Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Color/Colour By Selection In New Zealand.

Honeypottrap. | 24.07.2002 22:03

Maori defender with a reassuring message for whites.

Color/Colour By Selection In New Zealand.
Color/Colour By Selection In New Zealand.



By Louise Williams.
July 25 2002

Mr Peters holds up three fingers to indicate a three-point electoral message in Mt Eden, Auckland, yesterday. Photo: New Zealand Herald/David White

New Zealand's slick anti-immigration campaigner, Winston Peters, "has a country to save". And he has race, and racism, on his side.

The threat, Mr Peters readily warns, is a torrent of Asian migrants who are jeopardising the very values that define his gentle New Zealand: "decency, justice and the willingness to give others a hand up".

"Who will fix it?" he asks, flashing a broad grin across a packed hall of grey-haired retirees on the outskirts of Auckland. His New Zealand First party, of course, he replies to whoops of approval and thunderous applause.

But Winston Peters insists he is no racist. And it is a hard label for his many detractors to make stick.

Mr Peters is part Maori, a credential he ruthlessly exploits. Asian immigrants, he says, are "gatecrashers from an alien culture" who push Maoris, the poorest New Zealanders, to the bottom of the heap.

At the same time he has a reassuring message for whites. He does not want special laws, or endless land claims, for Maoris. He wants "one New Zealand", regardless of colour. But "one New Zealand" that has the right to choose who comes next.

But perhaps most disarming is his showmanship. Backed by the odd burst of rousing music, his message of fear and loathing is packaged in the infectious good humour of a likable rogue.

For the main political parties, Mr Peters's appeal cannot be written off with the lunatic political fringe. Recent polls suggest NZ First could win more than 10per cent of the vote in Saturday's national elections, giving Mr Peters a potential veto or even a coalition role because the frontrunner, Labour, is expected to fall short of an outright majority.

Mr Peters is no flash-in-the-pan Kiwi Pauline Hanson. He has served twice in coalition governments and for almost 10 years has hovered on the edge of power. More than once he has been written off as a spent force. But, with no election button too cheap to push, he bounces back.

In the final days of campaigning, he is going in with the big, emotive guns: immigration and crime. It is not safe to walk the streets and fanatics are breaching lax immigration controls.

The streets of Auckland tell Mr Peters's story. New Zealand has accepted more than 50,000 Asian immigrants in recent years and thousands of Asian students and tourists have changed the face of its main international city.

"There is always some truth in what he says; people can be swayed by his message," said Dr Jacqui True, of the University of Auckland. "Anecdotally we have been losing students because were are perceived to be too Asian."

The Labour Government of Helen Clark is adamant immigration must be maintained to protect the tax base and to compensate for the long-term exodus of skilled citizens.

"NZ First is the same kind of phenomenon as anti-immigration parties in Europe which play on fears and insecurity. There is much more insecurity generally because of economic openness and immigrants are part of that; they are symbols who can be used politically," a political scientist, Jack Vowles, said.

Said another political scientist, Raymond Miller: "Here is a Maori claiming to represent the weakest sector in society. To have a flood of immigrants may have a negative effect on them. He is a very clever politician and he does attract people who really love him."

************************************************************
Vote?
by Honeypottrap. Wednesday July 24, 2002 at 01:09 PM

 http://nm.indymedia.org/newswire/display/66/index.php

add your comments

The asylum is well run at present.
by Honeypottrap. • Wednesday July 24, 2002 at 01:22 PM

Who's Who in the New Zealand MMP Zoo.

by Abut Sully
Former Kiwi Political Adviser

Try this for an excellent wrap on the upcoming Kiwi elections from political insider Abut Scully and then a pugnacious response from reader "Peter" followed by a further response from Abut.

New Zealanders will go to the polls on Saturday July 27, the third election under the Mixed Member Proportional electoral system adopted by referendum in a temporary bout of collective insanity in 1993.

The system, based on the German model, sees the make up of Parliament determined by the percentage parties attain via a Party vote, while also allowing voters the chance to elect a local member through a second “electorate vote.” In order to be represented in Parliament, a party must either reach a 5% threshold in the Party vote or win at least one electorate seat (in the latter case, the Party vote threshold doesn’t stand so, say, if you have one electorate MP elected, and score 2% of the Party vote, you will have an additional Member elected off your Party list). Confused? If not, get on the phone to any Kiwi you know and explain it to them.

