The Fake World Cup Tour

There were rumors this week that the prime minister might be fake. Experts say his IQ was affected during the cloning process and that he's no longer able to count how many youth unemployed there are or shares he holds with Transrail or the Bank of America.  Unfortunately nobody knows where the real John Key is, although reports say that he's all over the place.

Another Flip Flop

Kate Wilkinson is now increasing the mining inspectorate despite repeatedly denying there was a problem. National has up until now been adamant that one mine inspector for the entire country was enough and they wouldn't make changes until the royal commission reported.

It appears that National can’t even stick to their own bullshit! A couple of days ago stuff reported that mine inspectors are to be doubled. They also reported that:

Check inspectors were abolished in 1992 and a mine inspectorate was dismantled in 1998. 

A Labour Department paper in 2008 recommended that check inspectors – workers with the authority to clear a mine if they considered it dangerous – be restored in underground mines. 

What they failed to report though was that it was a National government who abolished and dismantled the mine inspectorate. The current National government also killed the Labour Department's 2008 recommendations as soon as they gained power.

National’s back tracking clearly shows there's an inadequate safety program, which could have caused the 29 miners at Pike River to die. Kate Wilkinson should resign.

On Your Bike John Key

You might be aware that National has failed to uphold many of their campaign promises. They've failed to close the wage gap with Australia for one, mainly because they had no intention of affecting business profits. This policy failure alone has been very detrimental to New Zealand.

Under a National government, inequality has markedly increased because they've ensured inflation is high and wages are kept low. This means those lucky enough to be employed often still need welfare... effectively gifting billions of dollars in wage subsidies to private businesses.

That's just the tip of the iceberg in terms of National's corporate welfare regime. Instead of developing economic stability, National wants to sacrifice long term income streams for a quick buck and privatise our SOE's. Even when the majority of financial specialists believe it's not a good idea, National are pursuing their own interests against the wishes of 70% of the people.

With the rich 20% richer in a single year from National's wealth redistribution, they're looking at even more ways to maximise their ill gotten gains. This will inevitably increase inequality levels to the highest in the OECD. New Zealand already has the highest youth unemployment and suicide rate in the developed world because of right wing idealism. Their mismanagement is creating grave dysfunction that is costing the country dearly.

Child poverty rates have increased because National has no plan to address the some 20% of children living in impoverished households. According to the likes of John Key, it's the fault of the poor because they made bad choices and chose to live in poverty. It's a typical blame the victim mentality shared by many right wing elitists. They also believe the poor shouldn't even be allowed to have children and are actively developing policy to sterilize beneficiaries.

Procreation is a god given right, which in a democratic society should not be controlled or only practiced by those who have wealth. It is apparent that National's ideology is driven by their disdain towards the poor, not any compunction to control population growth.

While National bails out big business to the tune of billions of dollars, they also plan a raft of additional subsidies that benefit the already wealthy, all the while crying poor and cutting social spending, increasing the cost of living and lowering people’s purchasing power, all of which is driving more and more Kiwi's out of New Zealand in a mass exodus.

It would appear that unless John Key personally benefits, he couldn't organize himself out of a paper bag. The Natz can't even fully deliver on something as simple as a national cycleway. Being that tourism has continued it's steady decline under National, perhaps John Key believes a cycleway is no longer required.

National’s hypocrisy couldn’t be more apparent than with their plans to subsidise intensive farm irrigation to the tune of +$500 million, thus ensuring our waterways will remain highly polluted from effluent run off. But that's OK! John Key can just find some scientists to say 90% of our lowland waterways aren’t polluted.

According to the Prime Minister, New Zealand is still 100% Pure… in comparison to other countries that is. Apparently scientists are just like lawyers don't you know, you can pay them to say anything you like.

Friday Fun With Photos #13

Jokey hen didn't want to answer some hard questions about youth unemployment last Tuesday. When it came time for him to front up, he scurried from parliament's debating chamber. Trevor Mallard was the only MP game enough to call it... John Key is a chicken, and is running scared from the fowl results of National's failed policies.

Click to enlarge

Someone to Blame

Last month, the Nation ran a story on Iain Duncan Smith, who is the United Kingdoms Work & Pension Secretary.

As always it was a complete beat up to promote National’s archaic beneficiary bashing policies that have in fact been a complete disaster for New Zealand. So far all their right wing agenda has achieved is an increase in inequality and unemployment.

Recently National announced its privatisation plans for welfare. They will now outsource the "problem" to privately run businesses, paying these organizations around $15,000 per young person to “manage” them into employment. In my opinion, that money would be better spent directly on impoverished families to lift them out of poverty.

Just like his New Zealand counterpart, Smith expresses false concern for the poor and the social costs communities endure because of high levels of unemployment, when really the only concern they have is the bottom line.

The United Kingdom recently dismantled many worthwhile youth courses, cut benefits, implemented stricter eligibility criteria, cut housing subsidies and basically gutted the welfare system. The austerity measures pissed a lot of people off, and none more so than unemployed youth. There is no doubt that one of the main reasons the riots occurred is because of the resentment many felt towards the government.

The conformist questions that Narelle Suisted ask in the video below fit perfectly into the Tory rhetoric we so often hear on the biased Nation program. Ironically Smith says that he doesn't think state control of the media is a good idea. Does he know what program he's being interviewed on I wonder?



