Fifty-two years ago The New Zealand Labour Party swept to power with the slogan “It’s time for a change”. Yesterday the British Labour Party used the same catchcry to win a landslide victory.
When our lives are not so great we hope that voting for change might alter our circumstances.
The problem with our New Zealand MMP electoral system, however, is that we usually don’t know what change we are voting for at election time, because a party with a tiny share of the overall vote can hold the balance of power and take the country in a direction for which the majority did not choose. (The current ACT/NZ First National coalition government is a prime example.)
Even when we did give Labour the majority and mandate to be transformative in 2020 we saw no great sea change in our economic direction. The wealthy few still benefitted, hugely, at the expense of the many .
Oh I know there was the Covid epidemic, but dreadful as it was, the health crisis made us realise how dependent we are on each other. During the first lockdown there was widespread support for the idea of “the team of 5 million”, but rather than use that moment of social unity to usher in sweeping social reforms (such as introducing wealth and land taxes) to make our country a fairer place to live, Labour let that unique moment slip away.
Why? Because at heart NZ Labour is still a neoliberal party that believes, against the evidence, that governments should not be involved in the marketplace. That, for example, continuing to allow commercial banks to control the mortgage market is a wise and wonderful idea, when history tells us that when the government controlled mortgages during the 1950’s and 60’s (through the State Advances Corporation ) we experienced a low cost home ownership housing boom.
While both the UK and NZ Labour parties claim to represent working people and the interests of the poor and struggling, in reality their economic policies best serve the vested interests of the wealthy who are very happy with how things are and don’t want any changes thank you - be they social or environmental.
While the UK Labour manifesto certainly contains some measures designed to tackle the untaxed wealth creation issue (notably absent in NZ Labour’s last election document) their fundamentally neoliberal economic policies can hardly be described as transformative.
So, yes, it is time for a change – away from pandering to the wealthy few to meeting the well-being of the many.
It would be great if we could choose such a beneficial change through the ballot box without a major financial collapse or shattering world crisis such as we witnessed with World War 2 to trigger it.
How about it Labour?
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The irony of the 21st century is that while we can produce all kinds of material things better and cheaper to the point that we are satiated, we have not learned how to transfer resources tied up in making yet more unnecessary consumer items, to producing more and better publicly provided goods like health, state housing, state education, public transport and environmental protection-- things that we so desperately need. We require a different mindset-- free markets cannot deliver on these social needs. (What nonsense is being talked at the moment about the free market solving the housing crisis). Nor can free markets provide a fair income and wealth distribution. Lets direct more of our underemployed labour force, away from areas like retail, or fanciful self employment, into providing the things we need while actively seeking a distribution of income and wealth that enables everyone to have the basics of life. Thanks for getting this discussion going Bryan
Yes. It would be wonderful to bring about the change without the wars or the guillotines. Problem is how get everyone to understand that it is in everyone’s best interest to change to a system that cares for everyone’s basic needs first.