pn847. Sir David Galahad Seymour Comes Clean in his State-of-the-Nation Address

Sir David Galahad Seymour

Too clever by far, many of his listeners would have wondered what he was talking about when he mockingly called the PM the "Red Queen" and said  "the Taliban (has) now been given the outsourcing of New Zealand’s maternity care."  

He was a little more down to earth in talking about what he saw as Jacinda and Labour's major shortcomings  but continued to attack her character rather than the issues (argumentum ad hominem).

Here are the five issues he raised (with my comments in brackets):

1. Government's Covid response an "illusion" showing "a lack of an Omicron plan."  

"We have entered wonderland where the Red Queen is talking backwards, and that great feminist organisation the Taliban has now been given the outsourcing of New Zealand’s maternity care,” he said. (He should have waited a day to read this update of the government's Covid plan.)

Pressing on with this personal assault on the PM he said, "The world's first Instagram prime minister has a cartoonish view of how the world works. So long as the pictures look good, and the words sounded good, then we are making progress. She keeps smiling as reality crashes down around.”

 And further, "Every family in the country was now feeling the Government’s failure at everything but locking out, locking down (an over-simplification and which is demonstably untrue), and borrowing printed money”. (I presume he is referring to government debt which is at an all time high due to Covid but which seems to be under control.)

Referring to the Charlotte Bellis case, he said: "the Taliban has now been given the outsourcing of New Zealand’s maternity care." (He ignored the fact that the timing of her entry and not entry itself that was denied.)

2. He spoke of “record tax takes” and that "taxpayers were paying $2000 more in tax since 2017." (It is not clear where he got this figure and surely not everyone is paying $2000 more tax.  Wage and income increases would result in a higher tax take but it is the very rich in the raised top tax bracket who will be paying more.)

 

3 . Government bureaucracy" ravaging the country". “The problem is not just that departments are sucking up more and more taxpayer dollars to achieve very little. They actually do even more damage trying to keep themselves busy,”

Seymour said  ACT would “zero-base” the government, meaning it would review the worthiness of each government department and its work.  (While such a review may sound worthwhile, the likelihood is that all social services —housing, health, education, and so forth — would suffer,  increasing the social and economic inequalities that already exist in the country.

4. He said government had "increased the public sector by more than 13,000 employees since 2017, while hiking wages.  The Ministry of Education had grown from 2632 full-time employees to 3900, with  these workers earning an average of $93,900 – an increase from $82,600."   (Assuming his figures correct, though 13,000 earning an average of $93,900 seems high — that's a total of $1,220,700,000!— what he did not say was that we now have an unemployment rate of 3.2%, an all-time record low, fairer wages and a higher minimum wage which many people would see as desirable.)

5. Finally, Seymour who, surprisingly, is partly of Ngāpuhi descent  said the Labour Government was “obsessed” with the Treaty of Waitangi, a “pervasive drift” he wanted to stop.

“That involves a blunt reality. Nobody is born special in New Zealand. There cannot be two types of people, tangata whenua, here by right, and tangata tiriti, here by the grace of the Treaty. (Why not? That's what bi- and multi-culturalism means. And there are many "types of people" who need to be treated differently, according to their needs.  Equality is not sameness.)

“We will need to remove the constant references to the Treaty from the law and replace it with a commitment to liberal democracy. It means removing co-governance structures from healthcare, from resource management, infrastructure, and education.”   

(Yet in December last year, referring to the low Māori and Pasifika vaccination rates, he said the one-size-fits-all policy had failed Māori for 180 years, and ignored different housing arrangements, underlying health conditions, fewer resources and access to healthcare.  This statement seems to contradict his positon on co-governannce, in healthcare at least.)

Coming the closest he has been for some time, in attacking the Government Seymour’s speech revealed many of ACT’s policies which essentially mean stepping aside from a direct involvement in running the country. letting market  forces and individual responsibilty have their own way:  with less taxes for the rich, downscaled government departments, lower wages, less housing for the poor, more child poverty and greater social, ethnic and economic inequalities.  Five million individuals, not a team of five million.

On November 22 last year  my posting  "pn818. Polls, not much change but BEWARE ACT, WAKE UP Greens"  invited readers to reflect on ACT's policies which are sometimes hidden behind Seymour's smile and circumlocution. They include: 

• Cut and freeze the Minimum wage
• Interest back on all student loans
• No Kiwsaver subsidy
• Cancel winter energy payment
• Dump all climate crisis legislation
• No more best start payments for families with newborns
• Cut welfare payments
• No tax credits for research and development
• Cuts to working for families
• $7b a year cut in public services
• Abolish Maori seats
• Abolish Human Rights Commission

This is not the New Zealand many people would like to live in.

-- ACW

                 

God of Nations at Thy feet, In the bonds of love we meet, Hear our voices, we entreat, God defend our free land. Guard Pacific's triple star From the shafts of strife and war, Make her praises heard afar, God defend New Zealand.	Men of every creed and race, Gather here before Thy face, Asking Thee to bless this place, God defend our free land. From dissension, envy, hate, And corruption guard our state, Make our country good and great, God defend New Zealand.