Question Time 28.3.23

This is going to be a different format to my usual reviews: it's more of a diatribe, really. After watching Marama being raked over the coals for literally defending my rights, followed by the whiplash of Labour spruiking EV's before dodging questions about public transport emissions made me wonder: what's the point? All I've read from the politicians suggests that they agree on the issues more than one would presume from watching Question Time, so why is our main showcase for the issues of the day so adversarial? Is it just to feed the 24-hour news cycle?? - Everyone's so hot to protect 'liberal democracy', but both Athenian and Westminster democracies were invented when only land-owning men could vote (and significant portions of the population were slaves...). What's so great about that? It's like we're paying MP's more than teachers to dig up dirt on each other, just so they can get a soundbite on the 6pm news. Plus there's the whole issue of parliamentary privilege, which allows them to say things that normal citizens would be arrested for. - Since Geoff Simmons left the political space, I haven't heard much about citizens assemblies and deliberative democracy, but I think they sound cool (and probably would have legalised weed 👍). Someone from Labour made some noise about that last year, but I can't remember who. - More on the issues of the day: As a (former) dole bludger, I think spruiking a $20 per week increase as if it 'solves' child poverty is rather insulting to beneficiaries: of the Labour welfare policies that have been enacted since 2017, the Winter Energy Payment was the one that made the most difference to my bottom line as a beneficiary, and that's $40 a week. That's enough to buy groceries. Plus, as Debbie pointed out today, that targeted support isn't necessarily reaching Maori communities. National is obsessed with targeting Tinetti and the education portfolio; it makes them look desperate, as if this was the only weakness they'd identified, and their solutions aren't new. - The race to the middle from National and Labour is really depressing, and it makes me wonder how different the Beehive would be if we had truly proportional representation. We're not the States: this isn't a two-party system, yet we behave as if it is. 👋