Trust us, we know what we’re doing
Weekend freebie edition
Hello! Here’s this week’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, Trust us, we know what we’re doing plus a preview of other recent editions.
But first, the button.
Trust us, we know what we’re doing
Sunday column, Feb 18
The best trick the National Party ever pulled was to fabricate their reputation as the responsible ones.
This would be the National Party that denied us the New Zealand Superannuation Scheme that—Brian Gaynor wrote back in 2007—would be worth more than $240 billion today and would have transformed the New Zealand economy into a world beater over the past 30 years.
This would be the National Party that diminished Kiwisaver from full strength to a watery decaf under the direction of John Key and Bill English, and also denied the Super Fund the chance to make about 19 billion.
And now, here they come again, boasting that they are going to put things back on track,only to immediately set about pulling up sleepers.
QUESTION: What is the best and only effective way of getting people and freight across Cook Strait?
ANSWER: Rail ferries.
Does it make sense to make the ferry operation good, green, rail-friendly and fit for purpose for the next hundred years? Well, sure.
But if you're Nicola Willis, in need of the readies to fund a three billion dollar backdated indulgence of landlords, and a forthcoming dopey tax cut bribe, you may find it necessary to foresake the best interests and longterm good of the nation.
So, you tell the nation that as responsible economic managers, you're not going to spend this large-sounding figure (that actually buys you decades of infrastructure resilience because it’s made to last and built for purpose) and you tell them: honestly, how hard can it be to find a good second-hand ferry? There’s probably a good one on Trade Me right now alongside the Corollas. Will one of you people check or do I have to do everything myself?
Or not. Turns out there are only 22 ferries anywhere in the world that might be suitable for Cook Strait and none are up for sale, and the deal we had was very likely the best we’ll get. Also, the break fees for cancelling the contract mean that you might not end up with much more in hand than you’d have if you pressed on.
QUESTION: What is the best way to tackle a monster headache of water infrastructure spending that has been kicked down the road for decades to the point where the bill is in the tens, nay, hundreds of billions and the prospect of councils being able to even borrow that money is in doubt?
ANSWER: Three Waters.
QUESTION: What would be the point of pretending Three Waters is a confiscation of people's assets and a corrupt deal for some no-good Maoris?
ANSWER: None at all, save for maybe getting you elected on the strength of a lie steeped in racism.
QUESTION: And once you get into office and have to scrap the really good idea of having the government borrow all the necessary billions and then distributing it over three big authorities responsible for getting all the overdue work done, what do you do?
ANSWER: You take to social media and say, councils now have their assets back, when in fact it was never otherwise, and that was beside the goddamn point anyway. The point was that it was going to make borrowing possible, and that any other arrangement for borrowing would be more expensive and push rates up, assuming you could even get one.
QUESTION: How likely is financial support for the councils from the government for this now? (Bearing in mind they say they’re going to require the councils to do the necessary spending).
ANSWER: Not too bloody likely. We’re talking about people who always look around for someone else to pay. They’ve intimated they will encourage councils to band together and get the money. Take one guess where that most likely ends up. It ends up with expensive consultants recommending to the councils that they should get into bed with the consultants’ very good friends the private equity investors, in some kind of public private partnership of the sort that’s gone so very well in the UK. Absolutely inferior to Three Waters.
Oh, but this is the National Party. They’re the responsible ones!
A journo told me yesterday that CEO Luxon has been promising to measure his ministers on such things as quarterly results and KPIs.
Leaving aside how comically distant that is from the way public policy works, let’s take a moment to consider the Boeing corporation.
It was once an enterprise that could look far enough ahead to bet the farm on the 747 and absolutely revolutionise air travel and make a fortune.
But in more recent years, that capacity for vision was supplanted by managerial short-termism, the kind that has been fostered by a market that judges you on your quarterly numbers; the kind that leads you to cut corners and compromise your standards.
It was this kind of short-termism that saw the 737 MAX hurried into market with a bodged design arrangement that required additional flight software that might interpose itself in flight control, about which pilots were not informed.
Terrifying tragedy ensued. A somewhat exaggerated way to make my point, but it’s nonetheless true.
This new Prime Minister—latest in a line of leaders of the party known as the responsible ones—does not know how to fly a plane. But there’s no denying he knows how to act like a Boeing executive.
Also this week in More Than A Feilding
Friday: Week in review, quiz style
1. What did the Atlas Network do in Aotearoa this week?
a. Got a tobacco whistleblower fired
b. Got Michael Bassett to ghost-write legislation
c. Planted Kompromat on John Campbell
d. Sent Cameron Slater flowers
e. None of the above
Thursday: Gravity wins, everybody loses
Do you remember when we asked: aren’t your campaign promises effectively saying you can defy gravity? We were right, weren’t we?
Wednesday: Efeso Collins
Tuesday: Sharp-elbowed and loving it
We’re doing this out of love, say Luxon and Upston, and: this is going to hurt us more than it hurts them.
Some people like the sound of that, but all I’m picking up are the patriarchal tones of the sort of evangelical church where Luxon once gathered with other tough-lovers.
How much harder they are going to make things for people? How about, oh, someone on the JobSeeker benefit, who has cancer? Luxon says she should still be looking to work 10 hours a week. FUCKSAKE.
Monday: You keep Luxin' when you oughta be thruthin'