This election we’ll hear about something that some will say has gone too far, and gone on for too long.
Some will say it is the source of our problems. We’ve spent too much, we’re wasting money, and where is the return? We need to generate reports that show us numbers, we can’t be willy nilly helping people in an intangible, unmeasurable way. In short - we need less kindness, we can’t afford it.
That is what this election is, a referendum on kindness. Some are angry at the amount of kindness in the last few years, they look at other places and say - let’s be more like them, it’d be good for business.
Others look overseas at the headlines, at what people face without a safety net, without access to good healthcare and education, at the sheer day to day struggle of many and think - no we’re good, let’s keep going as we are with this kindness.
I think both sides are wrong. We certainly don’t need less kindness - and we need even more than we have now. Why should we settle for a choice between the status quo and a step backwards? What about the option of a step forwards?
After this election the parties will take their non negotiable positions, their bottom lines, into discussions to determine what Aotearoa will be like for the next few years.
Some will demand measures they say are necessary, but which are mean-spirited political choices. Getting rid of the winter energy payment, removing warm healthy home regulations, lower funding of public services for health and education while advocating for, and funding, private money-making alternatives.
Others will propose rent controls, guaranteed income levels, and better funding for our universal public services. Accompanied by a more progressive, fairer, tax system.
![Green co-leaders Marama Davidson and James Shaw. Green co-leaders Marama Davidson and James Shaw.](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Faafd7017-2b6f-47cc-aee9-f7b2ecb90b09_675x379.jpeg)
Wouldn’t it be nice if a party took in a bottom line of every person in Aotearoa having a warm dry place to live, enough food on the table, and the other essentials of life, as their non negotiable demand?
Some might say that is fanciful, wishful thinking. Why? I would say it is crazy that those things aren’t the bottom line of every party in a wealthy country.
People will call it communism, and say people won’t work any more. Which is a load of rubbish. Most people want to work, provided they are able to, and most people will want more than just the basics. Being guaranteed the basic necessities of life won’t make people stop working, but it might stop them working two or three jobs on terrible wages just to achieve the basic things they need to live.
It seems like a no-brainer that we would want that for everyone, so why are people so opposed to kindness? We all know where the problem came from - Jacinda!
Faced with the greatest pandemic in the last hundred years some world leaders chose to make cynical calculations as to how much carnage they would allow to take place before they were willing to interrupt commerce. It’s all a choice, profits versus people, complacency versus kindness.
But not here. Our leader took a look at what was going on and said - right that’s it we’re closing the border and we’re going to take some pretty unprecedented health measures to keep each other safe.
For the first year people agreed it was definitely the right thing to do. We had shortages of baking ingredients, other countries had shortages of body bags. We were pretty happy to go along with this kindness thing.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Nick's Kōrero to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.