Hitching the wagon to the old mantra of economic growth (ignoring the externalities) and trickle down fallacy as the only option. Tried, tested and failed. Could smaller and smarter rather than bigger and dumber be an option or is that beyond the imagination of the economic policy establishment?
Totally agree. "Economic Growth" is an outdated ideology and quite frankly it's lazy. We only have one planet, it doesn't take a genius to understand that continued economic growth is not sustainable. 'Smart' economic policies are definitely the way to go!
You have alluded a couple of times to the notion that the two major parties might come together vis a vis the Treaty, an idea that I have been promoting for more than a year (see my opinion piece in today's ODT). If, led by their Maori caucuses, NaT & Lab could agree on a formula for the Treaty that encompasses both its historical imperatives and the reality and needs of a contemporary electorate, the two extremes Act & TPM would have nowhere to go. Further, a groundwork might be laid from which the courts could take guidance, rather than making it up as they go along. I have put this notion to MPs, with a very positive response from National, but nothing from Labour MPs.
"Increase the role of science and technology in the economy. Somewhere, buried deep in the Kiwi brain, is a brilliant idea that’s going to make the country rich. We just have to coax it out with a promise to share the royalties."
“As a warning for left-wing parties from the US, minority groups whom the Democrats said they represented broke against them last year in numbers large enough to defeat them.”
It is remarkable that the ‘anyone but Trump’ election of 2020 became the ‘anyone but crazy lefties’ election in 2024. Even to the extent of people holding their noses and voting for Trump.
In New Zealand, ‘land rights for gay whales’ has tanked. In my opinion anyway. I think this is what the win by the disparate but pragmatic parties now in coalition was about. Most people think the left is nuts. (What *is* a woman?)
Intelligent ideologues always and everywhere have difficulty understanding that their brand is toxic to non-believers. In a deep sense they are not self-aware. Inquisitors, Jacobins, Marxist-Leninists, Maoist Cultural Revolutionaries… and now our colleagues and friends, the wokesters.
They won’t take that lesson from America. Institutions that have been captured will continue to startle the unwashed masses, we who had not previously appreciated our urgent need to be decolonised (or de-knackered). Labour will suffer excruciating and very public internal battles between their purists and the ones who want to win elections. They will be unelectable for a decade, Sméagol and Gollum wittering away on their side of the house.
I think this means that the coalition, so long as it mostly holds together, will be the government for a few more election cycles. The rest is noise.
The problem I have with our present government is that they act but there is little evidence of rigorous planning behind it As others in the past might have said, they talk the talk but don't walk the walk. We saw this in the cancellation of the Cook Strait Ferries (when Willis was accused of being away with the ferries!) with no apparent alternatives. We saw it in the sacking of hundreds of public servants where one of the justifications offered was that the savings would be better greater the higher the salary of the person being "let go"—with no consideration of ability or experience. We saw it in the treatment of the plans for Dunedin's hospital in which the claimed costs increased by double or more on scant evidence. Where we see a politician who makes decisions with scant regard to evidence (as Garry Moore brilliantly put it) appointed Minister of Health. We see a Prime Minister lacking the courage to block legislation which clearly embarrasses him because he wasn't strong enough to prevent it in coalition negotiations. And we see that same man making statements about growing our economy offering no better plans than more tourists and international students.
I have to admit that the only thing I'm looking forward to in this government is the transition to the next Deputy Prime Minister. Isn't that a sorry commentary?
It’s a tragedy that the need for true leadership and courage to heal the decay in our democratic and social systems coincides with rise and rise of today’s neoliberal political class. There are no prospects of remedy in this coalition whose brightest ideas are, as John Maidment says, more of the destructive same which got us into this mess. Their regressive economic policies are positively Victorian; the results are intensifyingly Dickensian.
All the while they and the elites they serve insulate themselves from the social harm they inflict. [Make me Prime Minister. My new Man Up Party will be sort this injustice. Politicians will be paid the adult minimum wage, will be served school lunches at parliamentary functions, will be statutorily obliged to use public health and education services, and will be tried and penalised for crimes against New Zealand and New Zealanders.]
Indeed! And it's not unusual for parliaments to amend the law for clarity when it looks like judges are making decisions that are out of line with public opinion.
With Act coming out this week with a plan to kill off public health and education , TPM demanding a Maori prevalent state where Maori culture and education is enshrined in law ,and national selling off assets to their mates,
Hitching the wagon to the old mantra of economic growth (ignoring the externalities) and trickle down fallacy as the only option. Tried, tested and failed. Could smaller and smarter rather than bigger and dumber be an option or is that beyond the imagination of the economic policy establishment?
