The barbaric attack on two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand by a far-right fascist terrorist – indiscriminately shooting men, women and children, killing 50 and injuring many more, live streaming his bloody actions as he carried them out – comes at a time of deepening economic crisis and heightened social and political tensions around the world. All decent human beings are rightly condemning the attack, but we have to ask ourselves: why are such acts of terrorism taking place, and what can be done to end this barbarism?

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Arden called it one of New Zealand's darkest days.  As Muslim worshippers gathered at the Al Noor Mosque and the Linwood Islamic Centre in Christchurch, New Zealand, for their Friday afternoon prayers on March 15th, 2019, an Australian white supramacist walked in and gunned down 50 worshippers as he live-streamed it on Facebook.  Prior to this heinous terrorist attack the terrorist posted a ranting manifesto on various hate sites and sent a copy to the Prime Minister.  This atrocity was the worst terrorist attack in New Zealand history and it has left New Zealand in a state of shock.  How could this happen in a country like New Zealand?

Both Australia and New Zealand escaped lightly from the 2008 global financial crisis and recession. Australia avoided a recession from 2008 onwards, on the one hand due to the minerals and aggregates boom (exported mainly to China) and on the other hand as a consequence of Keynesian policies pursued both in Australia and China. Additionally, due to Australian financial laws the domestic banks were not overly exposed as overseas bank (especially European and North American banks) were.

On May 11th, 2018, the Employment Relations Court dropped a major bombshell on the bosses by ordering Smiths City, a major New Zealand furniture and appliance store, to pay workers for their attendance of daily meetings held before the stores opened.  According to Chief Judge Christina Inglis: "The expectation to attend, and pressure placed on staff to do so, was direct and forceful. The practical reality for sales staff was that to satisfy this expectation, and so as not to be seen as poor performers, they had to attend."

The 2017 general election resulted in a hung parliament on 23 September election night. Under MMP this is not a surprising result. Now that the special votes have been counted the National Party, under proportionality, lost two list seats awarded to them on election night with Labour and the Greens picking up one list seat each. The final result puts National on 56 seats, Labour on 46 seats, New Zealand First on nine seats, Greens on eight seats and ACT on one seat. The formation of a fourth term National-led government or a Labour / Green government requires an agreement with New Zealand First to get past 61 seats to form a majority government. New Zealand First holds the balance of power.

It is said that a week is a long time in politics. At a time when it seemed as if the National Party was going to sleepwalk to another victory at the polls. Andrew Little resigned as Labour Party leader in favour of Jacinda Ardern on August 1^st, 2017, in an act initially seen as an act of political suicide. Then, in mid July, the Green Party performed an act of political suicide that has all but killed any prospect of them potentially staying in Parliament. On July 27^th the opinion polls had the Greens polling at 15%, which was their highest poll rating in many years. Less than three weeks later the Greens had slumped to a mere 4.3%.

On August 1^st, 2017, the Labour Party leader, Andrew Little, resigned in favour of Jacinda Ardern. The leadership change came as a surprise to media commentators and political pundits alike coming as it did within 60 days of the 2017 General Election.

Andrew Little decision to resign was primarily the result of the inability of the Labour Party to make any inroads in the polls with the party averaging around the mid-20s in the latest Colmar-Brunton polls. While Little's leadership was, at best, lacklustre, his biggest problem was the failure of the Labour Party leadership as a whole to come up with policies that were likely to encourage voters to vote Labour.

Many Western countries are increasing the age at which a person can qualify for the pension. Generally, this has often involved moving the eligible age from 65 to 67. The argument for this has been due primarily to demographic considerations, as the baby boomer generation (those born between 1945 and 1965) reach retirement age, placing ever increasing financial burdens upon these bourgeois states and their taxpayers. At least, that has been the line fed by the governments’ concerned. While demographics certainly play a role, the real cause has been the neo-liberal (capitalist) policies pursued in the last thirty years, especially in countries like Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.