The return of the grim reaper of NZ politics - Sir Roger Douglas...

THE RETURN OF THE GRIM REAPER OF NEW ZEALAND POLITICS - ROGER DOUGLAS - ACT TWO..

Sir Roger Douglas returns to haunt the nation in general, and the National Party in particular.

Dompost columnist Richard Long, part of the National Party's propaganda team during the illfated Don Brash-led National Party election campaign in 2005, was so nostalgic about the Rogernomics policies that weren't - 23% flat tax and over 300,000 Kiwis unemployed if David Lange didn't stop for that cuppa!

Without exaggeration we would have had a private health scheme - with a standard of health care dependant on how much private health insurance you could afford and charity hospitals for those with nothing, and ditto for education.

The one great and marvellous thing about the return of the 'grim reaper is that National would need the Act party as a coalition partner under MMP, despite the ridiculouslsy high polls for National in recent months, despite the utterances of John Key to the contary.

There will be demands by the white-haired New Right Marketeer for a seat at the Cabinet table, and policies such as privatisation of all remaining state assets, 15% tax, education vouchers and private health insurance for all! I presume the police and defence force will be privatised too - constables and privates purchasing their own equipment, perhaps?

The NAT flip-floppers will need Douglas...

The tide is turning for the Nats, or is it the Gnats? The latest polls show National have lost ground again - by 5 pts this time. Blunders by John Key are beginning to impact on their credibility. The 'flip-flopper' is beginning to be found out.

The announcement that Sir Roger Douglas has joined the Act Party would have gone down like a lead balloon. He will haunt National as much as the nation.The National Party needs a coalition partner, and they will be thin on the ground. NZ First is not even registering beyond 2%. Winston couldn't be trusted anyway.The Greens and the Maori Party will not support National, even if they might appear to suggest possible future support.

Labour carry's on governing the nation. National doesn't look like an alternative government.To its benefit, Labour has shed much of its weedstalk. Many of its policy initiatives are bearing fruit. Kiwisaver is a massive success. And othersnwill follow suit. Who wants a Tory government anyway?

Helen Clark right to apologise for the 4th Labour Government...

I congratulate and as a New Zealander, accept Helen Clark's apology for the excesses of the Fourth Labour Government, of which she was a cabinet minister. That government had never been given a mandate for its market economic policies. Some have said that retrospectively speaking its economic policies were badly needed. I don't know about that, but New Zealand as we knew it was changed for ever in many respects.

What the Fourth Labour government did was to provide a springboard for the subsequent National Party government's even more excessive economic and social policies, such as the Employment Contracts Act, which harmed new Zealand socially more than any policy in sixty years, outside the 1951 Holland Emergency Powers regulations during the Watersiders Lockout.

The ECA on its own disempowered the trade union movement, reduced real wages, gave employers the flexibility to totally change the hours of work from 40 hours to a seven day week economy without, in many cases, any compensation for extra hours worked; and destroyed many full time positions in the process, replacing them with part-time and temporary positions, something not changed to this day . Double overtime rates have become a historical curiosity - many workers lost 100-200 dollars a week from the initial changes. Senior workers became the biggest casualties of such changes. Employers were very happy and grateful for the millions of dollars in savings made because of the imposition of the ECA on the New Zealand workforce.

The Lange/ Douglas regime used its anti-nuclear legislation to hide the affects of its market economic 'Rogernomics' from the New Zealand population. Initially Lange didn't want a bar of the anti-nuclear legislation, but soon came around to the Douglas cliche way of thinking. Lange became an ardent public supporter of the anti-nuclear legislation, using his impressive oratory powers to convince doubters of its value to NZ. Even the following National Government was loath to make any changes, because of the value of the legislation to NZ as a country.

Helen Clark was a female member of a sexist cabinet and was advised to keep her head down, perform her duties and not to interfere in other portfolios. Being politically ambitious she wisely accepted the advice given, and has politically outlived the others in that government. She has become a survivor and the New Zealand people have benefitted from her three terms as one of New Zealand's most capable prime minister's of a most progressive government.

As I wrote earlier, I thank Helen Clark for her apologies of being involved in the excesses of Rogernomics. She must be elected for a fourth term as prime minister. We must continue with a progressive left of centre government. We can not afford as a nation and a society to a return to a reactionary right wing administration.

National and Labour are the same," aren't they? "

A woman talkback caller claimed that National and Labour are the same,"aren't they?" Yeah right. Like chalk and cheese,brother!

To ask such a question proves that National is the party out of touch; and has been for well over a decade. While their economics are similar, their health and education policies are philosophically different; socially, National is on a different planet.

Labour accepts it has a responsibility to all sectors and minority groups. And has legislated with that in mind. As a consequence they are accused of having a hidden social agenda - which is a load of unadulterated horse manure; and the media knows it full well!

National philosophically supports a property and asset owning minority. And will legislate with that in mind! It will move assets from the majority lower middle and working class to upper middle and upper class of NZ society. It did that back in the Bolger/Shipley 1990's - but rightwingers don't like to be reminded of the past - but we remember them. Lest we forget!

Labour has to be re-elected later this year; New Zealand's future depends on it! If National is elected later in the year,NZ society will split down the middle in a year or two.

Labour has failed to sell itself. It has failed to recognise it has been under an almost unprecedented attack since last election day. National feel they were robbed and had victory taken off them.The fact of the matter is they didn't fully understand MMP.