The current Government, of course, is led by the formidable Helen Clark and was composed of the Labour Party and the left wing Alliance Party with support on confidence and supply from the Greens. In recent times, the Alliance has split into two. Party leader Deputy PM Jim Anderton got sick and tired of lentil burgers and formed the Progressive Coalition along with a number of his caucus who were similarly exhausted with the hygiene-challenged loonies among them. It was this realignment that gave Miss Clark the opportunity she needed to go to the polls at a time of her choosing, with a strong economy and a weak Opposition giving her all the additional motivation she needed.

So, with campaign underway, what is the current state of play?

In the years following her brutal coup against former leader (and now WTO chief) Mike Moore, Helen Clark’s was about as popular among New Zealanders as Yassir is among Israelis. But David Lange was not wrong when he claimed that the only things to survive a nuclear attack would be cockroaches – and Helen Clark. She makes Howard look positively lily-livered, not to mention feminine.

Helen Clark’s self-belief is such that she should be giving lectures to Anthony Robbins, and she knew that even if New Zealanders would never particularly like her, by God they would learn to respect her. That, if polls are any indication, they surely do.

The latest polls put Labour at between 46-50%, meaning that it is a distinct possibility that they could secure a majority in its own right – almost unprecedented in proportional representation elections. They have stumbled somewhat in the last week or two over a couple of scandals/beat ups.

First, there is the ongoing controversy of her adding her signature to paintings that were auctioned for charity under the auspices that she had actually painted them. Dubbed ‘Paintergate’ by some NZ journo who had evidently recently undergone an imagination bypass, this story was given extra legs by the release of the police report detailing the purchase and subsequent destruction of one of the paintings by – you guessed it - her own electorate officer (who is also Jim Anderton’s ex-wife). Oh dear. Despite the unsavoury nature of the story, Helen appears likely to ride it out.

It’s classic insider stuff – a “Lewinsky” that generates trouser stirring in the press gallery but yawns everywhere else. Most importantly, though, Helen has enough stored in the credibility bank to stand a minor withdrawal or two without damaging her electoral standing too badly.

The second issue, which involves revelations about a GE contamination scare (given it involved a crop of corn, no prizes for what it has been dubbed). The GE debate is a huge one in New Zealand, largely because the moratorium over the release of genetically modified material is due to expire next year and the Greens have made extending it indefinitely their central policy plank. These latest revelations, made in a book by notorious conspiracy theorist and John Pilger wannabe, Nicky Hagar, involve a cover up by the Government following the accidental release of genetically modified corn,

Fascinating stuff; no doubt a great read. Too bad its utter bullshit.

The problem for Labour is less the allegations themselves, which have been completely discredited, but Helen’s apparent overreaction to them. Her normally cool demeanour made way for uncharacteristic rage when she was ambushed by a TV interviewer before she had been made aware of the book’s contents. To give you an idea of her approach to this unwelcome line of questioning, the interviewer blamed a car crash on his way home that night on the emotional state he was left in after incurring the PM’s wrath.

Combined, these scandals have wrong footed the Government, and Labour has lost between 3 and 5 points in the polls as a result. The opposition National Party, however, has not been the beneficiary, remaining static in the mid to high twenties. Led by the innocuous Bill English (who some say was elected leader only because he was the sole National MP with a deeper voice than the PM), National has struggled to gain any traction over the course of the term and is running a singularly uninspired campaign. The lead up to the election has been tarred by a fair amount of internal bickering over pre-selections. National Party President and PR guru Michelle Boag (far less pleasant than her Tasmanian cousin, James) has run an industrial vacuum cleaner over the Caucus, disposing of the dead wood and replacing them with handpicked ‘stars’ such as former Reserve Bank Governor Don Brash. Think Bernie Fraser. Halve the charisma.

Instead, it is the minor parties who appear to be gaining ground, notably the Greens who appear to be tapping into a disturbing strain of paranoid conspiracy theory combined with fanatical vegetarianism in the kiwi psyche. They are tracking around 10%, which would give them around 13 or so MPs. The café at Parliament house better start stockpiling brown rice and organic turnips. Labour has ruled out forming a coalition with the Greens because it refuses to guarantee confidence and supply if the GE moratorium is lifted – which it will be.

Winston Peters of New Zealand First is doing his usual last minute rabble rousing on race and immigration just in time to meet the required 5%. I have enjoyed more than a few drinks with Winston, who is engaging company and a great laugh. It’s just a shame that the cameras fail to pick up the cheeky grin that follows every outrageous statement he makes in private which makes it clear he doesn’t really believe a word he is saying. He’ll be back, with 6 or 7 colleagues to keep him company.

