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Community, Opinion

Gummit and LA LA LAND

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Written by

Malcolm Campbell

Published on

December 2, 2025

The gummit took money off the ones working and gave it to the ones not working.

Back in history a bit, there was a country in the South Pacific and that country had people living in it who were quite well off. The country had no debt, so to speak – it had money in the bank.

Now this was very unfair for these people to be wealthy and other people to be poor. To start the ball rolling to fix this ‘unfairness’, the gummit took money off the ones working and gave it to the ones not working, to even up the playing field. While the country was generally fairly affluent, the gummit decided there needed to be a plan and in 1980 Robert (rhymes with doom) came out with the ‘Town and Country Plan’. Well, it did not last long as Geoffrey had a better idea and he got help from the United Nations (UN).

The UN had taken three years from 1984 until 1987 to get this right and with a name like ‘World Commission on Environment and Development,’ who would fail to be impressed? Just before he lost the election in 1989, Geoffrey got rid of County Councils, Borough Councils and Catchment Boards only just failing to implement his brainchild, the RMA. Geoffrey had a big influence on other matters. He reduced jail sentences by thirty percent. Automatically, if a felon was sentenced to six years behind bars, the felon only served four. He also re-interpreted The Treaty of Waitangi introducing principles, whatever that meant, which would gradually develop. All was not lost when he lost the election.

The other party in the Parliament including Simon who was in the winning team, won the election. This new team carried Geoffrey’s plan forward. A whole lot of people were very unhappy with this master plan and they wrote letters to editors in many papers, and influential people wrote think papers, widely printed for all and sundry to read.

With the stroke of a pen, the Gummit had taken control of all the land in this country. The Gummit had decided that the people could not be trusted to carry out any function other than what they were actually doing at the time of this enactment. This was just as well. The alternative was to switch off all industry, stop farming, take it easy while wondering what the hell has happened?

To get the people of this country on the right track, the Gummit paid – no, sorry, you paid – a multitude of officers to sit in buildings you also paid for, and the Gummit put these officers in control of your every whim or idea. No development, no expansion, nothing; unless you begged these officers for permission to proceed.

The Gummit loved these officers, as you paid for them and their cars and comfort so much so, that if they had to leave their comfort zone, you were required to pay again. They were also given the right to take ‘enforcement action’ against you in the courts. The Gummit was not all bad though, as they left you the ‘right’ to pay the mortgage to finance the banks. Somebody has to finance them and to pay the rates to keep the officials in charge, in the manner to which they have become accustomed.

After all, they are in control without any responsibility for anything. ‘Murphy’s Law’ – Your life liberty and property are all at risk while parliament is in session. (to be continued)