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Kiwi Conservatism
At least one country is responding to the financial crisis by moving to the right, not the left. New Zealand voters have just ousted the longstanding Labor regime and elected a government led by the conservative National Party; the free-market ACT party will be part of the governing coalition. Which is not to say the new administration will always pursue pro-market policies. The London Times reports that Prime Minister-elect John Key, a wealthy former currency trader, is "expected to implement tax cuts and extra spending." A Bushian/Keynesian combination.
I was tickled at how the Times explained the concept of "New Zealand" to its readers:
John Key’s conservative National Party easily won power in New Zelaland, known internationally for its pristine environment and as the backdrop to the “Lord of the Rings" movies.
|11.8.08 @ 3:13PM|#
John Key's conservative National Party easily won power in New Zelaland, known internationally for its pristine environment and as the backdrop to the "Lord of the Rings" movies.
And extremely attractive women. And sheep. Lots and lots of sheep.
Truly a wonderful part of the world. Rams and ewes everytwhere.
When reminiscing my travels, New Zealand always ranks in the top
three. Depending on my mood they're sometimes #1.
And they have many, many ovine livestock.
|11.8.08 @ 3:13PM|#
This is not good news. My wife and I, having visited the country recently, intend to return and spend a good 2 years there working and hopefully integrating into what has hitherto appeared to be a tolerant internationalist culture. Despite its various faults, a left leaning coalition has always been one of the main attractions of NZ for us.
Mike Laursen|11.8.08 @ 3:23PM|#
A Bushian/Keynesian combination.
They're copying that combination because it's been shown to work so
well here?
|11.8.08 @ 3:30PM|#
One of the local ladies took me to the very nice botanical
gardens in Wellington.
BTW, they have shitloads of sheep in that country.
|11.8.08 @ 3:37PM|#
Yeah, there's a lot of happy National party fans here today. As
a temporary resident here (for about 10 months now), this isn't
really a huge ideological shift. National played to the centre in
the campaign, and there's huge worry here about the financial
meltdown worldwide as this is an export-and-tourism heavy economy.
As an American, I'm stunned by the regulations they do have
(especially employment related) and both parties have pledged to
expand assistance if the economy falters further.
And the sheep are being relentlessly replaced by dairy cattle.
Franklin Harris|11.8.08 @ 3:43PM|#
And the sheep are being relentlessly replaced by dairy cattle.
It's New Zealand's idea of a military buildup to defend against the
pending invasion from
Australia.
|11.8.08 @ 4:03PM|#
new Zealand can afford a socialist/environmentalist state. That's because they don't have a military. They don't need one. They know if anyone attacks that the US, Australia, and a host of others will come to their rescue. It's the same reason Europe can afford its nannyist policies. Do you really think Denmark would be a leftist paradise if it had to maintain an army strong enough to keep Germany at bay?
alan|11.8.08 @ 4:10PM|#
John Key's conservative National Party easily won power in New
Zelaland, known internationally for the pivotal roll the nation
played in the plot development of Heinlein's novel Friday.
Better!
|11.8.08 @ 4:17PM|#
new Zealand [sic] can afford a socialist/environmentalist
state. That's because they don't have a military. ...
Welcome to the
ships of the Royal New Zealand Navy
It's not a big country, population: 4,115,771 (July 2007 est.), but
I found their Navy to be very professional when I went to sea with
them for a week so many years ago. Unlike the US, the Kiwi's are
not dry afloat.
Did I mention the sheep population of 43.1 million, down from 70.3
million in 1982?
Lefiti would be very happy (sexually) there.
ed|11.8.08 @ 4:24PM|#
Despite its various faults, a left leaning coalition has
always been one of the main attractions of NZ for us
There's always Canada, Rainer.
PFJ|11.8.08 @ 4:39PM|#
The other party only got votes from Emily Fitzpatrick, Claire Fitzpatrick, and Sarah Fitzpatrick. At least it was triple digits.
anarch|11.8.08 @ 4:45PM|#
one country is responding to the financial crisis by moving to the right, not the left
Just a quick cavil.
It's da gummint, and no country (that it professes to
represent) what's ever moving this- and thataway. As in I and the
likes of me am the country and have not moving nowheres.
As in I love my country. As in I live in this beautiful country. As
in that which can bring forth tears of tender affection vs. tears
of rage.
Deus ex Machina|11.8.08 @ 5:00PM|#
There's always Canada, Rainer.
wrong.
Incidentally, New Zealand ranks 3rd on
Economic Freedom of the World reports, 2 points higher than the
US.
|11.8.08 @ 5:11PM|#
When a tourist coach passed through a small country town in New
Zealand one of the passengers noticed a sheep tied to a lamppost on
the corner in the main street and asked what it was doing
there.
