Why I am voting ACT

Haven't  bothered reading bombers hysterical rants for a while but knew he'd have something to say about ACT's latest spike.

thedailyblog.co.nz/2024/02/11/of-course-act-are-spiking-in-latest-rogue-poll/


Poll shows Act leader David Seymour and party gaining support after Waitangi events



The Act party and its leader David Seymour appear to have reaped the dividends of a heated Waitangi Day period, rocketing up to 13.7 per cent in the latest Taxpayers’ Union-Curia poll.



The poll, taken over the first week of February and released today, has Act on 13.7 per cent – up 5.6 points since the last TPU-Curia poll in November.



National is also up 2.6 points to 39.6 per cent, while NZ First has dropped to 5 per cent (down 1.)



On the poll results, NZ First would no longer be needed to form a government – Act and National would get 66 seats between them – National getting 49 and Act 17.



Among the Opposition parties, the Greens have dropped sharply to 9 per cent (down 4.8 points), likely to be in response to former MP Golriz Ghahraman stepping down after allegedly shoplifting combined with James Shaw’s announcement that he would step down as co-leader and leave Parliament before the end of the year.



Labour dropped only slightly to 27.9 per cent (down 0.4). Te Pāti Māori was on 2.3 per cent (-1.1 points), and other parties combined were on 2.5 per cent.



Two words and 3 things.



Rogue Poll!



Go fuck yourselves, this is ROGUE with a capital R. 4.8points walk from the Greens to ACT?



Fuck right off.



Green voters care about shit, if all that had holding them to the Greens from shifting to the Brown Shirt Brigade was James Shaw then the Left have bigger problems then ever before.



There was a poll out last month that had the rights vote drop, so calm down.



I said two words and 4 things. Firstly – I’m not saying ACT aren’t spiking, quite the contrary, I’ve argued that was what would happen because Seymour’s a strategic genius who has set Luxon up with the Treaty Referendum Bill and because NZ actually quite racist.



Removing the obligation for engagement with Māori, which is what the Treaty Referendum Bill will do would make the treaty meaningless, so when the Right claim they aren’t touching the Treaty, they are misleading you because the Treaty Principles have led State and Local Government engagement for the last 30 years.



Unwind the Principles Bill and you destroy the Treaty in application, it would be the most regressive step m masquerading as democracy altho we would ever have been tricked into.



It’s a trap you fucking morons.



I said two words and 4 things. Secondly – Seymour’s ‘fuck you’ to Luxon at the end of last week where he said the Prime Minister was weak and frightened and would agree to the Bill if he was bullied into it highlights why I consider Luxon to be the weakest National Party Prime Minister ever and why this pissing competition bullshit will win over the more reactionary right of National.



The danger for National is when the extremism and conflict ACT generates starts spooking the 40% of National voters who are disgusted by the racism and dark nature of redneck Kiwis this is all about to cause.



ACT has every chance of over taking National within 2 electoral cycles. The polarisation of NZ society will only intensify as the economy struggles.



I said two words and 4 things. Thirdly – Labour have to reset or it’s over for Chippy’s leadership



I said two words and 4 things. Fourthly – Remember when I argued against the middle class woke handing ACT culture war ammunition he’s used against us for culture wars we could never win? How’s that strangling free speech, crazy pro Trans and having people sacked for not liking Te Reo? If only middle class woke virtue signals were as important as the common ground economics between us hu?



We wouldn’t be in this place if the Woke hadn’t gone crazy during their social media culture war cancellation purges.



ACTS race war inducing hate bait has the kinda twang that honkey loves to do the cracker two step to. This country has a large chunk who want to cement into place 19th Century Privilege by overturning the legal ruling that bound the Crown and Māori into partnership to give meaning to the Treaty.



It’s disingenuous and plays to the worst and most reactive angels of our nature.



That such malice has political representation demands a reflection on how the Left have driven people into this intellectual malaise.

Yep, that's exactly why I've stopped looking at his 'musings' since the election, he has some valid points, but mostly he seems a little unhinged.

Interesting he mentioned about ACT becoming bigger than national in two elections though.  I thought that seemed an odd prediction.

But then Chris Trotter has an article and says something very similar.


www.interest.co.nz/public-policy/126321/chris-trotter-says-you-can%E2%80%99t-just-switch-populism-and-lightbulb-nor-can-you


By Chris Trotter*



Much has been made of Prime Minister Chris Luxon’s definitive rejection of Act’s Treaty Principles Bill. Why? Because Luxon not only confirmed that National will vote against giving David Seymour’s bill a second reading, but at the same time acknowledged that the only reason he agreed to support it to the select committee stage was because he did not want to precipitate an unscheduled general election so soon after 14 October. Besides providing us with a useful gauge of Luxon’s prime ministerial fortitude, Luxon’s “slap-down” of Seymour’s bottom-line policy also betrays his fundamental misreading of the election result’s meaning.



The General Election of 2023 was a rejection election, and rejection elections are powered, overwhelmingly, by popular anger. Not only was there a broad-based and vociferous element within the electorate determined to punish the incumbent Labour Government, but also a coterminous movement to roll back what was perceived to be Labour’s extreme, ideologically-driven, cultural agenda.



At no time during the election campaign did either Christopher Luxon or the National Party attempt to draw a clear distinction between themselves and the other right-wing parties – Act and NZ First – on matters relating to Māori sovereignty.



When Winston Peters announced his party’s policies in relation to removing Treaty principles from legislation, and reframing the mission of the Waitangi Tribunal, Luxon did not recoil in horror. Nor did he remind New Zealanders that it was National, under Jim Bolger and Doug Graham, that kicked-off the Treaty Settlement process back in the early-1990s. Or recall with pride that it was John Key who sent Pita Sharples to New York to sign the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.



To be sure, when questioned directly about Act’s desire to clarify the principles of the Treaty by way of a binding referendum, Luxon described his most obvious coalition partner’s policy as “unhelpful and divisive”. That this response was a sop to the liberal wing of Luxon’s party, and to its more “moderate” voters, was made clear by his promotion of policies that unequivocally aligned the National Party with the right-wing populist mood of the nation. Most notably, National’s policy of curbing co-governance by abolishing Three Waters and the Māori Health Authority.



A National Party willing to send that sort of reactionary message to the electorate was not in the least bit concerned about being seen as “unhelpful” or “divisive”. And neither was the National Party committed to reinstating English at the top of official government stationery.



But those were only the most openly acknowledged efforts to align National with the majority’s determination to reject, repeal, rip-up and remove the ideological advances of Labour, the Greens and Te Pāti Māori. Voters who understood the secret language of New Zealand conservatism were in little doubt that National had plenty more punishment in store for Māori New Zealanders.



Conservatives have long exploited the tendency of the racist Right to associate the social pathologies of drug use, domestic abuse, gun violence, aggravated robbery, juvenile delinquency, and truancy with Māori New Zealanders. That these are the pathologies of poverty, afflicting the lives of Pakeha as well as Māori, cuts little ice with right-wingers, who reject structural explanations for anti-social behaviour in favour of those highlighting personal and/or racial deficiencies.



Nor does the Right care overmuch that “cracking down hard” on crime will send Māori New Zealanders to prison in disproportionate numbers, leaving behind broken families and ruined lives. Even though, historically, “tough on crime” policies merely ensure that the cycle of crime and incarceration continues, unbroken, most National Party voters regard the policy not as “a fiscal and moral failure” (as Bill English described it) but as a necessary evil.



National retailed a reactionary manifesto of right-wing, racially-charged policies to the electorate throughout 2023. Spooked by Act’s record poll numbers, and watching NZ First’s steady rise with alarm, Luxon and his team were in no mood to front-foot National’s liberal traditions. No talk back then of ignoring the overwhelming political preferences of the voting public and making a strong stand on principle. If Luxon’s pollsters and focus-groups were telling him that the public was in a mood to discipline and punish – then discipline and punish it would be.



Not that Luxon, himself, was personally suited to playing the Hard Man. Robotically positive, with his happy-chappy platitudes playing on continuous loop, Luxon left the dog-whistling to his lieutenants. The nearest he came to playing rough was when he dressed up as a pirate – and even then he had to be instructed on how to wield his sword. Even so, when all the votes had been counted and there was a three-way coalition to negotiate Luxon struggled to locate his inner-thug. The National Party leader’s priority (in almost every setting) is to get whatever he is doing, done – whatever it takes.



And what it took was Luxon’s commitment to Seymour that his Treaty Principles Bill would be backed by National and NZ First to the select committee stage. What that meant was that Act’s coalition partners were supportive of the broad, open-ended debate that sending this particularly controversial bill to a select committee was certain to set in motion. It defies all logic to sanction this course of action if, in utter contempt for the consultation process, and regardless of what the debate reveals about the wishes of the New Zealand people vis-à-vis Te Tiriti o Waitangi, your Party’s next move is to vote it down.



Such a profoundly cynical political strategy would be dangerous at the best of times – and these are not the best of times. New Zealand is in the early stages of the same populist distemper that has polarised and paralysed the United States. Luxon and his party opted to climb on the back of the populist tiger, getting off it will be no simple matter.



To the hundreds-of-thousands of right-wing voters who backed National, Act and NZ First to bring together a government committed to disciplining and punishing Labour and its allies, it looks like Luxon’s National pony has refused its very first fence. Spooked by hui, hikoi and haka at Turangawaewae, Ratana and Waitangi, and bullied relentlessly by the “legacy media”, Luxon has publicly slapped-down the Right’s young champion which, as far as they’re concerned, is the same as slapping them down – the people whose votes put National in power.



But that is not how populism works. You can’t just switch it on and off like a lightbulb. Nor can you boast about ignoring the wishes of the “overwhelming majority” of the New Zealand people. Not if you want to remain the dominant right-wing party.



The sharp up-tick in Act’s support in the latest Curia poll should be taken as a warning. So, too, should the findings of the latest Research New Zealand survey. Against all the confident assertions of the punditocracy, a solid plurality of Men, New Zealanders aged 18-34, Kiwis living north of Taupo, and (astonishingly) Māori, all favour confirming the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi by referendum.



Small wonder then, that in spite of Luxon’s very public slap-down, David Seymour is not at all disposed to giving-up the fight.

This week, the central bank announced it was hiring a principal diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) adviser - offering prospective employees the chance to embed "Te Ao Māori lens across policy, processes and systems"; utilise "gender and ethnic pay gap analyses"; and communicate "with credibility the linkage between proposed DEI initiatives, organisational strategies and the benefits to organisation in a variety of fora".

ACT, a Government Coalition party, said the role wouldn't help lower inflation.

what'll that be?

$200,000 in pay and $100,000 in benefits for a completely unessential part of the reserve bank's core mission

that will create $100,000 of more wasteful programs and 'advice'?

this is the kind of wasteful mission-creep that the public voted against

when will our professional, managerial bureaucratic class stop trying to bend the people to their will

and act as public servants in a democracy? 

south africa's average income since mandela

spitting at mps ok then?