With about 18 months away for the next general election, it is time for Labour Party to beef up its act and concentrate efforts to find itself in the Beehive again.
Leader David Shearer has started the New Year with hope.
His speeches have been centered on the need to put welfare state back, create new jobs and limit the exodus of New Zealanders to Australia.
Mr Shearer and his Party have a challenge, namely, the charisma of Prime Minister John Key. Like the former US President Ronald Reagan (in the 1980’s), Mr Key still has Teflon coating around him.
In the last general election held in November 2011, Labour won 34 seats, with 27.1% of votes, considered the worst performance in 100 years.
A part of the problem was that its progressive voter-bank went for the much-pastured Green Party, which will repeat its performance in 2014.
Unions fade
Labour’s over-reliance on trade unions and its inability to spread the voter-base socially has also been reasons for its poor showing.
How the Party will reconstruct its image and start working either with Mr Shearer as the Leader or elect another person remains to be seen.
The answers to Labour’s problems are not only increasing the pitch of the volume against policies of the John Key government instead of running a negative campaign, but also understanding that left-centre parties across the world are not performing well.
Even in Europe, US, Canada and Australia, where Labour or its equivalent is in power, it has been hard to gain the acceptance of professionals including technocrats and engineers, who are not comfortable with an image of ‘Old Labour,’ backed by trade unions and social welfare programme.
The main vote base of Labour, which came out of the Industrial Revolution in Europe with the ideology of social democracy, is now on the verge of decline. Unless progressive parties around the world look for new ways to spread the voter base, there is every chance that they will not be able to form governments in the near future.
Labour Party in New Zealand is no exception.
To lift its chances of a win in 2014, Labour should convince the voting public that it would pursue smart, pragmatic and progressive policies if elected to form a government.
Society changes
The working class on which it was established a century ago, has changed.
On the other hand, whether Mr Key’s Teflon coating will be extended to 2014 elections, would be a source of worry for Labour Party’s think tank under the unified leadership of Mr Shearer.
Labour should learn to shed its negative campaign trail, which started after its defeat in the 2008 general elections.
It would be worth waiting to see if the Party can reinvent itself with a new slogan, steer well and pose a serious challenge to Mr Key and his National-led government.
Balaji Chandramohan is our Correspondent based in New Delhi.
