Posts by Craig Young
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Ah well, at least TVNZ and TV3 are ignoring McCruskit and this little Nuremberg number...
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Somehow, given that welfare privatisation is on the Family First wishlist too, I suspect Phil definitely won't be signing up to that. He's also got a fairly good and mainstream social liberal voting record. For all Key's Cameronisms, does he?
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Craig R:
Uh yes, the event is being held in Mangere, but at the staunchly *palagi/paheka* LIFE Church, a Pentecostal megachurch. And with the exception of Destiny Church (who don't seem to be invited to this little shindig...), the Christian Right is pakeha dominated and full of wingnut buffoons who can't deal with the complexities of ethnicity in New Zealand society today. -
Here's the Nats dilemma. The Christian Right are a loud, shrill, sectarian bunch who scare away normal voters, particularly highly educated urban liberal onces in vote-rich metropolitan seats. They're also quite small and don't have much institutional strength in terms of fake 'universities' endowed by televangelists, as is the case in the United States. By throwing inadequately monitored dosh at them to provide welfare services, certain Christian Right pressure groups get rewarded for trying to persuade their flocks to vote National.
Two problems. A, does the NZ general public really go for this radical welfare privatisation idea?
B, how will mainline but mixed churches react to the ACT/Family First axis in this context?
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Thank you, George. A summary of who's at the latest Forum can be located at my earlier Gaynz.Com column, "Forum for Very Few Families" in the Politics and Religion section. In which I've been harping on relentlessly about the very real dangers of New Right welfare privatisation and outsourcing for economically marginal members of the LGBT communities, as well as highlighting the implications of the axis between ACT and the Christian Right that is develping over that issue.
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In Phil's case,I imagine it's called 'Know Your Enemy'. Most of these fundie wingnuts are hardcore anti-Labour types and the parliamentary party is more socially liberal than ever. And as for Spinning Johnny, he'll probably grin nicely and point out that while he's not prepared to play ball over abortion and homosexuality, there's still the issue of New Right welfare privatisation and outsourcing that might pay dividends for the Christian Right- hence the presence of ACT's New Right anti-welfare spokesperson Lindsay Mitchell.
Family lobby, my arse. What about real issues of real concern to real New Zealand families, like unemployment, substandard housing, homelessness, rising food costs, adolescent suicide and self-harm? Apart from Dr Makary's call for alcohol access restrictions, I don't see any mainstream family issues seriously discussed at this so-called Forum for (Very Few) "Families".
Ho hum. All the better. If Key does cuddle up to the fundies, it'll annoy mainstream urban liberal voters.
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Well, yes, obviously there are questions about the possibility of low turnout, relative strength and resilience of rival party organisations and infrastructures in the respective electorates. If Party A wins, then it'll probably be seen as being on the way back. If Party B wins, then it will have won its first major test, although if it's narrow, then that will be questionable. As for Party C...
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No-one seems to be extrapolating this to other Maori electorates, currently held by the Maori Party. One wonders why...
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Well, well. It looks like the latest Roy Morgan has Labour rising eight points up the polls and National dipping below absolute majority status. Cause, or correlation, one wonders?
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And yes folks, this is what the Welfare Working Group's ultimate objective, welfare privatisation, looks like. Not a pretty sight, is it?