Ha ha, got a name for it

Lets call this the “Labour/Progressive/NZ First/United Future Pedantic Semantics Government” or LPNZFUFPSG. Quite a lot more complicated than LPG but I’m sure you could still make a fuel out of it, if you ground them all up properly.

The deal

One thing I can feel comfrotable about is the fact that we don’t have a National-led Government. The thought of Don Brash cruising around the world representing this country did give me nightmares!

But it isn’t that wonderful. We now have two Ministers outside of Cabinet and outside of the Labour Party, Winston and Dunne. The full allocation of posts is as follows;

Winston Peters picks up Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister for Racing, and Associate Minister for Senior Citizens. Peter Dunne will be Minister of Revenue and Associate Minister of Health.

So if I read this right, has Peter Dunne got the portfolio for drugs? What?! What?! What?! I really hope Winston doesn’t get Trade as well as Foreign Affairs. And I really hope he has some kind of accountability for his speeches overseas.

As for the Greens, I think a lot of people will tthink we’ve got a bad deal out of this but from what I’ve read so far, it appears we’ve got the best of a bad result. It appears that we’re getting a whole lot of extra Budget to play with and more access to information and consultation, yet no obligation to support the Government, nice one. I’m particularly pleased that we’ve increased access to student allowances, and have a commitment to raising the minimum wage.

I will post further when I can.

And for those interested, I’m in Shannon, hanging out with my family, and it’s lovely! Went to Levin today which was quite exciting. Although I don’t think I’ll go back for a while…

Later

Deep breath post

Thanks to those of you who noticed my absence. I have had some personal stuff to deal with (aak! who let real life get in the way of my blogging habit!) and I was waiting for the specials to be counted before sharing my thoughts.

Those of you who read this blog will probably guess how I am feeling now about the loss of Nandor from Parliament. I’m absolutely gutted. Not because the Greens have lost their ‘poster boy’ but because we’ve just lost one of the most knowledgable, committed experts on Justice that this parliament has ever seen.

Many people have discussed Nandor’s demotion on the list as a reaction to his campaigning on drug law reform but I reject that notion. I think the main reason he dropped was due to a) the others getting pushed up and b) it’s the result of a term spent working incredibly hard on low profile, yet exceptionally important issues. For example, the Corrections Act, the Supreme Court Act, the Constitutional Inquiry, just to name a few. Now it’s a sad reality that the way we understand our world is in large part influenced by the way the media constructs ‘reality’ and they write on what sells newspapers, not necessarily what’s important.

Oh well, what’s done is done.

But I want to publicly thank Nandor. Dude, you got me involved in politics, you made me realise that just because politics is full of grumpy old white guys doesn’t mean I’m excluded. In fact that gives me even more reason to get involved. I have never worked with anyone who has had to deal with so much bullshit and get so much done. If I had a dollar for everytime someone said to me “oh that Nandor he’s just a stoner ropehead” I’d be a fuckin millionaire. The thing that always cracked me up is how quickly the story changes when people actually meet you. They always sound so suprised at this intelligent, gentle spoken, generally on to it as fuck man. But most people had no idea.

Personally I will never forget the people I met who had life changing stories to say about you. The people who I meet who are some of the most disenfrachised people you could possibly meet, who hadn’t even heard of parliament before you got here. Those people I have met who shed tears of joy when they tell me stories about how you helped them when no one else would. Those people who are at the bottom of this shit heap called capitalism who finally had someone to advocate on their behalf for their vision of how this world could be. Those people who are too young to legally have an opinion on how parliament runs but could at least come to you and share their opinion and it would be listened to. Those people who got involved in Green activism because through you they could see that this mission we’re on is one for change, one for difference and diversity and one for the future of this world.

Bro, thanks for being my hero. Thanks for all the inspiration and thanks for being human. Your mahi will live on and I hope that some of that mahi lives on through me.

Kind of hard singing a waiata on a blog, but here goes.

E hara i te mea
No naianei te aroha
No nga tupuna
Tuku iho tuku iho
Te whenua te whenua
Te oranga mo te iwi
No nga tupuna
Tuku iho tuku iho
Whakapono tumanako
Te aroha ki te iwi
No nga tupuna
Tuku iho tuku iho

EDIT
Translation as requested:
It is not a new thing
Now that is love
Comes from the ancestors
Handed down through the passages of time
The land, the land
Is the life for the people
Comes from the ancestors
Handed down through the passages of time
Faith and hope
Love to the people
Comes from the ancestors
Handed down through the passages of time

Deflation…

Isn’t it funny how on Blogger just above the text box is the ‘recover post’ link, this is kind of like a recovery post. So the election is finally over, sort of. And thank god the initial media frenzy around the potential government discussions has calmed down, I think they all finally figured out that when the politicians keep telling them that we won’t know until the specials are out, they actually meant it.

