'Tough Love' Luxon
An unimpressive post-cabinet press conference.
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Give me tough love and a lesson to learn
Your tough love is what I deserve
Sweet tough love, you’re my pretty good luck charm
There’s no place I’d rather be than in your arms
Songwriters: Salem Al Fakir / Tim Bergling / Vincent Fred Pontare / Isak Alverus.
Yesterday, being Monday, Christopher Luxon held a post-cabinet press conference, and it wasn’t the sort of performance that those watching the polling numbers, and in particular, the unpopularity of the PM, would’ve been hoping for.
He talked about his grand scheme to get young people employed by showing what he has referred to as “Tough Love”, or what I imagine Nicola Willis refers to as “Love”.
However, what was evident was that the people this would be toughest on were low-income parents.
It was as though his senior leadership team had sat around saying, “The polls look bad; let’s bring forward that policy of cracking down on lazy young people - our voters always love a bit of beneficiary bashing.”
Let them pick fruit.
Luxon said that young people needed to go where the work was, even for seasonal work like kiwifruit picking. He spoke about visiting a kumara packing house up north and how they needed people there.
“If you go outside of Wellington, to Hawke’s Bay or go to the South Island... The primary industries, for example, in horticulture, in our growing industries, they are crying out for young people to come and join those sectors and those jobs,” Luxon said.
Unfortunately, the horticulture sector seems to have missed the memo…
Yummy Fruit Company chief executive Paul Paynter, who grows apples and stone fruit in Hawke’s Bay, said the industry wasn’t short-staffed right now.
Paynter said, “We’re not crying out for staff at the moment. In a few weeks we will start taking on a small number for stone fruit thinning and that’ll build through the apple thinning and it’ll build through the harvest season. So we will take on people but they’re not permanent year-round jobs. They are seasonal positions.”
Michael Franks - chief executive of the country’s largest kiwifruit grower Seeka - said there was actually a “lull” in the employment cycle for his business.
Franks said, “Right at the moment in the kiwifruit cycle, we’re nearing the end of shipping... so the work in our pack houses is slowing down because we’ve got no fruit left. We are continuing to pack avocados, and we’re packing citrus. The volumes in those categories are low, but steady, but there’s not a big employment factor.”
It didn’t seem much of a plan, and when he was questioned about the policy, it didn’t seem like it had been thought through very well either.
Luxon even confessed that there would be little in the way of savings once the administration costs were taken into account, but that wasn’t the point - this was about saving young people from long-term welfare.
Not a details kind of guy.
There was no abatement range, and it was highlighted to him that a household with an income of $65,000 would be better off taking lower-paid employment so that the all-or-nothing policy didn’t affect them. When such a scenario was put to Luxon, he looked mystified, as if the thought hadn’t even occurred to him.
I posted: “Watching this afternoon’s press conference, and I get the impression this guy is just making it up as he goes along. There doesn’t seem to be any value placed on thinking things through, just ‘she’ll be right’, back of a cigarette packet, let ‘er rip...”
Jane commented, “I think you’re right. He’s not a thinker or clever in any way. It’s all made up in the moment. That’s why there’s no logic or coherence in any policies. He’s unfit to lead.”
Liz noted the interpreter, saying, “Looks like the woman is thinking, ‘Oh. My. God. Just shut up.’”
Tracy highlighted that her source material didn’t help:
What homelessness?
Sandy: “And when asked about the rise in homelessness, he said there was no reliable data. FFS! And then tried to pin it on Labour. GRRRR.”
I found this curious; it’s not unusual for Luxon to claim that things are bad and it’s all Labour’s fault, but he’s pushing it uphill to compare records on housing the homeless.
Labour built thousands more homes, tracked homelessness, and went to great lengths to get people into housing; National’s policy has just been to stop counting them. Which makes it easy for Tama Potaka and Christopher Luxon to disavow knowledge of anecdotal evidence that things are getting worse.
Mission Accomplished.
Much of this was predictable, but the PM did surprise me when he started praising Trump for his efforts to achieve peace in the Middle East.