Totally agree. "Economic Growth" is an outdated ideology and quite frankly it's lazy. We only have one planet, it doesn't take a genius to understand that continued economic growth is not sustainable. 'Smart' economic policies are definitely the way to go!
You have alluded a couple of times to the notion that the two major parties might come together vis a vis the Treaty, an idea that I have been promoting for more than a year (see my opinion piece in today's ODT). If, led by their Maori caucuses, NaT & Lab could agree on a formula for the Treaty that encompasses both its historical imperatives and the reality and needs of a contemporary electorate, the two extremes Act & TPM would have nowhere to go. Further, a groundwork might be laid from which the courts could take guidance, rather than making it up as they go along. I have put this notion to MPs, with a very positive response from National, but nothing from Labour MPs.
You should watch Chris Finlayson's testimony on the Treaty Principles Bill.
"Increase the role of science and technology in the economy. Somewhere, buried deep in the Kiwi brain, is a brilliant idea that’s going to make the country rich. We just have to coax it out with a promise to share the royalties."
Scientology?
“As a warning for left-wing parties from the US, minority groups whom the Democrats said they represented broke against them last year in numbers large enough to defeat them.”
It is remarkable that the ‘anyone but Trump’ election of 2020 became the ‘anyone but crazy lefties’ election in 2024. Even to the extent of people holding their noses and voting for Trump.
In New Zealand, ‘land rights for gay whales’ has tanked. In my opinion anyway. I think this is what the win by the disparate but pragmatic parties now in coalition was about. Most people think the left is nuts. (What *is* a woman?)
Intelligent ideologues always and everywhere have difficulty understanding that their brand is toxic to non-believers. In a deep sense they are not self-aware. Inquisitors, Jacobins, Marxist-Leninists, Maoist Cultural Revolutionaries… and now our colleagues and friends, the wokesters.
They won’t take that lesson from America. Institutions that have been captured will continue to startle the unwashed masses, we who had not previously appreciated our urgent need to be decolonised (or de-knackered). Labour will suffer excruciating and very public internal battles between their purists and the ones who want to win elections. They will be unelectable for a decade, Sméagol and Gollum wittering away on their side of the house.
I think this means that the coalition, so long as it mostly holds together, will be the government for a few more election cycles. The rest is noise.
The problem I have with our present government is that they act but there is little evidence of rigorous planning behind it As others in the past might have said, they talk the talk but don't walk the walk. We saw this in the cancellation of the Cook Strait Ferries (when Willis was accused of being away with the ferries!) with no apparent alternatives. We saw it in the sacking of hundreds of public servants where one of the justifications offered was that the savings would be better greater the higher the salary of the person being "let go"—with no consideration of ability or experience. We saw it in the treatment of the plans for Dunedin's hospital in which the claimed costs increased by double or more on scant evidence. Where we see a politician who makes decisions with scant regard to evidence (as Garry Moore brilliantly put it) appointed Minister of Health. We see a Prime Minister lacking the courage to block legislation which clearly embarrasses him because he wasn't strong enough to prevent it in coalition negotiations. And we see that same man making statements about growing our economy offering no better plans than more tourists and international students.
I have to admit that the only thing I'm looking forward to in this government is the transition to the next Deputy Prime Minister. Isn't that a sorry commentary?
A sad indictment, indeed, Gary!
It’s a tragedy that the need for true leadership and courage to heal the decay in our democratic and social systems coincides with rise and rise of today’s neoliberal political class. There are no prospects of remedy in this coalition whose brightest ideas are, as John Maidment says, more of the destructive same which got us into this mess. Their regressive economic policies are positively Victorian; the results are intensifyingly Dickensian.
All the while they and the elites they serve insulate themselves from the social harm they inflict. [Make me Prime Minister. My new Man Up Party will be sort this injustice. Politicians will be paid the adult minimum wage, will be served school lunches at parliamentary functions, will be statutorily obliged to use public health and education services, and will be tried and penalised for crimes against New Zealand and New Zealanders.]
Haven’t judges already done a perfectly good job of parsing the statutory phrase “principles of the Treaty”?
The simple answer is no. The judiciary have for gotten they are there to apply the law, not write it.
Indeed! And it's not unusual for parliaments to amend the law for clarity when it looks like judges are making decisions that are out of line with public opinion.
With Act coming out this week with a plan to kill off public health and education , TPM demanding a Maori prevalent state where Maori culture and education is enshrined in law ,and national selling off assets to their mates,
I really don't know where to vote
I think a lot of people are feeling like none of the parties really represents them now, unfortunately.
Elon Musk thinks he's Tony Stark when he's really Justin Hammer.