The Letter (New Zealand's Richard Prebble comment on Bush and Howard electoral victories)

The ACT Party (New Zealand) ^ | Monday 8 Nov 2004 | Richard Prebble

[NZerFromHK]

WE PICKED IT

The Letter predicted George Bush ‘s victory, we said 52-48%, it was 51-48%. We also predicted correctly the Republicans would increase their majority in Congress. Despite sending journalists to America no NZ mainstream media predicted a Republican win. The NZ media gets most of its American news coverage via the British media who have been hostile towards Bush from the start. This is not new. The same media wrote off Ronald Reagan as a “B-grade” actor. The Letter picked a Republican victory because of a fundamental political shift taking place in America. George Bush is the first President since Franklin D Roosevelt to increase his party’s congressional majority in three elections in a row. Contrary to our media’s view this is not bad news for NZ. Kerry’s running mate Senator Edwards, a protectionist, was replaced by a senator with ACT-like views on free trade and tax. It is a Republican majority that is willing to fight global terror and support free trade.

LIBERAL MAJORITY

An event we did not predict was that the Liberals would win an absolute majority in the Australian Senate, something even Howard did not expect. No government in Australia has won a majority in the Senate since Fraser’s landslide victory over Whitlam. It was thought that under proportional representation no party would ever win a majority again. Our media has failed to report the significance of Howard’s win. He can now reform the trade unions, simplify the tax code, privatise and reduce red tape. As NZ moves backwards Australia is moving forward and the prosperity gap between the two is going to widen.

[NZerFromHK]

Richard Prebble was the former Leader of the ACT Party of New Zealand in Parliament and currently ACT Spokesman on Finance, Labour, Employment Relations, SOE's (state-owned enterprises), and Associate Spokesman on Maori Affairs, Treaty, and Justice. He was a Labour (equivalent to US Democrat) Minister in the 1980s when he helped spreadhead the famed economic reforms of the then Finance Minister, Sir Roger Douglas (dubbed Rogernomics) but the free-market reform made him fell foul with ost Labour MPs and he quite Labour after the 1993 election.

The ACT Party of New Zealand stands for:

The ACT Party of New Zealand

ACT stands for individual freedom and choice, personal responsibility and the protection of the life, liberty and property of each and every citizen.

ACT is dedicated to enabling New Zealanders to have more opportunities and choices in their own lives. We promote political and economic freedom, strong families and communities, smaller government, and greater empowerment of individuals.

It is the closest political party in NZ to the US Republican Party in terms of political spectrum.

[Fred Nerks]

NZ elections should be interesting. Can you tell us when?

[NZerFromHK]

It must be held sometime next year and I think there is a serious chance Labour will be toppled along with Greens. The downside is that the paleocon protectionist and anti-all-non-British-descent-migrant NZ First and "brown rights" activists Maori Party will be king maker.

But don't open your champagne yet - Helen Clark could well pull a Paul Martin comeback when election comes.

[blackie]

Hey shaggy ~ what do you think?

[Kiss Me Hardy]

He's blowing his horn a bit too much. This guy writes for a NZ paper and his coverage of the election was better than anything in the MSM on this side of the Pacific:

On Hillary:

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?storyID=3607508&thesection=news&thesubsection=dialogue

and why he backed Bush:

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?storyID=3605381&thesection=news&thesubsection=dialogue

Not all Kiwis are brain damaged.

[Wallace T.]

I pulled up the NZ Party's Web site and noted that this party's leader, Winston Peters, looked as if he had at least some Polynesian heritage. Are you sure this party is a British supremacist group?

[NZerFromHK]

These are guest columns. The Labour O'Herald runs centre-right articles from time to time, just like VDH has occasional articles on the New York Slimes. But all the regular columnists and editorial, the likes of Tapu Misa, Gordon McLauchlan etc would make Michael Moore blush.

[NZerFromHK]

Winston is a clever manipulator. In much of the 1990s he got two core constitutencies in his party: the radical Maori activists who hates all whites and old-fashioned Tory rump (superanniuation/social security libs) that doesn't even welcome non-British/Irish descent Europeans. He always spews out angry voters message out, that "The Europeans have ripped you off" to radical Maori activists, and "the neoliberal free-marketers and social libs have ripped you off" to the old Tories.

[Boiler Plate]

I think you should buy some airplanes and guns too.

http://www.enslavenz.org/

[Fred Nerks]

"...anti-all-non-British-descent-migrant NZ First..."

I had to read that several times before I got the message!

Something like the Australian Country Party - now Nationals, in coalition with the Liberal Party, right?

[NZerFromHK]

I think Winston is half Maori (Maori and Scottish descent) but he doesn't know the language well.

[randog]

It must be held sometime next year and I think there is a serious chance Labour will be toppled along with Greens.

How's that Labour scandal going--the one where the Maori MP got caught taking bribes?

[NZerFromHK]

No, it is worse. I think Pauline Hanson's One Nation is a better fit with NZ First.

[NZerFromHK]

John Tamihere has now resigned as a Minister but he remains a backbencher MP. It's a shame that this type of corruption scandal would happen to an otherwise fine person like him as he is one of the few sensible Labour MPs.

[Fred Nerks]

LOL! Xenophobic? Please explain...
The Pauline Hanson phenomenon gave voice to an extreme reaction against multiculturalism and didn't surprise me. Newton: Every action results in an equal and opposite reaction.

[NZerFromHK]

You wouldn't have believed it, but when Winston was at his height of his popularity in 1996, his supporters actually wanted all migrants to throw away their chopsticks, coconuts, suhi and embrace roast lamb and fish and chips, and throw away badminton and instead embrace rugby. I remember we were afraid to speak in Chinese with normal volume in public and when we were charged incorrectly when buying things we wouldn't have demanded correct changes (then the charge of "Those ------- Chinese..." would come in earnest.

NZ is quite interesting - on all non-Maori race issues it is way into the right, but all other issues it is the other way round.

[randog]

So how does this impact the Labour Party? Last I heard, the PM was a little nervous because of the scandal......?

[Fred Nerks]

Reminds me of Australia in 1949 when we came here from Europe. Is that the problem? They are living in another era in NZ?
Oh, the memories you have cunjured up for me...we also dared not speak our language in public, people pointed at us in the street of the small country town we lived in.
Now 30% of aussie citizens are post-war migrants or their descendants and what animousity remains is directed at the muslims.
I am so assimilated I've become the typical aussie bigot. LOL!

[NZerFromHK]

There has never been a wave of non-British/Irish European immigration to New Zealand. The Asian migration from 1988 onwards was the first time many Kiwis have to live side by side with migrants that had absolutely no British heritage. (Pacific Islanders have been migrating to NZ en masse since 1965 but as almost all Pacific Islands are former or current British or NZ dependencies they already have a good grasp ofBritish culture)

[Fred Nerks]

Aha! I didn't know that. Explains much, doesn't it. It really does sound like Australia a la 1949.