Jacinda Ardern : The rich have grown richer under her government. 
Where are the protests about New Zealand's growing level of inequality from the people who complained long and loud about deepening poverty under John Key's National -led governments?

A FEW DAYS AGO I wrote about how the National Business Review Rich List had revealed that New Zealand's rich elite had increased their fortunes by a staggering 20 percent in 2017. This has occurred while an increasing number of New Zealanders are being forced to seek help from food banks and from welfare agencies just in order to put food on the table each day. It is a economic and social crisis that continues to be downplayed by the political establishment and its cheerleaders in the media.

The rich list was dutifully reported in the mainstream media but only the sense of who made the list and who had dropped off. The fact that the country's richest individual Graeme Hart could have increased his personal wealth by $1.5 billion in 2017 while an Auckland family of four had $20 left over after the rent and bills had been (partly) paid was regarded as being of less significance than the fact that basketball player Steven Adams had made the list. I'm sure we were all thrilled by the news.

While the reaction of the corporate media was predictable more disturbing has been the lack of concern expressed by supporters of this so-called 'progressive' Labour-led government. We might of reasonably expected some protest. After all it was Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern who cast herself as the champion of the working class during the 2017 election campaign. Capitalism - or at least its neoliberal manifestation- had failed she told one interviewer during the election campaign and declared her heartfelt ambition to help the poor. Ardern's fans lined up to get a selfie with her while Labour-supporting bloggers wrote incoherently about her 'magic'.

It wasn't long after that interview though that Ardern was backpedaling furiously from putting up taxes on the wealthy and then, when safely installed in the Beehive, declared that her government would not be increasing the level of core benefits because her government had no further money to spend.

Meanwhile Finance Minister Grant Robertson, doing his best impersonation of market zealot Michael Cullen, delivered a neoliberal-driven budget that imposed a further dose of austerity on the very people that Ardern claimed she wanted to help.

But there has barely been a whimper of protest from Labour supporters. The increasing level of inequality has been conveniently ignored by the very people who complained long and loud abut the increasing level of poverty under John Key and his National-led governments.

As the NBR rich list has highlighted, the rich are getting richer and the poorer are getting poorer - but Labour and Green supporters can barely raise a blog post or tweet of protest. Indeed, far more outrage was exhibited when two Canadian alt right activists were scheduled to speak at an event in Auckland. And, apparently, the fact that mild mannered Don Brash was participating in a debate was far more of a threat to the nation's well-being than the fact that 26,432 more hardship grants for food were given out compared to the June quarter last year, bringing the total to 137,424 grants between March and June this year.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez : 'Capitalism won't always exist.'
A typical Labour supporter is Martyn Bradbury. He likes to think of himself as 'progressive'. This week he has been telling us that Jacinda Ardern is 'a phenomenon' and , according to Bradbury, since returning from maternity leave she has 'recaptured the narrative' for her government. Apparently she has the ability to 'pacify' the National Party base while appealing to her own.

We could easily dismiss this as  just more nonsense from someone who has written a lot of nonsense  about Labour. But if the appeal of this 'progressive' government is actually  because its conservative enough not to offend National Party supporters then we really are in trouble.

The ugly reality is that there is little recognition from Labour and Green supporters that fawning over Jacinda Ardern and a few policy tweaks here and there will not empower everyday people to participate meaningfully in society and democracy. Ordinary New Zealanders deserve a say in how the country’s wealth is produced and distributed. But we lack a political party that can campaign on such an agenda and which people can organise around. We need a political party informed by socialist ideas  because the Labour Party and its supporters prove time and again that they have no interest in upsetting the political and economic status quo.

Perhaps one day our own Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's will emerge to really shake things up.  She recently commented : "Capitalism has not always existed in the world, and will not always exist in the world.' There is a world to win, not one to merely tweak and 'pacify'.







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