Shane Malone - Eureka Street

is he that he was flown out to open an exhibition of
Australian art at the Auckland city art gallery.
I'm afraid Phil's powers of prognostication failed
him; he was picking a Labor win, so the Kiwi Oz
watchers woke up surprised to find Johnny Howard
installed in the Lodge after March 2.
The N ew Zealand attitude to the campaign and
its outcom e seem s odd to Australian sensibilities.
There's a sense here that it was old-fashioned and
quaint for Australia to have had a Labor government
all these years. Even people who are violently opposed
to the reigning N ational government here find it
peculiar-as if out of the natural order of things. So
one of the themes that ran through local commentary
was that Australia was som ehow normalised by
the election outcome.
Perhaps it has to do with political cynicism. N ew
Zealanders seem far m ore cynical about politics than
Australian s. Sure, w e are a
pretty cynical bunch about our
politicians, and the swinging
~
'C
voters who actually decide w-- ., ' tti'f.;p...e • 1.1.1(~ ~ it!
elections are the m ost cynical. ~ ·
But there are chunks of the · ~~
Australian electorate who ac- ' ~~p - ""--
· tually care, and are passionate ~ '-"'- · . ~~d
supporters of their favoured · ~"" ~ . l
last factor will, I am certain, lead to an economic crisis
in NZ as the infrastructure deterioriates over the
next decade. One of the greatest achievements of the
Hawke and Keating Labor governments was their success
in breaking down the package deal mentality in
politics. Australians, m ore than in the rest of the English
speaking world, have learned to argue their politics
issue by issue. Just because you float the dollar
that doesn't m ean that you must believe that Governm
ent should bow out of reforming and revitalising
the trunk rail system . A commitm ent to cutting
tariffs doesn't preclude your designing an aged care
system in which the state will intervene to m aintain
standards as well as funding, and which is the envy of
the world.
I look forward t o seeing h ow the econom y
progresses under Howard; probably the change of government
won't profoundly affect the economy in the
m edium term . But only
fossils am ongst Australian
{./\..-A-
m edia analysts think that
ju st because t h e n ew
tv~
government is ostensibly
conservative, it must be good
fo r the economy.
A far greater worry is the
thinness of t alent in the
brand of politics. The contrast - ':c__, // Howard Government; that's
in NZ is stark; the betrayal of / · _::~----
social democratic values by
'-''-"-"'"- vt..A.--~~
the NZ Labour party has
scarred the politica l system
long-term, and people accept conservative rule, even
if they don't approve of it, as some kind of self-flagellating
penance for ever having believed that there
was any kind of good to be had from government.
One striking way this comes out is in the way
the NZ economic debate seem s settled as nowhere
else, except perhaps the US and Chile. After the
How ard victory there was an unquestioning
assumption by all m edia commentators, even those
of small-l liberal persuasion, that the Howard government
would be good for Australia's economy,
whatever else you thought of it. The only question
that exercised their minds was whether this would
be good for N ew Zealand. Would a stronger Australia
compete better with NZ (bad) or generate a sphere of
prosperity in which NZ could participate (good) Nowhere
was there a sense that it is possible to mix a
degree of fairness and social responsibility into the
liberalising of an economy.
New Zealanders have been taught that the only
way to avoid penury is through the deregulating and
privatising of everything. Perhaps that's not so odd;
it's a lesson, true or false, that has been well rehearsed
in Australia. But in N ew Zealand it's thought of as
blending inevitably with regressive tax systems, scaling
down of welfare, and cessation of government
activity even in crucial infrastructure spending. This
'-- som ething shared and m agnified
in the National government
here in NZ. Such is the
thinness that a man called
John Banks is a minister in the National Government.
He is the redneck radio king of NZ, a one- time
minister for Police, and current minister for Tourism.
He calls himself Banksie, and styles himself after his
Australian hero, Lawsie. But he doesn 't just style
himself after John Laws-he sham elessly imitates
Laws' program .
His broadcasts begin with the inane Laws' patter
'H ere I am behind the golden microphon e,
broadcasting across God's great garden' etc, before
launching into the bigoted, racist patter on which
this kind of radio thrives. Asked if his im itation
amounted to plagiarism , he denied it, saying that he
and Lawsie 'shared ideas'. He even claimed to have
sold Laws, for $2 m illion, the right to call his audience
the 'people's parliam ent'! A friend of Banks', John
Carter, was Government Whip until it was revealed
he had been ringing up talk-back radio pretending to
be Maori ('Hone Carter') so as to reinforce the stereotype
of Maori as lazy, unemployed alcoholics.
It's as if Bob Katter Jr were a m inister. N o wonder
they are cynical about politics here. I think I'll stop
contemplating the convergences and see what news
from hom e there is on the Age web page. •
David Braddon-Mitchell, ex-Canberra resident, now
teaches philosophy at the University of Auckland.
V oLUME. 6 N uMBER 3 • EUREKA STREET 21