It does not stop to amaze me how John Key and the National Party treat voters in Northland and the general public in New Zealand with contempt. They must assume that we are not only stupid but the enemy and they might be right on both accounts.
Here are just a few examples of what is happening and how we are taken for idiots.
After dismissing Winston Peters, the only serious opposition contender in the Northland by-election, as having zero chance the first opinion polls came as a shock to Mr Key. Out comes the pork barrel starting with a “policy” – without proper costing and advice from officials – to upgrade 10 one-lane-bridges, 7 of which were not even on the council’s to-do-list.
Yeah Right
Another fine example of what people think of the “policy” is the photo of one bridge displaying the National Party’s full front bench.
The blatant attempt to bribe Northland voters with their taxpayer’s money is so brazen that it beggars belief.
Another example of the contempt shown by Mr Key is the fact that Northland voters are not allowed to know why their previous MP Mike Sabin had to resign only 4 months after the general election and that the National Party and Mr Key knew all about it well before he was even nominated.
This of course has the effect to feed the rumor mill around Northland and all over the internet.
I said before that New Zealanders will be shocked, disgusted and angry when the truth finally comes out. Mr Key/National don’t care as long as it is after the election.
It is Dirty Politics before an election all over again. Last time Mr Key on advice of his spin doctors and pollsters dismissed the whole story as a left-wing conspiracy without ever faulting any of the facts disclosed. How will they spin it this time when the crime is revealed ?
This brings me to more general examples of the Prime Minister treating all New Zealanders with contempt and basically as the ‘enemy’ of the government.
I come from a country, which twice in recent history suffered two totalitarian regimes held up by surveillance (Gestapo and Stasi) of their own people. I cannot comprehend how disinterested and dismissive many people are about allowing our secret service to built the tools of a totalitarian state those criminal regimes could only have dreamed of.
It blew my mind when I listened and re-listened to Mr Key on Radio NZ morning report boldly stating that New Zealanders have no right to know whether their e-mails, text massages, phone calls, their personal data…. is being gathered up by a state intelligence agency.
This incredible statement shows total contempt for the people and is the result of New Zealand being one of only three countries in the world without the protection of a written constitution.
The excuse always is that security and spying by their nature have to be secret. Under this mantel of secrecy the agency can do what they like without any effective legal or democratic oversight or control. Of course our enemies must not know that they are spied on. However I never knew that New Zealand had any enemies. It seems that we have to make some by sending troops to fight foreign wars and being “part of the spying club.” But if we the citizens are not allowed to know what happens to us and our data that means we are treated as the enemy.
Of course we are not only denied to know but actively lied to by the heads of the spy agencies and the Prime Minister responsible who are all professional liars.
‘Read my fingers – there is no mass surveillance’
The NZ Herald published an analysis about the Snowden revelations ending with the questions :
Can we tell the public what the British public now know to be true about their own security agencies?
And if not, why?
The standard broken record answer by the spy agencies and the Prime Minister (we don’t comment on security matters) becomes more and more laughable. It only shows their total contempt for our democracy.
Another valid question by former media darling now persona-non-grata, Kim Dotcom :
What’s worse?
The lies
The cover-up
The deception
The manipulation
The broken promises
The realization of it all
The last example of how New Zealanders are treated as children by this know-best-nanny-state government is the secrecy surrounding the negotiation of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA).
A parallel agreement is negotiated between the US and EU at present. The EU under pressure to treat their member states and citizens as adults have pledged to make the drafts public and reject the most dangerous investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) clause. But not this Key government.
John Key has so far got away with treating New Zealand with contempt. His constituency is “the overwhelmingly male, determinedly anti-intellectual, painfully inarticulate, …. moronic and sports-mad portion of the New Zealand population” (Chris Trotter) who don’t know and who don’t want to know.
The questions remain :
Will the ‘John’s mob’ ever wake up ?
How long will John (Teflon) Key succeed with his contempt for voters ?
Will Northland signal the end of his ‘spell’ ?
by Dr. Hans B. Grueber
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