Slippery People.

And Flippery Suckers.

What's the matter with him? (He's alright)
How do you know? (The Lord won't mind)
Don't play no games (he's alright)
Love from the bottom to the top.

You’re alright, but how about her, or him? What makes them tick? Are they a solid citizen or a slippery fecker? Why are we all so different?

The company high flyer, chasing promotion and pay rises, striving for the top? Or the artist, work it’s own reward - lord knows it ain’t the money, pouring themselves upon their canvas or into their songs.

Farmers working the land, income beyond their control, subject to international prices and the weather. Those who build and fix the things we need. Providing what we need to live, food in our bellies, a roof over our heads.

Public sector workers, benefiting all but poorly paid compared to those moving numbers around producing little of obvious use.

Then we have our politicians. Standing for the values and dreams of those they represent. Be they workers struggling to afford the cost of living, people who care about the environment, business owners looking for resource concessions and less regulation, or those who prefer tax cuts to government spending.

What is it in us that sets us on these different paths, that defines our values and priorities, and why are others so different than us?

Most of the time we accept it. That while some believe the government should protect us from the worst excesses of unrestrained capitalism, others think they should get out of the way and let money talk.

But sometimes you come across certain people and you can’t simply write things off as being differences. They’re too great, the things they say, and apparently feel, too incomprensible to relate to. It makes you wonder what happened, why are they like that, who are they listening to, and what do they want?

Yesterday morning, while making an omelette, I had such a moment…

If you’re not familiar with Brigitte she used to be a National Party advisor, working in the offices of first Hekia Parata and then Nikki Kaye. More recently she was campaign chair for Nicola Willis at last year’s election. She now works in a law firm, with former ACT MP Stephen Franks. In her spare time she provides right wing views which are essentially the same bullet points you’d expect from Christopher Luxon.

In Luxon speak they’re on the same page. Perhaps not literally the same physical piece of paper but certainly a reproduction with exactly the same words. Honestly it’s like listening to ZB, except I can’t quite imagine them inviting Gareth Hughes on.

Brigitte Morten (R) on the campaign trail with Nicola Willis, and now providing balance on RNZ.

In case you’ve forgotten him, Gareth Hughes used to be an MP for the Greens. Best I can tell is he decided there were other things, especially his family, that mattered more than sacrificing his life to politics for too long.

I miss Gareth being in politics, he’s a decent man with a good heart and we could do with a lot more of those in parliament at present. But I get it. In fact although I wouldn’t go so far as to set term limits I kind of think it’s healthy that politicians don’t hang around for too long. Not least of all for them.

Gareth Hughes with Jeanette “Supergran” Fitzsimons, whose biography he wrote.

There is a summary below, but if you’d like to listen the full RNZ audio click here.

Discussion began with the budget, which Nicola Willis is delivering on Thursday. Gareth said the difficulty for National is having to do everything all at one. Deliver on their tax promises, without being inflationary, fund them without resorting to debt, or a switch around where they claim that spending cuts are paying for their tax cuts but they’re borrowing for new spending.

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Nobody would run their household finances like that. You don’t cancel Sky and go on holiday to Fiji, while borrowing to fix your roof. Well you might, but you wouldn’t pretend you were being fiscally responsible in doing so. I suspect that the switcheroo suggested by Gareth is exactly what Nicola is planning to do.

“We have to borrow for unfunded school lunches, but our tax cuts are all bought and paid for - with the jobs of public servants.”

Brigitte burbled away like a neoliberal pull toy, “squeezed middle”, “tax relief is coming” and even a good old Keyism saying “most people don’t care” where the tax cuts come from. Presumably plucked from the same place that John used to extract such unsubstantiated proclamations.