You might have noticed that Nuisted says welfare shouldn’t be something the state provides. If not the state, then who? In effect they're promoting tax money going directly to privately owned companies to manage the welfare dependent. It’s yet another money grab for their rich mates that will ultimately increase costs and create further resentment while doing nothing to reduce poverty and unemployment levels.

Just like other so called English Lords, this toffy nosed Tory prick thought his countries welfare system was advanced compared to the little colony known as New Zealand. In my opinion the recent riots have proven him completely wrong. They have shown the end result of negative right wing welfare reform.

You would think that such violence might be a wake up call for those in power, but the only thing I've heard is propositions for state control of social media, harsher welfare measures and punishment for those protestors who did not hide their identities. In layman's terms, they beat them with a stick and got a result. Now they're getting an even bigger stick.

All the while the elitists have largely ignored the fact that you don't get rioting unless there's already social dysfunction. It doesn't just happen. In my opinion, the finger of blame points directly at those in power. Their blinkered reasoning, policies of punishment and blame the victim mentality was only ever going to result in widespread rebellion.

The British governments calculated decision to meet the cost of any potential uprising because of their austerity measures, opposed to ensuring the people do not feel the need to protest, is one that no democratic government should ever make. Careful consideration must be given to preventative measures and a reduction in inequality, but unfortunately this doesn't seem to be what's happening here or in the UK.

Smith thinks the debate in New Zealand is only about cutting funding because of the costs, when the reality is that welfare costs increased in New Zealand because the right wing created more unemployment so as to keep wages low. In this way National clearly had no intention of closing the wage gap with Australia, breaking one of their key campaign promises to adhere to the wishes of big business.

After wading through much rhetoric, I have come to the conclusion that the right wing don't comprehend some simple facts. You reduce unemployment by creating jobs, thus reducing costs. You reduce poverty and inequality by giving the poor enough to survive on. It's not fucking rocket science people.

The government needs to undertake policies that create jobs and reduce inequality, not give more taxpayer money to private organizations to manage the unemployed. Many under funded and understaffed organizations are already in place to help families that are not managing to cope.

If the government wants to help the poor, it should ensure people’s basic needs are met and they have the ability to maintain themselves and their families properly. This is not achieved by employing organizations with ulterior motives and cutting funding to organizations that are already in place.

Privatising welfare will be far more expensive and less beneficial to those caught in the poverty trap. Although sadly lacking in many instances, Work and Income at least has some checks and balances in place to ensure abuse of beneficiaries is not endemic. However there will be no independent authority to maintain proper treatment in a privatized welfare system.

National has shown that they have no plan to create jobs or reduce inequality. We must conclude that their welfare policy direction is in part window dressing and will do nothing to resolve New Zealand’s extremely high youth unemployment levels. It will simply open up the government’s coffers to abuse, and create unneeded courses and fake employment solely for the purpose of achieving payment.

Such measures will also falsely reduce youth unemployment statistics, which in my opinion is the government’s main reason for implementing such idiotic policy. National is embarrassed by the high levels of unemployment, after campaigning on job creation.

With National’s recent welfare policy announcement, it would appear that they’re following Smith’s dogma and the British government's social welfare failure to the letter. In light of the resulting consequences, getting advice from Iain Duncan Smith is pretty god damn stupid! But what else should we expect from a party based on appearances rather than substance?

They Love Me

I don't usually like to blog about myself, but in this instance I think the topic might apply to others who utilize social media to convey their beliefs and political viewpoint as well.

There's no such thing as blogger etiquette, or any enforceable rules that apply to blogs, but I'm surprised at the opposition and abuse I've recently received for merely using social media to communicate my ideas.

A few days ago a Jackal impersonator started posting on Red Alert comments that were clearly not in line with my left wing tendencies. I was rather surprised that somebody would go to the trouble of making comments that were always going to be removed. This particular impersonator also registered my second public email address at Red Alert as to make banning them an inconvenience.

However this is not the only annoyance I’ve had since I started blogging. My blogger Spam box is a mix of comments about my bottom, race, advertisements for rhinoplasty and oil drilling as well as assumptions about my sexual preference. All of which seems rather ludicrous considering they will never see the light of day.

So I’m rather perplexed about the attention a part time blogger such as myself is receiving. Perhaps they perceive me as a threat? However I consider myself a pretty average Kiwi bloke. I like to watch the All Blacks, I’m not gay, I enjoy the odd drink but don’t overindulge and I work hard and play even harder. I'm neither rich nor poor and consider myself practical and level headed.

That’s why I was rather disgusted when a RWNJ recently compared me to Anders Behring Breivik, the Norway mass murderer. Perhaps that particular Troll made such a comparison to try and get people to associate my blog with extremism. Well let me make something very clear, I do not condone violence in any form. In fact I'm a pacifist unless attacked.

That's effectively what has been occurring. My computers have had three intrusion attempts in as many months, of which less robust systems would have succumbed. How many other bloggers have been shut down by the underhanded activities of people on the internet who do not share their views?

I also do not appreciate all the racist comments that have been made on my Youtube account. The time it takes to moderate such crap is time I could spend doing far more important things. In this way the perpetrators are winning.

Although I could join the dots and link to the people who are obviously far to mentally deficient to debate me on the merits of my arguments, naming and shaming these people would give them far more attention than they deserve. Hopefully the problem shared will do more to deter than justify their behaviour, but I'm not entirely sure.