"Oh that," said the guide, "that's the Recreation Centre"
|11.8.08 @ 5:20PM|#
hopefully integrating into what has hitherto appeared to be
a tolerant internationalist culture. Despite its various faults, a
left leaning coalition has always been one of the main attractions
of NZ for us.
WTF? So, you have to have a left coalition in
government for a tolerant, internationalist
culture?
Good Lord. Some people just live in their own cocoons.
|11.8.08 @ 5:46PM|#
"That's because they don't have a military. They don't need one.
They know if anyone attacks that the US, Australia, and a host of
others will come to their rescue."
And here's me thinking New Zealanders had fought and died alongside
Americans in WW I, WW II, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan!
Then again, what do I know - I'm only a New Zealander!
What kind of 'military' do you expect a country of only 4 million
people to have???
Boston|11.8.08 @ 6:10PM|#
Shit. That is to say, New Zealand is a nice country, I'm a
bigger fan of
Lew Zealand though.
|11.8.08 @ 6:22PM|#
Rainer: So you think "left-leaning" always means "tolerant,"
huh? That's not always the case in San Francisco.
And don't forget the "Rogernomics" of
'84-'90, when the NZ Labor government cut tariffs and subsidies and
made many other free-market reforms.
Joel|11.8.08 @ 6:27PM|#
What kind of 'military' do you expect a country of only 4
million people to have???
If I were arranging it, four million people. They'd never go fight
anybody else's battles, but god help anyone who came to pick a
fight with them.
Or molest their sheep.
|11.8.08 @ 6:54PM|#
"If I were arranging it, four million people."
Fair enough, but if New Zealand were ever attacked there would be
four million New Zealanders ready to die for their country.
And I think our 'comfort sheep' would be very popular with any
invaders!
|11.8.08 @ 6:57PM|#
Yeah, the Kiwis kicked some serious ass in the world wars - they
had a reputation for being extremely reliable and solid.
Also, we need more sheep-fucking jokes.
|11.8.08 @ 7:06PM|#
Why don't New Zealanders count sheep at night?
Because they want to sleep, not have wet dreams!
|11.8.08 @ 7:07PM|#
One other point about our friends and allies, the Kiwis. The Maoris were, all things being relative, some bad motherfuckers for an indigenous people. Stealing their land was no friggin' picnic.
|11.8.08 @ 7:14PM|#
New Zealand also eliminated most farm subsidies a few years ago. As a result, they now have some of the most efficient and well run agriculture in the world.
|11.8.08 @ 7:21PM|#
To hear the geologists tell it, New Zealand was separated from
California hundreds of millions of years ago. When I visited NZ for
a few weeks some decades ago (pretty much yesterday, geologic
time), it reminded me of how California had seemed during my
childhood (except you got to the San Diego-like semi-tropics by
heading NORTH, and people drove on the left side of the road). The
"family resemblance" was amazing.
I also recall that the women were very fetching. And I was stalled
in traffic on numerous occasions due to road-crossings of thousands
of sheep.
The two things I remember most fondly were strong tea for
breakfast, "creamed" with whole-milk-from-bottles that was
delivered fresh every morning, and ducking into a bar on a rainy
weekend day in Wellington, where my companion and I encountered a
surprisingly good band, whose members were happy to play several of
our favorite tunes. Everywhere we went, we found great people (who
were surprised that we were real Californians -- too "normal" I
guess).
The trip to NZ was, with no exceptions, the best time I ever spent
outside the US, and better than most of my vacations WITHIN the US.
I'd go back in a heartbeat. If the US becomes too much more
socialistic, I may just do it.
|11.8.08 @ 7:50PM|#
This is not good news. My wife and I, having visited the
country recently, intend to return and spend a good 2 years there
working and hopefully integrating into what has hitherto appeared
to be a tolerant internationalist culture. Despite its various
faults, a left leaning coalition has always been one of the main
attractions of NZ for us.
I hear your pain. But if you go now for a few months, I don't think
the concentration camps and summary executions will have started.
Reeducation will probably not be in full swing until around
April.
But seriously now, the new Prime Minister grew up in a
government-supplied shack with a single parent and dragged himself
out of poverty due to his own wiles. I think he is focussed on
individual potential rather than intolerance.
And as was commented above, the current atmosphere you find in New
Zealand was built up by the policies of a "left-leaning" government
that reduced subsidies, tariffs, regulations of all kinds. Not the
lefties in power today.
PS the military situation there isn't a result of the New
Zealanders being pacifists who turn the other cheek. It is I would
argue a rational response to a total lack of any credible
large-scale threat. They could defend their harbours if need be but
don't see a need to send vast numbers of soldiers across the world
to fight other peoples' wars (most of the time anyway). Not such a
bad idea.