The killing continues in Gaza even after Hamas agreed to release the remaining hostages, and Trump directed that the bombing stop. Netanyahu has spelt out that he is in charge, not the American President, even though none of his genocidal actions would be possible without the support of the US.
It seems our Foreign Policy is to be the biggest suck-ups on the planet to Trump, praising him even as he turns his own nation into a militarised authoritarian state.
The US President has been deploying the National Guard, and his own MAGA forces, ICE, to target his enemies, which now includes left-wing protestors and has seen Trump’s masked thugs in conflict with local police forces.
Local authorities have asked him to leave, saying troops are not needed, as there are no war zones in the liberal cities he has targeted.
A president who is trying to inflame a civil war with his political opponents, is that the sort of regime we really want to suck up to? I imagine Luxon would shrug his shoulders, look a little bewildered, and say he wasn’t worried.
Is he bothered?
Speaking of which…
It was trademark Luxon. When presented with a problem or an unpleasant reality, he says he isn’t concerned, much as Key used to say that most people don’t care about such things.
It doesn’t matter what it is; his message to supporters is “I don’t care, and you shouldn’t either.”
From the paywalled article in the NZ Herald:
Government agencies warned that plans to hike the fees that Crown board members could be paid may have “significant financial implications”, impact the delivery of public services, and exacerbate cost pressures.
Which doesn’t sound ideal. At a time of austerity, we hardly want to see such financial implications in our public sector, especially if it is going to degrade services that have already suffered significant cuts and are struggling.
Asked if he had any concerns that there would be a reduction in services to pay for fee increases for board members, the PM said, “No”.
Even though his government approved pay increases of up to 80% for the highest earners, and no additional funding was provided to cover the increases, they must have assumed that the public sector could absorb the extra costs.
The Department of Conservation told the Public Service Commission, “there will be significant financial implications that will need to be considered given the general environment of fiscal constraint and expectation of savings”.
NZ Trade and Enterprise said, “If Crown entities are to fund the increase in costs from their baselines, it will mean needing to reduce activity elsewhere”.
The Ministry of Culture and Heritage said there would be “considerable issues with the affordability of these increases for Crown entities without an increase in baseline funding”. Adding, “there will be considerable financial implications for Crown entities across the public service.”
But the Prime Minister is not concerned.
Doesn’t it strike you that a country’s leader should be concerned about an unfunded increase in board member fees impacting the services delivered to the public?
Green Party MP Francisco Hernandez said this “reveals that the Government’s core priorities are for the boss and director class, not ordinary New Zealanders who might potentially face even longer wait-times than they already face to get critical medical treatment while money meant for doctors and nurses gets redirected to board directors”.
In fairness to the PM, he did express one concern, namely that even with this staggering increase in fees, it still wasn’t enough money.
Speaking of board members, Luxon said, “We acknowledge fully it’s nowhere near the market rates you get in the private sector, but we’re just trying to make sure that it’s in a format that actually makes it attractive.”
I think he should apply the same logic to others who are leaving for private sector roles or to live in Australia, as a result of inadequate funding in our public sector.
What do you think?
Ngā mihi,
Nick.
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To end today, here’s Avicii with Tough Love ft. Agnes, Vargas & Lagola.
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Thank goodness the hort industry response showed Luxon to be talking out of his backside. Also, did he think young people would pack a backpack and a tent and head rural to these jobs? They would need a tent, because accomodation costs in many of the places where the seasonal jobs are, are expensive. Luxon is definitely not up to speed on much requiring detail, evidence or fact - it astounds me how he can front up every time, talk up what is essentially superficial rubbish, be unbothered by big life impacting issues, smile and be smug about dumb stuff like tennis court rooftops, support a fascist and then go home and feel good about himself. It is laughable - if only he is wasn’t hurting so many people struggling or on the brink. If only his lack of moral courage wasn’t destroying and staining our country and the mana Aotearoa used to hold on the international stage. Luxon is a tone deaf cancer. Let’s vote this naked emperor and has band of cronies out. E tu Aotearoa.