Graham Bell, former host of Police Ten 7, recently bemoaned the demise of the show and the wokeness that did it in and that got me thinking: New Zealand is one of the wokest places on earth.
How do I know?
The silence over the government’s damaging radical policies, rarely mentioned in the insular mainstream media controlled by the government’s PIJF, is deafening. TVNZ is the standard bearer, or “the government’s propoganda arm” (Peter Dunne).
The media are now almost completely captive of the government’s radical agenda.
All of us condemning ‘woke’ and the loony left are in the ‘fringe’ media and banned from uttering our so-called ‘conspiracy theories’ or ‘hatred’ or ‘disinformation’ to the world at large.
It’s a shutdown, as the left will not be corrected, contradicted or entertain a differing opinion.
New Zealand’s state of being is a state of tyranny.
Mike Hosking when interviewing his UK correspondent recently commented how woke Britain is.
But actually, I disagree.
Countries like the UK, whose leaders loudly stand up to the tiny minority who presume to set the benchmark on what is acceptable, are less woke than us, because they talk about it and condemn it.
The UK has a Conservative Government which sees the lunacy of the left for what it is and they are not afraid to speak out against the ridiculous assertions and bullying. That government protects the likes of Posie Parker’s right to free speech: ours left her to the feral mob because ours promotes social justice activism at the expense of people’s safety.
That day in Albert Park we saw anarchy rear its ugly head. It was our day of shame.
Boris, when PM, threatened to withdraw funding to universities which banned certain speakers with whom they did not agree.
Rishi Sunak, recently stood up for women’s safety and rights and decried ridiculous labels like “pregnant people”, sending a message that the majority will not be ruled by the minority over what they consider ‘proper’ or ‘correct’.
Sir Jeffrey Archer did a highly entertaining rant on wokeness in Hosking’s recent interview, saying he would not be ruled by a tiny minority as to what is acceptable. (see link) And celebrities like J K Rowling and Laurence Fox add to the conversation.
New Zealand has its most left-wing radical parliament ever and we are paying the price. Speak up on anything, like Sir Ian Taylor, at your peril. Charismatic and eloquent Winston Peters and Shane Jones are our only ‘politically incorrect’ voices, condemning and derisive of the parliament and media, whilst National party strategists agonise over why NZ First are polling well despite not being in government.
Where was the outrage when our PM (as education minister) employed transgender activist Shaneel Lal to ‘advise him’ on introducing gender studies in our schools three years ago, using our children, as young as five, as guinea pigs to brainwash them with his highly questionable content.
The bought and paid for silence of the media sheltered Chris Hipkins from criticism, as he implemented this with barely a whimper from anyone.
Not to forget Hipkins’s cancel-culture version of our history curriculum, which desperately needs a ‘reset’ from a new incoming government. I am looking forward to that (pre-election) announcement; and also that our country’s name New Zealand will be reinserted into all public documents and in particular the history curriculum from which it was removed completely.
It came as something of a shock to the media when Luxon bravely told RNZ that he was ruling out working with the Maori Party, then rang Hosking’s show and ‘officially’ announced it. The difference between the two parties is so great that no one believed the partnership could work anyway.
However, being definitive and decisive should play well for a politician not known for making decisions on the hoof, with Hipkins left to deal with the nightmare of the inevitability of this mercurial coalition partner if he is to retain power.
Referred to as “A Coalition of Chaos” by the Herald’s Thomas Coughlan, the phrase fitted Luxon’s narrative perfectly.
The Maori party is the media’s hero, ignoring all the rules and behaving like toddlers. However they completely blotted their copybook, possibly even shocking the adoring media, and through their antics bared their souls, ending their kingmaker ambitions. Their disrespectful performance in the House was too much for Luxon, and perfect timing to put future speculation to bed.
Sorry Chippie, you’re stuck with them.
