Labour lurches to the left
I seriously wonder if Phil Goff believes a word of what he is promising. How can the man who was an enthusiastic backers of the 1980s reforms, really sincerely believe his rhetoric about putting up barriers to investment. How can the zealous trade minister who signed trade and investments deals galore, now be advocating policies that undermine them?
The Herald reports:
Labour has made a dramatic turnaround on its foreign investment policy, and now says it will turn down big land sales to overseas buyers except in exceptional circumstances. …
“Labour will reverse the current approach to overseas sales of land,” he said at the party’s annual conference in Auckland.“Instead of the overwhelming majority of farm sales being approved, the overwhelming majority will be declined.”
So he sat in a Cabinet which sold 650,000 hectares without blinking one’s eyes, yet he is now worried about a relatively small 31,000 hectares sold since the election?
Guyon Espiner exposed some of the problems in Goff’s massive shift to the left on Q+A. Goff seemed unaware his policy would be in breach of signed agreements with Australia.
October 18th, 2010 at 8:00 am
I’m not sure whether Labour’s economic proposals are simply stupid, or cynical attempts to attract stupid voters.
October 18th, 2010 at 8:05 am
No doubt the archives are full of footage showing Mr Goff enthusiastically supporting the policies he now rails against
October 18th, 2010 at 8:12 am
It doesn’t matter.
Goff could promise to remove all income tax, give all citizens a free half acre, free booze and tobacco and guarantee a reduction in the number of both pollies and hangers-on to the point where NZ would be run by a married couple and he’d still lose.
He knows that.
The current crap is simply posturing in hopes he actually gets something right.
October 18th, 2010 at 8:16 am
Simple – Like all in Labour they are whores to power. Goff is especially desperate for relevance and media oxygen. He is morphing into a Winston Peters. Therefore he also needs to be put down (Which will happen in November 2011)
October 18th, 2010 at 8:20 am
And do you think that many media types will call him on this fact…or just nod and ask another patsy question.
October 18th, 2010 at 8:39 am
“And do you think that many media types will call him on this fact…or just nod and ask another patsy question.”
Not likely. Mind you, I thought Espiner did a fairly good job trying to keep him to actually answering his questions.
A little disappointing that he didn’t call him on the ‘unfair burdening’ nonsense on the tax cuts. Espiner seemed like he was keen for a bit of a pointed discussion – he should have remnded Goff that the cuts were the example of perfect fairness as they simply return the money to those it was taken from in the first place.
Two things I think (and yes, they are pretty obvious):
1. Goff will do anything to try and eek an election win next year (bescuase he has to)
2. Goff has to not onyl support but actively promote a shift further left to keep the thin patina of support from the unions, to prevent Cunliffee or another taking the leadership from him (before Little gets is hands on it)
October 18th, 2010 at 8:40 am
Brian sadly no. if the Nats run attack adds in the US style they will be in clover.
Whats sadder for the Labour Party is that there is no evidence of rejuvenation of the parliamentary wing. Goff literaly has been in parliament almost as long as I have had the vote, some 30 years.
There’s the odd new bod and a few new shiny teeth but there has been no major make-over. all we are seeing is a political version of “Ten years younger”.
It all adds up to a great leap back-wards as far as i am concerned.
October 18th, 2010 at 8:41 am
@ Brian – the lead story on the Dom-Post’s online edition begins
When even left-leaning, EPMU-member journalists can see through Phil Goff’s bluff and bluster, Labour has a significant problem.
October 18th, 2010 at 8:45 am
It has all the hallmarks of the re-Unionisation of Labour, a takeover rather than a makeover. In his quest for relevance Goff has sold his soul.
The more immediate problem here is what National’s reaction will be. The worst that is likely to happen is not a Labour led return to last century policies, but for National to get even more weak kneed through fear of losing some middle ground, when they should be doing the opposite and going in to the next election with strong reform proposals.
October 18th, 2010 at 8:46 am
DPF, I’m glad someone’s calling Labour out on this one.
Not only have they sold off heaps of land, entered into free trade agreements (with the likes of China et al) but they also sold off Telecom and heaps of other state assets in the 80s.
But the media seems to always portray the Nats as the people about to sell of the country. Nothing could be further from the truth.
