ACT’s Seymour sets political agenda, framing National again as enabler of extreme policies & pursuer of secret agenda; More privatisation deepens risk of more greedflation & dividend surges offshore
surprises me that these dimwits cant see that "privatising" public infrastructure has a greater impact on our cost of living then simply putting taxes up to pay for these essential services - the same mugs (we the taxpayers) pay for the additional costs arising from the profit seeking ownership -along with the deterioration in service levels - but then that is all Luxon knows from his time running AIRNZ he thinks he is a clever businessman because he made a profit running a monopoly provider (over large parts of reginal NZ anyway) of an essential service to the significant disbenefit of the regions so served.
Stumbling certainly does seem to be Luxon's preferred gait and a pity not even in a forward direction - maybe then it should be more correct to state that he is staggering or reeling??
The ability of National and ACT to cogovern without NZF may come as soon as May 2025 if Winston uses the opportunity of the DPM changeover to make a point about privatisation, and the iRex deal, by crashing the coalition.
Maybe, but I see it the other way around. I think Seymour, the TPB and RSB are just warm up “Acts” for a planned sharp right turn by Luxon et al in their second term when they will kill the treaty, privatise everything, deregulate, stamp out unions, the works.
That was the Brash lot’s devious plan way back then but thanks to Nicky Hager they were sprung and didn’t even make a first term. Luxon is even repeating some of Brash’s 2003 phrases word for word.
Right now it looks as though Luxon’s not quite clever enough to keep their ultimate plan quiet until after they get their second term. Thank goodness.
We have to make absolutely sure this crowd doesn’t make a second term!
Please open this one up Bernard.... its a really good overview of what happened the last time we went down this road. Namely: the cut-price sale of assets; the profit taking; service reduction; and then recovery or reintroduction of state-owned solutions (either bail outs or introducing new alternatives).
This time around it will be exactly the same, with the same eventual outcomes. Its also worth noting that figures remain the same operating via the ACT party. Same people, same motivations, same outcomes are even more certain.
Its also worth remembering that actions being pushed through around Treaty Principles Bill and Regulatory Standards Bill are designed to work in tandem with this privatisation agenda. Specifically they are designed to remove or inhibit regulatory mechanisms that can be used to limit outcomes from the asset-stripping and profit taking that will occur through privatisation.
Finally, we need to remember this all comes down to a simple choice we need to make about type of community and country we wish to be part of and to leave for those who follow us.
Funding can be found via other means (capital-gains taxes as an example, debt for asset investment and building). The limits are not financial but ideological. And that ideology is very much focussed on limiting the ability of our government to govern using values our community has.
It is dishonest and ignorant of the Minister of Finance and others to ignore the fact that we are a sovereign currency issuing nation and therefore financing public activities is not an issue, although availability of real resources could be.
Am I wrong to be happy that the poisoned chalice of asset sales has been stumbled upon so early in the political lifecycle? No one who has been alive since 1980 has forgotten that shit show and how much worse off we are now for all those sales. I hope this "debate" eats these dreadful politicians alive in the next 18 months, leaving a battered corpse of the right that we can dance upon as swing back to giving a shit about the planet and it's people. Ugh, I need a walk in nature...
Seymour has forgotten, or more probably never realised the horrendous/terrible damage that privatisation has done to New Zealanders and the New Zealand economy.
He's the same age as me and although he went to Auckland Grammar and likely fairly insulated from the effects he will be being willfully ignorant to the what was felt by those his age who were not protected from Rogernomics and Ruthinasia etc.
Hey Robert, His patrons in ACT are beneficiaries of the last time big ässet recycling " occurred. So I am pretty sure he knows all about how they leveraged themselves into a massive profit personally and fooled the Americans into overpaying upfront while they had a long settlement from the government. I'm sure there are some assets that they would love to get their hands on again and extract more rent.
Not the only one. I'm happy it came up now. Labour, the Greens and TPM can now start hammering Luxon with slogans about how he wants us to have a USA style health system with all of it's horrible statistics and much higher costs and scare middle NZ that they will go bankrupt. Let him deny he is aiming to sell the health system. It sure looks like that's what he want to do and even National voters love their free healthcare. Putting Simeon Brown in charge isn't helping him either as Brown have made himself an expert in pissing off voters even in National's most safe seats.
I agree. Rejoice that this is in the open now. Flagging it so early in the political cycle surely isn’t in the Atlas network playbook. Rookie error, Luxon.
Back to the future of failed economic ideas favouring the rich pricks on the backs of the poor and imported slaves.
As I have said before” so that government of the rich pricks by the rich pricks for the rich pricks shall not perish from this earth” apologies to Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg address!!