ACT, led by former Labour Minister Richard Prebble, is benefiting from National’s slump and seems to be attracting an increasing share of the right-wing vote. Expect them to return with a slightly larger contingent to keep on playing their laissez faire loony tunes.

Jim Anderton’s Progressive Coalition (he inserted his name so voters would realise what it was) will not reach 5%, but Anderton himself is sure to win in his electorate of Wigram. Helen has indicated that she wants him in Cabinet, although it is not clear whether he would remain Deputy PM. If they do slightly better than most polls indicate, he may be able to bring one other colleague into Parliament on his coat-tails.

The Alliance, led by the lisping Laila Harre, appear to be stuffed, with little chance of winning an electorate or reaching the 5% threshold. After July 27, expect New Zealand to be confronting an over-supply of sociology lecturers and part time olive growers.

United NZ is the banner under which the amicable but astoundingly dull Peter Dunne gets re-elected every time in his suburban electorate of Ohariu Belmont. His parliamentary colleagues won’t resent his re-election – who else will get up and speak on the “Customs Duties Amendment Bill (No 5) Bill” and appear to actually enjoy it?

In short, the likely outcome will be that Helen Clark, with her loyal sidekick Jim Anderton in toe, will be in a position to form a Government, either with an outright majority or a few shy of that. Either way, Helen Clark’s reign appears far from over – her 64th birthday is nearly 5 elections away!

CRIKEY: A good article such as this always elicits excellent replies such as the following from Peter:

Callous capitalism gone wrong.

By Kiwi watching Peter.

Who's Who in the Zoo was an enjoyable and seriously funny article. I think it needs a little more context which I will have a shot at providing.

"New Zealanders will go to the polls on Saturday July 27, the third election under the Mixed Member Proportional electoral system adopted by referendum in a temporary bout of collective insanity in 1993."

Or collective sanity, depending on your point of view. By 1993 many and perhaps even most Kiwis had become deeply deeply pissed off with the extreme version of economic rationalism that they had endured for the best part of a decade under jolly Roger Douglas and his merry band (including for the record, one Helen Clark who has cast of her economic rationalist rags in the interim). Each year the rhetoric was the same - "If we all [='you all'] accept pain and suffering now, then it will be beer and skittles for everyone in the future - real soon now".

In the event people could not help but notice that the beer and skittles retreated approximately 1.5 years as each year passed. Further, thougthful Kiwis saw that National (=Liberal) were offering the same thing, but even more so, which indeed proved to be the case.

MMP - eventually - offered Kiwis a way out of this lunacy.

When NZ put everyone onto individual contracts and reduced the minimum wage to penury levels - not sure what it was in 1993, but by 1996 it had risen to the dizzy heights of $NZ6.40 - it took quite some time for the government and its economists to notice two effects that should have been obvious (1) anyone who can hire someone for five bucks an hour will. (Good bye middle income jobs, Goodbye middle class). (2) people living on that level of income don't buy much. (Good bye spending. Goodbye economy - it collapsed like a cold souffle). Importers and manufacturers discovered that no matter how cheap their costs were, it helped to have someone on the other side of the counter with the folding stuff in their pockets.

(Driving into a service station in Cromwell in the mid-90s, I was astonished at the sheer volume of driveway staff - it was difficult to avoid hitting them - one to fill your tank, another to clean your window, one to go 'brrring brring' as you drove over him on the way in etc At $3.50 per hour (junior rates) presumably easy get a fresh one out of the box.)

Once the redundancy moneys ran out, the party was over. Later came a second round of nationwide lay-offs but this time without redundancy payments as by then everyone was on short term individual contracts. In truth, there was a big time burst of entrpreneurism after the first round of redundancies as tens of thousands of former employees enthusiastically started up micro-businesses, but once demand dried up, so to did these, as well as the enthusiasm to be an entrepreneur. Might as well spend your last few bucks on having some fun, and many did just this.

For a succinct description of what happens when you listen to loonies, see this website. I found five mintes ago after a one minute search. I'm sure there are others just as good. Quoting from that:

"It has been so long since anyone in the business press has praised the New Zealand "miracle," it's almost as if we imagined the whole thing. But, of course, the current silence is really no mystery. The 15-year free market experiment has been an unmitigated disaster. The suffering caused among ordinary New Zealanders is well known: the highest youth suicide rate in the developed world; the proliferation of food banks; huge increases in violent and other crime; the bankruptcy of half the farms in the country; the economic disruption of hundreds of thousands of lives; health care, education and other social services devastated by the mad marketplace scientists.

