Predictably Damien Grant places himself on the wrong side of history. The headline of his opinion piece in Stuff reads: "Brooke Van Velden is one of a handful of ministers directly combatting NZ’s decline, writes Damien Grant"

Note this line at the bottom of the story.

"Damien Grant is a regular donor to the ACT Party. He is a not a party member."

Feel free to throw up in a bucket or have a shower. I'm not linking to the story.

#DamienGrant #Stuff #NZ

"What does partnership look like? If David Seymour is wrong and if you're right and the Treaty is a partnership... how does that functionally work? How do we govern a sovereign country if Treaty is a partnership?"

#DamienGrant, 2024

https://omny.fm/shows/the-working-group/politics-and-rugby-a-good-mix-guests-gareth-hughes

Finally, ACT supporters are starting to ask the right questions. Obviously there are many possible answers and exploring them is where we need to focus the debate.

#podcasts #Rover #TheWorkingGroup #TeTiritiOWaitangi #TreatyPrinciplesBill

"I disagree with the idea of a treaty."

#DamienGrant, 10 Sept, 2024

https://www.rova.nz/podcasts/the-working-group/episodes/luxon-blames-mmp-speed-limits-trump-vs-harris-guests-simon-wilson-simon-court

Oops! Yet another over-excited propertarian saying the quiet part out loud. This is perhaps the most honest statement I've ever heard from an ACT supporter talking about Te Tiriti o Waitangi ; )

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#podcasts #MediaWorks #TheWorkingGroup #TeTiritiOWaitangi #TreatyPrinciples

"What you have is - like with everything else from the Indian railways to any government organisation everywhere - it's a massively funded government organisation that doesn't work."

#DamienGrant, 2024
https://omny.fm/shows/the-working-group/the-manufactured-crisis-in-health-the-economy-and

The mention of the Indian railways reminded me an excellent TV mini-series called The Railway Men: The Untold Story of Bhopal 1984.

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#podcasts #TheWorkingGroup #PublicServices #railways #Bhopal #UnionCarbide

Propertarians seldom do well in electoral politics because they will tell people who they are;

"They key word is "common". That's why I hate [the common good]. I believe in property rights."

#DamienGrant, 2024

https://omny.fm/shows/the-working-group/newshub-economic-data-and-joe-biden-guests-max-har

Would-be aristocrats, frustrated by democracy. It grinds my gears when people buy into their reputation laundering by calling them "libertarians". They are nothing of the kind.

#podcasts #TheWorkingGroup #libertarians

#DamienGrant's arguments for foreign investment to cover the shortage of exports to balance our imports;

https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/350160439/we-do-not-produce-enough-goods-and-services-maintain-our-lifestyle

Conveniently ignoring one of the biggest reasons our exports don't cover our imports. Huge swathes of our core infrastructure now count as "imports", because of previous waves of foreign "investment". We used to own our telecoms; our bus fleets, including intercity; our own electricity generation, grid, and retail; and so on. Much of this is now "imports".

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"... you want a second harbour crossing, you want light rail... you are not going to get that through the tax revenue, it's going to need private capital to do it."

#DamienGrant, 2013
https://theworkinggroup.podbean.com/e/the-working-group-with-shane-te-pou-maria-slade-and-damien-grant/

So... are you proposing to have our public infrastructure partially owned by these private capitalists? Or to pay back their private capital over time (plus a generous return on their investment, of course)?

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#podcasts #Aotearoa #NZ #NZPolitic #TheWorkingGroup