Was sitting at my desk the other day when a National Party tweet slid across my feed. This time, they were promising that New Zealand’s exports will double by 2034. The reward for us mere mortals, they claim, will be “more jobs, higher incomes, and more money in your back pocket.”
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It took me about half a second to roll my eyes. That line again. The same line they trot out over and over, like a tired sales pitch that nobody buys anymore. “More money in your back pocket.” National have been flogging that slogan for years. It is as stale as week-old bread.
Out of sheer curiosity, I started scrolling through X to see just how many times they had used the phrase. After the twenty odd examples I realised it was pointless to keep counting. They have built an entire political brand around the illusion of filling our back pockets, while in reality those pockets are emptier than ever.
There is no money magically appearing in anyone’s back pocket. If there is, it is money we have sweated and slogged for ourselves. It’s money earned through long hours, hard work, and in many cases juggling multiple jobs just to keep up with the relentless rise in the cost of living. National cannot claim credit for that. Their empty promises have not eased the grocery bill, slashed the power bill, or paid the rent.
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It is almost comical that they keep coming back to the same slogan as if repetition alone will make it true. Do they really think New Zealanders are so gullible that hearing “back pocket” for the 156th time will finally convince us they are serious? It is political gaslighting on a grand scale.
Meanwhile, out here in the real world, the price of everything is going up. Families are struggling. Foodbanks are busier than ever. Mortgage rates have bitten deep into household budgets. People are counting down the days until payday, not planning what to do with the mythical extra cash National claims is just around the corner.
National’s obsession with parroting empty lines is more than lazy politics, it is contemptuous. It shows a party so out of touch with the day-to-day struggles of ordinary people that their entire communications strategy has been reduced to reheating slogans that sound good in a focus group but collapse under the weight of reality.
Meanwhile, out here in the real world, the price of everything is going up. Families are struggling. Foodbanks are busier than ever. Mortgage rates have bitten deep into household budgets. People are counting down the days until payday, not planning what to do with the mythical extra cash National claims is just around the corner.
National’s obsession with parroting empty lines is more than lazy politics, it is contemptuous. It shows a party so out of touch with the day-to-day struggles of ordinary people that their entire communications strategy has been reduced to reheating slogans that sound good in a focus group but collapse under the weight of reality.
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So here’s my advice to National’s marketing team - please, respectfully, shut the f#*k up about “more money in our back pockets.” You have said it so often it has become meaningless. Repeating it again does not make it true. The cost of living crisis won’t be solved by catchphrases. Wages won’t rise just because you’ve repeated a line enough times. New Zealanders are not stupid enough to keep falling for a promise you have no intention of keeping.
If you really want to talk about pockets, let’s talk about whose pockets are actually being lined under National. Because, it’s not ours.
Matua Kahurangi is just a bloke sharing thoughts on New Zealand and the world beyond. No fluff, just honest takes. He blogs on https://matuakahurangi.com/ where this article was sourced.
If you really want to talk about pockets, let’s talk about whose pockets are actually being lined under National. Because, it’s not ours.
Matua Kahurangi is just a bloke sharing thoughts on New Zealand and the world beyond. No fluff, just honest takes. He blogs on https://matuakahurangi.com/ where this article was sourced.
5 comments:
National keep saying they are going to fix the economy.
Who for ?
Everyone ?
No, most of the benefits from it are going to be handed over to our Maori masters.
No more votes for National until they fulfill their promises and mandates from the last election to sort out our massive race issues.
thank you Matua for reflecting what most of us are thinking on a daily basis. The National Party like to keep us in the dark and feed us useless slogans otherwise known as BS - like were mushrooms. And the vacuous minister for economic growth and finance still does nothing of any consequence to help people struggling with our banking mafia, supermarket cartels and energy warlords. She has no plan except to spend taxpayer money, corporate socilasim to all of the above. I want her gone before the next election. Luxon as well.
Never?
I started with great hope in Luxon.
Luxons Competent National ministers have fixed roads, crime, education, international trade, and health,
However, the promotion of / reliance on Nicola Willis to bring food, banking, electricity, and insurance costs down has made Luxon a bare faced liar.
Easy fix though Chris. Install a clever and honest Minister of finance, cartels will be policed, and prices will come down, leading to a national rout at the next election.
Matua, to add "more misery" to your printed woes, many K one W one's would agree with you. I do.
I would advance to point that we will not "get" more money in our pockets, when we have a "flush" of business & industry in this Country closing the doors due to financial constraints.
Example -
1. Carter Holt Harvey (CHH) - who announced the closure of the sawmill in the Nelson area, stated they were concentrating that industry to their N.I. plant. The followed the announcement they were closing the plywood factory. Me thinks 3 issues -
issue 1. finance, they have an empty wallet.
issue.2, we are still exporting logs to China, that may mean we importing completed wooden product from China.
isse.3. NZ housing "boom" is not what it appears, there are stories that we have a declining number of builders - if so - then sales of timbe will be down - or is CHH facing a bigger challenge (in this domain) from other like minded sawmills - but cheaper??
2. Wattie's, Hastings - peaches, paying the orchards to pull them out, it is "now" cheaper to import the fruit, then the following week coming out with a press statement that indicates financial woes. If they can not "turn this around" I see Wattie's being closed down. Heinz will produce canned goods off shore and import to NZ - cheaper you see.
If this is "a case study" going forward, I leave readers to ponder who else across NZ, who currently supply Wattie's with raw product, what it will and/or may mean to them.
A thought for you (in case you are thinking of buying up Wattie's plant), they had a production factory in Feilding, which they sold to another NZ company (who produced frozen foods), who after "much thought" sold the plant (again), made the staff redundant and "placed" an embargo on anyone wishing to buy said plant from producing frozen product.
3. Mainland Dairy Products - will these still be produced in NZ if so what benefits are NZ going to get from overseas sales?
SO in line "with more money in our back pocket" may be, just maybe the govt should look at how business is being conducted, to achieve that goal, and not rely on the RBNZ to do that.
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