The blog is mainly written by me, Deirdre Kent. Others contribute from time to time and certainly help by editing my copy before it goes out. But generally the buck stops with me!
The group has come about from the members of Living Economies Educational Trust, from the Georgist movement, the Transition Town movement and many other groups of concerned citizens. Led by Deirdre Kent and Phil Stevens, we want more powerful policies than are currently being advocated by the Green Party of NZ or the Labour Party. And while we agree with some parties on the problems of the current monetary system we are not happy to be thinking in terms of only one national currency. We want biomimicry in our whole political economy. That means looking to the wisdom of nature, thinking deeply about what tax system is logical and revisiting the whole balance between local and central government.
The idea was born in September 2011 and Laurence Boomert from the Bank of Real Solutions stood in Wellington Central as a candidate representing this unregistered party. We believe our policies are of worldwide significance in the effort to break free of corporate rule and meet the Very Big Problems we all face. Since our May 2015 conference we changed from being a party to being a movement, as we do not plan to stand in an election.
We had our very first get-together in Turangi on 14 April 2012 where 29 attended our inaugural meeting during the Australasian Permaculture Convergence. Subsequently we have had several meetings in Wellington, Otaki, Christchurch and Northland and have had many on skype.
Deirdre Kent is a founding trustee of Living Economies
Educational Trust and the author of Healthy Money Healthy Planet – developing new money systems for sustainability (Craig Potton 2005) and The Big Shift: Rethinking Money, Tax, Welfare and Governance for the Next Economic System, 2017. After years in community work and teaching, in the eighties she was best known as the Director of ASH (Action on Smoking and Health). She lives on the Kapiti Coast and was active in the formation and activities of Transition Town Otaki and the Otaki Timebank. She believes that efforts towards local resilience can only go so far without the right signals and the right policy decisions at national level. “I started thinking about politics and economics during my Values Party time in the seventies and it has taken me all this time to realise why economic growth is the mantra of politicians. The environment has deteriorated since then and the gap between rich and poor has widened. Policies cannot just be applied one by one. To jump to the next system we need whole system shift and that is a big shift. I am doing this so that my grandchildren will themselves be able to have children and know they will be born into a future with hope”.Email: deirdre dot kent (at) gmail dot com. Her forthcoming book is
The Big Shift: Rethinking Money, Tax, Welfare and Governance for the Next Economic System.
from the US in 2005 and lives in Ashhurst. He brings his expertise in technology and a wide range of pursuits from hands-on sustainable practice to examining socioeconomic models and theories of effective governance. Projects Phil is active in RECAP and LOAVES, a transition community organisation and a local currency; Community Forge, an open-source platform for complementary currencies and exchange; researching and promoting low-input food, fuel and finance; and general awareness raising. phil@euphoria.org
on finance, energy and resilience.Nicole is former Editor of The Oil Drum Canada (canada.theoildrum.com). She used to be a Research Fellow at the Oxford Institute for energy Studies in the UK and used to run the Agri-Energy Producers’ Association of Ontario in Canada. Her formal background is in science and law.
Nicole says she aligns with the New Economics Party idea that the global financial crisis is far from over. “The recent credit bubble was the biggest ponzi scheme the world has ever experienced and it’s not yet unwound.” The bailouts now add up to at least $4.6 trillion or $4,600,000,000,000. Foss says the bubble is leading us into a very long and painful depression.
From The Website Web of debt
In his first inaugural address in 1933, Roosevelt criticized the sort of near-sighted Wall Street greed that precipitated the Great Depression. He said, “They only know the rules of a generation of self-seekers. They have no vision, and where there is no vision the people perish.”
Roosevelt’s own vision reached its sharpest focus in 1944, when he called for a Second Bill of Rights. He said:
This Republic had its beginning, and grew to its present strength, under the protection of certain inalienable political rights . . . . They were our rights to life and liberty.
As our nation has grown in size and stature, however—as our industrial economy expanded—these political rights proved inadequate to assure us equality in the pursuit of happiness.
He then enumerated the economic rights he thought needed to be added to the Bill of Rights. They included:
The right to a job;
The right to earn enough to pay for food and clothing;
The right of businessmen to be free of unfair competition and domination by monopolies;
The right to a decent home;
The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to enjoy good health;
The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment;
The right to a good education.
A political party must, in the first instance, have a written constitution. When you have sovereign government it means they can overturn whatever they like and so nothing will remain in place.
Do you realize that a constitution sets out the make up of government, type of elections and so on. SO, how did NZ get a government without a constitution? Some say it came from Britain but under international law one country cannot pass laws that are binding on another country. So, when Britain handed over NZ to the people we must have had an interim government which decided to take control, in other words a bloodless coup. So, today we either still have an interim government or a dictatorship which seized power from the people.
No doubt this question has been asked and answered but I’d like to know why the Social Democrats aka Social Credit is not a vehicle for the policies of The New Economics Party. It seems a great waste to split and dilute our common strength.
When interest rates decline the value of land rises, giving an extra big windfall to landowners. While DSC wants monetary reform, we believe that imposing a rental on land and other resources is critical. The two parasites must be killed together, otherwise one grows bigger.
Congratulations. Finally voters can choose a party that will finance government by collecting economic rent in lieu of damaging dead weight taxes on jobs, business and consumption. This policy will help reduce poverty, invigorate the economy, and help preserve nature. It will deliver jobs, prosperity and ecological sustainability. Bravo.
I am pleased to see that, at last, you have finally realised that the Green Part of the single NatLabActUnitedFutureGreenMaoriMana Party is part of the problem not the solution and that we need to go our own way. There are,from what I have read in internet posts, a lot of people who consider the Green Party to be “The Pot Party,” which I think is a bit harsh. There are also, of course, the Nat knockers, Labour knockers and pure knockers. Many people see that a vote for any faction of the current single party system is wasted, but what alternative is there? I see the NEP as a REAL alternative that could appeal to a lot of people. Count me in
Great news Deirdrie and Laurence. I will put my hand up gladly for this. When do you want a Northland constituency formed? I am in America at present, back 2 Jan 2012.
I personally have always advocated TT being “apolitical” because we only have the single NatLabActUnitedFutureGreenMaoriMana Party at present which is a party OF the BANKSTERS, BY the BANKSTERS, FOR the BANKSTERS. I have also advocated that we needed our OWN party, “The Transition Party” to try to take over the Far North District Council. What do you reckon to a local New Economics Party to work in tandem with the National Party but on the local election front?
Deidre and Laurence. This is fabulous. Well done. Call out and let us know when and how we can help.