Shane Jones: NZ Transport Association
Nicola Willis: NZ Transport Authority
Simeon Brown: NZ Transport Agency
But no, it's MÄori confusing everyone
Politics š³ļø NZ Politics
- Thread starter wizard of Tauranga
- Start date
Nicola Willis: NZ Transport Authority
Simeon Brown: NZ Transport Agency
But no, it's MÄori confusing everyone
NZWarriors.com
What? Can't have a Maori boy doing good AND is proud to be a National Party MP? But... But... National bad...
What's this? Week 2? And the left keep claiming the sky is falling with every breath. Chris Hipkins with the whiniest, negative, bitter speech of the past few days summed it up perfectly, unable to highlight what they actually have achieved in the last 6 years. All this new Government are going to do is reverse everything that has been done in the last 6 years? One could only hope that is the case, but it's going to take a long time to reverse that much damage.
The level of misinformation and hysteria from Labour and the Maori party in particular, has been amusing. I must say, the Greens at least seem to be handling themselves with some class, dignity and composure.
Unfortunately, everything has unravelled for the previous government with poor outcomes and results in every key area, fiscal holes and underfunding being revealed, and a complete lack of acceptance for any of it.
Even the manic media are starting to come around now and see the light.
The most questionable policies from this coalition that seem to be getting the most attention is the repeal of smoking laws that haven't even been implemented yet anyway, reverting to English first, removing a Maori Health Authority that didn't appear to be working and a discussion on the treaty, and a potential firearms legislation rewrite - which has got the least amount of media attention and deserves much more to oppose it.
Education? Crime? Health? The state of the economy and our books? Not much debate at all, if any, in these major areas.
I think that's very telling.
Looking forward to the next few years apart from having Chris Hipkins whining on in opposition without a leg to stand on after his party with an overwhelming majority squandered an opportunity to be transformational and deliver at least some sort of results for the country. All we got is issues everywhere and a finance minister with an inability to control the spendathon of borrowed money.
It's going to take a long time to fix this mess. Glad we are starting now and not in another 3 years time.
Gents (and ladies), just want to say thanks for all the passionate debate. There is obviously a number of different views and opinions which is great I think. Hopefully nothing is being taken personally, as much as a lot of what is discussed on here can have quite conflicting viewpoints. I appreciate that the vast majority of you provide views, opinions, insights, life experiences and ideas that at the very least provide some pause for thought, even if you don't agree with them. At times, the person is being played rather than the message and a few little side insults are added which don't actually add anything to what's being discussed, but hey, it's a politics thread. It's warmed me up for Christmas lunch with the family!
Anyway, I'm going to be dropping out for a bit. My surgery is finally happening. Rang them and told them I was Maori and they pushed me ahead before this bloody government changed things. Just jokes, no offence intended. Told them I was white to take advantage of the privilege. They are going to be surprised when this Chinese Samoan guy walks in. I'll probably be checking in here, posting while heavily medicated. Might not make any sense. Or maybe I might make more sense. If I start agreeing with everything @juju is posting it's definitely the drugs!
I might not like or agree with all your views and opinions, but it would be a boring forum otherwise. And the good thing is that we are all united in being fans of the mighty Warriors with a strong and stable head office. Makes a huge difference and it's great that the club is back on track.
So, hopefully I'll be back on here sometime in the next couple of weeks, but if not and I don't get the chance to say it, I hope you all enjoy time with your friends and families. From me to you, have a safe, Berry Christmas and a Rocco New Year.
Anyway, I'm going to be dropping out for a bit. My surgery is finally happening. Rang them and told them I was Maori and they pushed me ahead before this bloody government changed things. Just jokes, no offence intended. Told them I was white to take advantage of the privilege. They are going to be surprised when this Chinese Samoan guy walks in. I'll probably be checking in here, posting while heavily medicated. Might not make any sense. Or maybe I might make more sense. If I start agreeing with everything @juju is posting it's definitely the drugs!
I might not like or agree with all your views and opinions, but it would be a boring forum otherwise. And the good thing is that we are all united in being fans of the mighty Warriors with a strong and stable head office. Makes a huge difference and it's great that the club is back on track.
So, hopefully I'll be back on here sometime in the next couple of weeks, but if not and I don't get the chance to say it, I hope you all enjoy time with your friends and families. From me to you, have a safe, Berry Christmas and a Rocco New Year.
NZWarriors.com
Let's see now. Who am I? I'm a 50 something white male, no kids, with a partner who has a 20 something child. Born and grew up in Auckland and stayed outside the restrictive norms and constraints that a lot of boomers (some on here) seem to yearn for, and those same people vote to the right. I grew up with my mates playing league. I love league, cricket, a bit of the v8s out of nostalgia.
I've consumed numerous substances in my teens and twenties, and definitely inhaled. Stopped the booze a few years back and that's the best thing I ever did.
