Goodbye the Nanny State myth – hello the Daddy State reality

As we end 2008 I just want to give a shout out, a goodbye wave if you will to the myth of the Nanny State, that nonsense idea propagated by reactionary redneck talback hosts who conned many NZers into believing that the political correctness storm-troopers from the dykocracy Helengrad Nanny State were personally kicking down your door and ramming power saving lightbulbs and shower heads down your throats. Congrats to Crosby/Texter, you’ve all earned your Christmas bonus for the manipulation of that little myth, well done.

So goodbye to the myth of the Nanny State and hello to the reality of the hard right Daddy State, because while some mainstream commentators are telling us, “Oh this National Party are soooooo moderate, they cut a deal with the Maori Party when they didn’t even have to”, the reality is that this is one of the most far right governments elected by one of the lowest turns outs led by a Prime Minister who is the least experienced for 100 years (hands go under the poncho John, UNDER the poncho) and the deal with the Maori Party is merely moderate window dressing to gloss over the first 100 days of hard right Daddy State blitzkrieg legislation about to get pushed through while the dopey mainstream media are all on holiday in Fiji.

ACT’s 3 strikes and you’re locked up forever medieval law and order policy was costed by ACT at $1billion during the election but according to Rethinking Crime and Punishment costings it will be closer to $3.5billion-$5.5billion – are we honestly going to be putting $3.5billion into locking NZers up for the rest of their lives or should we be putting that $3.5billion into early intervention programs?

Look at the way nACTional are pushing through changes in bail and parole, by misusing the power of Urgency, no discussion, no debate on such a radical change to our bail and parole laws from “real or substantial risk” to any risk at all – you would need to go back to 1998 to see another example of a misuse of urgency and prior to that you need to go back to Rodger Douglas, who surprise surprise just happens to be back in parliament. If the debate is so clear cut why will nACTional hijack the power of urgency and misuse it to stifle and shut down any dissenting opinion on such a fundamental change, a change that will see our prison population balloon in size – oh and mACTional’s response to this is to import Dick Cheney’s corrupt private prison industry. Let’s be very clear, Private Prisons don’t care about the welfare or rehabilitation of prisoners, they care only for profit and they make their profit through longer and harsher sentences, and remember under nACTional these prisons will be gulags, forced prison labour where the prisoner gets paid 60cents a day and the company pockets the $12 per hour – they’re vested interests will pervert the prison system in NZ as horrifically as they have done so in America.

Add to this Daddy State blitzkrieg the dumping of the ETS because ACT form one of the few governments in the OECD who don’t believe global warming is man made and Rodney’s despicable TABOR ratchet noose legislation designed to strangle the throat of public spending every year, ask the good people of Colorado if they think it’s worked for them.

This is not moderate, this is not Barack-Obama-like ‘change’ and I’ll bet that if you ask anyone of the 80 000 NZers now predicted to be out of work within 2 years under nACTional’s work law that allows the boss to sack anyone they like for whatever reason they like within 90days, if you ask anyone of those 80 000 NZers what their concerns are, I’ll bet it won’t be power saving lightbulbs or showerheads.

How’s that change working out for you NZ? Does it feel like Obama yet?