So what does the next term hold for the Greens? Well, who knows. It all depends on the specials and if Nandor gets back in, which I think he probably will. We worked out that there’s about a 85% chance of getting him back. And I really really hope we do. Firstly, because we need someone in there proactively working on positive solutions to the Corrections mess. The idea of building more prisons is about as sensible as building more roads to get rid of traffic. We need some serious investment in the prison education programme. I must say I was amused to read Graeme Capill moaning about the lack of access to education. What was he expecting? It’s not all lounging around watching TV as people of his ilk tend to think it is. I have heard stories of people in prison spending six months trying to get hold of the prison educator and giving up. And these are people with post high school education. Can you imagine what it’s like for people who dropped out before School C? One of the things that Nandor has worked really well with the government on has been corrections issues and I’d like to see him there pushing habilitation centres and better education services during the next term. So yeah, bring back Nandor!!

But back to the Greens in general.. I want to see Jeanette as Minister of Energy, if we can get that, I will be happy. But to be honest, another term on the cross benches with a bit more Budget will satisfy me.

As for me, I’m having a well earned rest, and getting ready for a big development in my life. I will reveal soon…

But I just want to say thanks and well-done to all the volunteers from all the parties in this election. It was a messy election but all the people I had dealings with treated each other with respect, no matter what party they were from. I think that’s a sign of a healthy democracy. Yay for us.

Saying it like it is

Radical Youth welcome our new overlords.

The spectacle that was the General election has been and gone, your obedient and doting youth are still as marginalized as ever. While we cannot vote we appreciate the fact that you who are so wise and noble are willing to make decisions for us.

We also like the fact that you so intelligently restrict you’re voting to once every three years, and don’t get to say what policies you like or disagree with. And as youth we really don’t really mind that we are still discriminated against and disenfranchised.

We especially like that we get paid less for doing exactly the same work. The election was great to watch, we think it was great that you all bought the messages that the parties sold to you. We think the lines about economic growth being the underpinning of our society were the best.

However…
We demand a world in which the voices of youth are heard, and one where the decisions that will affect our lives are actually made by us. The politicians have no regard for the youth. Why else then, would there be such a blatant disregard for issues such as global warming, which, although only beginning to express itself, will affect us our entire lives? You’ve failed us, by creating a world that relies on the destruction of the very systems of life that sustain us to maintain unrestricted material growth, meanwhile poverty afflicts every nation and exploitation is incorporated into law.

Our generation has been handed a vision that requires continual consumption devoid of meaning.
And we have bought into it as never before (advertising and television tell us who and what to worship.)

We don’t want a new world, we want this one back!
And we’ll do whatever it takes to reclaim control of our lives.
Release here

Jesus

Tau Henare is back in Parliament. How weird is that?

He is risen.

Election Three

So it’s over 100% of votes counted and Labour has the majority. Here comes Helen for her speech…

Yay thank you mainstream New Zealand! (although I would say fuck the mainstream, I’m part of a braided river).

I am a wee bit sad that the Green vote has dropped a bit and the idea of parliament without Nandor does make me sad. But he’s not gone yet and at least we’re there!

And I can’t wait to see Keith run naked through the streets of Epsom!!

Bring on the Labour government, no matter what it looks like… (bar Winston).

Election Two

Yay this is getting better. Did have a few issues with the Greens being below 5% and the gap between the major two parties but went out for a bit and things got a whole lot better!

And the one big surprise? Rodney’s actually kicking ass!

And Blumsky has conceded. yay!

And we are now watching Jeanette’s speech and the grin on her face has infected everyone in this room!! Damn she’s wonderful.

Election blogging!

Tonight I will be reporting from the Green Party election party at Thistle Hall Cuba Street Wellington.

We’ve been setting up here all afternoon and the place looks great! I certainly think no matter what happens in the polls we’ll be rocking here tonight.

So we’re currently on 4.7% and smiling. There’s a few people here and the bottles have been cracked…

Til later.

Last day

Tomorrow the people of Aotearoa will go to the polls to decide the fate of the nation for the next three years and in some policy areas, beyond that. This campaign has been the closest in my memory and probably the dirtiest. It has been long and gruelling and very tiring. But the highlight for me has been talking to people on the street and restoring my faith that this country is bursting with people with vision.