October 18th, 2010 at 8:46 am
Yet, ironically, Goff needs Peters to get back in if he’s to have a show of winning the next election. Smell the desperation…
October 18th, 2010 at 8:47 am
He’s going left to canabalise the votes from Winston, the Greens, One NZ, Hone’s Mob and so on.
There’s potentially good pickings there on the foreign ownership issue and he won’t be worried about MMP partners at this stage.
JC
October 18th, 2010 at 8:50 am
Goff is being the two-faced liar he always is (Janus would be proud of him).
He knows that a Labour government will increase taxes for those he and his socialist colleagues consider “rich”.
The productive sectors of society should expect a return to 39% or an even higher rate if the comrades win in 2011 (a very slim chance, but unfortunately always a mathematical possibility.)
Goff deserves to be soundly defeated at the polls, if only because his “I-know-better-than-you” ideas belong to the past.
October 18th, 2010 at 9:07 am
Why did the Government own so many farms in the first place?
October 18th, 2010 at 9:30 am
Helen and Andrew calling the shots no doubt.
October 18th, 2010 at 9:30 am
Phil Goff will never be PM
John Key is PM because international bankers put him there
Exactly why he has ties with Barack Obama and the US is letting us back in the fold.
Exactly why support for education has suddenly been withdrwn by govts around the world.
Britain is adopting the same funding cut backs to tertiary education as NZ.
Austerity measures will be hitting the headlines during Nationals next term.
This is what the Australian PM would have discussed when she was here during their elections.
The austerity measures will be used to unite us with Oz.
October 18th, 2010 at 9:37 am
Goff looked like a rabbit in the headlights when Espiner mentioned limitations under CER. Pretty poor for a former foreign minister. He then said we could renegotiate that bit. That showed they had not thought through the policy much beyond slogans.
October 18th, 2010 at 9:41 am
A desperate olive branch to Winston Peters. Why don’t they just get real and tell the public what they really mean – they won’t sell to Asians. And being Labour they probably won’t sell to Yanks either. It’s the politics of xenophobia.
October 18th, 2010 at 9:51 am
So what will Labour’s slogan be for the election?…
PHIL GOFF – WRONG SINCE 1981 BUT RIGHT NOW
October 18th, 2010 at 9:53 am
“John Key is PM because international bankers put him there”
Tra la la la la la la
Goff has outflanked Key on the left. Impressive.
Build trains. Choo choo choo. Print money to pay for the trains. Choo chooo choo
All aboard the Labor express all the way to economic ruin with no stops on the way. The bridge is out doesnt matter print some money choo choo choo.
October 18th, 2010 at 9:54 am
So true GPT1- Maurice Williamson summed this stuff up beautifully 2 weeks ago. More pandering to the WASPs with their guns and pick up trucks.
Does he propose sending the Aussie banks back home too? What about foreign shareholders in NZ companies? Or the australian owned wineries?
Why doesn’t soemone admit it- without foreign investment we are stuffed.
October 18th, 2010 at 9:59 am
Maybe someone can explain why its not OK for labour to shift their policy on foreign ownership?
After all National have done a 180 degree change on their relationship with Maori, they went from ‘iwi/kiwi’ to coalition with the Maori Party.
What would be sad for Labour is if they didn’t change their policies. Political parties not only need to adapt to changing public views but need to look back at past mistakes, admit that was wrong and move on.
I wonder DPF, do you still hold the same views you had 20 years ago?
October 18th, 2010 at 10:02 am
If Phill Goofenomics isn’t a reason to make financial literacy classes compulsary at all levels of compulsary education then I don’t know what is!
Seriously how dumb does he think voters are.
He’s clutching at straws and failing miserably. I mean the bit where he forgets about the CER is something that I wouldn’t even expect from a rookie MP.
All National have to do is portray Goff as the monopoly man who thinks in monopoly money and the election is theres.
If Phill Goff becomes PM I’m outa NZ while I’m still allowed to leave and take my money with me without asking Phill’s permission.
I agree Peter George, looks like Labour are going hard union again, the talk of a return to National Awards and banning of individual employment agreements just signifies that. Looks like Labour are stuck in the 80′s
October 18th, 2010 at 10:04 am
“John Key is PM because international bankers put him there”
lol, that was good of them. Im pretty sure when i voted, i wasnt being egged on by any international bankers?
Davidp – great slogan!!!!
October 18th, 2010 at 10:07 am
Labour’s lurch to the left should be welcomed by those of us on the right.