Bingo|11.8.08 @ 8:16PM|#
Oh my god, J sub D you are too fucking funny.
NZ and Oz both have a big benefit in being so far away from the
less sane parts of the world. Also the fact that they don't go
fucking around in other countries foreign affairs. The result seems
to be a fairly healthy economy and happy populace, and (mostly)
sane government.
Mad Max|11.8.08 @ 8:17PM|#
"I was stalled in traffic on numerous occasions due to
road-crossings of thousands of sheep."
Why did the New Zealand sheep cross the road?
They wanted to save themselves for marriage, so they were running
away from the farmers.
Now look what you made me do.
Champ Grahman|11.8.08 @ 8:38PM|#
Those ARE sheep, aren't they? Only, what are they doing up in the trees?
economist|11.8.08 @ 9:40PM|#
I can think of far worse places than New Zealand to live. Like the Alabama, for instance.
|11.8.08 @ 9:47PM|#
Cutting taxes is not a Keynsian response. Keynes would spend
borrowed or newly-inflated money on handouts.
-jcr
|11.8.08 @ 9:50PM|#
I seem to recall that NZ abolished their farming subsidies over
howls of protests some twenty years ago, and they've been doing
quite well since.
-jcr
|11.8.08 @ 9:55PM|#
New Zealand doesn't need an army. Lucy Lawless will defend it with her little round throw thingy.
economist|11.8.08 @ 9:56PM|#
JCR,
The point is that they are not cutting spending to match the tax
cut, plus the tax cut is temporary, not permanent. These qualities
make it Keynesian in spirit, if not necessarily in specifics.
economist|11.8.08 @ 9:57PM|#
Concerning my 9:40 post:
Should have just said "Alabama" not "the Alabama". I must be tired
already.
Nasikabatrachus|11.8.08 @ 10:05PM|#
John Key's conservative National Party easily won power in
New Zelaland, known internationally for its pristine environment
and as the backdrop to the "Lord of the Rings" movies.
Less well known is the fact that the LOTR movies exclusively used
sheep actors. The role of Frodo was played by no less than twelve
thousand sheep.
Sign at the airport when you land in New Zealand: "Welcome to New
Zealand. They shot a movie here once, don'cha know."
Nasikabatrachus|11.8.08 @ 10:07PM|#
And yes, they do have Canadian/ North Dakotan mannerisms and accents in New Zealand. It's that kind of place.
economist|11.8.08 @ 10:53PM|#
I hear that New Zealand is nice, and does not have as high a concentration of dangerous and deadly critters as Australia.
economist|11.8.08 @ 10:57PM|#
I would like to point out that a move to the "right" on economics is not always a libertarian move. What's "left" and what's "right" on economics varies from country to country.
Jesse Walker|11.8.08 @ 11:17PM|#
John Randolph: Keynesians have
long advocated both tax cuts and public spending as economic
stimulus.
Btw, I wrote a bit about the pro-market reforms passed by the New
Zealand Labor Party last month.
There's a bunch of nominally socialist parties that enacted market
reforms in the '80s and '90s, but NZ's Laborites went the farthest.
Unfortunately, the current version of the party is not as
market-oriented as the NZLP of two decades ago.
|11.8.08 @ 11:41PM|#
Wow, I wish someone in the Bush Dictatorship would have been so
bold in the early stages.
Jess
http://www.Ultimate-Anonymity.com
|11.8.08 @ 11:56PM|#
I know how you feel economist. Some of us have that
talent.
Are there any countries that haven't moved right in Dubya's world?
Japan, Germany, Canada(where universal childcare is a dead letter
thanks to the Conservative's alternative child tax credit), France,
NZ... Berlisconi's back in Italy isn't he? Spain went "socialist"
after their conservative gov't claimed that Madrid was done by the
Basques. Britain is muddy I guess although Labour is radioactive
there right now. Australia went Labour and they're radioactive
there too now, and after over a decade of Howard.
I still remember how Japan's election was all about how they were
going to reject the Bush-freindly government but then the
Bush-friendlies won and it turned out that it was actually an
arcane referendum on privatizing the postal service! Not that all
of these parties are neccessarily sound conservatives, but the
partisan ignorance of the liberal media is awesome to behold.
|11.9.08 @ 12:15AM|#
Hilarious to read what others have to say about our little
country nestled quietly in the backwaters of the South
Pacific.
It is all very well having a socialist fantasy but you need to have
a sound economic engine to fund it all. That's how our country
operates. First we vote National to make money and then we vote
Labour to spend it. Some idiot forgot to change sides last election
and it royally screwed us all for another three years. Big sigh of
relief when we toggled properly in yesterday's election and got our
rhythym back into its groove.
