Resetting Politics & the Media

It seems a Government with absolute power is not averse to breaking election pledges.

Before the election, Labour was clear – they would not introduce a capital gains tax, nor a wealth tax. The only change in income tax would be an increase to the top rate of tax from 33 cents to 39 cents for those earning over $180,000 a year.

When pressed on whether there might be other tax increases by Newstalk ZB’s Heather du Plessis-Allan, Finance Spokesman Grant Robertson was clear: “there’ll be no other changes to tax beyond what we’ve announced.”

When Heather asked, “What about the bright-line test?”

Grant Robertson said, “No”. 

“Not the rate, and not the years?” asked Heather.

“No”, said Grant, clearly ruling out any increase at all to the bright-line test.

The bright-line test treats gains from the sale of residential property – excluding the family home – as income if the property is sold within the regulated period. When National introduced the test in 2015, the regulated period was set at 2 years. In 2017 Labour extended it to five years, and now Grant Robertson has asked Treasury’s advice on extending it even further.

If they go ahead and extend the test, Labour’s pre-election promises will count for nothing.

This week we also saw our super-hero PM rising in Parliament to address a crisis. It seems we are all in such peril that a ‘climate emergency’ has had to be declared for New Zealand.

But it was all show. There is no real-life climate emergency. The only climate emergency is a political one created by the United Nations’ alarmist climate models.

Any computer model that tries to predict the future climate by only taking into account the impact that the 4 percent of carbon dioxide produced by mankind has on the climate – and not the other 96 percent produced by nature, nor the influence of the sun, the clouds, precipitation, wind, oceans, and the myriad of other factors that significantly influence the climate – is always going to be wrong.

At least when Professor Neil Ferguson of Imperial College in London produced his COVID-19 forecasts that grossly exaggerated the number of deaths, causing governments around the world – including ours – to impose harsh lockdowns, his computer models were quickly discredited.

Not so with the UN’s flawed climate models – in spite of the best efforts of scientists over the years, including 500 who challenged the UN just last year claiming, “The general-circulation models of climate on which international policy is founded are unfit for their purpose”.

Regrettably, nothing changes. Governments continue to squander vast amounts of taxpayers’ money on damaging climate policies based on the UN’s defective models.

The problem is, that for politicians like Jacinda Ardern, who understands better than most that the language of panic and fear is one of the most effective instruments of political control, those climate models are gold – they are creating the alarm that is paving the way for the introduction of extremist policies that will destroy our economy in the name of saving the planet.

This week’s NZCPR Guest Commentator Gideon Rozner, a journalist and Director of Policy at the Australian Institute of Public Affairs, believes that as a result of the election, “New Zealand is in for a dangerous three years” – at the hands of a “brilliant politician” but a “grossly incompetent administrator”:

“New Zealand has been hit particularly hard by the Ardern government’s heavy-handed coronavirus response… According to the OECD, New Zealand’s GDP could fall by 10 percent in 2020. Likewise, unemployment is tipped to rise to just under 9 percent in 2021 as New Zealand’s $14bn corona wage subsidy program ends. Public debt will soar from 19 percent of GDP in 2019 to 56 percent in 2026…

“As for what Ardern has planned for a second term, the details are patchy. Labour ran something of a ‘small target’ strategy during the election, relying on the Prime Minister’s star power and perceived success in warding off the coronavirus.

“But from what we do know about their ‘policy-lite’ platform, Labour will likely exacerbate New Zealand’s economic woes. Hiking income tax, re-regulating the industrial relations system and a bloodcurdling plan for 100 per cent renewable energy by 2030 could turn the corona-induced economic shock into a permanent state of impoverishment for thousands of Kiwis…

“The only hope for New Zealand now is that whatever horrifying plans that Labour has in store, Jacinda Ardern is just as hopeless at actually implementing them in her second term as she was in her first.”

Gideon wrote his article just after the election, saying, “Jacinda Ardern is perhaps the worst person to lead New Zealand through this economic turbulence”, in light of her “hard-left political temperament, a degraded and politicised public sector, and a largely uncritical and compliant media.”

He’s not wrong. And as far as the media is concerned, things are getting a whole lot worse.

Stuff, one of the country’s biggest media businesses, not content with becoming an echo chamber for radical climate activism – to the point where they will not publish anything that challenges the validity of UN’s fabricated climate crisis – has now lost what remaining semblance of credibility they had by becoming a mouthpiece for Maori sovereignty extremism. Monday’s grovelling front-page apology to Maori for racist reporting left the public gobsmacked. There now appears to be no hope of balanced reports on racial issues in any of their newspapers.

Not only that, but they are now even refusing to publish advertising that promotes democracy – when it involves Maori seats on local councils. Northland Democracy is currently exercising its legal right to petition three of the four local councils that voted to introduce Maori wards. With one of those – the Northland Regional Council – even writing to the Minister of Local Government requesting a moratorium on petition rights, had Stuff been a media group of merit, it would have reported on those bullying tactics, instead of refusing to publish innocuous advertisements promoting democracy – see the details HERE. 

