COMMENTING ON the Wellington local body elections Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has said that Wellington needs 'less ideology' and 'more common sense'.
Prime Ministers who live in glasshouses really shouldn't throw stones. While he preaches 'less ideology' and more 'common sense' to the Wellington City Council, the coalition government that Luxon heads, remains determined to pursue the failed ideology of neoliberalism.
That neoliberalism has failed ordinary people is without doubt, and the coalition government has only exacerbated New Zealand's mounting economic and social problems by continuing to pursue such policies. As Dr Bryce Edwards has observed, Budget 2025 represented a huge financial boost for the top end of town with little to offer the rest of us other than the bogus claim that one day, the rest of us will be the beneficiaries of such corporate largesse. The failed ideology of neoliberalism, of trickle-down theory and the rest, continues to haunt us.
Rising inequality also threatens our democracy, such as it is. Budget 2025 also showed that this government is highly responsive to the policy preferences and demands of the wealthiest individuals and corporations and largely unresponsive to the views of ordinary people. Bryce Edwards is explicit on this point:
'The National Party and its coalition partner have deep ties to business circles – it doesn’t take a conspiracy theorist to wonder if this policy was a way of rewarding those backers. When policies so clearly favour a narrow constituency (capital-intensive corporations) at the expense of the broader public interest, people start questioning the integrity of the political system. Is this for the public good, or for the National Party’s campaign fund? Is it about economic strategy, or paying back mates?'
This is not, though, the ideology that Luxon thinks that Wellington — and the country — needs less of. Although it would make 'common sense' for the rest of us if neoliberalism was abandoned and a different economic path taken, Christopher Luxon and his coalition government remain wedded to a failed ideology that only benefits the oligarchy.
With the world in crisis, neoliberalism no longer has even plausible solutions to today's problems. Neoliberalism has no answer to the economic insecurity that has spread its tentacles throughout the country. Indeed, its only 'answer' is to further harass the unemployed and the poor, the victims of Christopher Luxon's failed ideology'.
Nor has this Government shown any real interest in addressing the corruption of politics and the influence of big money in every aspect of civic life—from the news media to education to politics. It is not an exaggeration to say that our 'representative democracy' has been bought.
The onus is on the New Zealand left is to provide an alternative path. That alternative path will not come from the Labour Party because, even now, its idea of an 'alternative' will be a so-called 'fairer deal' between capital and labour, mediated by the State. This does not signal the end of neoliberalism but merely a 'capitalism with a human face'. We've heard this nonsense before, most recently from Jacinda Ardern's Labour Government. This was, apparently, Ardern's 'different kind of power'.
Last year Green Party co-leader Chloe Swarbrick wrote:
'We know where this rehash of 1980s and 90s trickle-down economics will get us. We have 40 years of experience and research to show us it delivers devastation of both people and planet. A warmer and more volatile climate, greater inequality and deeper poverty, insecure housing, the rampant spread of loneliness and mental ill health and ultimately, less secure and safe communities.'
It is true that the failed ideology of neoliberalism is at the root of all our problems. But its not enough to just oppose this broken system. Right now, only the Green Party seems willing to provide an economic alternative. It isn't saying that it has all the answers but as Swarbrick also says 'We could have the future we all deserve. That starts today, with your awareness of your power and potential to get involved in a movement bigger than yourself — bigger than all of us.'
0 comments:
Post a Comment
Comments are moderated.