First, Do No Harm

Shyster John

Beltway capture--or the suborning of our elected governors to the elite governing class--is very well documented. In the case of our current Prime Minister, John Key he was "gone by lunchtime". He oh-so-very quickly conformed to the statist establishment, becoming a mouthpiece for "government as god."

Let us reflect upon this speech from Key in 2005:

I rise on behalf of the National Party to give the good news to the people of New Zealand—that is, the Climate Change Response Amendment Bill is a load of rubbish and the National Party will not be supporting it, for very, very good reasons indeed…

Yet here we are down in New Zealand, a very little country with about 0.2 percent of the world’s emissions, putting a self-imposed straitjacket on our businesses, and waving a huge flag that says: “Foreign investment, don’t come anywhere near us. Australia is over there—the West Island. Go over there to pour your dollars in.” To the Chinese we are saying: “Come in and buy as much coal as you like from our West Coast. We’ll sell it to you and you can burn it without a carbon charge—but, by the way, to those back here in Aotearoa New Zealand we will be slapping on a carbon charge and you won’t be able to operate."…

This is a complete and utter hoax, if I may say so. The impact of the Kyoto Protocol, even if one believes in global warming—and I am somewhat suspicious of it—is that we will see billions and billions of dollars poured into fixing something that we are not even sure is a problem. Even if it is a problem, it will be delayed for about 6 years. Then it will hit the world in 2096 instead of 2102, or something like that. It will not work.

Ah, the difference a few dinners at Bowen House make. Yes, Prime Minister you may indeed say that the ETS is a complete and utter hoax. The question is, when you said it in 2005, were you lying then, or are you lying now when you try to defend one of the most extortionate, stupid, oppressive taxation regimes in all our history? Even your patsy science adviser, Professor Sir Peter Gluckman has said "anything we do as a nation will in itself have little impact on the climate – our impact will be symbolic, moral and political." John Key has lacked the courage to do what he ought to have done: scrap the ETS.  Instead he has preferred to oppress us all with a tax that is symbolic, political and nothing more than posturing propaganda. Well, posture all you like--but not with our goods and property.

John Key has failed us all. He has broken one of the most fundamental principles of good government: do no harm. It is not necessity which has driven him to the ETS--but ideology and vacuous propaganda, which, in its turn, is based upon untruths, distortions, and fabrications. Consequently, the ETS represents harm and damage to the fabric of our society and nation. The very real impost and pain of this stupid tax is for no gain whatsoever. (Read John Boscawen's systematic exposure and demolition of all the spurious arguments being used to promote the ETS.)  John Key promised that under his watch, New Zealand would not vainly try to lead the world.  That is exactly what he is now trying to do.  He has broken his word. 

In 2005, Key showed that he well understood the economic devastation the ETS would cause. And he was acutely correct. Now, just one day after the ETS headlock being put on, the first New Zealand company has announced it is relocating offshore because it will not be able to operate profitably under the burden of the ETS.

Aerosol manufacturer Arandee Industries has survived the challenges of the global recession well, but will soon move offshore because of the emissions trading scheme.

Founder and executive director Ron Greer said the company had survived the domestic industrial downturn and held its own in the specialist aerospace aerosol market but would not survive the ETS if it stayed in New Zealand.

Auckland-based Arandee, which takes its name from "R & D", was launched in 1972 and has 13 staff. But its size belies its strength - it has contract manufacturing in New Zealand and offshore and is one of only three players in the lucrative global aerospace aerosol business.

That business is booming - the company has won contracts to fill insecticide aerosols for use in aircraft and electronic blower sprays - but more regulation and the impact of the New Zealand ETS on aerosols from 2012 has all-but ended its future here. "We will be headquartered in Singapore because we already have manufacturing in Malaysia, the United States and Thailand as well as in New Zealand," Greer said.

This will be the first of many.

Meanwhile our beltway cocooned, Bowen House ensconced, dilettante Prime Minister long ago lost touch with the reality of conditions for smaller businesses working hard on Main Street trying to make ends meet. The universal report is that most enterprises are living from hand to mouth, credit is tight, and cash flow is at a trickle; they are holding on by their fingernails. The ETS cost imposts will slam down upon them from a great height, crushing them, leaving only their bloody fingernails in the crevices of the wall. It is almost certain that New Zealand will go back down into a long, lingering recession.

As the teeth of the ETS merrily rip our national flesh and sinew apart, the nation will not easily forget the yawning maw of discrepancy between the commitments of John Key as candidate and the betrayals of John Key as Prime Minister. 

"Shyster John" will be the apt sobriquet.