"There are lessons from New Zealand, but they do not involve adopting that tortured country as a model."

BTW it's really like this in NZ. (OK, not everwhere all the time).

For entertainment value, try trawling the web for old articles written at the time of the "NZ miracle". They are funny/sad whether written from an outsider's perspectrive (eg. when our Libs were all heading off to NZ to see how it really ought to be done); and arrogant/smug when written by the then NZ rulers ("Why is everyone in the world so stupid except me" - Homer Simpson, just before his house catches fire as he falls asleep on the couch)

I see no room for smugness on our part. In my opionion, the main thing that has saved us from NZ's fate is our federal & bi-cameral system. NZ is first past the post, uni-cameral and has no states. Governments are - or rather, were until MMP - elected dictatorships. Cabinets enjoyed the ability to implement their policies in the purest possbile form, unfettered by such irritations such as the senate or state governments. Imagine the moves John Howard would make if he had a majority in both houses and Liberal Governments in every state and you're starting to get the picture.

Abut Sully is not going to take that lying down and responds as follows:

Swinger Parties: The (Partial) Truth Behind MMP

By Abut Sully

Peter’s response to my article was well informed, insightful and intelligent. So I am clearly out of my depth. It appears that, unlike me, he is somewhat of a policy wonk and I have no intention of engaging in a wonking competition.

He is owed one confession: I actually voted for MMP and did so for many of the reasons Peter outlines. First past the post governments in New Zealand did, in many cases, act with unconstrained arrogance, and this was occurring well before the timeframe Peter discusses. Elected in 1975, the National Government led by the vertically challenged Rob Muldoon spent nine years imposing its will on the New Zealand people in ways that would make Kim Jong Il blush.

His brand of populism saw, among other things, agricultural subsidies rise to levels where sheep earned more than the average wage. To suppress unemployment, NZ Rail employed more people than it transported, there were two posties per letter, and chain gangs of the otherwise jobless were paid to dig holes in the ground, only to fill them again (these skills became useful later when marijuana planting became a popular career choice).

By 1984, the country was faltering, divided and broke. David Lange’s Labour Government was a breath of fresh air and, for the early years at least, so were its many reforms.

Peter is right in saying they over-stretched, big time. Roger Douglas acted as if he had been hypnotised by Adam Smith. His zealotry was infectious and he was able to seduce enough members of Cabinet to his viewpoint to prevail (although Peter is harsh to suggest Helen was one). Lange, on the other hand, seemed more concerned about where his next one-liner was coming from, not to mention his next sausage roll.

Lange was Milli Vanilli, miming the words penned by post-adolescent Rogernome bureaucrats who geekily but eerily stalked the halls of Treasury dreaming up new assets to sell, taxes to cut, regulations to slash, and computer games to purchase. (It’s a shame the Internet had yet to be invented – they could have left the New Zealand economy alone while they explored the many pleasures of one-hand-typing).

I agree with Peter that things got pretty bad for a while there, but the Hieronymus Bosch picture he paints is a tad over the top. If things were truly that gloomy, it wouldn’t be youth suicide we would need to worry about. 95% of the adult population would have topped themselves. (Not to mention the now poverty stricken sheep!)

It also struck me as odd that Peter gave no mention of the first MMP term, a convenient omission in order to support his argument that MMP was some kind of elixir.

The first lesson New Zealanders learnt from MMP was not one of cooperation, moderation and common sense. Rather, as New Zealanders watched parties and politicians join in an obscene ritualistic dance of Naked Self Interest, they were rightly disgusted. The process of building a Coalition appeared less like an exercise in building stable government than a middle aged swinger’s party. Looking back now, I am certain that Helen Clark is delighted that Winston Peters picked up Jim Bolger’s car keys and not hers.

The Bolger-Peters, then Shipley-Peters then Shipley without Peters-but-with-some-others, Government was a monumental farce, and an embarrassment to the country.

On a positive note, the Government was so comically dysfunctional it was incapable of actually doing anything, and that was a relief. And perhaps it also helped educate New Zealanders to use the MMP system less like a lottery. It certainly provided a foundation for the success of the Clark-Anderton term.

But the system that generated the chaos of 1996-99 remains in place, and it is as unpredictable as ever.

The asylum is well run at present, but there is no shortage of lunatics poised to take over.

On the record publishable letters to  http://www.crikey.com.au


Honeypottrap.

Comments

Display the following 2 comments

  1. Aussie Crooks And Others. — Honeypottrap.
  2. News for Kiwi's who have fled that country. — Jiminy_Cricket.
Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech