Just seven short months after Ardern’s announcement of the government’s 12 priorities, including “committing to deliver transparent, transformative, and compassionate government”, her supporters in the media are asking questions. They seem to think that they have been conned and let down.
Quote.[…] Perhaps we were all a bit na?ve to ever think that a coalition government that included New Zealand First was going to be transformative. I [Anna Rawhiti-Connell] have never known politics without Winston Peters. Nor has Ardern. Peters took his first parliamentary seat on 24 May 1979, before the PM or myself were born. Peters has been one of the most impressive players of the political game for as long as we?ve both been alive – outwitting, outplaying and outlasting most, if not all of his peers. He is both emblematic of political game-playing and the reality of it all at the same time. If political cynicism were to be embodied, it would be holding up a ?NO? sign while grinning like the cat that got the cream.
For all that we might celebrate Ardern?s political pragmatism, we?re also celebrating political cynicism. We?re celebrating yet another victory for the Winston Peters school of political game play. To everybody that?s happy that this latest move will probably guarantee a Labour-led coalition a second term in which they can get on with the transformation they?ve been heralding since coming to power, I ask ? how do you propose they get on with this against the backdrop of political reality? Compromise comes at a cost and it increasingly feels like the price being paid is getting too high.End quote.
The environment is in serious trouble. Child poverty and inequality look to have increased not decreased since this government took office. The housing crisis is still very much a crisis, teachers are still underpaid and overworked, productivity and wages remain static ? we work more hours and get no further ahead and the fate of our mental health system rests in the hands of yet another working group.
These are all challenges that successive governments have refused to address because as hard and urgent as transformative action might be, it turns out playing the game of politics and winning is harder and more important.
For all that a Capital Gains Tax might not have been anything that revolutionary, it came to represent something more exciting and hopeful. It signalled a shift away from supporting unfettered wealth accumulation through property and suggested we had a government which might be willing to look beyond the next election cycle towards a fairer future.
Ironically, it was Peters who said when announcing the coalition: “Far too many New Zealanders have come to view today’s capitalism, not as their friend, but as their foe. And they are not wrong. That is why we believe that capitalism must regain its responsible – its human face. That perception has influenced our negotiations.”
When I look around for examples of transformative change in this country, one of the best examples I think we have is Perpetual Guardian shifting to a four-day working week. Staff work four days but are paid for five. To me that?s what the human face of capitalism looks like. That?s a company who?ve decided to place as much emphasis on enhancing the lives of workers as they do on profit. That is revolutionary, that is transformative.
Perhaps it?s time we stopped hoping for the government to step up but instead took our cues from companies like Perpetual Guardian. Perhaps instead of the government talking about making transformative change, their rhetoric should shift to talking about creating the playing field for others to make transformative change. As the Prime Minister keeps saying, transformation takes time but if governments are continually trapped in this everlasting cycle of electioneering, vote winning and compromise, perhaps it?s time we looked elsewhere for the bold moves required to deal with some of the biggest challenges we?ve ever faced.
And that is the point!
Capitalism allows Perpetual Guardian to be transformative. True Socialism never will.
