A New Private-Public Partnership

Eradicators Coming To a Place Near You

The New Zealand government may well be leading us down a yellow brick road to a make-believe Emerald City.  It has announced that it will lead a private-public campaign to make New Zealand predator free within thirty-five years.  We are not talking about crims, but animals: New Zealand is planning to eradicate stoats, rats, feral cats, and possums.

The Government wants to make New Zealand predator-free by 2050, formally adopting a target to eradicate all pests that threaten New Zealand's native birds.   Prime Minister John Key announced the goal, alongside Conservation Minister Maggie Barry, as well as a $28 million funding injection into a joint venture company to kickstart the campaign.   "Rats, possums and stoats kill 25 million of our native birds every year, and prey on other native species such as lizards and, along with the rest of our environment, we must do more to protect them," Key said.  [Stuff]

We remain sceptical.  It sounds far too idealistic.  But let's accept the validity and practicality of the goal for a moment.  Let's assume it can be done.
Let's grant that the magical wand of modern technology can be employed successfully to achieve such a goal.  Let's assume the cost estimates of around $9 billion are realistic.  What has made us cynical is the response of the Green Party.  Yes.  The Green Party.  That would be the political party which pimps the environment as a front for its extreme Left ideology.

Here is Kevin Hague, hard Left Green MP, telling us why this new government initiative will not get his support:

Green Party conservation spokesman Kevin Hague said  welcomed (sic) the target, but said research showed it would cost $9b to make New Zealand predator-free.  "The Government seems happy to once again put out the begging bowl to the private sector to fund what should be taken care of by the Government. [Emphasis, ours]

In the hard Left world there is an ever lengthening list of activities which are soooooo critical they must be funded by the State.  It is a quasi-religious, ideological commitment.  No justification can be provided for why the State must fund these via forced extraction of property from citizens.  Like the deepest religious doctrines, these matters are self-evident--at least to the hard Left, which is the only kind of Left we still have in NZ.  They have pretty much all gone the way the government wants stoats to go.

According to Kevvie, the real flaw in the Government's proposal is that it is not sufficiently pure.  It will be partially funded by dirty money--that is, by a begging bowl put out to the private sector.  In the world of the hard Left, money provided voluntarily by citizens is immoral--little better than a gift from a criminal enterprise.  But, if that money were to come from private citizens via forced government extraction through taxation, suddenly all the dirty money is laundered, squeaky, cleaner than the purest driven snow.

Haig's hard Left chums in the Labour Party are singing from the same hymn sheet:

The target has drawn tentative support from Opposition parties, but Labour is questioning the Government's level of commitment.   Predator Free New Zealand is a laudable idea but the Government has not committed any real money into killing New Zealand's pests, says Labour's conservation spokesperson Nanaia Mahuta.  "The only promise is that the Government will 'look' to contribute one dollar for every two dollars from councils and the private sector.  This lack of long term funding to kill our millions of pests has to be considered alongside years of funding cuts that have blunted the work of the Department of Conservation.

Here is where the hard Left loses all credibility with ordinary folk.  Mr and Mrs  Average Joe are very well aware that money does not grow on trees, as the saying goes.  The world-view of the hard Left occupies a parallel universe.  Its religious mysticism has led the hard Left monks to the place where money does indeed grow on trees, and is plentiful.  Extraction from the private sector is a doddle, with no negative consequences whatsoever.  This approach has been not-unkindly characterised as witch's-wand economics.

This bizarre ideology appears now to be consigned to the outer reaches of the galaxy in the common-sense world of Mr and Mrs Average Joe.  It makes no sense.  It does not square with the world, the real world, of their everyday experience, where money is hard to come by.  This, we suggest, goes a long way to explaining why the hard Left--which is the only Left left, if you take our meaning--languishes amongst the voting public.

Meanwhile, New Zealand as a whole is on its way, singing, "We are off to see the Wizard, the Wonderful Wizard of Oz . . . "  Predator free in 35 years.  Better not say any more, lest we impolitely tread on dreams.