Letter from New Zealand: Election 2014

Greetings from Aotearoa, land of the long white cloud.

The country will decide on September 20th, and if we believe the latest opinion polls, ‘team Key’ (sic) and the National Party are on course for a return to the treasury benches. The party’s re-election campaign has doggedly soldiered on despite the scandalous revelations published in Nicky Hagar’s book Dirty Politics, and the resignation; make that sacking, of a senior government minister.

Whatever the outcome of the election, so-called ‘free market’ capitalism has become firmly entrenched in the New Zealand economy. This is the latest subterfuge of the plutocrats, enabling them to take greater profits and control even more resources. In the ‘free market’ world, super rich banks are allowed to fail, and then bailed out by taxpayers. In the ‘free market’ world, supply and demand is God, and in earthquake stricken Christchurch, where the supply of housing is scarce and the demand high, already struggling families are forced to pay obscenely high rents to rapacious, immoral landlords.

“Landlords’ right has its origin in robbery. The landlords, like all other men, love to reap where they never sowed.” — Karl Marx

When bush fires ravaged Australia last year, one landlord announced that he would be substantially increasing the rents on his properties, citing the rising 'market demand.' The landlord was publicly vilified on national television by New South Wales Premier Barry O’Farrell who said: “This sort of bastardry, trying to price gouge off the back of a natural disaster, is unacceptable.” O’Farrell went on to warn landlords that Fair Trading Inspectors would be on the lookout for transgressors and hefty fines would be imposed. But in Christchurch, despite unprecedented earthquake damage and the destruction of so many family homes, the ‘market’ is allowed to dictate the economic climate and the ‘bastard’ landlords free to exploit the earthquake victims. As fair-minded New Zealanders, we should be ashamed for allowing this abhorrent state of affairs to continue.

Credit to Labour’s Grant Robertson as the only politician to speak out against the greed of the landlords. Robertson indicated that if Labour were in government, he would propose a review of the Christchurch housing situation with a view to putting a cap on rents. Hear, hear!

Death by a thousand cuts

Just when it looked as though Judith Collins had made a pact with the devil, Prime Minister John Key finally sacked his Justice Minister just three weeks out from the country’s general election. Collins, who has been embroiled in a plethora of scandals in the past twelve months, finally bit the bullet after yet another damaging email was brought to the attention of the Prime Minister. The publication of ‘Whale Oil’ blogger Cameron Slater’s hacked emails in the book Dirty Politics, implicates Collins in a number of systematic smear campaigns against senior public servants and government officials. Slater remarked that Collins’ demise was: death by a thousand cuts. Collins will now be the subject of a government inquiry, specifically to determine whether, in collusion with Slater and others, she actively undermined former Serious Fraud Office chief, Adam Feeley.

The inquiry will, of course, be a whitewash and Key, if he wins the election, will look to re-instate his number one attack dog as soon as is practicable.

Bully Culture

Judith Collins and her pal Cameron Slater epitomise the sinister ‘bully’ culture, which has sadly become endemic in the political and social life of New Zealand. The emails published in Dirty Politics illustrate a nasty, perfidious mentality, which will stop at nothing to protect its own egocentric interests and destroy its political opponents. In one email, Slater, who is a personal friend of Collins and confidant of Prime Minister Key, labelled the earthquake victims in Christchurch’s eastern suburbs as ‘scum,’ and in another, he celebrated the tragic death of a West Coast man, dubbing him ‘feral.’ The Prime Minister’s flippant obfuscations in regard to the subject of Dirty Politics, are a clear indication of his complicity with Collins and Slater.

New Zealand’s mainstream media are also openly promoting the bully mentality. Right wing commentators on both TV1 and TV3 use so-called 'news' programmes as a platform to regale us with their dumb, ill-informed opinions. Beneficiaries and the unemployed are routinely vilified despite the lack of real, sustainable jobs and struggling families are openly scorned; being poor, after all, is a ‘lifestyle choice.’ It goes without saying that this election is crucial for the future of New Zealand. It is to be hoped that New Zealanders will vote for a more inclusive, fairer society, and put an end to the government of John Key and his arrogant band of National Party bullies.

ELECTION ’14: LFNZ’S PARTY VOTE GUIDE:

National: Vote here for child poverty, low wages, income inequality, unaffordable housing, iniquitous power prices, and dirty politics.

Labour: Same old centre-left social democrats, but what to do? Vote here for a desperately needed change of government.

Greens: Sane, intelligent, caring people – are they really politicians? Vote here for common decency and the vision of a bright future.

New Zealand First: One man, one voice, one Winston! Seriously?

Conservatives: Vote here for a return to the 1950’s. Was it just a dream?

Maori Party: Six years in bed with National? Credibility terminated.

United Future: A shell company for the inflated ego of its leader. Avoid.

ACT: Inveterate nihilists and flies of the marketplace. Ignore.

Internet Mana: A rag-tag bag of rascals, radicals, and sweethearts. Put your protest vote here.

Women in politics; a proud tradition

Judith Collins is cast in the same mould as other Tory/National politicians before her – wait, I’ll get the crosses and the garlic – Margaret Thatcher, Jenny Shipley, and Ruth Richardson. But forget about these unspeakable vampire/zombies. New Zealand women enjoy a proud tradition of altruistic public service:

Labour’s Elizabeth McCombs (1933 – 1935) was New Zealand’s first woman member of parliament.

Labour’s Mabel Howard (1947) the first woman cabinet minister.

Labour’s Helen Clark (1999 – 2008) the first woman (elected), and arguably best ever, Prime Minister.

Pick of the current crop: The Green’s co-leader Metiria Turei, and Labour’s Jacinda Ardern.

NZ's first woman MP, Elizabeth McCombs. What would she think, I wonder, of the dubious Ms. Collins?

FACTFILE:

New Zealand was the first country in the world to give women the vote in 1893.

New Zealand ditched the undemocratic ‘first past the post’ (FPP) electoral system after a referendum in 1993, and held its first MMP (mixed member proportional) election in 1996.