John Porter: Action and Reaction

Chances are most of our self-important politicians have not read Newton’s Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica published way back in 1687 and better known as Newton’s Laws of Motion.

Formally stated, Newton's third law is: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.

The Third Law of Motion even applies to politics. Simply put, it means that every action can be undone by a reaction. 

Our politicians would be wise to not only to remember this maxim of physics and, indeed, politics, but they must also be prepared to confront this dictum should the general populace protest in defiance of a government’s distorted, separatist policies and finally say NO MORE, ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!

They would do well to ponder, what is the human tendency toward retribution and how fervent the retribution could be? The introduction of significant, unmandated, unpalatable and divisive legislature will spawn a backlash. There it is. Action and Reaction!

A clear example of this occurred in Germany several years ago. Germany took in more than 1 million asylum-seekers. While the move didn’t imperil the ethnic German majority, but what it did do was, it asked a profound question: Is Germany a country just for Germans? Now a backlash is occurring. Nationalistic parties are rising and doubling down on the Germanness of Germany – a reaction to Ms. Merkel’s action! Action and Reaction!

For the sake of preserving the racial harmony we have known, up until this government set New Zealander against New Zealander, our Prime Minister, the Labour Caucus and most definitely, the Maori Caucus, need to take stock of their actions; Understand the feeling and sentiment of the general populace and ask themselves, are we fuelling emotions and attitudes that could harden into racial tension, are we fashioning a situation from which there can be no winners? Action and Reaction!

Ardern and probably Robertson, given their earlier Socialist Youth beliefs, are ideologues (Ideologue - an often blindly partisan advocate or adherent of a particular ideology) so therefore will be blindly pursuing a Socialist Utopia for New Zealand. There is a certain, underlying, difficulty associated with the pursuit of a Socialist Utopia. It is that the proponents do not seem concern themselves with how to get there, (sound familiar?) they appear to presume that the power of their vision is sufficient to realise their objective. (Again, familiar?). Further, they have no concern for who the instrument or agent of the struggle for the Socialist Utopia may be. Holding up the instrument/agent and criticising and politicising their existing conditions is part of the playbook. Well, we are certainly able to identify with that!  

Could it be that Maori are simply pawns on the chess board of Ardern’s quest to render New Zealand into a Socialist Utopia? Certainly, Maori activists, via the Maori Caucus, have found a welcoming ear and a cooperative partner eager to impose all thing Maori upon New Zealand.  We are even going to have temporary road signage in Maori for goodness sake! One Rawiri Waru told the Rotorua Daily Post the idea that only English signs were "legally complying" meant there was "a bit of racism in there"???                         

Who is actually the pawn? There seems no end to the amount of money that is currently being thrown at Maori under the guise increasing Maori vaccination rates. 

Further compounding the belief of a separatist agenda I found the following from the Maori Caucus - Ensure your whānau, hapū and iwi know applications are now open for a share of the record $730m our Labour Māori Caucus secured for the kaupapa in this year's Budget. Surely that fund should be for all New Zealanders?

 If you require further proof of the separatist agenda this government is promoting you need look no further than The Pae Ora (Healthy Futures) Bill introduced last week. It seems all non Maori or non-Pasifika are classed as “Other Populations!” Read it and weep.

If there ever was a “Team of 5 million,” take the bloody ethnicity out of the team talk Jacinda!

While a separatist agenda is an ominous issue facing New Zealand there is also a disquieting issue that is surreptitiously being obscured with spin. That is the issue of the economy!

In September ’21 Grant Robertson stated – “New Zealand continues to outperform many of the countries we compare ourselves to,”- “Our quick and decisive response to this outbreak, including providing cashflow and confidence through schemes such as the Wage Subsidy, will also help the economy to rebound quickly again”. - “Ministers have decided to use the greater fiscal headroom to top up the COVID-19 Response and Recovery Fund (CRRF) by an extra $7 billion”.

Of course, the economy is in reasonable shape. It is being propped up by government support, support that is amounting to close to $1 billion per week! That is money that is printed or borrowed!