I've lived overseas for a substantial amount of time and love expanding my horizons beyond the narrowness of New Zealand.
I love the arts, visual, sonic and creative.
I love education.
I love nature and look in despair at the destruction that a rampant viral strain of capitalism, called neoliberalism, imparts on this world. Of course that rampant strain has people at the helm, and those people are the right and the far right. Generally.
I've got a shitload of flaws, made a huge amount of mistakes. In other words, human.
I vote green mostly, Labour once, but Labour really did fuck things up, and had no clue to be honest. Maybe they had a comms disaster this last 6 years, certainly they were underprepared. But a lot of people kid themselves - this country is ruled by the wealthy. We've seen that come out time and time again. The reserve bank has stated that a level of unemployment is desired to keep inflation down. This recession that certain people have banged on about, is MANUFACTURED. And is part of the neoliberal playbook. At the same time the usual beneficiary bashing, landlord rentier rhetoric gets rolled out to make the right look like they're doing something, when in actual fact their direction is entrenched racism, wealth stripping, asset concentration, ecological destruction and enhancing corporate profits.
There is no true political left apart from the TePati Maori and the Greens.
The person I replied originally to often posts factually incorrect statements, and then when challenged will spray more factually incorrect statements in different directions, then when further challenged, state they're going on holiday and then come back the next day.
Feel free to point out other comments with no substance.
However, the difficulty we all have if we're honest - if you pick one thing, just one thing, like National cancelling the ferry replacements. A small statement right? Go deeper. Where is the economic cost benefit? What's the reasons behind this? Go deeper and you find that National should have replaced them 8 years ago. Go deeper and you find that the infrastructure is cost blow out, and that's not owned by kiwirail. Go deeper and you find that if we had rail we would have better economic success, better movement of goods, less carbon emissions but it's not ideologically part of the right's neoliberal playbook. Go deeper and you find that Rail was sold off through ideology, and some complete fuckers asset stripped it and took the profits and ran.
Go deeper and you find that maybe, just maybe, we had world class infrastructure that was actually centralised and stood up by a government, and that department was actually apolitical, not trained in fear for the last 40 years by those with a neoliberal agenda.
Go deeper and you might find that our infrastructure is under threat through unrestrained immigration. Who's setting that? Etc etc etc etc etc
Go deeper and you will find deliberate underfunding of all infrastructure, again in line with a neoliberal playbook that has determined our economic and political agenda for so long now.
Cross party consensus is needed to fix these things in my opinion. The restoration of true democracy - 100% participation etc. Anyway, I digress.
Very complex. Yet, here we are, in sections of a (wonderful) rugby league forum, each of us in our own echo chambers, hopefully some less partial than others.
And no one really goes to that level of depth because EVERYTHING IS COMPLEX.
And meanwhile we're sleepwalking while fascists gather, billionaires seek to dismantle democracies worldwide and the wealthy look to concentrate their fortunes at the expense of the planet.
When what we need as a whole is the exact opposite.
And I really, really, really should spend less time in the politics, climate change and anything that certain members post in on this forum, 'cos, well, this isn't that real and what do we really get out of this?
EXCEPT
I was raised with a strong moral compass that I often don't live up to myself.
I can't fucking stand the tall poppy syndrome here in New Zealand, the narrowness and petty vindictiveness we hear mostly on right wing radio stations.
One thing really winds me up. Disinformation. And lies. And this government meets that criteria in spades. And I will call out bullshit, all day, every day. Although to be honest, who cares in a rugby league forum right?
All of this is serious. Very serious.
Lives, our society, our communities are at stake. So anti vax, climate deniers, conspiracy theorists - no time for that bullshit. Far right - no time for that bullshit. Disinformation? No time for that bullshit. Neoliberal ideology? No time for that bullshit.
So yeah, happy to address anything else you think I've said without substance - be warned though, there's hidden depth, and the weather forecast is good, it's the weekend, and who can be bothered trying to piss in the wind?
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Just so we're clear:
Do I think that big tobacco have directly influenced policy in this current government? Yes I do, that is my opinion
Do I think that the two main parties on the right have a disproportionate level of donations and funding from source of the right and far right persuasion? Yes I do - here's 2022 from the electoral commission and I'd bet that 2023 is far more disproportionate - https://elections.nz/democracy-in-n...ew-zealand/party-donations-and-loans-by-year/
Do I think that that funding is provided with the expectation of affecting and distorting policy towards those donors and their organisations? Yes I do, that is my opinion
Do I think that the left is immune from this somehow? No I don't, but there is far more transparency within that political spectrum at the moment
Do I think that right wing so called thinktanks and right wing networks have far too much influence and impact on our democracy to the detriment of all New Zealanders? Yes I do, 100% that is my opinion. And there's much evidence around 40 years of neoliberalism to back that up
One of the main group of talking heads in this country on mainstream and right networks (nzme, the platform) is the New Zealand Initiative. They are a rebranded Business Roundtable, which was a huge and corrupting influence in the 80s and 90s, particularly with the implementation of neoliberal policies, rampant deregulation and asset sales.
