Politics 🗳️ NZ Politics
- Thread starter wizard of Tauranga
- Start date
Why yes, Wiz, I will post my masterpiece again, thanks for asking
What happens when government is reduced? The need for services, infrastructure, utilities, all the civic components a society needs to run don't go away.
So when the tax revenue is reduced by, say, tax cuts that the country can't afford (and, editorialising here because, well, this government is borrowing fucking billions for these tax cuts), how do these necessary services and essential goods, utilities get fulfilled?
Well, given we've had at least 42 years of this, that should be relatively easy to answer, yet somehow, there's an institutional memory of a goldfish amongst the media and those on the right. Or, more accurately, the right are utterly locked into neoliberalism as an ideology and doctrine.
And what does neoliberalism prescribe?
Well, glad you asked. Remarkably none of the right in these forums could even admit it existed even as little as two years ago, but I'm sure even they can tell you as well.
"THE MARKET WILL PROVIDE".
And what market is that exactly? Well, again, glad you asked. Is there even a market for such things? NO MATTER. Neoliberalism has you covered.
"Let's just make shit up out of thin air, and SELL OFF EVERYTHING THAT WE DON'T OWN TO PRIVATE INVESTORS".
Oh, and those private investors just happen to have funded the political parties who are pushing for this. Well, what a coincidence!!!
And now, all of a sudden, everything that has been owned by all of New Zealand, paid for by (OH HANG ON) NEW ZEALANDERS HARD EARNED TAX PAYER DOLLARS has been sold off in a firesale!
Who'd have thought?!?! Oh how we rejoiced!!!!
And now, all of a sudden, these private companies and investors own all of the things we need to survive!!! But of course, they have no obligation to care about that, because the only thing they need to do is make a profit. Stupendous!!!
And so, sometimes, realising the error of their ways (but only slightly, and only because an election is coming up) the government that sold everything off might try and, well, regulate to do pesky things like KEEP PEOPLE ALIVE.
And my gosh, thank your deity we have neoliberalism, because here it is all over again, and it's saying "We don't NEED regualation, we can POLICE OURSELVES!!!". Oh, the joy, the joy!!!
And then, of course, as private companies and investors do, they want to extract and increase their wealth EVEN MORE BY PROFITEERING - SO THEY CHARGE US FUCKING HEAPS AND STRIP US ALL OF OUR HARD EARNED MONEY!!! BRILLIANT!!!
Which of course feeds even more people into the new groundswell of industry - like PRISONS!!! PRIVATE HEALTH!!! AND SCHOOL LUNCHES!!!
And so this only ends when all our wealth has been given to the privileged few. And thus, the privileged few can say "Well done. That neoliberalism lark was a stroke of genius"
Of the rich, by the rich, for the rich
View: https://bsky.app/profile/mountaintui.bsky.social/post/3mmkvjzotzc2a
View: https://bsky.app/profile/mountaintui.bsky.social/post/3mmkvjzotzc2a
what are we proposing to sell these days..
miket12
🏛️
Politicians being taught how to avoid answering questions.... and who thought that never happened in NZ. Nothing article!!!
The audio of an exercise by Labour candidates and supporters in the Wellington region on how to avoid answering difficult questions from the public has been widely leaked.
It was an exercise designed to give them practice in answering the question they want to be asked at public meetings, rather than answering the question that was asked, especially if it was a question that didn’t make sense.
For the purpose of the exercise, the moderator used a nonsensical question that might be thrown to a candidate at a public meeting: “Would you rather fight 100 duck-sized horses or one horse-sized duck?”
Each participant, about a dozen of them, had a go at answering it including finance spokeswoman Barbara Edmonds who referred to her counterpart, Finance Minister Nicola Willis, as “a duck-faced horse”.
The apparent aim of the exercise was to interpret the question in a way that would allow the person answering it to discredit their opponents and promote Labour values.
Health spokeswoman and Wellington North candidate Dr Ayesha Verrall chose to deliver her answer in a duck-themed country song.
Wellington Bays candidate and economist with the Council of Trade Unions Craig Renney chose to praise the question, asked the questioner what he was on and whether he could have some too.
Others offering answers included campaign chairman Kieran McAnulty, Ohariu MP Greg O’Connor, and education spokeswoman Ginny Andersen.
