Mana: The McGillicuddy Serious of Hate

It began with one poorly chosen MP for the Maori party. He started as a barometer of hatred, though not a particularly humorous one. Unless, of course, you like to watch the kind of cheap comedian who resorts to racist jokes when he has a tough crowd. Hone Harawira mildly amused and really annoyed us with his tales of “white motherfuckers” and his horror at the thought of his daughter bringing a white boy home for supper. I don’t mean that in the way John Key would phrase a dinner with Tuhoe. However, at the start, the best joke Hone could do was wearing a tie without actually tying one.

Then Hone decided to waste $500,000 of productive individuals money calling a by election for a seat he already held. Even then he was nowhere near as amusing as the candidate the Maori party put up to oppose him. Solomon Tipene is a name I would have forgotten by now was it not for a convenient Google search. However I certainly didn’t forget the earth moving one liners; “I don’t have that information right now,” nor the ringing endorsement from party co-leader Tariana Turia; “he doesn’t understand politics.”

The McGillicuddiness didn’t begin until Mana moved into election campaign mode. This is when Hone attracted candidates that really sum up the type of voter his party is trying to attract. Sue Bradford with her hatred of earning a living. Annette Sykes with her hatred of the white man. John Minto with his hatred of the rich. All of them with their hatred of checking their facts before they issue a press release.

It began with the infamous phrase ‘by Christmas.’ Sue Bradford is going to give every person with an income of under $30,000 a year, whether they earn their living or not, a $1,000 handout by Christmas. John Minto is going to get rid of pokies in Manukau East by Christmas. Act Palmerston North candidate Daniel Stratton has quite rightly pointed out that it is actually physically impossible for a Government elected at the end of November to do any of these things by Christmas. Mana’s policy announcements have all the credibility of 1914 war propaganda’s plans to beat the Germans and bring the boys home by Christmas.

Sue Bradford’s announcement to give every person with an income of less than $30,000 a year a $1,000 handout really was the first indication of the kind of bottom trawling gutter politics we could expect from this amateur behemoth. It seems that the Greens had previously managed to keep a significant amount of duct tape on Bradford’s mouth which Mana saw no need to leave in place. This was the initial flag which demonstrated Mana is the sort of party that will offer the gullible everything they want without raising a finger for it. Considering the erroneous numbers of lazily unemployed who consider dialling for KFC to be an exertion, perhaps this isn’t the worst campaign strategy around. It probably beats my message of working for a living.

It wasn’t long until John Minto demonstrated why he hasn’t previously been courted for a political party candidacy with his announcement that, should he be elected the MP for Manukau East, he will have all pokie machines in the electorate “gone by Christmas.” He also mentioned that he would be willing to do this by any means necessary, including the use of ‘civil disobedience.’ I pointed out that he must be advocating terrorism if he expected to achieve such incredible results in such an incredibly short space of time. Let’s remember that Christmas is less than one month after polling day. Despite my own call for him to do so, Minto has still failed to define what he means by civil disobedience, leaving me to fill in the gaps. I suspect that he will facilitate the destruction of pokie machines and the businesses that house them. Some have pointed out to me that a ‘pacifist’ such as John Minto would never advocate violence. Nobody who has heard his loud whining voice calling for the forceful taking of other people’s money over a loud-hailer three metres away would ever accuse John Minto of being a pacifist. I doubt that 29 days of sit-ins at every bar in the electorate will achieve the sort of results he wants “by Christmas.” Perhaps we should take pity on Minto and accept he may be partial to a wee bit of reckless rhetoric.

I could leave it at that had Mana not released their “economic justice” policy on October 25. I thought justice would mean keeping what is rightfully yours, but apparently not. All credit and pity flew out the window following this policy release. Most likely to the same place Minto got his figures from; nowhere. This policy release is like the dirty email at work that you know you shouldn’t show anybody but can’t release letting a couple of your colleagues have a peek at. It really is that stupidly hilarious.

Being the party that has majority backing in the wonderful land of Oz, Mana doesn’t mind jumping on the bandwagon of 99% propaganda that is currently fashionable among the uneducated unemployed sleeping in the tent/backpackers that capitalism built. It doesn’t matter that the top 1% of income earners only own 16% of the wealth in New Zealand, or that the top 1% of income earners only own 35% of the wealth in the Great Satan USA. Facts don’t get in the way of the Hone Heke tax.

Minto “thinks” that the amount traded on the New Zealand dollar in the last year was $93 trillion. $93,000,000,000,000! Scandalous if your main concern is finding the nearest public toilet to Aotea Square that hasn’t been tainted by your fellow ‘occupiers,’ ridiculous if actual facts are a concern to you before you cast your vote in November. In 2009, the GDP of New Zealand, our total economic activity, was $158 billion. The GDP in China for the same year was $5.7 trillion. The GDP for the United State of America was $19 trillion. Anybody who thinks John Minto has a shred of credibility actually believes that over 4 times the United States’ total economic activity was spent manipulating the New Zealand dollar. I don’t think Minto has any credibility whatsoever and did a simple Google search. The website www.interest.co.nz shows that the total amount of trade in the New Zealand dollar for the last 12 months was just under $25.5 billion. Those who still want to believe in the rubbish Mana pushes as economic policy only have to give or take ninety trillion dollars.

This would be a fitting place to finish pointing out how Mana is the biggest electoral joke since the Bill and Ben party but Mana doesn’t know how to quit when they’re a dismal last, lapped three times. Mana also advocates lifting the minimum wage to $15 an hour while ensuring that every New Zealander, whether working or not, receives a liveable wage. Surely if $15 is being touted as the minimum necessary to live, would it not be expected that anyone who does not have a job would receive the same income? Why get a job then?

Unfortunately, this is where the Mana party stops being funny. Mana will ensure the country collapses long before the 99% have absorbed the 16% of the wealth currently owned by the top 1%. Would you remain in a country full of tent-dwelling, family-beating, racist, ignorant, unemployed, unambitious, uneducated, unwashed, hateful losers sucking from the veins of your life’s hard work and achievement? Why even bother trying to better yourself if couch potatoes, women who neglect birth control, unionist bottom trawlers and entitlement junkies are guaranteed, by the government, the same income that you, quite rightly, work your arse off for?

When you consider the cost of the mediocre comedy we get from the current gang of 122, the election of a single Mana MP, in the big picture of state incompetence and waste, probably isn’t that big a deal. It may even be the black flag with skull and crossbones that warns people of the real dangers of hardcore state pirates. But please, for freedom’s sake, don’t let these morons anywhere near the levers of power.

ENDS

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