OPINION
This election is very much shaping up to be a vote to rejoin the real world. It’s very much a return to political normality. Many of us have woken up to the con job we enabled the Queen of Lies to execute at the last election and the farmers have seen the error of their tactical voting to keep the Greens out. The last six years have shown us once again that the left knows only two strategies – tax and spend and control through regulation and red tape.
They have no idea how to increase productivity internationally in terms of maximising exports through our Free Trade Agreements but they sure know how to stifle it on the domestic front. Their micromanagement of all facets of our society, both business and social, through legislation to lockdowns has all been about one thing – CONTROL. I watched Grant Robertson on a Business Forum Debate with Nicola Willis. It didn’t matter what the topic being discussed was, according to Grant the government must be involved.
This is the problem with left thinking be it social, business, economic or whatever. In Grant’s world, the government has to be front and centre. He agrees that the government’s role is to create the conditions for businesses to operate and thrive but the difference is he doesn’t believe that government should then get out of the way. So, instead of allowing the rural sector to get on with doing what they do best, the government, in order to keep some sort of control, drowns farmers in red tape and paperwork. This is from a government that couldn’t distinguish a cow pat from sheep droppings.
The main reason there is going to be a change of government is that the country has had enough of socialist control and is reverting to the more familiar concept of enabling productive growth along with more freedom and the ability to prosper. It’s not hard to believe that removal companies are succeeding in New Zealand, assisting 218,000 so far to move across the ditch. These people are going for more money and a better lifestyle. Mind you, Albo could soon destroy the latter.
The fact remains we are still operating a low-wage high-tax economy. Neither the country nor its people will progress under such a regime. We need the doors and windows flung wide open letting in the fresh air and ridding ourselves of the stifling atmosphere of the last six years.
We need to stop the obsession with racism, sort Three Waters and a myriad of other issues that need the incoming government’s immediate attention. If there’s one thing National/ACT do agree on it is increasing prosperity through productivity. To do that people must be in paid employment.
The difference between right and left thinking, and I guess philosophy, was illustrated in my regular Weekend Herald read of the opinion pieces from Mike Munro and Bruce Cotterill. Although writing on separate topics the emphasis on socialism vs. capitalism was very evident. Not only evident but quite stark.
Mike was on about National’s policies to punish people, people who presumably in his eyes should be allowed to simply get on with their lives. First, it’s beneficiary bashing. Mike doesn’t agree with sanctions for those who don’t meet their obligations to try and find a job. He cites those who might have health or disability reasons. Mike is either being deliberately mischievous or hasn’t worked out that the policy wouldn’t apply to them. If it is the latter, it begs the question – why do the left continually think like simpletons. We’ve had six years of this in government and Mike is exemplifying it.
Then it’s law and order. Mike doesn’t like any of the policies in this area. You can’t get tough on crime. It’s just not on. Boot camps, three strikes, removal of the acres of discretion before an offender gets sent to prison, making gang membership an aggravating factor, removal of taxpayer funding for offender’s cultural reports, on and on it goes. Of course, Mike doesn’t agree with any of it while sitting under an apple tree wondering why on earth people think Labour is soft on crime.
He says Labour’s late-in-the-piece move, (at least he admits that) a knee-jerk reaction so they don’t appear soft on crime, allowing police to charge 12 and 13-year-olds with ram-raiding offences has already hit trouble. Evidently, it falls foul of the Bill of Rights! Pardon me. So some kid who should be at home asleep in bed, under parental supervision, has had his rights infringed by being out committing crimes. What sort of world are we living in? What about the victims (of any crime), they just have to suck it up do they? The mind boggles. Talk about goofy logic.
Mike needs to understand this sort of rubbish is the very reason his lot, who have spent six years toadying up to crims and gangs, are about to get thrown out. We’ve all had enough of being lectured on the bloody Treaty, Aotearoa, Maori language and other indigenous nonsense including water ownership, plus trans and other gender rubbish. People who want to be involved in those matters can get on with it but don’t bother the rest of us with your self-inflicted woes.
It pleases me to then come to Bruce who is from a business background and does live in the real world. Bruce would agree with everything Mike doesn’t, but his priorities are very different. He, like us, wants to increase wealth through productivity. Bruce not only has ideas, but brings with them solutions to our current economic woes. He talks about the public service and the job losses from the much-needed trimming down exercise. He questions why those people should be lost to the workforce and suggests paid retraining for up to a year in areas crying out for jobs.
Bruce cites teachers, nurses, truck drivers, builders, hospitality and retail. He says despite nearly 200,000 on the jobseeker benefit (they can’t all have a health or disability issue surely), he knows of companies with 40 to 50 vacancies. He says we are to a degree hamstrung economically by only having two major industries, agriculture and tourism. From his perspective, we should bring back oil and gas exploration. He says our economy is in too fragile a state not to.
Among those still prospering in this area is Australia and Bruce also points to Guyana in the northern part of South America with a population of just 800,000. This is the world’s fastest-growing economy in 2023. Their projected growth rate is 38 per cent for the year according to recent GDP forecasts by the International Monetary Fund. Their secret, says Bruce, is oil production and export. Bruce says, quite rightly, we could play that game too including rebuilding our ability to generate oil, gas and coal. That would be a game-changer for the economy.
He of course points out it would not be without its challenges and the greenies wouldn’t like it. No, they wouldn’t, but these are the same nut jobs who want an extra week of paid leave for workers. How do they think that is going to be paid for and who do they think will be paying? It won’t be able to be paid for, nor will the bill from the Paris Accord when it arrives in two or three years. A day of reckoning on this current climate change BS is fast approaching.
In his concluding paragraph Bruce says there is no question that we need big ideas and major initiatives to grow our revenue and cut our costs. A failure to do so will leave this once great little country both financially and morally bankrupt.
Compare the different emphases from these two points of view. One social, one business. Mike Munro abhors any tightening up on those able to look for work and doesn’t want any further penalties for criminals or gang members. I’m quite sure Mike would prefer police resources were used to escort gangs from A to B rather than arresting them. Picture the scene. Ginny could be there to meet them with beers all around. On the other hand, Bruce Cotterill is all about increasing productivity and therefore wealth and ideas on how to go about it.
When you enter the polling booth remember your vote is one to rejoin the real world.