Post B5u4HDi6Z3FpWDI0lU by strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz
(DIR) More posts by strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz
(DIR) Post #B5u4HCA2KEPOiGLI1Y by strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz
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"We've got about 30 NZers have come up here with us, at very short notice, from the companies that are going to benefit the most from the exports."#ToddMcClay, Minister of Trade, 2026https://www.rnz.co.nz/podcast/mediawatch?share=70ee68b9-d637-43c9-a68d-b0ac60b813f2Oh no, McClay said the quiet part out loud! These "free trade agreements" are for the benefit of *companies*, not ordinary kiwis. He was meant to keep that to himself and spin the usual line about how it benefit us all. Oops!(1/?)#FreeTradeAgreements #FTA #MediaWatch #RNZ #podcasts
(DIR) Post #B5u4HCSpCNRBeX8IJE by strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz
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NZ has signed up to dozens of these FTAs (Feudal Tyrant Appeasements) over the last few decades, under both blue and red governments. Most recently the TPP under the Ardern government. With full support from Dogwhistle Peters, Shame Jones and Winston First, I might add.Over the same period, both objective poverty *and* inequality have consistently increased in Aotearoa. If these FTAs had any capacity to improve life fot ordinary kiwis, we would have seen some by now.(2/?)
(DIR) Post #B5u4HChMKL40Nbvtxo by strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz
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I want to clarify that my longstanding objections to FTAs - unlike Winston First's road to Damascus (re-)conversion post-2018 -, have nothing to do with the cynical FUD that WF are spreading about immigration. In a world trade system where jobs can be arbitrarily moved from country to country, I absolutely support treaties that allow workers to migrate freely between those countries (like the freedom of travel between EU countries).(3/?)
(DIR) Post #B5u4HCuTXZYV2I4NPM by strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz
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There are sound political-economic reasons to object to FTAs. We don't need to invent racist ones. A political party would only do that (in an election year no less) to cynically bait electoral hooks with people's racism. This is who Winston First are in their current incarnation.Which is why it's so deeply disappointing that Labour refuse to rule out a coalition with them, so people wanting a change of govt know that salivating when the redneck bell is rung won't get it for them.(4/?)
(DIR) Post #B5u4HD9MeDStmT2GcC by strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz
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If you want good reasons for the left to keep fighting FTAs - as we have since the 1990s - just ask Te Pāti Māori;"We haven't had an FTA that has a strong Treaty clause in it yet - that protects Māori interest, that protects Aotearoa's interests ... Tiriti o Waitangi is not just for Māori benefit, it also benefits the whole of Aotearoa to ensure that we're not subject to international and corporate exploitation."#RawiriWaititi, 2025https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/582598/labour-greens-in-the-hot-seat-over-india-free-trade-agreement(5/?)#TeTiritiOWaitangi #FTA
(DIR) Post #B5u4HDR5aJdwfRKQF6 by strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz
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Sadly the Greens have not been as clear in rejecting the India FTA as they have in the past with others (again, most recently the TPP)."But before finalising a position, they are demanding the full details of the agreement, and they want it publicly released."#RussellPalmer, 2025https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/582598/labour-greens-in-the-hot-seat-over-india-free-trade-agreementI don't disagree with the call for transparency. But baiting electoral hooks with a pretence that they're not against FTAs in principle is just as cynical as Winston First's spin. (6/?)
(DIR) Post #B5u4HDi6Z3FpWDI0lU by strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz
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Perhaps one reason the Greens have failed to take a firm, principled position all along, is because they're afraid their political-economic objections will be lumped in with Winston First's racebaiting against Indian migrants? If so, this is yet more evidence that the Greens' turn to identitarianism has *weakened* their once formidable commitment to social justice (which must include economic justice), not strengthened it;https://strypey.dreamwidth.org/6069.html(7/7)
(DIR) Post #B5u4HDwHiKb4EBvKro by strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz
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"So in other words it's not the butter chicken tsunami but the silver tsunami of Baby Boomers heading into retirement ..."#ColinPeacock, 2026https://www.rnz.co.nz/podcast/mediawatch?share=70ee68b9-d637-43c9-a68d-b0ac60b813f2Check your facts Colin. The youngest Baby Boomers were born in 1964 and are now about 62, and the vast majority have already retired. We're only a few years off the oldest Gen Xers retiring. If the retirement age hadn't been pushed to 65, to make Boomers work 5 years longer than their parents, they would have already.(1/2)
(DIR) Post #B5u4HEBAoyVSyMtE4e by strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz
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All of this talk about pushing the age up further is ludicrous. If anything the retirement age ought to be brought back to 60. Why?1) Gen X is a significantly smaller cohort than our parents 2) We haven't benefited from the cradle to the grave welfare system Boomers' parents bequeathed them, and which political leaders have spent decades burning in the engines of wealth concentration3) As a result we probably won't live as long on average as Boomers. Particularly Māori(2/2)#PolicyNZ
(DIR) Post #B5u4HM4NU7p9Rbluam by strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz
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"Frankly I think it's pretty outrageous that the details of the agreement were not shared in advance of ratification. Not only with the media, but with the NZ public. And I've never seen a situation where the details have not been shared and up for public discussion in advance."#AnnaFifield, 2026https://www.rnz.co.nz/podcast/mediawatch?share=70ee68b9-d637-43c9-a68d-b0ac60b813f2Anna either has selective amnesia about how FTAs work or has not been paying attention, because this is standard.(1/?)
(DIR) Post #B5u4HOG9LKQeEhILDc by strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz
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The secrecy surrounding negotiations is one of one of many reasons opponents have always called FTAs antidemocratic. They're negotiated in secret by trade delegations from participating countries, and the public only knows what's in them after they're signed.I was part of the PublicACTA meeting that drafted the Wellington Declaration against ACTA;https://www.fsf.org/campaigns/acta/why-acta-declarationThe only reason we had a copy of the ACTA draft is that it had been leaked by a member of 1 of the delegations.(2/?)
(DIR) Post #B5uHJG0OIlEicT90c4 by mirabilos@toot.mirbsd.org
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@strypey same here, they raised it to 67 some years ago already, and I’m afraid they want to raise it again. For the same reasons, even… I don’t think we’re going to live as long or even stay sufficiently healthy for that long.
(DIR) Post #B5w8lwm6MuAo6UzC8e by strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz
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@mirabilos > same here, they raised it to 67 some years ago alreadyWhich country are you in?
(DIR) Post #B5w8lx9Uxut9H3vsbg by mirabilos@toot.mirbsd.org
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@strypey Germany
(DIR) Post #B61Szj4Z4ylAXEGlCS by strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz
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@mirabilos > they raised [the retirement age in in Germany] to 67 some years agoIn one of the wealthiest economies in the world? Where the number of people retiring has probably already peaked post-Baby Boom? Ludicrous.Like Aotearoa, Germany needs to either means-test post-retirement welfare benefits, so the wealthy don't get them if they don't need them, OR, tax wealth sufficiently that the state can afford to pay everyone over 60 a benefit.(or even better, everyone, UBI/ GMI FTW!)
(DIR) Post #B61T3oz12vFA1Zcuoa by mirabilos@toot.mirbsd.org
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@strypey tax everyone sufficiently and UBI is what we really need, but alas, the right wing is at the head atm, with an exceedingly arseholey chancellor