guessing more cheaply, because ultimately that’s all that counts, right - to do it as cheaply as possible?
It was hard watching the report as they described how the programme had helped vulnerable young people overcome issues like generational dependency on welfare, precisely what these young people need, and it was clear from their faces how much it meant to them. I wrote:
Youth unemployment is at a high, and our government cuts funding to a programme helping young people into work.
Pretty much sums these pricks up.
The passion and commitment of the people running the programme, the tales of finding employment and boosting confidence, only to have their funding applications denied, even as they won the Employer Of The Year award from the Hutt Chamber of Commerce. It seems like madness to me.
Todd commented, “Why do they detest Aotearoa so much? Whoever hurt them, own up now!”
Moira said, “Plenty of money for the wrong things! Complain about youth unemployment but refuse to support getting young people into work or developing their skills to enable this!”
Jeremy was stunned, “Words fail me. Christopher Luxon and his repulsive coalition aren’t governing for the people and the good of Aotearoa. It’s all about self-interest and ideology. They are betraying this country week after week.”
Hmm, not so good on the absence of unemployment, how about racism? Surely we haven’t gotten any of that left by now, it’s 2025 for goodness sake.
We have no racism.
Things might be a bit better on this front, seeing the following headline I wrote:
Naw, look there, folks, Great Uncle Bazza says from his experience as a successful white man, there is no racism at all in our police.
I wondered if Barry was humming the Blam Blam Blam tune as he said it, or whether he was on the Turps, or perhaps both.
Soper took umbrage at the fact that Tamatha Paul, who has criticised police in the past, had an opportunity to ask questions of that organisation for scrutiny week, as if someone who had raised issues previously shouldn’t be able to do so.
Barry mocked the MP, saying she had taken up the cause of Māori being treated differently for Cannabis charges, as if it was ludicrous she should do so.
Tamatha had stated that more Māori than pakeha are arrested for Cannabis crimes despite them only being 15% of the population and the police now having discretion about charging. Heather and Bazza seemed to think the whole thing was a massive joke, with the latter in complete denial, saying, “I don’t think there is racism in the police at all”.
Seriously?
I mean, things may not be as bad as they were back in Barry’s heyday under Muldoon, but any group in society is going to have some racism, and it's pretty far-fetched to say there is none at all in our police.
A few weeks ago, we might have said there was no high-level corruption in the police allowing individuals to get away with sexual assault and viewing the most depraved images, and yet here we are.
Eddie said, “Barely Sober, hiccuping through life as per whatever his middy told him to say.”
Wikitoria commented, “Having lived in South Auckland for a few years. Oh yes, there bloody is!”
Just last year, there was an independent Report finding bias and structural racism in NZ police, ‘unsurprising’, Māori academic. Which sounds a bit more credible than Bazza’s reckons.
Ok, so not so good on the jobs front, or the racism, what about sexism?
We have no sexism.
Obviously, there is the issue of cancelling Fair Pay in professions that predominantly impact women, but surely we’re learning our lessons elsewhere, right?
For example, we’ve seen numerous female MPs attacked in recent years for no reason other than being successful women, but we’re no longer doing that, are we?
I was pretty disappointed to see the following article yesterday, and wrote:
Mike King is clearly very unwell, and whatever credibility he once had is now long gone. So why is Stuff posting his deranged rant about a female Labour MP without any reply? Ingrid Leary is an outstanding MP and is doing precisely what she should.
From my post, I learned that the Mike King supporters who were commenting were as deranged as the anti-Jacinda people and the Destiny Church mob, and I had to block quite a few trolls.
Grant wrote, “Does none of the media recall the process used to fund him? No? That’s because there was NONE!!! Winnie gave him a handout, end of story. He knows he’s wrong, hence this diversion.”
It does seem like a bad joke that Mike King receives funding after advertising for Winston at the last election, whereas a programme like Youth Inspire doesn’t.
Mary, whom I once had brunch with, said, “I have just spent the whole weekend at the Labour Party Conference and witnessed Ingrid Leary in action, in particular speaking at a Seniors gathering with Dr Ayesha Verrall.
She is superb. I would trust her judgment implicitly.”
Kirsty commented, “He’s always been an angry, aggressive, self-serving blowhard—the Eftpostle Tamaki of the Mental Health sector. And WE gave him $24 million. Grrrrrr.”
Heather said, “Those who care about mental health know how harmful it is to label people ‘obsessive’ for asking fair questions. Accountability is necessary for public trust.”
It is a deliberately chosen word, I’m sure, and it is especially used to attack women, to paint them as hysterical when they are nothing of the sort. You’d think we might have learned about misogynist attacks after what happened with Jacinda, and too many others.
Opening Night.
Speaking of our former Prime Minister, it was the opening of her movie in the UK overnight, and it was lovely to see her so happy.
As I checked the Guardian for overnight news when I woke up this morning, I was delighted and moved by a sincere review that captured her well…
“More than any politician anywhere in the world in my adult lifetime, she looked like an actual member of the human race who was catapulted to office too fast to have acquired the defensive carapace of the professional politician. She was vulnerable and scrutable and likeable in ways utterly alien to everyone else.”
John commented, “I have not seen the movie, but this is what I felt about the person.”
Larraine wrote, “And she received a standing ovation after the movie showing at Mayfair's Curzon Centre in London. Eat your miserable hearts out, haters- that’s star power right there. There has never been a politician in NZ with that sort of global recognition, and probably never will be.”
Highlighting the misogyny in our society, the review concludes, “an ugly new far-right anti-vax mob made their encampment outside parliament. The film shows how they were succumbing to the delicious thrill of bullying a woman. The sad thing is that there doesn’t appear to be much space for someone like Ardern in modern politics; less space than ever in fact.”
I’m not sure I fully agree with that.
Hearing Chris Hipkins talk about the impact of a job loss on his family made me think he is made of the same stuff. Perhaps not another Ardern as such, but someone with a good heart, someone I believe the nation will find they quite like over the next year.
Not the deranged Jacinda haters, of course, but I’m not sure there is anything those people would like, and quite frankly, I don’t much care.
Have a good Wednesday, and take care, all you lovely people.
Ngā mihi,
Nick.
To end today, here’s the Kiwi classic, ‘There Is No Depression In New Zealand’ from Auckland Action Against Poverty’s Block Party protest outside the National Party’s ball in the time of Key, back when poverty was a growing issue.
Labour and Greens were great yesterday with their scrutiny week mahi, but you would not know if you were relying on media reports - again I ask: incompetence or following orders? Ms Willis was a (shrill) role model for getting her Nicola’s in a twist.
A really clever piece of writing Nick. The song even more relevant under this mean, disaster of a government. The distribution of wealth is a national and world issue that needs to be debated not resorting to name calling which seems to be the only strategy left for the coalition of chaos.