I am certain that National and ACT are working the same playbook. How is it that a first term MP ends up being the chair of the Justice Select Committee hearing most of the legislation going through Parliament - and the most influential. He also gets awarded a ministerial position (albeit outside of Cabinet) after 1 year in Parliament. High-flier, or simply of the right ideological persuasion?
I note that he "invited" David Seymour to speak to the Committee first-up on the Treaty Principles Bill, rather than being there to answer specific questions.
I think the government is listening to people down here who are increasingly pissed about as an island being forgotten so often. I think that the selection of the member for Rakaia is a smart move. He seems to have great potential.
My concern though all these 'stumbles' is the wider Labour party have been AWOL, in a way that—I guess they want us to believe—indicates they are "taking time" to discuss and develop policies of substance. But I think they are misunderstanding modern politics. There is absolutely no bad publicity anymore; facts and substance don't get you elected, attention does... If you picked the average person on the street, I expect they might be able to name 1 or 2 (current) Labour politicians, plus Chlöe, and Hana-Rāwhiti. FFS, Ardern is still sucking up most of the left-wing oxygen! Yet, there are campaign-style billboards up everywhere for current National MPs, Seymour is a presence in the media every. single. day, and Winston has been a household name for decades. I'm genuinely concerned that shit like privatisation will get a "mandate" purely because overwhelmed voters will (more than ever) tick the boxes based on name recognition, and I think Labour are dangerously misreading how much 'thinking' is required for politics now.
I agree, I'd like to see Labour much more active in saying these guys are clowns, these policies are awful and we have a different vision. They've had a year to navel gaze, time to get back in the game!
In my opinion they would be well served as a collective, by excellent, pithy, standard lines to repeat and repeat on eg Health, Infrastructure borrowing, privatisation, to instate something different to Government mantras, in our heads.
Totally agree. Even sanctimonious nonsense like "your health, their wealth" or whatever would be absolutely fine...Just need a non-stop solidarity presence to counter the dollars-focused one.
There’s the small matter of funding. Act and National have deep pockets and interests supporting them with significantly more donated to them last election and probably ongoing than labour, greens etc combined
Let's start with an assertion that the state is better than private enterprise at doing something the state has or is doing. Probably most of you would disagree, so let's use an example.
Kainga Ora is (was) building housing. There is a demand for more houses in NZ. So where are all these more efficient private foreign investors that are building houses? There aren't any (I stand to be corrected) because they don't see any / enough profit in doing so.
But if Kainga Ora is privatised there is the opportunity to put all rents up as they no longer have any social obligation. Aiding the new owners is the fact that there has been no increase in the housing stock, so shortages of housing stock continue and allow for even more rent increases.
Nothing; no facts, no proof will turn obstinate/stubborn Seymour from insisting that everything in New Zealand is privatised. It is impossible to argue/debate with him about privatisation of everything in New Zealand because he has a closed mind on this topic, and some others too.
Great to finish the accompanying podcast to this episode by pointing out the framing of the political discourse in terms that favour low-debt views.
I think this is a large part of how we ended up where we are at; the terms of discourse and political imagination are set in neo-liberal thinking. If we’re to have different ideas, somehow these terms of debate need to be de-naturalised. Otherwise, you get unchallenged claims that “There is no alternative”.
Big Eunuch Energy. Luxon being dragged into 2026 having to defend asset sales and attacking Te Tiriti orchestrated by the actual Prime Minister is the only sliver of hope for this being a one term govt. Labour aren’t going to win with Hipkins; these Chris’ seem only capable of succeeding by not losing.
We are turning into a eunuch vassal state for the rest of the world. Taxpayers fund education for kids who leave to pay taxes overseas. We live in rentals whose owners, if they even live in NZ, pay mortgages to Australian banks. They want us to pay for infrastructure to be used by temporary nomads who send their taxes back home. They want to open our environment up to be stripped and sold for profit by overseas companies, while taxpayers pay for the clean up. We subsidize power to Rio Tinto while our own companies fail and our people choose between heating and dinner. Billionaires can buy up our land for their self-contained bolt holes while holding their wealth off-shore.
stumbling into the privisation debate is exactly how it looks for Luxon
The Seymour tail wags the National dog, again
surprises me that these dimwits cant see that "privatising" public infrastructure has a greater impact on our cost of living then simply putting taxes up to pay for these essential services - the same mugs (we the taxpayers) pay for the additional costs arising from the profit seeking ownership -along with the deterioration in service levels - but then that is all Luxon knows from his time running AIRNZ he thinks he is a clever businessman because he made a profit running a monopoly provider (over large parts of reginal NZ anyway) of an essential service to the significant disbenefit of the regions so served.
