Post · bonfire.cafe

"We've had 4 or 5 decades... of an economic system that says 'don't worry about concentration of wealth, eventually that will flow down, everyone will be better off', and a lot of people are going, '... that's not what we're experiencing, the cost of living is getting more, we're feeling more marginalised economically, our jobs are less secure', and they want something different"

#ChrisHipkins, 2025

https://www.rnz.co.nz/podcast/30-with-guyon-espiner?share=529f222f-cd18-45ae-9a52-39bfda42b320

Bang on, but ...

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#30 #GuyonEspiner #RNZ #NZPolitics #podcasts

#nzpolitics #rnz #GuyonEspiner #chrishipkins #podcasts

Strypey

@strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz · yesterday

...when Guyon Enspiner asks;

"So do you see yourself as part of that momentum, as part of an alternative like the one that [Zohran Mamdani] is offering?"

... Hipkins just dodges the question with a bunch of waffle about the differences between the US and NZ. Hipkins doesn't want to answer the question because the honest answer would be 'no'. The entire purpose of having an industry puppet like Hipkins as Labour leader is to make sure the party *can't* be part of that alternative.

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Strypey

@strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz · 24 hours ago

"... Hipkins worked for the Industry Training Federation and Todd Energy."

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/482831/chris-hipkins-from-head-boy-to-prime-minister

That's right, Todd Energy. NZ's biggest privately owned fossil fool company. What was Hipkins' job there, some lowly grunt? Primary evidence has been hard to find. But Hipkins' Wikipedia article gives the job title as "training manager";

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Hipkins

Which makes sense, given the ITF role.

EDIT: Removed Hollywood link, the site appears to be gambling spam, not a real magazine.

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Strypey

@strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz · 23 hours ago

Hipkins represents and works for the political gaslighters of the same corporatist economic system they described to Guyon Espiner (quoted in OP). Just like Phil Goff did as Helen Clark's replacement.

Until NZ Labour replaces Hipkins with someone more like Mamdani, and less like Goff or their current UK Labour counterpart Sir Stammer, Labour cannot be an alternative to that system. They will be anchored on the centre-right by a leader for whom that's as far left as the centre gets.

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Strypey

@strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz · 23 hours ago

"I think the profits that we're seeing from the banks, from the supermarkets, from the electricity companies, from some of the insurance companies, are a sign that NZ doesn't actually have what the free market is supposed to deliver us, a competitive economy."

#ChrisHipkins, 2025

https://www.rnz.co.nz/podcast/30-with-guyon-espiner?share=529f222f-cd18-45ae-9a52-39bfda42b320

Where do I start with this one?

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