Luxon’s stand up with the media saw him and Willis calm and unified in explaining their decision, batting away any suggestions from a hostile, fractious media, which was caught on the back foot, that it could be ‘dog-whistle politics’: the expression used by Kiri Allan in response to Winston Peters’ suggestion ram-raiders are ‘feral, drop-kick losers’.
Luxon’s assertion ‘you can disagree without being disagreeable’ works well in the Air NZ board room, but does not transfer well to the New Zealand election battle field, where a desperate government in league with a compliant media will fight to the death to win.
Activist politicians like Allan, Jackson, Whaitiri and Mahuta and the Maori party have largely gone unchecked. As have TVNZ’s Breakfast journalists strongly advocating for all of government’s social justice agenda with no balance in most of their interviews – like (Jacinda’s) Disinformation Project, which, as even Bryce Edwards points out, has provided little or no evidence to support the defamatory accusations being made against the right.
Add to that the support cast of many in the press pack eager to promote their radical agendas. National and ACT needed a lifeline, which has come in the form of the theatrics of the Maori party and defecting politicians. By jumping ship and, with help from the Speaker of the House, still keeping their jobs, they have revealed their selfishness and arrogance and focused the public’s mind on the reality of a potential left wing Coalition of Chaos.
Luxon’s announcement also immediately focused the mind of our PM, who had a message for the smaller parties: ‘Be careful not to ask too much or you risk not being part of a government’.
Jack Tame, online, put it more succinctly, ‘If voters are uncomfortable with the prospects of Te Pati Maori in government and it costs Labour a few percentage points, the consequences for Chris Hipkins are potentially dire.’
Unfortunately New Zealand does not have the luxury of right and left wing media like the US and the UK. We have a (mostly) left-wing media which magically reveals its investigative journalism skills when faced with a conservative government and becomes compliant when royally paid to follow this latest Labour Government’s agenda.
It really does seem like a sh*t show in the US, but with at least five key media players on each side of the political divide, it is at least a fairer bun fight.
I see clear evidence of Stuff (and others) protecting the government by not printing incriminating material, ignoring National and Act’s press releases and Stuff always closing off the comment section for contentious commentary, like the Maori Party soap opera (predicted to run until 14th October). A bit like the left-wing media in the US ignoring the growing storm around Biden’s son’s dodgy money deals and his laptop, but balanced there by the conservative media covering it chapter and verse.
There was no mention on the evening television news of Debbie Ngarewa-Packer throwing a tantrum, when her badly written seabed-mining bill (which she mistakenly voted against) failed to pass the first reading. She completely lost it, calling everyone ‘amateurs’ and warning Labour not to come knocking on her door (presumably come 14th October), which would have made riveting viewing. The New Zealand media protects its own. Had that been National it would have led the news. But we know National party MPs would never have given them the opportunity.
Newshub recently pulled an article revealing that, while delivering pamphlets on a law and order meeting, National’s candidate Emma Chatterton encountered an attempted robbery in a dairy in her Rimutaka electorate! I assumed it would lead TV news, but it vanished from their site within hours and only re-emerged on Kiwiblog. Yet another example of the media attempting to protect the government from itself.
Thugs ruling the streets at the expense of New Zealanders’ safety is anarchy, something National needs to put on a bill board.
I heard an overseas commentator say recently that New Zealand must be the only democracy where the media will determine the outcome of the election. We are all a little fearful of that. Government corruption has run deep since Jacinda’s blatant $55 million media bribe: a first for any Western democracy.
However, right on cue: the Maori Party (along with the supporting cast of the Greens and Labour) playing their part like performing fleas, better than we could ever have hoped… and the media commentators may have more of a bit part.
In my mind’s eye I see National’s boat rowing steadily towards the finish line from one of John Key’s government’s election campaign advertisements (and Labour going the wrong way). This would be the perfect image for National’s campaign this year. They just need to get the copyright of the soundtrack sorted.
I noticed Jack Tame mentioned the same image on Newstalk ZB.
Could it be, despite current polling, Tame, like me, has seen the inevitability of the outcome?