The Greens’ coronation of Chlöe Swarbrick at last weekend’s AGM delivered a manifesto for economic transformation that would make Soviet economists nostalgic for their glory days.
Swarbrick delivered a speech that was part meditation retreat, part political rally. She declared her party “leading the Opposition,” positioned herself as Finance Minister-in-waiting, and announced her intention to overhaul capitalism.
The National-led Government could spend millions on political advertising and still not get this kind of boost delivered for free.
For a party with “Green” in the name, the weekend headlines weren’t about climate targets or biodiversity. Swarbrick’s big media lines were about tax, redistribution and economic transformation – and in the process, the Greens may have just rebranded themselves.
Finance Minister Swarbrick’s credentials rest on the Greens’ Alternative Budget – a document that reads like a socialist handbook. It promises to fund utopia for just $89 billion in new taxes.
Universal dental care, guaranteed incomes, free lunches, and 35,000 new homes – it’s the most expensive wish list since a child’s letter to Santa, except Santa doesn’t have to worry about capital flight.
The wealth tax at the heart of this relies on economic amnesia – Sweden abandoned theirs after watching its tennis stars serve from Monaco, France got capital flight, Germany got bureaucratic nightmares. But the Greens have cracked the code: New Zealand is apparently surrounded by a magical forcefield that prevents the wealthy from fleeing to Australia.
The crown jewel of this socialist revival would be the Ministry of Green Works – a bureaucratic behemoth that would make Muldoon weep with joy. Picture it: former KiwiBuild managers quadrupling housing targets, overseen by Three Waters consultants designing the governance arrangements.
Swarbrick spoke warmly at the AGM about building bridges with West Coast miners, even as her policies would shut down their industry. It’s as tone deaf as inviting a vegan to a steakhouse.
This is the Greens at their most delusional: a vision of economic transformation divorced from reality. Every forty years, Swarbrick says, the country reinvents itself. This time, apparently, by taxing more, borrowing more, and junking the system that has spread prosperity around the globe for a naive fantasy.
But politics is a contact sport, and the Greens face a collision with reality. Centrist voters who came for emissions cuts and conservation may not stay for the wealth tax, inheritance tax and Ministry of Green Works.
Political gifts rarely come this perfectly wrapped, with such detailed costings and such obvious implementation gaps.
All the coalition needs to do is point to the Greens’ own numbers and ask: “Seriously?”
The nz economy is suffering as investors and the more well off are already sending their sons and daughters to the big A . The capital flight will follow as we always expect a swing to left either in 3 or 6 years and Jacinda has shown that when you get in aided by the by the civil service , the unions and te part maori , you just roll out change printing money to quieten the masses.
Chis Luxon is now presiding over a state of stagflation with zero ideas and lessening support
An awfully worrying situation when one of our opposition parties with growing support takes the route of madness and supports rapists, kidnappers and murderers.
What terrible dangers we are facing, especially if/when the insane "left-leaning" "establishment" change the age of "majority" from an already too low 18 to 16!