The session was part of Labour’s regional Wellington conference this weekend and audio of it was sent to the Herald, and several other media outlets, including Stuff, the Post, RNZ, and TVNZ by someone wanting to remain anonymous.
Labour leader Chris Hipkins was not on the recording.
At No 3 in the caucus, Edmonds was the most senior MP taking part, and her answer impressed the moderator the most.
Edmonds: “Every week I have to stand up in the House and ask a duck-faced horse - did I get that right - questions every single week, and I have the glory of being able to question her, or debate her in debates and to talk through media …
“I believe one of the ways that we can fight those 100 or the big ones [in Government] is you actually need to discredit them as a caucus and as a group.
“Start to knock down one by one, particularly those senior ones.
“And we’ve started to do it quite successfully just by being able to prod them and to question them.”
She used as an example a story run by the Herald on Friday based on an interview with Andersen about how she was planning to combat the reform agenda of Education Minister Erica Stanford.
The moderator commended Edmonds’ answer.
“You’ve seen here the political art of answering the question you want to be asked and dealing with a question where you are not even sure what it is asking in front of a room of people.”
Edmonds later told the Herald: “I clearly got it wrong”.
“It wasn’t meant to be offensive and I got the question muddled. I apologise if it offended anyone,” she said.
Verrall’s answer in song was clearly designed to lighten the mood of the Labour attendees rather than be an answer she would seriously give at a public meeting.
I’m gonna take my duck to the old town pond.
I’m gonna ride.
Till I can’t no more, I’m gonna take my duck to the Old Town Road.
I’m gonna ride.
Till I can’t no more.
I got the duck in the back and I’m gonna do a quack instead of [inaudible]…
McAnulty, a former TAB bookie who is standing in the Wairarapa, chose to answer it a different way and point to what he sees as proxies working against Labour, such as NZME, the owners of Newstalk ZB and publishers of the Herald.
“We are up against 100 duck-sized horses at the moment,” McAnulty said. “Because horses are full of shit.
“And this Government has so many little proxies and so many mates that are working for it, like NZME and everybody else and all that sort of stuff, we sometimes don’t know which horse to fight at once.
“So as a racing man, I know a thing or two about horses and the thing is that we shouldn’t be too …distracted and wish that our enemy was in a different shape or a different form and all that sort of thing. It is what it is.
“They might have all the money, but we have all the people. And all the people that we have together collectively ... far outnumbers - I don’t know how many - duck-shaped horses or whatever the hell the question was. The thing is, we will overcome this.
“They can throw everything at us, but like I said earlier, if we offer something that gives people hope, and we will, then that will cut through all the things that they are trying to screw the scrum in their favour, we will cut through it.”
The duck-horse exercise followed a round of answers to another question, which appeared to have been: What lessons can be learned by the previous Labour Government, 2017 – 2023, led by Jacinda Ardern and Chris Hipkins for a short time after Ardern resigned.
O’Connor, who is an assistant Speaker and is standing as a list-only candidate at the election in November, pointed to the importance of senior staff in pulling a Government together, and allowing the political leaders to lead.
“Jacinda was there, great leader, but what we’ve got to always have is that one person who has got really a good understanding, not necessarily an elected person, that go-to person who understands, has got this incredible knowledge of how everything is working and pulls it all together.
“And I think if we’re honest … that probably person was a little bit lacking when we were there.
“So what we’ve got to make sure the lesson is, it’s a whole team approach.
“And that person is going to be the most important person when we’re re-elected to hold the whole thing together, so our leaders can lead.”
Edmonds, who was a minister in the last Labour Government, answered the question by saying the biggest lesson she learned from that Government was that if you put people first, the economy was stronger, “every single time”.
“So in Covid, when we supported our people through Covid, our economy was stronger.
“When we supported [people] by feeding our kids at school, it meant they could learn, which meant that they could go on to do more things. The economy is stronger.
“So always for Labour, putting people first means that our economy will be stronger.”
Renney said the lesson to take away from the last Labour Government was that it changed the country for the better.
“We had 20,000 people who are alive and walking the streets of New Zealand because of our response to Covid.