So far none of the politicians have realised that we (the voters)
are really the ones that govern the country. We can't have them
messing with our finely balanced system so you're sworn to
secrecy.
ed|11.9.08 @ 6:50AM|#
We're too sincere in the U.S. to make your system work, Kiwi
Vik.
Americans who vote actually believe their politicians'
lies.
Soon I expect Obama's cabinet to start referring to him personally
as Barack Muad'Dib.
Jerry|11.9.08 @ 7:07AM|#
Interesting bit, ACT's Roger Douglas has been elected as well. Hopefully they will make him finance minister again.
GILMORE|11.9.08 @ 7:21AM|#
economist | November 8, 2008, 10:57pm | #
I would like to point out that a move to the "right" on economics
is not always a libertarian move. What's "left" and what's "right"
on economics varies from country to country.
Fair point.
I've been meaning to ask, and might have done so before and not
noticed any reply, but do you (economist) actually work as an
economist professionally, academically, or is it all in your
mind?
Just curious. I work at a bank* myself.
(*one thats not taken any bailout money from any government so far,
for whatever thats worth)
MUAD'DIB!!
JC|11.9.08 @ 10:36AM|#
Jesse it is sad that no one got your reference to Flight of the Conchords. Perhaps you should have mentioned the toothbrush fence.
Elemenope|11.9.08 @ 10:36AM|#
His name has become a killing word.
Where's the purists come to upbraid all those quoting the David
Lynch movie with affection?
|11.9.08 @ 1:45PM|#
known internationally for its pristine environment and as
the backdrop to the "Lord of the Rings" movies.
Hey, what about "The Piano"?
New Zealand made great strides in the advancing of vastly
overpraised, excruciatingly boring, surreal female-oriented drama,
overlaid with the unmitigated horror of gratuitous semi-naked
Harvey Keitel.
Lefiti|11.9.08 @ 2:51PM|#
Will New Zealand become for Libertarians what Albania was for die-hard Maoists?
wayaway|11.9.08 @ 4:47PM|#
Australia went Labour and they're radioactive there too now,
and after over a decade of Howard.
If by radioactive you mean a larger lead in the polls now than
their win in last November's election, then yes.
|11.9.08 @ 4:55PM|#
One final Kiwi note. While visiting NZ somebody to whom I'm
forever grateful introduced me to a hilarious comic strip called
Footrot
Flats.
My life is only better for that.
Thank you, Murray Ball and
Finn.
|11.9.08 @ 5:46PM|#
"If by radioactive you mean a larger lead in the polls now than
their win in last November's election, then yes."
An exception! That was based on the last time I read Tim Blair's
blog a month or two ago. He does have a certain partisan optimism I
suppose.
|11.9.08 @ 6:31PM|#
* NZ Is three hours flying time from any other major land mass:
Australia. Only one country has the military power even capable of
getting here: the US. Not China, not Russia, only the USN 8&
USAF. And if the US is going to invade or attack, well then we're
fucked.
* And as regards politics go - NZ's most "rightwing" party in
parliament - ACT - is far, far to the left of Barrack
Obama
|11.9.08 @ 6:38PM|#
I´m one of the many people hoping that New Zealand´s economy
finally gets itself in order.
Over here in Australia we have far, far too much of them and the
reason is pretty basic : they can get paid twice as much to do the
same work.
So this election win will hopefully be beneficial for both
countries.
|11.9.08 @ 10:29PM|#
New Zealand, known internationally for its pristine
environment and as the backdrop to the "Lord of the Rings"
movies.
Great Britain, known internationally for its royal family and as
the backdrop to "Notting Hill".
|11.10.08 @ 1:46PM|#
known internationally for its pristine environment and as the backdrop to the "Lord of the Rings" movies.
I dare say they are more well known for the All Blacks and their intimidation
dance. At least by those who actually watch rugby.
|11.10.08 @ 2:52PM|#
This report is correct but misses a lot. ACT is not just free
market but led by a libertarian, Rodney Hide. They are more
libertarian than Bob Barr --not very hard to do admittedly. Act
supported civil unions for gays, lower taxes, right to die
legislation, less regulations, etc. They were one of the only
parties to fight the ban on so-called "party drugs" and pushing for
less government across the board. The idea that ACT is "far, far to
the left of Barrack (sic) Obama", as one uninformed morno stated,
is actually just stupid. It is libertarian.
As for Rogernomics -- that is what is missed here. Act has 5 MPs
from this election and one of them is Roger Douglas himself.
The problem will be the conservatives who are now conserving Labour
regulations. John Key, the new PM, has made it clear he doesn't
want to abandon any Labour policies and that is why he is opposed
to Roger Douglas having a ministerial seat. Act is a good party
with a great leader. National is mediocre party led by an
unprinicpled politician.
Other good news was that the bigoted, socialistic New Zealand First
party lost all their seats. And their smear-mongering leader is now
out of office.
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