Stumbling certainly does seem to be Luxon's preferred gait and a pity not even in a forward direction - maybe then it should be more correct to state that he is staggering or reeling??
The ability of National and ACT to cogovern without NZF may come as soon as May 2025 if Winston uses the opportunity of the DPM changeover to make a point about privatisation, and the iRex deal, by crashing the coalition.
Although privatisation is an objective its main use currently may be to reduce focus on the TPB and the RSB process
Maybe, but I see it the other way around. I think Seymour, the TPB and RSB are just warm up “Acts” for a planned sharp right turn by Luxon et al in their second term when they will kill the treaty, privatise everything, deregulate, stamp out unions, the works.
That was the Brash lot’s devious plan way back then but thanks to Nicky Hager they were sprung and didn’t even make a first term. Luxon is even repeating some of Brash’s 2003 phrases word for word.
Right now it looks as though Luxon’s not quite clever enough to keep their ultimate plan quiet until after they get their second term. Thank goodness.
We have to make absolutely sure this crowd doesn’t make a second term!
Yes. Yes! The RSB is the real evil. Check out Professor Jane Kelsey’s analysis:
jane kelsey regulatory standards bill
Please open this one up Bernard.... its a really good overview of what happened the last time we went down this road. Namely: the cut-price sale of assets; the profit taking; service reduction; and then recovery or reintroduction of state-owned solutions (either bail outs or introducing new alternatives).
This time around it will be exactly the same, with the same eventual outcomes. Its also worth noting that figures remain the same operating via the ACT party. Same people, same motivations, same outcomes are even more certain.
Its also worth remembering that actions being pushed through around Treaty Principles Bill and Regulatory Standards Bill are designed to work in tandem with this privatisation agenda. Specifically they are designed to remove or inhibit regulatory mechanisms that can be used to limit outcomes from the asset-stripping and profit taking that will occur through privatisation.
Finally, we need to remember this all comes down to a simple choice we need to make about type of community and country we wish to be part of and to leave for those who follow us.
Funding can be found via other means (capital-gains taxes as an example, debt for asset investment and building). The limits are not financial but ideological. And that ideology is very much focussed on limiting the ability of our government to govern using values our community has.
Excellent explanation.
100% agree with your comments Geoff. Also yes, please open this up Bernard.
Sage words, Mate
It is dishonest and ignorant of the Minister of Finance and others to ignore the fact that we are a sovereign currency issuing nation and therefore financing public activities is not an issue, although availability of real resources could be.
Am I wrong to be happy that the poisoned chalice of asset sales has been stumbled upon so early in the political lifecycle? No one who has been alive since 1980 has forgotten that shit show and how much worse off we are now for all those sales. I hope this "debate" eats these dreadful politicians alive in the next 18 months, leaving a battered corpse of the right that we can dance upon as swing back to giving a shit about the planet and it's people. Ugh, I need a walk in nature...
Seymour has forgotten, or more probably never realised the horrendous/terrible damage that privatisation has done to New Zealanders and the New Zealand economy.
Perhaps like Luxon he has always been 'wealthy and sorted'.
Too young. He was in short pants when asset sales were fashionable.
He's the same age as me and although he went to Auckland Grammar and likely fairly insulated from the effects he will be being willfully ignorant to the what was felt by those his age who were not protected from Rogernomics and Ruthinasia etc.
he was probably just a bit young to really get the hit
see Kurt's reply immediately above
Hey Robert, His patrons in ACT are beneficiaries of the last time big ässet recycling " occurred. So I am pretty sure he knows all about how they leveraged themselves into a massive profit personally and fooled the Americans into overpaying upfront while they had a long settlement from the government. I'm sure there are some assets that they would love to get their hands on again and extract more rent.
Not the only one. I'm happy it came up now. Labour, the Greens and TPM can now start hammering Luxon with slogans about how he wants us to have a USA style health system with all of it's horrible statistics and much higher costs and scare middle NZ that they will go bankrupt. Let him deny he is aiming to sell the health system. It sure looks like that's what he want to do and even National voters love their free healthcare. Putting Simeon Brown in charge isn't helping him either as Brown have made himself an expert in pissing off voters even in National's most safe seats.
I agree. Rejoice that this is in the open now. Flagging it so early in the political cycle surely isn’t in the Atlas network playbook. Rookie error, Luxon.
Release please Bernard
Back to the future of failed economic ideas favouring the rich pricks on the backs of the poor and imported slaves.
As I have said before” so that government of the rich pricks by the rich pricks for the rich pricks shall not perish from this earth” apologies to Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg address!!