“Anyone who tells you we delivered a poor response to Covid, we delivered the best response to Covid anywhere in the world. We lifted tens of thousands of children out of poverty because it was a Labour Government that made those decisions.
“We built thousands of state houses, because it was a Labour Government that chose to make that investment.
“The lessons that I would take away from the last Labour Government are that when Labour is in power, things go better for this country, things go better for you and your communities, and we should be proud of the 7th Labour government that will do exactly the same.”
www.nzherald.co.nz
Leaked Labour audio reveals Barbara Edmonds’ ‘duck-faced horse’ jab
The audio of an exercise by Labour candidates and supporters in the Wellington region on how to avoid answering difficult questions from the public has been widely leaked.
It was an exercise designed to give them practice in answering the question they want to be asked at public meetings, rather than answering the question that was asked, especially if it was a question that didn’t make sense.
For the purpose of the exercise, the moderator used a nonsensical question that might be thrown to a candidate at a public meeting: “Would you rather fight 100 duck-sized horses or one horse-sized duck?”
Each participant, about a dozen of them, had a go at answering it including finance spokeswoman Barbara Edmonds who referred to her counterpart, Finance Minister Nicola Willis, as “a duck-faced horse”.
The apparent aim of the exercise was to interpret the question in a way that would allow the person answering it to discredit their opponents and promote Labour values.
Health spokeswoman and Wellington North candidate Dr Ayesha Verrall chose to deliver her answer in a duck-themed country song.
Wellington Bays candidate and economist with the Council of Trade Unions Craig Renney chose to praise the question, asked the questioner what he was on and whether he could have some too.
Others offering answers included campaign chairman Kieran McAnulty, Ohariu MP Greg O’Connor, and education spokeswoman Ginny Andersen.
The session was part of Labour’s regional Wellington conference this weekend and audio of it was sent to the Herald, and several other media outlets, including Stuff, the Post, RNZ, and TVNZ by someone wanting to remain anonymous.
Labour leader Chris Hipkins was not on the recording.
At No 3 in the caucus, Edmonds was the most senior MP taking part, and her answer impressed the moderator the most.
Edmonds: “Every week I have to stand up in the House and ask a duck-faced horse - did I get that right - questions every single week, and I have the glory of being able to question her, or debate her in debates and to talk through media …
“I believe one of the ways that we can fight those 100 or the big ones [in Government] is you actually need to discredit them as a caucus and as a group.
“Start to knock down one by one, particularly those senior ones.
“And we’ve started to do it quite successfully just by being able to prod them and to question them.”
She used as an example a story run by the Herald on Friday based on an interview with Andersen about how she was planning to combat the reform agenda of Education Minister Erica Stanford.
The moderator commended Edmonds’ answer.
“You’ve seen here the political art of answering the question you want to be asked and dealing with a question where you are not even sure what it is asking in front of a room of people.”
Edmonds later told the Herald: “I clearly got it wrong”.
“It wasn’t meant to be offensive and I got the question muddled. I apologise if it offended anyone,” she said.
Verrall’s answer in song was clearly designed to lighten the mood of the Labour attendees rather than be an answer she would seriously give at a public meeting.
I’m gonna take my duck to the old town pond.
I’m gonna ride.
Till I can’t no more, I’m gonna take my duck to the Old Town Road.
I’m gonna ride.
Till I can’t no more.
I got the duck in the back and I’m gonna do a quack instead of [inaudible]…
McAnulty, a former TAB bookie who is standing in the Wairarapa, chose to answer it a different way and point to what he sees as proxies working against Labour, such as NZME, the owners of Newstalk ZB and publishers of the Herald.
“We are up against 100 duck-sized horses at the moment,” McAnulty said. “Because horses are full of shit.
“And this Government has so many little proxies and so many mates that are working for it, like NZME and everybody else and all that sort of stuff, we sometimes don’t know which horse to fight at once.
“So as a racing man, I know a thing or two about horses and the thing is that we shouldn’t be too …distracted and wish that our enemy was in a different shape or a different form and all that sort of thing. It is what it is.
“They might have all the money, but we have all the people. And all the people that we have together collectively ... far outnumbers - I don’t know how many - duck-shaped horses or whatever the hell the question was. The thing is, we will overcome this.
