"...we backtracked on our election pledge to remove the surtax on superannuation. Because morally I couldn't justify to myself that we would give a tax concession to the wealthy retirees - which removing the surtax would do - while we were taking some off those who were in much poorer circumstances."
#JimBolger, 2017
https://www.rnz.co.nz/programmes/the-9th-floor/story/201840999/the-negotiator-jim-bolger
This quote from Bolger epitomises the way everyone is the hero of their own story. He could morally justify cutting social welfare benefits to the bone in Richardson's infamous 1990 budget, throwing thousands of kiwis into avoidable poverty, but not cutting a tax on retirees.
Elsewhere in the interview he decries the total failure of neoliberal policy. But they cut benefits to bail out a bank, instead of raising taxes. Eg targeting those engaged in dodgy financial game . Classic neoliberalism.
"[Mike Moore] would eventually rise to lead the WTO - the highest international position ever held by a NZer - and a respected champion of globalisation."
#GuyonEspiner, 2017
https://www.rnz.co.nz/programmes/the-9th-floor/story/201840181/the-trader-mike-moore
Even in 2017, "respected champion of globalisation" was an oxymoron. I'd argue that even then, Helen Clark's tenure as head of the United Nations Development Programme was a more respectable position.
Elsewhere in the interview Moore claims Labour was founded on free market economics, and that the Marxist economic policy that Rogernomics chucked out was an abberation. This is ahistorical to the point of being delusional.
Was Moore lying to retrospectively justify his lurch to the right, or did he actually believe this nonsense?
"Labour's 'Usehold' policy on land was, in essence, the replacement of freehold tenure by a system of perpetual lease from the state, with all land-transfer conducted through the state (the full nationalisation of farmland). This policy proved unpopular with voters, and Labour dropped it, along with other more radical policies, in the course of the 1920s."
Strypey
