The currect situation is due to some very specific circumstances thst emerged in the chaos of the last 10 years.
The centre left Labour Party & PM were hugely popular during covid & won an unheard of majority (normally our electoral system requires a coalition). A swing back to the centre-right was inevitable.
The centre right National party, usually our most popular party, had their leadership retire & endured years of in-fighting that made them unelectable
Because of this, they’ve bled a lot of voters to the “libertarian” & “centrist” parties (ACT & NZ First)
Also because of this, the current National Party leader is rather inexperienced & has given up some things in the coalition agreements that are more extreme than the public likes leading to record breaking protests.
The “centrist” party leader (Winston Peters) is a whole thing that I can’t neatly summarize, but imagine a political party designed to cater exclusively to the oldest & dumbest 5% of voters run by that Monorail guy from The Simpsons
In summary, less a slide right & more a correction back to status quo + a few unpopular chaos agents
The “centrist” party leader (Winston Peters) is a whole thing that I can’t neatly summarize, but imagine a political party designed to cater exclusively to the oldest & dumbest 5% of voters run by that Monorail guy from The Simpsons
I cant neatly summarise him either, but I have disliked him immensely since he verbally abused myself and some other students at Waikato back in '93
Labour was hugely popular, I agree, but the popularity left when Jacinda Ardern left. She was a extremely charismatic figure; and Labour was at the end of two terms (6 years); with the halo effect gone a lot of the poor decisions they made were highlighted (a lot of the times unfairly).
National along with Act and NZ First, pushed hard on the government debt rhetoric during the last election. Blaming Labour for inflation, which it had little control over, but it didn’t matter the populous were hurting from low wage growth and high inflation. They were looking for a change.
The center right bloc won with a decent majority, though not specular.
National fucked up hard! during the negotiations with Act and NZ First. Luxon in a rush to form a government; gave away so much it is frankly baffling.
In NZ politics:
The Green Party has stated they will never work with National or Act.
Labour have said they will not work with Act.
This forces Act to only be able to side with National, from Nationals point of view Act should be a minor player on the right of National.
NZ First are a bit of a wild card, Winston Peters the leader is an old cunning and in my opinion untrustworthy ally.
Te Pati Maori (TPM) will work with both parties, which ever gives them the most of what they want.
National could have gone with TPM or NZF along with Act to form a government, they choose to go with NZF and between Winston Peters and David Seymour; got played like a fiddle. In one crazy political power play, Luxon had a meeting setup to negotiate with Winston and David, they didn’t bother showing up and made him come to them in another city.
I could go on but, the politics here is just as complex as anywhere else. Overall we have shifted right, further than we traditionally have but not too much further.
The current government has made some truly stupid calls, and has scored a lot of own goals. Their popularity is very low this early in a parliamentary term. They have been in for a little more than a year; if things keep going the way they are, they may be the first one term government we have had in a long time. Our term of 3 years, is short, so most governments get more than one term to show what they are made of.
As a kiwi that left for the US, things are getting a bit strange in New Zealand. So many folks are becoming openly racist vs. what I see in the states. Granted, I don’t live in the south, but still… I was shocked when I went back to visit at the rhetoric being used.
I’m a bit more optimistic. This is just the pendulum swinging back as it always does. Don’t worry it’ll probably swing the other way in 4 years most likely.
Re NZ politics - Yes and no.
The currect situation is due to some very specific circumstances thst emerged in the chaos of the last 10 years.
The centre left Labour Party & PM were hugely popular during covid & won an unheard of majority (normally our electoral system requires a coalition). A swing back to the centre-right was inevitable.
The centre right National party, usually our most popular party, had their leadership retire & endured years of in-fighting that made them unelectable
Because of this, they’ve bled a lot of voters to the “libertarian” & “centrist” parties (ACT & NZ First)
Also because of this, the current National Party leader is rather inexperienced & has given up some things in the coalition agreements that are more extreme than the public likes leading to record breaking protests.
The “centrist” party leader (Winston Peters) is a whole thing that I can’t neatly summarize, but imagine a political party designed to cater exclusively to the oldest & dumbest 5% of voters run by that Monorail guy from The Simpsons
In summary, less a slide right & more a correction back to status quo + a few unpopular chaos agents
I cant neatly summarise him either, but I have disliked him immensely since he verbally abused myself and some other students at Waikato back in '93
I would characterize it differently.
I could go on but, the politics here is just as complex as anywhere else. Overall we have shifted right, further than we traditionally have but not too much further.
The current government has made some truly stupid calls, and has scored a lot of own goals. Their popularity is very low this early in a parliamentary term. They have been in for a little more than a year; if things keep going the way they are, they may be the first one term government we have had in a long time. Our term of 3 years, is short, so most governments get more than one term to show what they are made of.
Afaik the shorter version of this is: real estate crooks from the Queenstown area took over politics.
You make some good points, my comment was originally 3x longer at first but I cut it down in the interest of not rehashing 185 years of history
I was thinking of going into far more detail…but the comment was already getting long.
As a kiwi that left for the US, things are getting a bit strange in New Zealand. So many folks are becoming openly racist vs. what I see in the states. Granted, I don’t live in the south, but still… I was shocked when I went back to visit at the rhetoric being used.
NZ has always had a racist underbelly, they have become more emboldened since trump 1… with trump 2 I fear it will get worse.
For anyone is interested in NZ politics, I’ve been enjoying BHN
Well that’s… Good to hear? Certainly sounds better than whatever shit show the US currently has kicking off.
Fascism. The shit show in the US is called fascism. Help.
No one is coming to help. We are on our own.
SocialistRA.org
That’s the mindset of how Yugoslav Partisans kicked out the Nazis and beat the Ustaca. But that wasn’t a piece of cake.
I’m a bit more optimistic. This is just the pendulum swinging back as it always does. Don’t worry it’ll probably swing the other way in 4 years most likely.