Enter the Dolphin
How this government will sacrifice everyone and everything given half the chance
Sir Russell Coutts is seen by many as a villain figure here in Aotearoa - after winning the America’s Cup for the plucky little country he ran off to play with millionaires to try and take the cup back elsewhere after New Zealander’s invested so much into his dream of winning the competition. It felt like a betrayal. Then in 2022 he went for walkabouts in Camp Covid, the illegal Wellington Occupation and most recently went on air at Newstalk ZB to share his disdain at having to stop his boat race in a marine mammal sanctuary because the marine mammals there were being marine mammals in their sanctuary.
Over the following few days, each of the three heads of our coalition came out and said the same thing - basically it was “fuck the dolphins, rich people have had it tough when it comes to yacht racing for far too long”.
There were mentions of international events needing to feel like the country supported them, the evils of red tape and regulation, and weird comparisons to kids playing in traffic. All deplorable as is to be expected by this lot.
But it does hint at a bigger problem that’s been in the works - the fast track bill for major projects that Shane Jones in particular has been drooling over like it’s government funded pornography in a hotel bedroom.
Because what environmentalists have been saying since the introduction of the Bill is that the process will have a detrimental effect on our local wildlife because the people making the decision simply don’t give a shit about it - and while in the house there was a lot of “oh no, it’s about cutting red tape”, this shows exactly what they were saying is accurate. The natural world in all it’s variety and wonder is to play second fiddle to the needs of the rich man with the waggly finger.
But this isn’t an isolated instance of this government giving a free pass to the worst ideas out there for the low low price of people’s lives and livelihoods.
Last week transport minister Simeon Brown fronted up to Q&A to tell us that for just 15 seconds saved per average trip past a school, they needed to get rid of the blanket speed zone around these places we send children, instead only having them in place for short periods of time. Of course, ignoring that the difference between 30kmh and 50kmh on a small body when hit by a large heavy vehicle is absolutely massive. The truly self sabotaging part of this though is that by removing free public transport for young people and alternative modal option funding for biking and walking they are effectively driving people to drive to schools - increasing traffic congestion (which they should be blamed for) and putting more people’s lives at risk (which they’ll somehow blame Labour for).
Oh and then on Wednesday, Employment Relations Minister Louise Upston went on record talking about the brain drain that “may” happen because this government is making so many public service sector staff unemployed - and that’s a risk they’re willing to take if it means their landlord and millionaire tax cuts go through. A Brain drain in the near future is almost as likely the Deputy Prime Minister saying something racist or stupid in public sometime before the end of the month or the Deputy Prime Minister in waiting saying something tone deaf about free speech while trying to stifle someone’s free speech.
You see, the brain drain was an issue during the last National Government, with more Kiwis moving to Australia than ever before, or since because of the conditions that government created. Slimming down the public service, frozen funding putting extra stress on front line services, refusal to renegotiate contracts and create infrastructure for people working in teaching, medicine, law enforcement, construction and law, saw massive amounts of people move to a country where average salaries were significantly higher for the same amount of work but they felt appreciated, where housing security was possible, where education was pretty decent and where the government supported people across sectors. This government is engineering a brain drain - which will also have a negative impact on its tax take which then means it’s more stressed to deliver its promises of tax cuts despite warnings from just about every economist in the country that now is not the right time to do that.
But these are all sacrifices they’re willing to make, like Russell Coutts and endangered dolphins, to make sure they deliver on their one promise that gets them any air time on the news directly, because the rest of the air time they get is about cleaning up the mess of their coalition partners. Our people, our economy, our livelihoods - they’re what this Government is sacrificing to keep their donors happy.