“The Corporate Wolf in Politician’s Clothing” - 13 October 2025

Kia ora koutou katoa. Greetings to you all in the spirit of manaakitanga.

Here’s the brutal truth every working New Zealander needs to understand immediately: Prime Minister Christopher Luxon is not on your side. When 21,000 teachers are forced to strike because they can’t afford to live on poverty wages, and this multi-millionaire former CEO dismisses them as playing “politics,” you’re witnessing the naked face of corporate colonialism destroying our communities.

The heart of this issue is crystal clear - Luxon and his government are waging class warfare against working people while enriching themselves and their corporate mates. While teachers struggle to pay rent and feed their families, these politicians voted themselves a 10.5% pay increase over three years while offering teachers a measly 3% over the same period - which is actually a real pay cut when inflation sits at 2.7% annually.

Essential Background: Understanding the Players

Christopher Luxon represents everything toxic about neoliberal capitalism infiltrating our political system. This man earned $4.2 million per year as Air New Zealand CEO - more in one year than most teachers will earn in their entire careers. His personal wealth sits between $21-30 million, including a property portfolio worth over $21 million.

The Post Primary Teachers Association (PPTA) represents 21,000 secondary school teachers fighting for survival wages. These are the people educating our tamariki, working unpaid overtime, buying classroom supplies with their own money, and dealing with increasingly complex student needs while government systematically underfunds education.

This matters deeply from a Māori perspective because education is a Treaty right. Article Three of Te Tiriti guaranteed Māori the same rights as British subjects - including access to quality education. When this government destroys our education system through underfunding and teacher shortages, they’re breaching Te Tiriti.

The Crisis Luxon Created and Denies

New Zealand faces a severe teacher shortage crisis that threatens our children’s future. The Ministry of Education projects we’ll be short 1,250 teachers in 2025 - 750 primary and 500 secondary teachers. This isn’t accidental; it’s the predictable result of decades of neoliberal policies that treat teachers like disposable commodities rather than essential professionals.

The government’s insulting offer to teachers includes:

• 2.5% pay increase after settlement, then 2% after 12 months
• No further increases for up to 24 months
• Removal of guaranteed working hours - meaning teachers could be forced to work 24/7
• No improvements to pastoral care or professional development

Meanwhile, teachers currently earn between $61,239 (Step 1) to $103,086 (Step 10) - poverty wages for professionals requiring university qualifications and ongoing professional development.

Comparison showing MPs receive 10.5% pay increases while teachers are offered only 3% against 8.1% inflation

The contrast is sickening. While MPs awarded themselves generous increases from $163,961 to $181,200 for backbenchers, with Luxon’s salary rising from $471,049 to $520,500, teachers are told there’s “no bottomless pot of taxpayer money.” This from a man who claimed a $52,000 accommodation allowance while living in his own mortgage-free Wellington apartment.

Luxon’s Corporate Attack on Workers’ Rights

Luxon’s anti-union rhetoric directly mirrors classic neoliberal union-busting tactics perfected during the 1980s corporate revolution. When he claims unions are “prioritising politics over patients, or kids in education,” he’s weaponising concern for vulnerable people to attack workers’ fundamental right to organize and bargain collectively.

Luxon’s salary progression showing his $4.2M CEO background versus current PM salary

This multi-millionaire - who made his fortune exploiting workers at Air New Zealand, where he “dispensed with under-performing routes, and cut hundreds of jobs” - now lectures teachers about what’s best for children. The hypocrisy is breathtaking.

His attack follows a predictable neoliberal playbook:

1. Create the crisis through systematic underfunding
2. Blame workers when they demand living wages
3. Claim fiscal responsibility while enriching the wealthy
4. Divide communities by pitting parents against teachers

The Public Service Commissioner Sir Brian Roche’s response reveals the government’s manipulative tactics. Claiming the union knew about their “offer” while simultaneously threatening to withdraw it if strike action proceeded is classic corporate intimidation - the same tactics Luxon perfected in his CEO role.

The Christian Nationalist Connection

Luxon’s Christian fundamentalist beliefs directly connect to a broader white supremacist project attacking Māori rights and worker solidarity. His faith isn’t private - it’s political weapon justifying neoliberal cruelty through prosperity gospel ideology that equates individual wealth with divine blessing.

When 400 Christian leaders condemned David Seymour’s Treaty Principles Bill, Luxon defended his coalition partner’s attack on Te Tiriti. This reveals how his government uses Christianity to legitimize colonial violence while attacking the sacred covenant between Māori and the Crown.

The connection runs deeper through National Party networks. Multiple National MPs belong to secretive Christian sects including groups under FBI investigation for child abuse. These aren’t coincidences - they’re evidence of organized religious extremism infiltrating our democracy.

Exposing the Hidden Networks

The timing of Luxon’s anti-union attacks reveals coordinated strategy between corporate interests and religious extremists. His government has systematically:

• Cancelled pay equity claims affecting thousands of women workers
• Weakened employment rights through contractor classification changes
• Barred unions from Budget 2025 consultations while welcoming banks and corporations
• Promoted privatization of public assets including health and education services

Teacher shortage projections showing crisis masked by ministry forecasting errors

The teacher shortage crisis exposes government’s deliberate workforce planning failures. Ministry officials admitted to forecasting errors that masked growing shortages, yet Luxon’s response is attacking workers rather than addressing systemic underfunding.

Luxon’s privatization agenda connects directly to his corporate background. He’s already hinted at campaigning on asset sales in 2026, following the classic neoliberal formula of creating crises through underfunding, then selling public assets to his corporate mates as “solutions.”

The Broader Implications

This attack on teachers represents a broader assault on public services, Māori rights, and democratic participation. When education fails, Māori children suffer disproportionately. When unions are weakened, workers lose power to challenge corporate exploitation. When religious extremists capture political power, they use state violence to enforce their ideology.

The Council of Trade Unions correctly identifies this government as bent on “stoking racism, eroding worker rights, and helping the rich get richer”. Their analysis connects teacher strikes to broader resistance against neoliberal austerity destroying our communities.

For Māori, this represents continued colonial violence. Quality education is both a Treaty right and essential for tino rangatiratanga. When this government destroys education through deliberate underfunding and teacher shortages, they’re systematically denying Māori children their futures.

The Path Forward: Organizing Resistance

The solution isn’t electing different politicians - it’s building grassroots power that can challenge corporate capitalism itself. Teachers striking represents exactly this kind of organizing, connecting workplace struggles to broader community resistance.

We must recognize these strikes as part of defending Te Tiriti, protecting public services, and building worker solidarity across racial and cultural lines. When teachers strike, parents should support them. When nurses protest, teachers should join them. When Māori resist colonial violence, all workers should stand with them.

Christopher Luxon and his corporate cronies understand power - they use state violence, religious extremism, and economic coercion to maintain their privilege. Our response must be equally strategic, building lasting organizations that can challenge their power at every level.

Corporate elite Luxon contrasted with struggling teachers

The choice is clear: surrender to corporate colonialism disguised as economic responsibility, or build the grassroots power necessary to create genuine alternatives. Teachers striking represent hope - proof that working people can still organize effective resistance against impossible odds.

Kia kaha nga kaiako! Strength to the teachers! Your fight is our fight. Your victory will be our victory.

The Māori Green Lantern Fighting Misinformation And Disinformation From The Far Right

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Noho ora mai ra

The Māori Green Lantern
Kaitiaki of Truth, Exposer of Colonial Lies