It will finally give voters a real choice, it also means that Labour are moving back to their base and their traditional support, one can only hope that this means that Labour will be less influenced by the rainbow, progressive and feminist factions.
Now, all we need to is for Neville Key to grow some balls and move to the right.
October 18th, 2010 at 10:14 am
Back in 1999 we had all the same rhetorite. Lift the OECD rankings and create a fairer society. Under 9 years of Helen doing waht was best for her UN job we went backward and now labour roll out the same sound bites for a new generation of voters. The cycle continues…. over promise under deliver – and the dim-bulb red team lovers just believe it will be different this time….
October 18th, 2010 at 10:29 am
There’s a potential problem with this (for Labour) – is that traditional support base anywhere near as big as it was? The “working man” bloc surely must have shrunk somewhat.
October 18th, 2010 at 10:36 am
Big bruv is on to it. Key is a radical free market capitalist, yet he represses his true self to appear a ‘good ole boy’ and friend of the masses. He should simply come clean, and release the inner ‘smiling assassin’ on the nation.
October 18th, 2010 at 10:38 am
I find it very sad that Goff and Labour are retreating from the few shreds of sanity they retained from the 80s. This is not good for New Zealand. Though… one of the few positives in this is that it will help suppress Winston Peters.
October 18th, 2010 at 11:04 am
If Goff is to really outflank Peters he has to start laughing at his own jokes.
October 18th, 2010 at 11:12 am
Labour just don’t get it
People were pissed off at the last government because of their big spending/ high taxes and nanny state policies.
Apart from the hard left, no one had too many complaints about the generally free market economic direction.
October 18th, 2010 at 11:21 am
“Key is a radical free market capitalist,”
What utter crap.
I wish he was, all the evidence points to Neville being nothing more than left of centre.
October 18th, 2010 at 11:26 am
“Key is a radical free market capitalist.”
He was possibly one, but no longer can claim that title. In my opinion, Key has turned out to be a “go-with-the-wind” type of politician, one who trades (quite apt, given his background) principles for facile options in the fear of upsetting potential voters.
How different is the John Key of the 2008 campaign to today’s PM? Light years apart.
October 18th, 2010 at 11:36 am
So, Mr Goff and his ilk want to adopt a more left leaning agenda. Well done, and more power to them. I think this is a wonderful idea and should be followed to the utmost.
There is no sounder policy than adopting a stance that reinvigorates those who WILL ALREADY VOTE FOR YOU REGARDLESS!
They’ve obviously given up on the more centrist policies then.
No political acumen whatsoever! Idiots. John Key and the government will think it’s Christmas!!
October 18th, 2010 at 11:38 am
Big Bruv
very hard to take you seriously when , after two years of government, you dont know the PM’s name.
Or are you just using pre school humour.
October 18th, 2010 at 11:40 am
You know, after reading all the news reports emanating from the Labour party conference, I got the distinct feeling that Goff is trying best to channel Rob Muldoon!
October 18th, 2010 at 11:51 am
The frightening bit is that there are lots of mindless voters who will still vote Labour. Every time. Regardless of policies.
October 18th, 2010 at 11:53 am
” I got the distinct feeling that Goff is trying best to channel Rob Muldoon!”
Not Goffs style to stare down the barrel of the camera. he’s got no idea how to be charismatic.
Key simply picked a family from a low decile neighbourhood and drove them around the country.
Key comes from that kind of neighbourhood. Goff doesn’t.
John Banks comes from that kind of neighbourhood. He eats with homeless people. Goff never has.
Goff stands up too much and speaks at the people. Key in his suit and smile sits down with the people and converses with them. But with the rise in GST and the ETS added, no amount of sitting and talking is going to help very much longer.
MMP is going to help the Maori Party rise to the top and National are hoping their binding referendum to stop MMP will stop that. If they had accepted citizens initiated referendums they might have had a hope. Not now.
October 18th, 2010 at 12:01 pm
All this really shows is how well the two major party system serves the two major parties and how poorly it serves the tax payers of NZ. Every few years we flip-flop pretty much everything from red team policies to blue team policies then back again. The whole time spending more energy on change than outcomes.
Time to stop voting for the self serving major parties and time to think about voting for representation rather than brand red or brand blue.
