2008: Labour 5.0 Defeated

September 17, 2023

By AHNZ

Helen Clark’s Labour 5.0 Ministry was defeated at the General Election on 8 November, 2008. Power was transferred to the National 5.0 Ministry of John Key on 19 November. Clark racked up a number of public dents to her image during her last term in Government.

There was Paintergate, Corngate, Doonegate, and Pledgegate, and Speedgate. Like unwanted children, they had names and that gave them more life and the PM’s future less life. Clark still ‘won’ the General Election of 17 September 2005 by forming a coalition with New Zealand First which left Don Brash’s National Party out in the cold for another term.

The memory of Speedgate (2004) is, in this Garrick Tremain cartoon (2005) to re-shame Clark while on another rugby-related trip.

On this occasion (Nov 2005) Clark was part of a bid to secure the 2011 Rugby World Cup for New Zealand. This was successful. I assume the right Labour 5.0 people made bank out of that and as it fell in September it ought to have helped Labour 5.0 be re-elected for another term in the election of that year. Instead, it helped John Key’s National 5.0 Government win their second term.

According to McLauchlan (2012) “Clark’s Labour administration drowned partly because political discourse was awash with catch-cry nonsense such as ‘Nanny State’, ‘Helengrad’ and ‘social engineering’…” I think he is right except  that it wasn’t nonsense, it was all true!

For example, in 2005 Clark’s big bribe was interest-free student loans. This replaced a young person’s determined hard work to save up for tuition and/or a sponsor’s (eg parents) contribution with free money. That created an incentive for many people to study who didn’t want or need to learn. It multiplied student debt by a factor of 16 times! Students who could already afford tuition took the loan anyway and put it into assets like cars or houses or shares; Clark had given welfare to the rich. Tertiary institutions took advantage of the flood of extra money into their sector to raise tuition fees even higher. The effect was also to further focus universities on the “bums on seats” model which sought to economise the quantity of clients rather than maximise depth and quality of scholars. Ref. 1981: Over-Educated Housewives, AHNZ

Labour 5.0 also abolished the last of the Teachers Colleges in 2007 by amalgamating them into universities.  In 2006  Minister Michael Cullen announced the abandonment of “demand driven funding” so The State could direct what New Zealanders would be allowed to learn at the tertiary level. Ref.  Tearney (2016)

One of the first scams Labour 5.0 did was the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park Act (2000) to take State control in the Gulf. Supposed to protect, the results have been the causing of more damage than ever before. Ref. 2000: The Hauraki Gulf Marine Park, AHNZ

In 2005 the Clark Ministry put a hit on catfish despite the invasive nature not being established and despite their being in New Zealand almost since settlement. Ref. 2005: State Jihad on Catfishing, AHNZ

Working for Families of April 2005 is the strongest competitor among many of the economy-wrecking measures that are Clark and Cullen’s legacy. For the sake of that year’s short-term gains to themselves of an was an election bribe Labour 6.0 put all New Zealand families on welfare. Tens of thousands under this scheme extract more in tax credits than they pay in. Hundreds of thousands are made to pay in more than they get out or else play a complex game against the IRD to hide their lifestyle and work and family with avoidant behavior.

Instead of making economic decisions based on professional or family or productive goals we have to play a weird game of Jenga against the ghost of Michael Cullen. How many kids do we have? Where can we live? How many kids can I have? Should I not work? Can I afford to be paid more? Would it be better to pay someone else to parent my kids or can I do it? Workers who would love to work overtime hours have to decline because it would put them into a different Working For Families tax bracket.

We are stuck with Working for Families now until the great crash comes because nobody can stop it now. Our industry, working life, and very family structure is wrapped around an election bribe from 20 years ago rather than facing whatever economic preferences and decisions a family would like to make in the now. Working for Families is baked in to the fact of how many dependents a family has decided it can carry and what jobs and skills pathways individuals have set for themselves. Even the home and the town a person picks now relies on this policy and their mortgage factors it in. It’s a bit of shrapnel in the body New Zealand that would wound us to remove but every day we have it makes us more blind and lame. We took that shard in the chest in the first place so that Helen Clark could get enough votes to form a coalition with Winston Peters’ New Zealand First for 3 years.

In 2007 Labour 5.0 passed the Anti-smacking Law which criminalised parents for using corporal punishment on their children; The very definition of Nanny State control of the family. Libertarians agree with the ends of not assaulting kids however this major culture change can only be achieved consciously and voluntarily not by force. The parents of the nature were deprived of the opportunity to grow and develop peaceful parenting. As a result, parents that wanted physical punishment were only ever going to find sublimated ways of lashing out that Helen Clark and Sue Bradford (sponsor of the law) could never contemplate.

“2005 amendments mean no interest on student loans for borrowers living in NZ.”

“Every Monday morning for the last seven years I’ve jousted with Paul Holmes on his very impressive breakfast show.” – Prime Minister Helen Clark (2006)

“But no one can do everything. No one could do every single slot that’s available.- Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern (2021)

“Since the inception of the student loan scheme in 1992, students have borrowed approximately $24.7 billion in student loans with debt levels continuing to rise significantly overtime. The total amount of student loan debt in New Zealand has increased from 934 million in 2002 to 16 billion in 2021.” – Wiki

The Ministry, in 2007, passed the Electoral Finance Act which made everyone’s political free speech subject to registration with the Electoral Commission. There was a financial threshold (for example under $1000 spending did not need to be registered with The State) but effectively Labour had put Big Brother in charge of what thoughts you were allowed to express.

Clark’s State stood up a Ponzi Scheme named Kiwisaver in 2007. Every year since 3% of our income has been diverted into the stock markets with forced contributions. Nanny is interfering with equity markets and the incentives around retirement. It’s also penalising domestic Kiwi workers because hiring  temporary or overseas workers is a legal way to avoid this tax. Kiwi employers are also forced to contribute which automatically makes our domestic economy less competitive. Of course it’ll come crashing down one days soon wiping out everyone paying into it except for the Boomers. We get taxed more every payday to prop up a fund we do not control and in order to get your money back you need to retire, die, or leave the country.

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