It is concerning that when this Government took office, its' first actions were to cancel brakes on landlords that the previous Government had imposed, and repealed other laws in Trump fashion that would have benefited the less well-off and the environment. The Prime Minister tried taking taxpayer money because he said Government House was tatty. This raises questions about integrity, what principles apply, and the purpose of Government.

In contrast, Labour's then Transport Minister had to quit his Transport portfolio for not selling about $15,000 worth of shares in Air NZ, because there is a rule about it; yet this Government's Prime Minister who owns multiple rental properties worth millions of dollars, and other ministers who benefit by hundreds of thousands of dollars from wealthy donors, alter laws to suit donors.

There is no rule about such things despite the obvious conflicts of interests. Also note that one of National's first Acts of Parliament under John Key was legislation making it legal for corporations, including international corporations, to make campaign contributions. This favours National whose legislations favour big businesses. Such unprincipled behaviour reveals hypocrisy, corruption, greed and injustice.

This Government's Values

Integrity, which at a personal level means being honest and having strong moral principles, while on a larger scale means to uphold territorial boundaries and national sovereignty, is under assault. Politicians, ideally, should be trustworthy people of integrity. It is difficult to trust a party that recklessly reverses legislation that had undergone thorough scrutiny through various democratic processes, without having properly reviewed the legislation before axing it.

There was no rigorous examination of consequences or consequent costs, ecological boundaries or the inter-related connections that make up society, but decisions were based purely on populist ideology that is self-oriented and ignores facts. Making issues into political footballs is reckless because it denies certainty for people, businesses and Governments, which destroys trust.

The law usually operates by principles. The sages of old, including Jesus, taught in terms of principles using stories. Nobody purporting to be Christian, as some politicians do, can uphold laws that treat some sectors of society unjustly. Principles cover multiple situations by single, overarching observations, but narrowly-focused single-issue decisions enable constant change by those in power, creating uncertainty. Ignoring wider principles while favouring the wealthy destroys trust, ignores the wider good, which in turn discourages the population. Once the feeling of powerlessness sets in, people are then tempted to break the law.

If politicians continue to break the spirit of laws by breaking public safety and tax laws, then others copy. Over time a sense of ethical behaviour weakens in the wider population. Greed increases because not only have our leaders shown that greed pays, but the neoliberal economic model, based on consumption and growth, actively encourages greed. The saying that "greed is good" - proclaimed in the 1980s by neoliberal stalwarts - has become cemented into people's psyches. Tax evasion, undeclared income put in places where it can't be accounted for, creates the risk that disrespect for financial law becomes the norm. Erosion of trust and integrity thus alters the culture of society.

The results include, among other things, polarisation, mean-mindedness, hate, and eventual social unrest. Fascism ("the marriage of the corporation and the State" - Benito Mussolini's definition) becomes a very real risk after the ensuing social chaos caused by the juxtaposition of the rich and disrespect for the disadvantaged bringing the need for a "strong man" to "fix" the problems - that's how Mussolini, Hitler and Stalin came to power.

Nowadays though, the scapegoats are migrants and the poor. 2300 years ago, Aristotle warned us that inequality brings instability. History has continually proved him right, and as recently as the 20th Century where inequality directly led to the dictators who caused tens of millions of deaths and many more millions living under disastrous totalitarian regimes.

Altering laws to enrich the rich while impoverishing the poor has never been taught by anyone in the history of humanity, though has been practiced by tyrants and authoritarians. Enshrining such values brings into question the purpose of Government. Laws have been set to contain unbridled behaviour for millennia. Thomas Jefferson considered that Government existed for the interests of the governed, not for the governors. Robert Kennedy Sr believed that Government belonged wherever evil needed to be opposed and there were people in distress. In other words, Government should provide guidelines for citizens, to protect them from outside interference and provide for their well-being.

It is inconsistent to accept that large salaries can be paid to corporate employees and managers while Government employee salaries are suppressed. Government employees then gradually move to corporate business models, which increases the cost of their services. Neoliberal dogma preaches paying more for commodities in scarce supply, which in theory will increase supply.

But this does not apply to Government expenditure, which the dogma deems should be cut. Maths and physics teachers in particular, justice officials, medical professionals and others ought to be paid far more, yet because they are public servants they are not, under neoliberal economics. Our health professionals, police, teachers and others find better pay and conditions in Australia or further overseas; New Zealand has become a training ground for others' benefit.

Our schools and hospitals in particular need huge capital expenditure yet Government penny-pinching results in inadequate building plans before they even get off the ground. If the highest paid were taxed more and public servants were paid more, this could be fixed. Instead, more privatisation and public-private partnerships are preferred, which will weaken our ability to govern because the power players will insist on their profit-oriented policies being enacted. Weakened Government departments will be deemed inefficient yet again, this time due to lack of funding, thus the privatisation cycle will repeat. The corporations will eventually rule under these circumstances (note Mussolini's definition of fascism)

This Government's Performance

This National/ACT/Winston First government has so far not shown any inclination to protect all citizens' well-being. It disregards research that provides some answers. It has not shown the courage to provide funding to stretched public services or aged infrastructure, yet it asks for more cuts, using sophistry to justify the cuts. Every portfolio requires huge remedial expenditure to fix run-down Government departments that resulted from strangulating neoliberal policies of previous Governments.