When I go and vote tomorrow I am going to vote with that vision in mind. I am going to vote with the hope that over the next three years we will have a Government that will be brave enough to deal with the effect the global energy crisis is having on this cuontry. I am going to vote with hope that our Government will turn its investment eye towards our children and their children and shift our economic investment from the bottom of the cliff to the top. I am going to vote with hope that my children will be able to enjoy this beautiful country as well as I have. I am going to vote with hope that we as a nation will have the courage to stand up to the idea that this planet has infinite resources. And I am going to vote for a future Aotearoa based on honouring Te Tiriti o Waitangi, because this world will never move on from colonialist attitudes towards people and the environment until we respect, honour and celebrate difference and diversity.

I hope all the readers of this blog will vote tomorrow and I hope you all vote with vision and hope.

To all the people who have worked on this election, from all political persuasions, thank you. The fact that we don’t have to use violence to exercise our democratic right to participate in the governing of this nation is a truly wonderful thing.

Kei a koe te mana!

Don might not be racist…

But I did find it highly entertaining today while out campaigning to the lovely people in Wellington when some bogan started abusing us. We entered into friendly dialogue with the gentleman and it turned out he was wanting to vote for Don Brash because “he’s the only one that will take us into war to defend the white race”.

Now with friends like that, who needs enemies?

Get your own insurance

Check this bid on TradeMe.

“Third Party Insurance against a National Government – whats it worth to you?”

Another Milestone/Millstone

Now if you were to wander over to the Green Party Tertiary Education campaign page you would notice something quite significant has happened to the debt counter. Yes folks, at lunchtime it hit $8 BILLION dollars.

I went up to Victoria to check out HRH’s visit and it was quite incredible. Labour got their shit together this time and had a parge bunch of supporters there with stacks of helium filled balloons (although we did wonder if it was in fact nitrous…). The balloons were a good tactic, because when the rabble of Nats turned up, they couldn’t be seen past the balloons.

But it was like a feckin rock concert! These Labour people were screaming and chanting “Helen, Helen!” and I was kind of stuck in the middle feeling like I was in the twilight zone or something. Her speech was pretty cool. It’s the first time I’ve ever seen Helen give a public speech of that nature and it was quite fun to see her all rarked up like that. I certainly couldn’t imagine Don Brash looking like he was having that much fun…

Talking about issues affecting young people, click here to hear our Sydney-based candidate being interviewed on Hack on Triple J. Go James!

Shock exclusive Brash in deal with the Devil!

Got forwarded this from a friend of mine and it did give me a wee chuckle or three

From SNAP! Radio

Interviewer: SNAP! Radio can reveal with great pleasure that Don Brash’s call for help to rid New Zealand of this wretched government has gone far and wide. In fact rather wider than he expected. I would like to welcome to the show the Corruptor of Souls, Bringer of Destruction, the Adversary, Angel of the Bottomless Pit, Great Beast that is called Dragon, Prince of This World, Father of Lies, and Lord of Darkness. The Devil himself. Well, Mr Devil, can you explain why you have recently been sighted around the Wellington electorate helping deliver National leaflets, putting up their billboards, and generally bringing a smile to Mark Blumsky’s face.
The Devil: Well, you know, I am a private individual and I don’t like to talk about my forays in to politics. As you might be aware, I like to consider myself a very morals based creature. And I think right now that Don Brash is the figure in national politics who currently most fits with my view of the world. You know Christ threw the money-changers out of the temple, Don Brash would have told them to keep up the good work, invited them round for lunch and asked their advice on

policy. I guess you would say I have sympathy for him.

Interviewer: As opposed to Labour?

The Devil: It is often better to go with the devil you know, but I feel it is now a time for change. It’s been a good run with Labour – I still wear the red suit sometimes – I just couldn’t handle the level of deceit. With Brash you know what you’re getting,

Interviewer: You mean usually the opposite of what he said yesterday and whatever Gerry Brownlee is currently denying?

The Devil: Well, I don’t think that’s the issue right now, what we should be talking about is that I can really identify with Don Brash’s ‘my way or the highway’ management style. Also, I’ve had enough of this fiddling around with capitalism trying to pretend its nice, no one wants to talk about the 500 pound lair-daemon in the room – capitalism is not nice it’s about screwing people for as much as you possible can.

Interviewer: So you support capitalism?

The Devil: Indeed. It’s certainly been around a while and can be relied on to deliver the goods in terms of evil. Feudalism had great opportunities. But you know times change. We move on.

Interviewer: As you are aware, National has recently accepted the help of Closed Brethren to put out fliers and billboards. Do you feel comfortable with working with them on their campaign?

The Devil: I’m completely relaxed about it. As I always like to remind people, the road to hell might be paved with good intentions, but the little paths to hell are often made by religious fanatics who hate humanity.

Interviewer: So, any final words for our viewers

The Devil: It doesn’t matter who is in the Beehive, under capitalism, I’m always on the throne

Cute

Frog has a link to a short flash animation where the Green man comes to life to protect our Nuclear-Free status. It’s cute, check it out.