For decades now, we have talked about missing the good old days. We talked about when everyone could afford a home, nearly all children were in school and you could get lolly mixes from the dairy for less than $1.
What we don’t talk about about is how the current status quo, that has been in place since 1985, has altered the country in such a way that the old days are like a nostalgic past that we long for. Nor do we as a nation talk about how in the last two decades there has been a drastic lack of original policies designed to address that change for the worse.
The absence of drastically new policies in New Zealand politics comes down to a simple reason:
The status quo suits the Government and its backers just fine.
Why introduce radical new policies that are going to upset something that for the very most part, works just fine? The policies that have been introduced since October 2023 are partially intended to undo all the gains that made under the Labour-Greens-N.Z. First and Labour majority government. They are also intended to double down on the neoliberal principle of the market knowing best, taxation being bad and the Government “interference” in anything but defence, foreign policy and justice being adverse to a laissez-faire socio-economic market.
For 40 years the rich have done very well out of the market economic conditions that their political heroes have created, whilst the lower income groups have increasingly struggled with even day to day necessities. No one should be at all surprised, that after 40 years of doing very well at the expense of not so fortunate peoples, that the wealthy get scared when anyone with an ounce of common sense wants to upset their apple cart.
But if this country is to progress, upset it we must. If this country is going to get its 112,000 homeless/ off the streets and into housing, we must. If this country is going to improve the vital statistics of literacy, writing and mathematics, we must. If this country is going to improve its key health, environmental and social welfare indicators, we must.
New Zealand must see tax reform as something more than raising or lowering income tax – something we seem to do every 3 years, almost without fail.
And we can.
But do we want to? Do we as a nation want to take the necessary steps to improve socio-economic equality? Do we want the tourists who drive our second largest earner to continue coming and singing the environmentally responsible praises that they once did? Do we want the migrants from overseas and those who fled conflict and strife to see us as a nation that will give them a just, fair go?
If you answer yes to any of those, we need to change. The status quo has not worked for this country for decades. It is not working now for New Zealand, and it will not work in the future.
So, are you prepared to join me next year in being brave and not voting for Natoinal or Labour if they do not introduce truly visionary policies between now and October 2026?
Leftist Kiwi Writes 