David Cunliffe vs neoliberalism | The Jackal

4 Sept 2013

David Cunliffe vs neoliberalism

Today, The Standard reported:

The next election is critical for Labour and for New Zealand. We are at a turning point in history. The Global Financial Crisis and the Great Recession have busted the neoliberal consensus and exposed it for the dodgy pyramid scheme it always was.

[...]

The neoliberal project has run out of steam. Kiwis can see it offers no answers to the challenges they face. It hasn’t delivered jobs, it hasn’t delivered security, and it hasn’t delivered the prosperity it promised.

The next Labour Government must not be a continuity government. We need a transformative economic and environmental agenda and we need leadership with the vision and the credibility to see it through.

We must also have leadership that has proven it can stare down vested interests – because make no mistake, the beneficiaries of neoliberalism will not give up their privilege quietly.

It's great to see a politician and potential future Prime Minister come out so strongly against the now completely defunct neoliberal agenda. In my opinion, because of this strong stance, David Cunliffe will likely win the leadership race.

Clearly Labour supporters are ready for a change away from the current status quo, a change in the system that previous Labour governments have unfortunately also blindly followed. If David Cunliffe can show that he intends to return Labour to its roots, he will undoubtedly gain more support from voters who had previously become disillusioned with politics.

In fact apart from the Greens, I don't believe any other left wing politician has so openly opposed the right wings free market dogma of deregulation, privatization, and reducing government control of the economy, all of which has utterly failed New Zealand.

More Kiwis are now impoverished and struggling to survive than ever before and such dysfunction is causing untold misery in a country that produces far more than it needs.

In terms of our declining living standards and growing inequality, the main culprit is neoliberalism. Get rid of its destructive influence and we will once again have the New Zealand we all deserve.