To fix such huge deficits, an increase in Government revenue is required, not a reduction. Reducing taxes for the rich when billions of dollars need to be spent on health, education, research, the environment, justice and natural disaster protection and recovery is unjust and deprives most citizens of their rights to well-being and happiness, indicating Government rule for the vested interests that helped it to power.

Under this Government roads will be expanded, railways will shrink - the opposite of efficiency and what is needed to reduce carbon emissions. More roads will result in more traffic, leading to the need for even more roads plus expensive parking facilities and pothole repairs, raising the costs for motorists. More greenhouse gases will be emitted. Heavy cargo trucks churn up road surfaces beyond what road user charges provide for repairs, yet electric vehicles will be billed disproportionately heavily for relatively little damage.

Providing for active and public transport like cycleways and bus and rail services (which gets many vehicles off the roads, reducing the need for more roads while simultaneously improving population health), or a well-run railways network, is anathema to this Government. Increasing car registration fees to pay for extra roads would be better spent building hospital and school infrastructure. The cheaper option of providing for active transport would also reduce injuries, saving the overloaded health system further costs.

Examples Of Wastefulness

At a time when increased spending is needed, funding is being denied. This Government's wastefulness is a miserable indictment. Some examples include:

• Removing climate change and biodiversity loss considerations from legislation is perhaps the most egregious omission from the Coalition's policies. The costly waste of assets and lives from a climate event are not taken seriously. The World Economic Forum deems failure of climate change mitigation and adaptation to be the largest risk by impact, social costs and geopolitical tensions being the most serious through the collapse and disruption of the food distribution and health systems, among others.
• Reducing spending on school lunches that have been targeted at the lowest income groups, on the pretext of reducing waste, puts the children who do receive lunches at risk of even more prejudice. It shows contempt for the indigent, not to mention children's increased health risks and poorer school performance.
• Scrapping anti-smoking legislation not only does irreparable harm to New Zealand's reputation, but will mostly harm Māori New Zealanders. Loading the resulting unnecessary health costs on the already broken health system, which is being asked to reduce costs even further, is a waste of resources through downstream cost increases (caring for the resulting sick, paying for medications and other medical care). There is no need to change that legislation.
• Repealing the Fair Pay Act, which would have provided for unions to start bargaining for collective agreements that would set minimum pay and conditions across industries, breaches the European Union (EU) free trade deal. It offends workers to waste lawyer time dealing with the EU while revealing Government lust for power and control over "lesser mortals".
• TV3 not being assisted is a serious assault on democracy. Too-big-to-fail businesses are given financial lifelines though. Media scrutiny is an essential tool for democracy by analysing the Government's and others' performance. So, transnationals steal our journalists' newsgathering efforts in the process of reaping billion-dollar profits that rightfully belong to New Zealand; this Government is disinclined to provide objective journalistic scrutiny for its citizens' edification. Adding insult to injury, affected journalists were criticised for expressing hurt after being clobbered. Dictators don't like being scrutinised or analysed.
• Lobbyists being given easy access to the halls of Government while there is no publicly-available list of who they are raises the question of what else is being hidden from view. How can citizens trust an opaque system that favours business interests at the expense of the governed without transparency?
• Rewriting the Firearms Act shows gross insensitivity after the 2019 Christchurch mosques' massacre; semi-automatics are simply not needed by ordinary gun owners, according to their own spokespeople. Providing for a few exceptions would be far more efficient than spending money rewriting the Act.
• Providing favours to the fishing industry, which provided generous funds to NZ First, puts our oceans and fish stock in jeopardy through overfishing. Bottom trawling destroys benthic species (those that live close to, or on, the sea floor) and releases huge amounts of carbon dioxide buried in the sediment for aeons. Such ignorant disregard for biodiversity and its services, provided for free, is incalculably wasteful because it will cost much more downstream. Under-reporting on protected species' deaths also threatens New Zealand's reputation.
• NZ First providing Government funds under its' 2017-20 coalition with Labour to upgrade racecourse tracks was a profligate waste of tax revenue. The racing industry is private enterprise, not Government business. Wasting such Government funding cynically warps ideology and mocks justice.

Government By Oligarchy Reinforces Greed

These are only some instances of Government mismanagement where the minority parties dictate the terms. Its policies are destructive, point to corruption and privilege leaning towards a global system of power and ownership that will reduce our sovereignty. Government by oligarchy reinforces greed. The undemocratic changes risk provoking racial and class tensions leading to more inequality and thus more instability. This in turn risks the need for a "strong man", possibly an authoritarian leader. Is that what our "triumvirate" is aiming for? We need to practice ethics, not power and control!

Watchdog - 165 April 2024