Dig up, destroy and sell off the assets, privatise the assets - what assets are left?
Bird of the year keeps getting grimmer.
After a month of calling New Zealanders “overly sensitive” about mining on DOC land, and a week of doubling down on lazy Trump Inspired racist insults in the House, Shane Jones made his big announcement today at Waihi (famous for its big gaping hole, or mine as some would call it) regarding mining. Jones boasted of opening up mining across the country for 37 minerals to double exports to $3 billion by 2035. Now let’s be very clear: that’s a very misleading pitch, we as a country won't see that $3 Billion, we only see 2% in royalties, and mines dry up so the jobs it creates aren’t future-proofed.
But there are a few major things we should fear here. The first and most significant one is that the government wants to open up conservation land to mining, our oceans, and protected forests—the thing Jones thinks we are being too “sensitive” about. He wants to dig up habitats that safeguard wildlife and are a major draw for tourists to make a quick buck, which benefits overseas companies and investors. The second is that New Zealand First would introduce a bill that would give regulators the power to remove a bank's operating license if it refused to do business with mineral firms - attacking banks that align with the Net Zero Banking Alliance, whose primary goal was net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
But Jones is just one head in the hydra that wants to sell off everything and anything that we have. It has been clear from the outset when the government guttered our healthcare and slashed school budgets and programs that we were seeing the beginning of a hard shove towards privatization. Luxon hard launched that it will be a major theme of the National Party 2025 campaign, that’s why they bled dry these public assets then pointed at them and said they are “broken beyond repair” so they could push privatization was the long con.
Destroying DOC land, our oceans, and wildlife, and privatizing healthcare and education should have us all fired up, furious, and picketing. It should all but hand Labour an election - if they actually fight. We should be fighting to have new and innovative ways to have long-form growth as a country, not selling off and digging up every last asset to make a quick dollar. Labour needs to grow a spine, show how they can move us forward, hard launch Capital Gains Tax, hard launch legalizing marijuana, and invest in growing the industry here, they need to invest in keeping young doctors, teachers, and innovators here.
We won’t know what we have until it’s gone, and it looks like we are sprinting towards the door. We should be able to grow old, have a pension, walk our mokopuna through lush green forests full of wildlife, and then go to the doctor for free to get a check-up on the heart, so we can go home and have hot old people sex.
There’s your 2025 election pitch Labour, you’re welcome.
Danz.
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