October 18th, 2010 at 12:03 pm
Too right, Burt. Next election I’m going to have a go at getting my old man to ditch a habit of a lifetime and stop wasting his vote on the National sham. Mum is a lost cause.
October 18th, 2010 at 12:08 pm
Not Goffs style to stare down the barrel of the camera. he’s got no idea how to be charismatic.
I’m not talking about his style, more the policies Goff/Labour are coming up with.
- Interventionist financial policies
- Restrictions on foreign investment
Shit, half of me is just waiting on him to propose a multi-billion dollar dam on the Waikato River.
October 18th, 2010 at 12:09 pm
Malcolm @ 11:51
You’re exactly right. There were passerby interviews in the Mana electorate where one young woman was asked who she would vote for, and she said “Labour”. They then asked her who the candidate for Labour was. She had no idea.
October 18th, 2010 at 12:11 pm
Time to stop voting for the self serving major parties and time to think about voting for representation rather than brand red or brand blue.
Pray tell me, what political party is worthy of my vote? What other viable party is there?
Seriously, at this stage the only reason I vote National is to keep Labour out!
October 18th, 2010 at 12:20 pm
If this move to the left by Goff is to counter a perception that National are going to move to the right then I see a gap in the centre for another party. Maybe it is a neat little side step by Labour this far out form the election.
Whatever, NZ is far too left of centre anyway.
October 18th, 2010 at 12:29 pm
Labour has a big problem. The Greens are cannibalizing their vote from the left and Labour have to stop that. But they have to watch the middle ground in politics as well. This is not easy. Now they are talking tax increases for some. Many in the middle long remember that for years and years Labour refused point blank to have tax cuts, opting instead for family care and welare handouts. And the Labour Party have no idea about people who aspire to do better. Instead they base their political support on people who look for money from the state through welfare, income support and state housing. They hope that having high marginal effective tax rates does not matter to people who have no aspiration to earn more except through state handouts.
October 18th, 2010 at 12:31 pm
tvb
You are almost correct, it is more a case of they rely on the policies of envy to win the votes of people who want to see tall poppies chopped down.
October 18th, 2010 at 12:36 pm
Bevan
Nothing will change unless there is no possibility of either National or Labour going it alone in an FPP style govt. That leaves us in a bit of a backward step to go forward position. Step 1: Vote for your first choice of non major party to decimate the stranglehold on power via popularity – step 2: Work toward a govt that puts the best interest of the people ahead of the best interests of holding power.
October 18th, 2010 at 12:41 pm
tvb
You have hit the nail on the head. The Labour self serving machine cannot accept that it won’t be the major party with a few poodles following them around. When it is all said and done how much worse will NZ be if we have a Green party leading the govt rather than a red party implementing all the Green party polices to stay popular ?
October 18th, 2010 at 12:43 pm
wikiriwhis business (1,020) Says:
October 18th, 2010 at 9:30 am
Phil Goff will never be PM
John Key is PM because international bankers put him there
Exactly why he has ties with Barack Obama and the US is letting us back in the fold.
Exactly why support for education has suddenly been withdrwn by govts around the world.
Britain is adopting the same funding cut backs to tertiary education as NZ.
Austerity measures will be hitting the headlines during Nationals next term.
This is what the Australian PM would have discussed when she was here during their elections.
The austerity measures will be used to unite us with Oz.
***************************************************
Do you also think that the moon landings were a hoax?
October 18th, 2010 at 12:47 pm
So when is Owen Glenn joining the Labour party and buying Auckland Airport plus the Port of Auckland to make sure these assets do not fall into foreign ownership ?
October 18th, 2010 at 12:54 pm
burt,
Just as soon as he is appointed consul general to Monaco apparently (unless his requirements have changed)
October 18th, 2010 at 1:10 pm
bhudson
I though he had already paid for that position – did Winston reneg on the deal perhaps ?
October 18th, 2010 at 1:41 pm
Goff the loser he doesn’t know if he is Arther or Mather.. his party have no real policys of their own.. so steal from the Greens.. He is in no way committed to what he saying.. he is clutching at straws .. with no GST on veges .. and putting the brakes on foreign land sales .. he is now saying labour made a mistake opening up NZ Banks to foreign ownership.. now Australian owned.. next he will be promoting Winton Peters and NZ First.. Goff and the Labour party would be good candidates for a new TV series of LOST.