“They can throw everything at us, but like I said earlier, if we offer something that gives people hope, and we will, then that will cut through all the things that they are trying to screw the scrum in their favour, we will cut through it.”
The duck-horse exercise followed a round of answers to another question, which appeared to have been: What lessons can be learned by the previous Labour Government, 2017 – 2023, led by Jacinda Ardern and Chris Hipkins for a short time after Ardern resigned.
O’Connor, who is an assistant Speaker and is standing as a list-only candidate at the election in November, pointed to the importance of senior staff in pulling a Government together, and allowing the political leaders to lead.
“Jacinda was there, great leader, but what we’ve got to always have is that one person who has got really a good understanding, not necessarily an elected person, that go-to person who understands, has got this incredible knowledge of how everything is working and pulls it all together.
“And I think if we’re honest … that probably person was a little bit lacking when we were there.
“So what we’ve got to make sure the lesson is, it’s a whole team approach.
“And that person is going to be the most important person when we’re re-elected to hold the whole thing together, so our leaders can lead.”
Edmonds, who was a minister in the last Labour Government, answered the question by saying the biggest lesson she learned from that Government was that if you put people first, the economy was stronger, “every single time”.
“So in Covid, when we supported our people through Covid, our economy was stronger.
“When we supported [people] by feeding our kids at school, it meant they could learn, which meant that they could go on to do more things. The economy is stronger.
“So always for Labour, putting people first means that our economy will be stronger.”
Renney said the lesson to take away from the last Labour Government was that it changed the country for the better.
“We had 20,000 people who are alive and walking the streets of New Zealand because of our response to Covid.
“Anyone who tells you we delivered a poor response to Covid, we delivered the best response to Covid anywhere in the world. We lifted tens of thousands of children out of poverty because it was a Labour Government that made those decisions.
“We built thousands of state houses, because it was a Labour Government that chose to make that investment.
“The lessons that I would take away from the last Labour Government are that when Labour is in power, things go better for this country, things go better for you and your communities, and we should be proud of the 7th Labour government that will do exactly the same.”
Labour training leak: Edmonds calls Willis a ‘duck-faced horse’ in Q&A drill
Audio from the closed-door Wellington training session was leaked to media.
Would love to hear a national or act training session.Politicians being taught how to avoid answering questions.... and who thought that never happened in NZ. Nothing article!!!
Leaked Labour audio reveals Barbara Edmonds’ ‘duck-faced horse’ jab
The audio of an exercise by Labour candidates and supporters in the Wellington region on how to avoid answering difficult questions from the public has been widely leaked.
It was an exercise designed to give them practice in answering the question they want to be asked at public meetings, rather than answering the question that was asked, especially if it was a question that didn’t make sense.
For the purpose of the exercise, the moderator used a nonsensical question that might be thrown to a candidate at a public meeting: “Would you rather fight 100 duck-sized horses or one horse-sized duck?”
Each participant, about a dozen of them, had a go at answering it including finance spokeswoman Barbara Edmonds who referred to her counterpart, Finance Minister Nicola Willis, as “a duck-faced horse”.
The apparent aim of the exercise was to interpret the question in a way that would allow the person answering it to discredit their opponents and promote Labour values.
Health spokeswoman and Wellington North candidate Dr Ayesha Verrall chose to deliver her answer in a duck-themed country song.
Wellington Bays candidate and economist with the Council of Trade Unions Craig Renney chose to praise the question, asked the questioner what he was on and whether he could have some too.
Others offering answers included campaign chairman Kieran McAnulty, Ohariu MP Greg O’Connor, and education spokeswoman Ginny Andersen.
The session was part of Labour’s regional Wellington conference this weekend and audio of it was sent to the Herald, and several other media outlets, including Stuff, the Post, RNZ, and TVNZ by someone wanting to remain anonymous.
Labour leader Chris Hipkins was not on the recording.
At No 3 in the caucus, Edmonds was the most senior MP taking part, and her answer impressed the moderator the most.
Edmonds: “Every week I have to stand up in the House and ask a duck-faced horse - did I get that right - questions every single week, and I have the glory of being able to question her, or debate her in debates and to talk through media …
“I believe one of the ways that we can fight those 100 or the big ones [in Government] is you actually need to discredit them as a caucus and as a group.
