If you ever need an example of what a dickhead Howard is, his comments regarding the loss of Lange are recorded by Rob O'Neill over at NZBC. Good one Johnnie, get a little partisan dig in while New Zealand laments the loss of one of its great leaders. Beazley's comments in the same post are more befitting a statesman.
Something my trendy, pinko commie mates in Australia used to rue was the swing towards conservatism they were suspicious was overtaking the country under Howard. There were always things to notice, from the continuous assaults on the impartiality of the ABC (the national broadcaster, which was happy to air obviously left opinions, and would do stuff like present the other side of the story during national debates over Reconciliation or the Iraq War), or the gradual replacement of board members of the National Museum, which was presenting a history of Australia Howard found distasteful.
As I may have whined several times in the past though, you kind of have to expect petty behaviour from conservatives. All too often they are just plain, garden-variety, dicks. And that's probably why I find any suggestion that New Zealand is becoming more conservative problematic. What you're really saying if you agree with that statement is that you think we're all becoming dicks.
Great. A nation of dicks. How's that going to look to the rest of the world? Isn't it just saying, "yeah, welcome to New Zealand! Don't expect to have any fun! Be prepared to be deafened by the sound of four millions tongues 'tut-tutting' if you look at another woman wrong way."
By way of example and as Keith points out, statistically the SST 'survey' into morality in New Zealand is a little sketchy, so I won't cover that ground again. But, I was busy laughing at it over breakfast on Sunday because it's plainly stupid.
What you have there is a survey that says, "conservative voters are likely to vote for conservative parties, while liberal voters aren't". To which my reply was, "What?" So, someone has actually gone and commissioned research into finding out if the conservative parties natural constituency is conservatives?
One word... [insecure] dicks.
How about a survey to see how many religious people believe in the afterlife! Maybe one about how many taxpayers actually like paying tax!
People, a real survey would have tried to find out how many formerly liberal voters have swung conservative in their views and morality. That would be one example of New Zealand becoming a "more moral" society. It seems however that presenting near-fictional statistics is more worthwhile that actually discovering information.
After all, 42% of all PublicAddress readers know that, so I'm preaching to the pulpit really.
In Australia though, the country really does seem to have swung conservative. Not that Australia was ever a bastion of liberal values mind you, but in my humble opinion there does seem to be a faint atmosphere of anal retentiveness overtaking the country. The question we'd want to ask then is does New Zealand really want to follow this same path.
What possible purpose does moral conservatism serve?
The answer you might want to look for there is 'none'.
Moral conservatism is a way of restraining people. It is a dog collar for some people in our society to regulate the behaviour of others, and more often than not to dictate hypocritical viewpoints on what is and is not permissible.
I needn't point out once again the recent case of a moral guardian behaving in ways that complete hedonists I know would never brook. I'd disregard that example if it wasn't tragically more the norm than the exception worldwide.
I've also said before that I think it's a good thing that some people use a set of 2000 year old markers like the Bible to guide their otherwise moral vacuity. If you're unable to work out for yourself what is and isn't acceptable behaviour then haul them cheeks out of bed on Saturday or Sunday, get down to your local god-man, and load up on a little common sense.
Or, if you need to find community in the first instance, then good, join a big, medieval, organised, trance.
But never presume to tell me that I need to become a bigger dick to make New Zealand a better place.
I pay my taxes gladly so that the people at the bottom might have a better chance, the same way someone else's taxes gave me one. I take an interest in political argument so that I can help fight against any lunatics trying to put moral or political straight-jackets on us. And I make little compromises every day because we're all in this together, whether the dicks see that or not.
And if you think that my moral markers are incompatible with your own? Tough, I never said you have to like them.