October 18th, 2010 at 3:22 pm
It’s not so much a lurch to the left, it’s more like jamming a brick on the accelerator, throwing the steering wheel out the window and jerking the gearstick into reverse. But there may be a method to their madness.
If they go through to the next election with some radically different left lurch policies they can test how popular they would be when it comes to the electoral crunch. And come 2014 they’ll have a better idea how centre line they should return to get the votes that could make a difference.
Another couple of possibilities:
- they know their chances of winning next year are slim so they can wave the Labour/Union flags as much as they like in a sort of reminiscence.
- having moved way left when they come return to more common (sense) ground it will make their new leader look more centrist
On the other hand this could be the direction they really want to go and they believe they can take the country with them. And the Black Caps will clean up India in the upcoming test series.
October 18th, 2010 at 3:29 pm
Labour is gambling that with the economy still in recession for 2011 that people will be looking for something different, anything. Let the Reserve Bank fiddle here on currency, and tax increase there on the RICH, lifting GST on veges (why not GROW them), people might buy it. But the tax increase is scary for all those who aspire to earn more money if not today then tomorrow. They will not vote Labour.
October 18th, 2010 at 3:31 pm
And national won’t be picking up the train-wreck economy in recession 2-3 terms after Labour make the entire country beneficiaries.
October 18th, 2010 at 5:46 pm
Bringing the economy under political control, a.k.a Fascism.
You’ll need to be a crony of Labour or the Greens to exercise your property rights now: don’t rock the boat; make supportive noises for their policies; make donations to the right causes.
October 18th, 2010 at 6:09 pm
Dabney (5.46 post) sees as many fascists under bed as Keith Locke:
Western economies have always been under political control. Even when Rodney Jekyll Hide, as minister, reforms Auckland, that’s political control.
IMHO, the whole will we/won’t we row about selling agricultural land to Chinese, who won’t sell their land to foreigners, is a smokescreen for a more serous question. This relates to Auckland Chinese business interests’ links by donations etc to BOTH Labour and National. There are suggestions that there may in turn be links between these Auckland Chinese business interests and the people driving the Natural Dairy bid for the Crafar farms.
If both the main political parties’ hands are clean on this issue, let them hold them up for scrutiny.
October 18th, 2010 at 6:23 pm
We don’t have to look far to see where the Labour/Green nightmare will take New Zealand:
“The average American doesn’t realize how much of the laws are written by lobbyists” to protect incumbent interests, Google CEO Eric Schmidt told Atlantic editor James Bennet at the Washington Ideas Forum. “It’s shocking how the system actually works…Washington is an incumbent protection machine”
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2010/10/googles-ceo-the-laws-are-written-by-lobbyists/63908/
The inevitable result of their power grab is the crony state. Good for politicians and members of special-interest groups. Bad for everyone else.
October 18th, 2010 at 6:44 pm
“How can the man who was an enthusiastic backers of the 1980s reforms, really sincerely believe his rhetoric about putting up barriers to investment. How can the zealous trade minister who signed trade and investments deals galore, now be advocating policies that undermine them?”
Hmmm. A toughy. Could it be because he is a two-faced little oik who has never had a real job in the real world and is a bit worried at the prospect of finding out what that would be like?
October 18th, 2010 at 10:07 pm
I usually find Paul Krugman too far to the left for my taste, but those loud in their support of Natural Dairy’s bid to buy the Crafar farms might benefit from seeing how a prominent overseas economist – albeit a leftist one – views China’s trade behaviour.
China heavily controls production of rare earths, critical in so many high-technology industries. Krugman argues China’s use of rare earth supply to blackmail Japan is evidence that China is a “rogue economic superpower”.
Free trade with China? A bit like democracy in the old Soviet Union, perhaps.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/18/opinion/18krugman.html?th=&emc=th&pagewanted=print
October 18th, 2010 at 10:44 pm
davinci:
Goff could quote the great John Maynard Keynes, who famously said: “When the facts change I change my mind. What do you do, Sir?
Jack5
To call Paul Krugman “left” in our sense of the word is like calling Keith Locke “far
rar-right!And if he says China is a rogue economic power, I would say, let’s go the China route!
Be honest, Yanks just want to rape the world and all of us, end of story, even Krugman. I keep hearing the world doesn’t owe us a living, well, neither does the world owe the US a living.