“Start to knock down one by one, particularly those senior ones.
“And we’ve started to do it quite successfully just by being able to prod them and to question them.”
She used as an example a story run by the Herald on Friday based on an interview with Andersen about how she was planning to combat the reform agenda of Education Minister Erica Stanford.
The moderator commended Edmonds’ answer.
“You’ve seen here the political art of answering the question you want to be asked and dealing with a question where you are not even sure what it is asking in front of a room of people.”
Edmonds later told the Herald: “I clearly got it wrong”.
“It wasn’t meant to be offensive and I got the question muddled. I apologise if it offended anyone,” she said.
Verrall’s answer in song was clearly designed to lighten the mood of the Labour attendees rather than be an answer she would seriously give at a public meeting.
I’m gonna take my duck to the old town pond.
I’m gonna ride.
Till I can’t no more, I’m gonna take my duck to the Old Town Road.
I’m gonna ride.
Till I can’t no more.
I got the duck in the back and I’m gonna do a quack instead of [inaudible]…
McAnulty, a former TAB bookie who is standing in the Wairarapa, chose to answer it a different way and point to what he sees as proxies working against Labour, such as NZME, the owners of Newstalk ZB and publishers of the Herald.
“We are up against 100 duck-sized horses at the moment,” McAnulty said. “Because horses are full of shit.
“And this Government has so many little proxies and so many mates that are working for it, like NZME and everybody else and all that sort of stuff, we sometimes don’t know which horse to fight at once.
“So as a racing man, I know a thing or two about horses and the thing is that we shouldn’t be too …distracted and wish that our enemy was in a different shape or a different form and all that sort of thing. It is what it is.
“They might have all the money, but we have all the people. And all the people that we have together collectively ... far outnumbers - I don’t know how many - duck-shaped horses or whatever the hell the question was. The thing is, we will overcome this.
“They can throw everything at us, but like I said earlier, if we offer something that gives people hope, and we will, then that will cut through all the things that they are trying to screw the scrum in their favour, we will cut through it.”
The duck-horse exercise followed a round of answers to another question, which appeared to have been: What lessons can be learned by the previous Labour Government, 2017 – 2023, led by Jacinda Ardern and Chris Hipkins for a short time after Ardern resigned.
O’Connor, who is an assistant Speaker and is standing as a list-only candidate at the election in November, pointed to the importance of senior staff in pulling a Government together, and allowing the political leaders to lead.
“Jacinda was there, great leader, but what we’ve got to always have is that one person who has got really a good understanding, not necessarily an elected person, that go-to person who understands, has got this incredible knowledge of how everything is working and pulls it all together.
“And I think if we’re honest … that probably person was a little bit lacking when we were there.
“So what we’ve got to make sure the lesson is, it’s a whole team approach.
“And that person is going to be the most important person when we’re re-elected to hold the whole thing together, so our leaders can lead.”
Edmonds, who was a minister in the last Labour Government, answered the question by saying the biggest lesson she learned from that Government was that if you put people first, the economy was stronger, “every single time”.
“So in Covid, when we supported our people through Covid, our economy was stronger.
“When we supported [people] by feeding our kids at school, it meant they could learn, which meant that they could go on to do more things. The economy is stronger.
“So always for Labour, putting people first means that our economy will be stronger.”
Renney said the lesson to take away from the last Labour Government was that it changed the country for the better.
“We had 20,000 people who are alive and walking the streets of New Zealand because of our response to Covid.
“Anyone who tells you we delivered a poor response to Covid, we delivered the best response to Covid anywhere in the world. We lifted tens of thousands of children out of poverty because it was a Labour Government that made those decisions.
“We built thousands of state houses, because it was a Labour Government that chose to make that investment.
“The lessons that I would take away from the last Labour Government are that when Labour is in power, things go better for this country, things go better for you and your communities, and we should be proud of the 7th Labour government that will do exactly the same.”
Labour training leak: Edmonds calls Willis a ‘duck-faced horse’ in Q&A drill
Audio from the closed-door Wellington training session was leaked to media.
Roads, health services, conservation land, kiwibank, probably tvnz, possibly rnz, land, schools etc etc
I scrolled down, read the last few paras, and thought that’s about right. Way better than these current grifters, anyway.
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