Some of it is mad, some of it is bad and some of it is clearly the work of people who are dangerous to know
Weekend freebie edition
Hello! Here’s this weekend’s freebie edition of More Than A Feilding which begins in the customary way with an invitation to become a paying subscriber.
I’d love to be able to give it all away, but sadly New World and the bookshop and Hammer Hardware continue to put their stuff behind a paywall, so I’m forced to follow suit. Trust you understand.
In a moment, this week's free edition,
Some of it is mad, some of it is bad and some of it is clearly the work of people who are dangerous to know, from last Sunday,
plus a preview of other recent editions.
But first, the button.
Some of it is mad, some of it is bad and some of it is clearly the work of people who are dangerous to know
On announcement morning my mate texted:
Typical of this cut-price, fake-deal government to announce itself on Black Friday.
What a deal. We lose Kim Hill, we gain an empty, jargonising prime minister, a belligerent conspiracist, and a heartless Ayn Rand fanboy.
One door closes, another gets slammed repeatedly in your face.
It seems pretty clear as you read line after dismaying line of the coalition agreement how this negotiation played out. Luxon has persuaded himself, as only a sales and marketing type can, that they all have the same goals, they just have different ways of getting there. Or maybe he hasn't actually swallowed the company's dog food, he's just telling us it's delicious.
And what are these same goals he assures usthey all have? They are so motherhood and apple pie as to be meaningless: tackle the cost of living, keep us all safe from crime, get your kids taught, keep the hospitals open. Come on. Like that isn't everyone's goal always and forever in politics.
And so he has looked past the import of the specific policies to delude himself that this is terrific stuff and now we can get on with rescuing New Zealand from The Future.
But it is not terrific stuff. Some of it is mad, some of it is bad and some of it is clearly the work of people who are dangerous to know.
It ranges from petty and petulant to callous and reckless. Let’s start at petulant.
Legislate to make English an official language of New Zealand
What a petty sop to people who have bristled at being told that Maori is an official language and English is not. The agreement is littered with this sort of stop making my white dominance feel threatened bullshit, from Commit that in the absence of a referendum, our Government will not change the official name of New Zealand to Require the public service departmentsto Crown Entities to communicate primarily in English - except those entities specifically related to Māori.
But it's not just petty stuff. Restore balance to the Aotearoa New Zealand’s Histories curriculum seeks to maintain a white supremacy narrative that is as obnoxious as it is wrongheaded.
And most deadly of all is the one they all agree on from the off: Abolish the Māori Health Authority. Shame on them all. Do read this, by the partner of reader Lizzi, who kindly alerted me to it.
What isn’t understood is that access to healthcare is only equal in theory and political slogans. In the “equal” world, many people fall behind. The grim truth is that the healthcare delivered is rarely based on need.
You must work in healthcare to understand this. You must work with the wealthiest and the poorest to feel the sting of inequity punch you in the face and make you squirm with shame.
Some of the policies look kind of mild and innocuous on paper, but the real-life implications could be shocking.
Returning the public sector headcount back to 2017 levels potentially means 15,000 jobs gone in the name of the undying delusion that Wellington is full of unnecessary people doing unnecessary work.
The repeal of the policy to progressively lift the age of cigarette sales will ensure more deaths, but never mind that; we can't have nanny telling us what to do.
Likewise, this agreement is fully polluted by Winston's most recent voter drive that has encrusted him with anti-vax wide-eyed crazies. They get indulged all the way through this agreement: on therapeutic medicines legislation; on Deep State UN overlord fantasies; on a COVID enquiry, all manner of shit. Cheers, Winston. T hat stuff had been desperately needing some oxygen, validation and clout.
The ACT stuff is a more known quantity.
They’re letting farming adapt to the climate crisis at a pace that suits them, that is to say: somewhere between a long way off and maybe we'll see, ask me again in ten years and stop telling me what to do.
They're still banging away at their charter school drum, trying to privatise schools and turn them into neoliberal factories, and let me just stop at this point to refrain Peter Fraser
Education is not enough if it teaches us how to make a living. Education must teach us how to live.
They also have a bit of tubthumping thrown in: undermining firearms policy; university funding contingent on accepting what they define as free speechmeaning TERFs and Peterson-type grifters. Great. More oxygen, validation and clout for the mad, bad and dangerous.
But the nastiest, stuff, the most determined of the white supremacist stuff, the most cold hearted Darwinistic shit comes in such packages as:
Ending Fair Pay Agreements
90-day trials for all workers
No-cause evictions
Landlord subsidies
Gutting Treaty rights
And climate crisis action once more becomes something you just profess to care about while you go back to building new roads and filling them with cars.
All of these things will serve to make things harder and crueller and less fair, and achieve nothing good.
If you think that’s a recipe for getting the country back on track, you have three years of letdowns ahead of you, Mr Shiny New Prime Minister.
This is just going to make things more sharp-elbowed, more brittle, more uneasy.
There is momentum for a Māori renaissance, there is momentum for climate action, there is momentum for remaking the world to be fair and more sustainable.
None of this will derail that. It will give comfort for a time to the reactionaries and haters and deniers, but sooner or later, the pressing need for action will become unavoidable.
Let’s hope it’s not too long a wait.
Also in More Than A Feilding this week
Friday
Under New Management
Week in review, quiz style
1. Which of these best describes Aotearoa?
a. Progressive nation, proud of its egalitarian spirit and belief in a fair go
b. Best little country on the planet
c. Under New Management
Thursday
Questions a nine year old might ask the new Prime Minister
Wednesday
How long does this last?
Measuring a piece of string
Tuesday
Sanity break
Contains long walks, Newspaper Eggs, a flat white, a loose floor in an elevator, and thoughts about roundabouts
Monday
Let's open the books with Nicotine Willis
Watching the Finance Minister dissemble
But I digress. My central point is: the PREFU means we know exactly where we are.
There are no hidden shocks to come. There are no surprises for Nicola Willis to exploit in order to pretend she must reluctantly apply harsher cuts to fund their stupid tax bribe.