Kia ora Bernard, good stuff please open this one up to everyone
I am certain that National and ACT are working the same playbook. How is it that a first term MP ends up being the chair of the Justice Select Committee hearing most of the legislation going through Parliament - and the most influential. He also gets awarded a ministerial position (albeit outside of Cabinet) after 1 year in Parliament. High-flier, or simply of the right ideological persuasion?
I note that he "invited" David Seymour to speak to the Committee first-up on the Treaty Principles Bill, rather than being there to answer specific questions.
i'm interested in this too and 'the minister for the South Island bit... looks like appeasement but appeasement for what...
I think the government is listening to people down here who are increasingly pissed about as an island being forgotten so often. I think that the selection of the member for Rakaia is a smart move. He seems to have great potential.
My concern though all these 'stumbles' is the wider Labour party have been AWOL, in a way that—I guess they want us to believe—indicates they are "taking time" to discuss and develop policies of substance. But I think they are misunderstanding modern politics. There is absolutely no bad publicity anymore; facts and substance don't get you elected, attention does... If you picked the average person on the street, I expect they might be able to name 1 or 2 (current) Labour politicians, plus Chlöe, and Hana-Rāwhiti. FFS, Ardern is still sucking up most of the left-wing oxygen! Yet, there are campaign-style billboards up everywhere for current National MPs, Seymour is a presence in the media every. single. day, and Winston has been a household name for decades. I'm genuinely concerned that shit like privatisation will get a "mandate" purely because overwhelmed voters will (more than ever) tick the boxes based on name recognition, and I think Labour are dangerously misreading how much 'thinking' is required for politics now.
I agree, I'd like to see Labour much more active in saying these guys are clowns, these policies are awful and we have a different vision. They've had a year to navel gaze, time to get back in the game!
Labour is having trouble being seen, they are on Instagram, ticktok & bluesky.
Here is a video on bluesky I found a few minutes ago.
They are doing the mahi, people are just not seeing it.
https://bsky.app/profile/julianjackson.bsky.social/post/3lgtpvistok2c
In my opinion they would be well served as a collective, by excellent, pithy, standard lines to repeat and repeat on eg Health, Infrastructure borrowing, privatisation, to instate something different to Government mantras, in our heads.
Totally agree. Even sanctimonious nonsense like "your health, their wealth" or whatever would be absolutely fine...Just need a non-stop solidarity presence to counter the dollars-focused one.
There’s the small matter of funding. Act and National have deep pockets and interests supporting them with significantly more donated to them last election and probably ongoing than labour, greens etc combined
Let's start with an assertion that the state is better than private enterprise at doing something the state has or is doing. Probably most of you would disagree, so let's use an example.
Kainga Ora is (was) building housing. There is a demand for more houses in NZ. So where are all these more efficient private foreign investors that are building houses? There aren't any (I stand to be corrected) because they don't see any / enough profit in doing so.
But if Kainga Ora is privatised there is the opportunity to put all rents up as they no longer have any social obligation. Aiding the new owners is the fact that there has been no increase in the housing stock, so shortages of housing stock continue and allow for even more rent increases.
“They’re going to privatise the air”
https://youtu.be/LwchQgSBHDM
many thanks for all this information Bernard.
I would like to see this open to all.
Nothing; no facts, no proof will turn obstinate/stubborn Seymour from insisting that everything in New Zealand is privatised. It is impossible to argue/debate with him about privatisation of everything in New Zealand because he has a closed mind on this topic, and some others too.
Great to finish the accompanying podcast to this episode by pointing out the framing of the political discourse in terms that favour low-debt views.
I think this is a large part of how we ended up where we are at; the terms of discourse and political imagination are set in neo-liberal thinking. If we’re to have different ideas, somehow these terms of debate need to be de-naturalised. Otherwise, you get unchallenged claims that “There is no alternative”.
Big Eunuch Energy. Luxon being dragged into 2026 having to defend asset sales and attacking Te Tiriti orchestrated by the actual Prime Minister is the only sliver of hope for this being a one term govt. Labour aren’t going to win with Hipkins; these Chris’ seem only capable of succeeding by not losing.
We are turning into a eunuch vassal state for the rest of the world. Taxpayers fund education for kids who leave to pay taxes overseas. We live in rentals whose owners, if they even live in NZ, pay mortgages to Australian banks. They want us to pay for infrastructure to be used by temporary nomads who send their taxes back home. They want to open our environment up to be stripped and sold for profit by overseas companies, while taxpayers pay for the clean up. We subsidize power to Rio Tinto while our own companies fail and our people choose between heating and dinner. Billionaires can buy up our land for their self-contained bolt holes while holding their wealth off-shore.