Another group that gets readily unquestionably quoted is the Taxpayers Union - also members of the Atlas network, as outlined elsewhere in these pages.
The New Zealand Initiative is also part of the Atlas Network - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand_Initiative
These groups do not have New Zealand's best interests at heart. They never have, and they never will. That is also my opinion. And it's pretty fact based too.
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Yeah sorry, been lucky in life - come from fuck all and done alright. Older posters will remember that I was the GM of a major international construction company back in the day, now a semi-retired consultant with my own company.
Probably why I don't want to pull the ladder up behind me - would never have got where I did without free school dinners, free university education, free health care (including dentistry as a kid) etc.
NZWarriors.com
my point was that it is easy to cherry pick one element of something that happens elsewhere, and wave it up as a success and ignore everything else that goes on in that place
Australia has CGT yes. They also are very rich and have great infrastructure and have shafted their indigenous population. Has CGT worked in Sydney? Has stamp duty? I personally have no idea. But I do know houses are very expensive there.
So should we copy Australia because they have it? Or because it has worked?
Having said all that, Australia is wealthy compared to us and taking a policy that they have and pasting it into NZ skates over a lot of factors that are also at play. You can probably quite easily tax Australians because they have economies of scale with everything. And they pull cash out of the ground. And everyone in the world wants to live there.
We, on the other hand, are a different kettle of fish. We aren't wealthy. We have opposition to a lot of things that could generate wealth (nuclear, mining, fishing, roading etc). It would be great if we could cut and paste a policy and make it work, but doing so just because Australia has it and does better than us ignores a lot of factors that help Australia to do well
As a Maori, yesterday was embarrassing for me.
TPM polled at under 3%, MÄori in nz population, 15%. They donāt represent all Maori, and whilst I respect their right to protest & in fact welcome it (a country with no ability to protest is a dictatorship), yesterdays antics at parliament overstepped the mark.
There are rules & standards within those 4 walls and these were not upheld. haka, whilst I adore the purpose and tradition, is used to intimidate and scare any opposition, usually incapable of a response. Parliament is not the right place for such & I believe theyāre playing firmly into the hands of the act party.
Iām not going to attack or shoot down anyone in support of TPM, as a democracy youāre within your rights to vote and support who you please. But with TPM unwilling to even listen & have a debate actually resembles closer to a dictatorship where you cannot voice your concerns under the guise of supposed morality & racism.
Luxon has no backbone & is fence sitting on the issue, which is doing him no favours in the polls. Disclaimer, Iām not sure if I support acts bill but as a society we should respect their opinion and voice, as we should TPM.
Intimidation & acting how TPM did yesterday does not sit well with me, simply because they donāt believe something should be debated, does not mean youāre entitled to act in such a way. Again, TPM do not represent all MÄori, and need to stop acting like they do. Thereās also an underlying feeling that Iām a traitor & turning my back on Maori by not agreeing with them, which is a shit feeling of guilt tripping, but I donāt. I believe that everyone in NZ deserves a fair go, and that privilege based on skin colour is an extremely slippery slope that has never, ever ended well for nations.
TPM polled at under 3%, MÄori in nz population, 15%. They donāt represent all Maori, and whilst I respect their right to protest & in fact welcome it (a country with no ability to protest is a dictatorship), yesterdays antics at parliament overstepped the mark.
There are rules & standards within those 4 walls and these were not upheld. haka, whilst I adore the purpose and tradition, is used to intimidate and scare any opposition, usually incapable of a response. Parliament is not the right place for such & I believe theyāre playing firmly into the hands of the act party.
Iām not going to attack or shoot down anyone in support of TPM, as a democracy youāre within your rights to vote and support who you please. But with TPM unwilling to even listen & have a debate actually resembles closer to a dictatorship where you cannot voice your concerns under the guise of supposed morality & racism.
Luxon has no backbone & is fence sitting on the issue, which is doing him no favours in the polls. Disclaimer, Iām not sure if I support acts bill but as a society we should respect their opinion and voice, as we should TPM.
Intimidation & acting how TPM did yesterday does not sit well with me, simply because they donāt believe something should be debated, does not mean youāre entitled to act in such a way. Again, TPM do not represent all MÄori, and need to stop acting like they do. Thereās also an underlying feeling that Iām a traitor & turning my back on Maori by not agreeing with them, which is a shit feeling of guilt tripping, but I donāt. I believe that everyone in NZ deserves a fair go, and that privilege based on skin colour is an extremely slippery slope that has never, ever ended well for nations.
