Earlier this month First Union published “A Ministry of Green Works for Aotearoa New Zealand: An Ambitious Approach to Housing, Infrastructure, and Climate Change” by Max Harris and Jacqueline Paul. The current system for building and delivering housing and infrastructure is not serving the needs of communities in Aotearoa New Zealand. The standard approach for government is to contract-out construction and related services to the private sector. The private sector is at capacity, the approach has drained know-how from the public service, and there is a skills shortage, a lack of innovation, and insufficient coordination to tackle climate change. A new approach is needed. FIRST Union’s Ed Miller will speak to why they commissioned the proposal for public discussion. FIRST Union’s “A Future that Works” campaign has been calling for the re-establishment of the MOW since early 2020 as part of pathway to full employment, including a just transition for workers in climate-stressed industries and expanding/improving our housing stock.
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Privatisation & Plunder
Privatisation & Plunder explores the rise, impact and future of neoliberalism in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Over the past four decades, neoliberal policies — privatisation, deregulation, austerity and market fundamentalism — have radically reshaped the country more thoroughly than in any other OECD nation.
This collection brings together leading scholars, researchers and activists to unpack the social, economic and political costs of the ‘New Zealand Experiment’. All of the chapters are versions of major Fabian sessions.
We chart how neoliberalism hollowed out public institutions, sharpened inequality, and reduced our ability to respond to crises. We reveal how today’s challenges — from the cost of living and housing crises to the rise of precarious work — are rooted in this legacy.
Yet we also offer hope: transformative policy alternatives, ranging from universal basic income to new forms of democratic governance, public ownership and economic justice.
A map of the terrain and a call to collective action.
There will be be book launch events in Wellington, Auckland, Dunedin and Christchurch (details to be confirmed).
You can register here.
