This isn’t the NZ I know

And a new long column….

Heyyy fam,

How are we? ( I know some people hate being addressed in the plural, it makes them feel old, like they’re being patronised by their kids. But I’m not sure how else you address, in plural, a group of intelligent and fabulous people like yourselves. Maybe there is a collective noun somewhere…)

So I’m in your inbox again on a Friday afternoon, I hope this catches you with a wine in hand.

I’ve actually just handed in this weeks column, as well as publishing my first new long column yesterday. Woohoo!

So that is my big, fun news, I’ve got my new long column coming out every three weeks ish, where I basically get to do a deep dive into stuff that I’ve had at the back of my mind for ages.

Stuff that I couldn’t quite cram into 800 words on the weekly. So I kicked off this week with my piece,

This is not the NZ I know anymore.

Now, that’s not something I said myself - it’s a quote I kept hearing. And I’ve been hearing it for about a year now, until it started bothering me. See I never paid attention whilst I thought it was nostalgia.

But the more I heard and listened, the more I realised it’s not just nostalgia. There’s something much more existential beneath it - basically, I think it’s people saying that we’ve somehow betrayed a fundamental promise of being Kiwi.

That we’ve somehow broken a part of our national spirit - and for me, I think that’s because we’ve broken our promise of a fair go.

I go deep into this - the mechanics of how we broke our promise, and how this happened in the background over the past 20 years and we’re only just realising now.

I didn’t have space for this in the piece, but talking to Max Rashbrooke in this piece actually showed me how the bones of this go back to the early 90s. But, what with there being a lotta money sloshing around in the early 2000s, we didn’t actually feel the effects of the changes - and massive growth to inequalities - because we were cushioned by the global money rush.

And now, what with global inflation whipping away that cushion, now we are feeling and seeing what’s been lurking for decades.

There’s also the idea that Max raised of the blocked motorway phenomenon ie when you’re stuck in traffic, and the lane next to you keeps zipping past, you think you’ll get to zip past too soon. It’ll be your turn soon.

And it’s only now, after we’ve been stuck in traffic for decades, we realise we aren’t going to escape and get in the fast lane. So now it’s starting to hit home. We’re stuck in the inequality we made. And now we’re pissed.

In the piece, I go deeper into how we broke our fair go promise. Because if you’ve being feeling like NZ is broken, you can’t get ahead as a normal person and you were lied to…you’re not imagining it.

You were lied to by an old era that said if you work hard, you’ll make it.

That’s no longer true - and you’re right to be mad. That’s precisely why I wrote this.

So have a read, let me know, and I’ll be popping in every three weeks or so with a new one.

Don’t worry, I’m still doing my short one weekly, Mondays, business as usual.

Such as this one this Monday - when I defended moaning. I know it’s suuuuch an un-Kiwi value, but I think there are times when it’s justified….

Now, go enjoy your Friday night, have a wonderful weekend all, I’ll see you all back here soon - and I’ll see all you fabulous paid peeps on the weekend for my video column,

Much love as ever,

Vee