Its Over Luxon Wins

[Oh_hunnihunni]

Nepotism.

And it continues.

[Lilith7]

It all sounds a bit cosy; I'm not convinced that business people necessarily make good political leaders.

[yousnoozeyoulose]

The danger with these overwhelmingly business-focused leaders is that they exist in a very blinkered space. It's all very cut and dry with them, money in, money out, but that's very different to running a country. It's not a business with a team of 5 million. You can't fire the lazy ones. You can't give the assets a new paint job and pretend it's better. Not sure if this analogy is about planes or the National Party...

See that he was prattling on about how Auckland should be at green today which despite being an very obvious example of Politicking 101, it does come across as being completely out-of-touch with, well, reality. He really does need to be careful with the numpty comments - there's a limit to what people can wilfully ignore. The flip-flopping centrists and undecideds aren't dumb and they do need more than just a bald man barking at the moon.

[Lilith7]

He sounds quite neo Liberal to me. They're very big on 'personal responsibility' but not so much on community responsibility & are invariably money focused. I think this country has had more than enough of that so if more of the same is what the Nats have in mind, they might find that most voters are not at all keen.

[Oh_hunnihunni]

I'm waiting to hear the phrase 'return on social investment'. Then I'll know for sure they have learned nothing.

Bring back Bolger time? Or too soon?

[Lilith7]

I'm waiting to hear the phrase 'return on social investment'. Then I'll know for sure they have learned nothing.

Bring back Bolger time? Or too soon?

Now there's an idea - but then with him having developed a conscience & backbone though, they'd never choose him.
More's the pity.

[Olive]

Morgan Godfery's piece in The Guardian sums him up pretty well I think. "... a man out of time. The world is confronting a pandemic, runaway climate change and all manner of democratic and authoritarian upheavals. And among it Christopher Luxon strikes one as yesterday’s man, both in his beliefs and his business background."


https://www.theguardian.com/world/commen...nge-ardern

[Lilith7]

"Witness Luxon, a millionaire and owner of seven houses, protesting against this year’s minimum-wage increase, a lift that gave a full-time worker an extra $40 a week."

I think that says it all really; its perfectly fine for business owners to have large salaries but when it comes to people like cleaners, nurses, teachers - those people whose true value we've learned to appreciate far more thanks to covid - then they don't deserve more income & he has no problem leaving them to struggle.

[yousnoozeyoulose]

Not a strong showing from Luxon so far at his first Question Time as leader. Banging on about ICU beds for some reason.

[Praktica]

I think it shows the risk National is taking, putting a complete novice in charge. If this throw of the dice fails, they are really in deep trouble. To my mind, they would have been better trying to stabilise the party with 2026 in mind for Luxon.

[yousnoozeyoulose]

The Nats front bench was giving off "let the little kids pretend to be in charge for a day" vibes. It was adorable.

[Lilith7]

Not an especially good first impression.

[Olive]

It was great to see the PM flexing her intellectual muscle. When she chooses she can wipe the floor with any of them but she never overdoes it. Today she judged it perfectly by demolishing their criticisms but not resorting to bullying.

[Lilith7]

Yes, it seems that under her leadership the idea is not to descend into the nastier side of politics, but to try for a more reasonable way.

[harm_less]

Yes, it seems that under her leadership the idea is not to descend into the nastier side of politics, but to try for a more reasonable way.

Works for me. So tired of watching parliament looking like a schoolyard squabble!

[Lilith7]

Yes, it seems that under her leadership the idea is not to descend into the nastier side of politics, but to try for a more reasonable way.

Works for me. So tired of watching parliament looking like a schoolyard squabble!

Yeah, its a bit disheartening when that lot in the beehive can't manage to behave like adults when we're paying them a decent whack.

[Foal30]

It all sounds a bit cosy; I'm not convinced that business people necessarily make good political leaders.

Certainly need Business People in Government

Good governance means a cross section of skills and interests.

---

One of the lines in Luxons speech.

"I have built a career out of reversing the fortunes of underperforming companies and I'll bring that real-world experience to this role."

So now National is no longer a political party it is a company?

They haven’t been a functioning Political Party for some time.

I still laugh at Gerry Brownlee being Election Campaign Manager.

[Lilith7]

Running a country is quite different to running a country though, in that it isn't about making a profit.
I'd like to see any govt here go to the trouble of consulting - & more importantly, acting on their advice - the experts in each field, e.g. ask teachers what's needed to improve education, ask nurses & Drs how best to improve the health services.
Never happen I suspect.

[Wainuiguy]

"Witness Luxon, a millionaire and owner of seven houses, protesting against this year’s minimum-wage increase, a lift that gave a full-time worker an extra $40 a week."

I think that says it all really; its perfectly fine for business owners to have large salaries but when it comes to people like cleaners, nurses, teachers - those people whose true value we've learned to appreciate far more thanks to covid - then they don't deserve more income & he has no problem leaving them to struggle.

Many business owners don't earn large salaries.  In  may cases they are paid less than some of their employees.  And teachers get substantially more than minimum wage as do nurses.

[Oh_hunnihunni]

And the gap between the highest paid and the lowest continues to stretch even the imagination of the most limited among us, while there are still some economic dinosaurs out there who really believe unlimited growth is a good thing, rather than symptomatic of a societal and financial cancer...