New Zealand needs an independent Fourth Estate and balanced reporting from the media – not political activism. One wonders how Stuff will reconcile their new position with the principles of the Media Council, which state: “Publications should be bound at all times by accuracy, fairness and balance, and should not deliberately mislead or misinform readers by commission or omission. In articles of controversy or disagreement, a fair voice must be given to the opposition view.”

How far Stuff will go with its political activism remains to be seen. But without a doubt, never has the need for a strong Fourth Estate been as great as it is now – especially in light of our Prime Minister’s global ambitions. 

Jacinda Ardern is already incorporating the UN’s radical socialist Agenda 2030 into New Zealand’s legal and regulatory framework: “my Government is doing something not many other countries have tried. We have incorporated the principles of the 2030 Agenda into our domestic policy-making in a way that we hope will drive system-level actions.”

But that is not enough. She’s planning to advance her socialist world-view onto New Zealand using the economic destruction created by the pandemic to ‘reset’ the economy and ‘build back better’.

During the lockdown, Grant Robertson outlined the Government’s plan:

“We must make this the opportunity to reset our economy, to take account of the massive disruption to some sectors, but also to address some of the long standing challenges we face… This work will require us to develop new ways of working and break down the barriers between partners in our economy. We have formed a core Ministerial Oversight Group for this work with the Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister, myself and Minister Parker.  We will soon be reaching out to both Ministerial colleagues but also the private sector, unions and more to have input into this work.”

Minister David Parker said, “While Covid-19 and climate change provide a shock to the system, they also provide us with an opportunity, a chance to reset our focus and build back better. Do this right and we end up with a stronger, more profitable and more sustainable economy.” 

Earlier this month Jacinda Ardern informed an audience: “I don’t need to tell you all that any recovery plan for New Zealand cannot, and should not, be a return to the status quo. It is about taking a crisis and turning it into a once in a lifetime opportunity to build back better.”

Building back better was also one of the main themes of last week’s ‘Speech from the Throne’, which was delivered by the Governor-General at the State Opening of Parliament.

She explained the Prime Minister has three ‘overarching’ objectives – keeping New Zealanders safe from COVID-19, accelerating our economic recovery, and laying the foundations for a better future.

According to the PM, “the recovery offers an opportunity to reshape the way things are done in New Zealand, to innovate and improve our position and our economy”.

She outlined “a broader view of success… New Zealand’s response to COVID would be insufficient if it were to simply return us to the way we were before the virus.”

She wants to use the power of the State to re-shape New Zealand:

“Recovering and rebuilding entails determined and connected action by government.  That action can, and will, be used to reshape the economy to be more productive, more sustainable, and more equitable… The way we choose to govern is also a tool for change.”

British MP the Rt Hon Sir John Redwood, a former Chief Policy Advisor for Margaret Thatcher, could have been responding to our PM’s speech, when he stated: “I have no problem with the idea of building better or investing in a better future, but I do have problems with some of the agendas drawn up in the name of the Great Reset.”

The Great Reset agenda, which lies behind Labour’s ambitions, is clearly being more openly discussed in the UK than it is in New Zealand.

With its plan to replace the free market economic system with a form of progressive socialism, Sir John has serious misgivings:

“Taxing work, enterprise and success more is a bad idea. Many of the great advances in living standards and quality of life have come from the innovation and enterprise of the private sector. It was not government effort that launched billions of smart phones and electronic pads on the world.

“It was not government which provided the cars to liberate many more people with flexible personal transport, or supplied the great entertainments of stage, screen and events. It is important that as we build back from lock downs these gains are banked and enhanced, with broadening of reach to ever more people.

“When the agenda proposes taxing and regulating the very products of the digital revolution and the transport revolution that have offered to the many the freedoms and advantages that used to be the preserve of the few I worry that build back better just becomes a cover for more state control over our lives.”

Britain is one of many countries around the world, including New Zealand, that is being encouraged to embrace the Great Reset – as the Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau explained:

“This pandemic has provided an opportunity for a reset. This is our chance to accelerate our pre-pandemic efforts to reimagine economic systems that actually address global challenges like extreme poverty, inequality and climate change.”

This agenda to reset the world economy is not something to be ignored. Driven by an elite group associated with the World Economic Forum, they will roll out the details of their plan for more equal, inclusive, and sustainable economies at their annual gathering in Davos, Switzerland, in January. 

For those who support free markets, the Great Reset is alarming – as is the reset that is presently taking place within our media.

THIS WEEK’S POLL ASKS:

Did Stuff do the right thing in apologising to Maori? 

Please share this BFD article so others can discover The BFD.