Lifting the Yachts

Listening to Christopher Luxon’s maiden speech I got the impression I had somehow discovered time travel. It appeared I had managed to go back to the halcyon days of 2007. This 2007 was very similar to the one I remembered, it was a period of business as usual. Maybe I can paint a picture. Climate change was more of a theoretical threat than a literal one, politicians would mention it in passing, yes, but it was not exactly top of the agenda. The spectrum of political debate on economic policy was whether governments should give businesses a large tax cut or an enormous one. This wasn’t a period of big ideas or transformation, at least in mainstream political debate. The tenets of neoliberalism, that business is king and should dictate every facet of government policy and society, remained firmly in place and unquestioned by the vast majority.

Now before you accuse me of looking at recent history with rose-tinted glasses, I realise the reality on the ground was far removed from the portrait I have painted, but the reality is not always what we see reflected in the political arena. For as long as I can remember I felt a huge chasm between political debate and discourse and the reality of life as a working class person in New Zealand. Politics seemed to trivalise things that were genuinely concerning such as poverty, while at the same time exaggerating the threat of islamic terrorism or the likelihood of an anthrax attack. In 2007 mainstream political discourse was divorced from my reality- it was an alien affair.

Listening to Christopher Luxon wax lyrical about his aspirations for a “confident and prosperous future” for New Zealand, his vision of “growing the economy and raising productivity” I am reminded of this period. What really took me back in time was Luxon’s belief that “a rising tide lifts all boats”. This overused metaphor is employed often by free market evangelists. If you want to get a sense of just how outdated the phrase is, I can find two examples of Labour politicians mocking the concept almost a decade ago. British Labour MP Ed Milliband joked in 2013 that “they used to say a rising tide lifts all boats. Now the rising tide just seems to lift the yachts.” Meanwhile a year later in 2014 New Zealand Labour MP David Parker echoed Milliband’s comments stating he believed “that a rising tide of economic growth should lift all boats, not just the super yachts”. My hypothesis that Luxon has somehow transported us back in time to 2007 gets more and more convincing, doesn’t it?

The “rising tide” metaphor is just an example of Luxon’s outmoded politics. Luxon, like any good CEO, exclusively speaks in business aphorisms and cliches. Listening to him reminds me of what it feels like to go to Human Resources with a work problem and getting a strange corporate swan song in response. It’s almost like it's automated, a script of things you say to the underlings to make them quiet down. A lot of words are said but nothing of substance is communicated. It strikes me as ironic considering one of National’s main lines of attacks on the Labour government is that they are all style and no substance. I think it’s a fair criticism to an extent, but funnily enough, it’s doubly true of Luxon and National, only their style is out of style.

I’m not the only one who has noticed that Luxon seems like a man out of place and time. Morgan Godfrey in the Guardian seems to feel similarly describing him as “yesterday's man”. I agree and not just based on his choice of metaphors. A business as usual approach that clings to the old dogmas of neoliberal governance will not deliver for Aotearoa or the world. Business as usual cannot tackle a global pandemic, wealth inequality, the housing crisis, climate change, racial injustice, indigenous rights, decaying public services, the growing inaccessibility of healthcare, and the host of other ailments tearing at the fabric of our society.

Media commentators have glowingly compared Luxon to former Prime Minister John Key, the wall street veteran who went into politics with the aim of running the country like a successful business. The Key comparisons are apt but perhaps not in the way these commentators intended. The premise of course is that business acumen without the baggage of a long career in parliament equals success. This pitch worked well a decade ago, Key was an incredibly successful and popular politician. Can it work again? Here is my guess: not nearly as well. The thing about John Key’s tenure as Prime Minister is that his government let all the aforementioned crises accelerate. People felt that in their daily lives in many ways. Slowly but surely the living conditions of many New Zealanders declined during the Key years. Things are acute now. We have almost reached a boiling point. New Zealanders earning just enough to make rent and pay the bills won't be able to stomach a politician who owns seven houses and earned $4.4 million dollars a year as Air New Zealand’s CEO. It’s not 2007 and it is about time our politicians, business people and media realise this.

Luxon was right in his maiden speech when he remarked Aotearoa needed a reset. We do, we need a reset that transfers power and resources from the capitalist class and back to working-class communities.

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