Bob Hughes is a 91-year-old environmentalist and socialist who is committed to trying to effect change for a better future.
The March for Nature protest on June 8, organised by a range of environmental groups including Greenpeace and Forest & Bird, called for the present coalition Government to withdraw its Fast-track Approvals Bill. As an active environmentalist, I too am greatly concerned because this bill sidesteps almost all our environmental laws.
As the Environmental Defence Society says, “Under the bill, Ministers can make decisions on individual projects; there are no meaningful environmental criteria; participation rights by local communities and environmental groups are limited; local government may be shut out of the process; and appeal rights are severely constrained.”
Last year, we New Zealanders elected a National-led, right-wing, capitalist Government. We also have an economic and political system in which trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit.
The previous Labour-led government declared a climate emergency, as have 75 per cent of local body regions. The Labour government also banned fossil fuel exploration and introduced net zero carbon targets.
Yet, despite protests, Minister for Oceans and Fisheries Shane Jones has persisted with plans to reopen New Zealand to offshore oil and gas exploration.
I am elderly. I was born during the Great Depression and spent my childhood years under the first Labour government, which established a welfare state with high levels of intervention. Significant improvements in working conditions took place, and the 40-hour work week was introduced as well as a Profiteering Prevention Act.
After leaving school in 1947, like every other wage earner I paid the compulsory Social Security tax of 5 per cent on all my income. The wealthy were taxed more heavily - in 1944, top earners paid an income tax rate of up to 94 per cent on their taxable income.
Our prime minister Michael Joseph Savage was proud to be called a socialist. He died of cancer in Wellington on March 1940 at age 68, and an estimated 200,000 people attended his state funeral.
After World War II, with US antagonism against Russia, socialism became a scary word.
Two years after losing the 1949 election, the Labour Party withdrew its “socialisation of the means of production, distribution and exchange” clause from its policy platform.
Ever since, our Labour governments have pursued centre-left social and economic policies maintaining a free-market economy. There can be no democratic socialism in the 21st century, because it gets in the way of profit-making capitalism.
In the United States, the Republican Party today supports a pro-business platform, with foundations in economic libertarianism, and fiscal and social conservatism. Its philosophy leans towards individual freedoms, rights and responsibilities. In contrast, Democrats attach greater importance to equality and social/community responsibility.
The intentions of our so-called left and right of politics in Aotearoa/NZ are different. Also, I note here the concern expressed by the Human Rights Commission over Māori needs not being reflected in this year’s Budget.
Capitalism is driving us to a depleted planet and towards extinction. We consume the remaining reserves of fossil fuels and other finite resources as if there is no tomorrow. The rich get richer, while the poor get poorer.
Our railways crumble because we prefer roads, even as climate change threatens them ever more so.
Rail is the most environmentally friendly method of land transport, whatever fuel we use.
Our family lived in Paekakariki in the mid-1930s and I remember well the electric train trips to Wellington. Since then, the complete Wellington to Auckland rail link has been electrified.
So why then is the bulk of NZ freight not being transported by rail? Simply because of capitalism and our fossil fuel addiction.