Dave Stewart

In response to Mayor Luca’s opinion piece (Beacon, November 8) progressing the argument for a more powerful mayor, I would like to give some observations.

To start with, we need to be upfront with our readers and describe the New Zealand Initiative correctly – it is a “right wing think tank”.

It used to be called the Business Roundtable in the days when it advanced the political and financial ideology we now refer to as neoliberalism.

Of course, as neoliberalism has failed to do enrich anyone other than the 1 percent, The Roundtable needed rebranding – say hello to The New Zealand Initiative.

It is linked with 550 other think tanks in more than 100 countries, including 10 in New Zealand and Australia via The Atlas Network.

The Atlas Network’s political alignment is spelt out in its vision “of a free, prosperous, and peaceful world where the principles of individual liberty, property rights, limited government, and free markets are secured by the rule of law”. The network links ideological think tanks, whose approach to issues is driven by this libertarian ideology.

Local right-wing think tanks the Taxpayers’ Union, and the New Zealand Initiative are both official partners of The Atlas Network.

As the public’s appetite for enriching the elite through neoliberal policies has ended due to it being essentially a con-job, the right wing think tanks have come up with a new ideological argument – autocracy.

They argue that if we, the people, give up more freedoms to our leaders, our leaders will look after us and not the elites.

If it sounds familiar, it should.

It’s exactly what Donald Trump used in his campaign to convince Americans that immigrants eating their pets and transgender rights were the real problem in America.

If you divide, you can rule.

But it’s not as easy as that in 2024.

Today, people are more organised and have better connections and communications.  Hardly anyone buys a paper, and no one trusts the TV news.

To divide is easy, to rule requires more authoritarian structures.

And pushing for those more autocratic structures in Aotearoa we have our two biggest right wing think tanks – The New Zealand Initiative, and The Free Speech Union.

And now, Dr Luca.

I’m usually impressed with the good Dr’s opinion pieces, but the last one sent a shiver down my spine.

It made me wonder if the kind of leadership he is offering is really what we want.

I know a small number of people would love an autocratic mayor, but to those people I simply ask this question – what if that mayor was me?

Are you still keen?