Hey Jacinda Let’s Do This!
Jacinda, we have some suggestions for when you go to APEC in Vietnam in November. Take note of where you are – in a
country that fought Western imperialists for decades, first the French, then the Americans, to successfully achieve
independence. What more appropriate inspiration for your new Government, one elected by people wanting change for the
better, to declare that Aotearoa too will become truly non-aligned and independent?
Close the Waihopai spy base, get out of Five Eyes, and pull the plug on the ANZUS-in-all-but-name military and
intelligence alliance with Trump’s increasingly dangerous and unhinged US. Get out of the American wars that we are
already in, such as in Iraq and Afghanistan and definitely stay out of any new wars that Trump may try to drag us into,
such as in Korea. The Americans are very proud of having won their independence from the British Empire; it’s time for
us to do the same from the American Empire.
Don’t sign the TPPA while you’re at APEC. With or without the US, it’s a dog. And it is extremely feeble of Labour to
say that your only quibble is your wish to stop foreign speculators from buying NZ houses. That is commendable in
itself, but it is the very least of what’s wrong with the TPPA and so-called “free trade” deals like it.
The whole model of such foreign investment agreements is broken and needs to be reconsidered from scratch. They are in
the interests of transnational corporations only, and certainly not in the interests of the New Zealand people. Don’t be
bullied by so-called experts and journalists with an ideological agenda who accuse you of wanting to “close New Zealand
off from the world”. Tell them to look no further than Australia which, for example, has much more stringent
restrictions on house ownership by foreigners.
It’s great that you are giving the existential issue of climate change a high priority. Make sure that your Government
does something real about it, not just more greenwash. One thing that needs to be done immediately is to open this
country’s doors to our Pacific neighbours who are under immediate threat of literally going under due to climate change.
They did nothing to cause this problem – whereas New Zealand certainly did and continue to do - but they pay the cost.
Taking them in is not a solution to climate change, it is simply an acknowledgement of reparations for damage done. All
up, there are only a few thousands of them. We owe them safe haven much more than we do American billionaires seeking a
bolthole.
Both Labour and New Zealand First have expressed concern, to a greater or lesser degree, about foreign control of this
country. Rest assured that it consists of a lot more than house sales and the relentless takeover of NZ’s prime rural
land. They are important but the important stuff is who owns the real guts of the economy. Name any sector of the NZ
economy - take banks as just one example – and it is owned outright by, or dominated by, transnational corporations.
That is where the emphasis must be for a Government that is really committed to change. Making transnationals pay their
fair share of tax is fine but is just tinkering around the edges. It is dealing with the insult, not the injury
Don’t just stop the further sale of public assets such as State houses – take back those assets that have been stolen
from the people of New Zealand by your predecessors (both National and Labour). Renounce and reverse Rogernomics, not
just because it proved to be electoral poison for Labour but because it was, and is, fundamentally wrong. It constitutes
a crime against the people, a crime of the few against the many. You can trace the dramatic spike in NZ’s deplorable
slew of negative social statistics back to the deliberate imposition of that institutionalised inequality and
declaration of class war on workers and those at the bottom of the heap.
Naughty old Uncle Winston has had the bad manners to mention the “C” word, one which no recent labour Leader has ever
mentioned, let alone in a critical sense, for fear of inducing double incontinence in the business sector. Good on him
for doing so but he is indulging in wishful thinking. Trying to put a “human face on capitalism” is, to use another
phrase from the election campaign, putting lipstick on a pig. Concentrate on sorting out the pig and forget about the
lipstick.
ENDS