I am no accountant but it is not difficult to comprehend that if you have a very sizable asset (government housing stock) that has been able to be revalued upwards of 30%, you are going to add a sizeable amount of “black ink” to your balance sheet. Hell, every home owner in New Zealand today knows this. An effortless way to minimise a deficit! Not an incentive to really control rampant house price increases either.

We should be challenging Robertson regarding our current debt levels. A hackneyed adage about Labour governments is the “…Labour governments are tax and spend governments…” Well Robertson has well and truly slain that one. You don’t need to rely on tax for revenue when you can borrow it or even better still, print it! Quantitative easing.

Since March 2020, the Reserve Bank had been printing tens of billions of dollars and pumping it into the economy using something called LSAP (Large-Scale Asset Purchases). Back in August 2020 the Reserve Bank pledged to expand its Large-Scale Asset Programme further through buying $100 billion of bonds by June 2022. Mercifully these large-scale asset purchases ceased in July.

Of course, government support was fundamental and crucial to ensure our economy did not collapse. What is questionable is who decided which section of society qualified for funding and what checks and balances were in place to scrutinise the veracity of the utilisation of the funding.

So, it now looks like future generations will have a $54 billion debt to deal with. A massive “handbrake” to increasing future growth, wealth and prosperity. Rectified by taxation? Action and Reaction!

But the impact of LASP doesn’t stop there.

Nicolaus Copernicus,  a Polish mathematician in the 16th century, referenced the Quantity of Money Theory (QTMT). The theory being that as the quantity of money in circulation increases, so do the prices of goods. Inflation becomes widespread. With the extra money in consumers’ pockets and humans being humans, this will increase our desire to spend and buy, leading to rising demand that probably outpaces supply. Further, lockdowns only enhance this purchasing yearning. We are now heading into the choppy waters of higher interest rates and inflation. Action and Reaction!

In all my many years of political awareness I can genuinely say that I have never encountered a more inept or divisive government! The latter part of the 8.5 Muldoon years were grim, but this bunch well and truly trump those!

Presumably post the 2023 general election we will see this inept government gone.

Very few imagine Ardern listens or agonizes too much about the concerns of the majority of New Zealanders, nor takes any notice of the anguish the fragmentation of the country causes. She is patently averse to face to face criticism and she has no intention of listening to nationwide protests such as Groundswell. That divisiveness, aloofness and disdain are Actions that are going to generate a Reaction!

But if, by some strange or appalling circumstance they still govern and govern along current lines using the same levers; identity politics, Maorification agenda, taxpayer-funded propaganda by the media, use of the pandemic to control the populace, employing legions of spin doctors to compose and promote favourable narratives around contentious issues: Then they will have furnished extremists or a populist with the platform(s)to seriously challenge the status quo of New Zealand politics. Action and Reaction!

I mentioned earlier the unknown scale of the human tendency toward retribution. I am moved to speculate; will it and how might it manifest itself regarding the media. In particular, how, under the masquerade of the Public Interest Journalism Fund, the media have taken the “Kings Shilling” thus surrendering their integrity, objectivity and neutrality. In a democracy we would expect these institutions to customarily hold errant politicians to account, to challenge their decisions and concepts, to be the “voice” of the general populace. To not do so allows authoritarian government to flourish. By these actions the ownership of the media companies, the editors, sub editors, even journalists and newsreaders have, if not betrayed then seriously failed the public. By those Actions there surely must be a significant Reaction!

But let’s finish with Ardern. The Ardern, who in 2020, was riding the crest of an adulation wave, both nationally and internationally. The Ardern who could, undoubtedly, visualise a door on the top floor of the United Nations building with a nameplate reading – J ARDERN, SECTRETARY GENERAL.  The Ardern who is trampling over all that is good and sensible in New Zealand in pursuit of her lofty aspiration.

The racial divide she is creating or allowed to be created, must not be tolerated! The ineptitude she has presided over must be held to account. The propaganda she has purchased by tainting the media will need to be recompensed. The financial devastation and social discord her and Robertson have wrought on the country will be felt for generations. Action and Reaction!

This is the Ardern who, I believe, will suffer the ignominy of being recorded in history as the most dreadful Prime Minister we have ever endured in New Zealand. Deserved Reaction!

John Porter is deeply concerned about the loss of democracy and the insidious promotion of separatism by our current government.