Sepuloni, Robertson, Radhakrishnan and Russell launch our Electionlink Pages
Venkat Raman
Auckland, July 10, 2023
Although beset with several serious challenges including the anti-incumbency factor, the Labour Party is confident of securing the third term at the general election due to be held on Saturday, October 14, 2023.
No one, not even those at the high echelons of power within the Labour Government and the Party, expects a repetition of Miracle 2020 which saw the Party secure 65 seats but opinion polls continue to show a close finish with the two main Parties – Labour and National needing the support of the Green and ACT Party respectively.
The rise, fall and re-emergence of the Labour Party since the general election in 2020 has been dramatic. Jacinda Ardern, who rose to world prominence for her deft management of the Covid-19 pandemic in its initial stage became the cause of public anger at home over a number of issues, prompting her to resign and quit Parliament altogether earlier this year. Although not entirely unexpected, her tenure as the Prime Minister from October 2017 was full of ironies and a series of unfortunate but avoidable tranches of political mishaps. These will be recorded in history.
The fact that New Zealanders were somewhat willing to forgive Labour for its fallacies was evident in the quick turnaround of the Party in the opinion polls soon after Chris Hipkins took charge as the Leader (and the Prime Minister) on January 25, 2023. The quick and painless transition seemed to have appeased the average New Zealander and his continued high placement as the Preferred Prime Minister and the neck-to-neck positioning against National are indications that the opposition has not yet won the electoral war.
As my former colleague in the National Business Review (and a latter Advisor to the National Party) Ben Thomas said, Mr Hipkins has a reputation in Wellington for quiet competence.
During Labour’s two terms in power, he managed a series of hard problems. He was in charge of implementing New Zealand’s stringent response to Covid-19, one of Ms Ardern’s best-known and recently most contentious policies. Last year, as the government struggled to tackle an uptick in gang violence and robbery, he was made Minister of Police.
Policy Bonfire
While Ms Ardern earned the ire of New Zealanders with several unpopular programmes including the TVNZ-RNZ merger, Three Waters Reforms, the Hate Laws, the so-called cash for clunkers scheme and a more relaxed approach to climate change.
There are changes in the offing on foreign policy as well.
Last week Mr Hipkins told a conference of the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs that his government will release a series of policy documents and assessments which will include investing in a combat-capable defence force, tackling disinformation and building a public conversation on security.
The government has to manage a gamut of global concerns such as the Close Economic Relationship with Australia, the US, the Pacific and China, the ensuing trade agreement with the United Kingdom and the European Union and the growing threats to global security.
“We have seen a rise in political polarisation, a rise in more nationalist posturing and a move away from political rationalism to the fringe, often spurred along by misinformation and disinformation,” he said and mentioned the oft-repeated expression: New Zealand has an independent approach to foreign policy.
A divided nation
Politics does strange things to people and pinnacles of power worsen relationships and responsiveness, as demonstrated during the waning years of Ms Ardern’s regime. Commentators have said that the Nation stands divided, orchestrated by the policies of the 2020s, starting with the Covid-19 pandemic, which questioned the right of the people to inject or reject, their right to freedom of speech, and their concerns about rising inequality. There were open challenges to the government on its Co-Governance proposal and whether too much was being handed out to too few and whether New Zealand was slipping towards anarchy. The latter saw the small voice of protest in the precincts of Parliament breaking into a major standoff with violence and threats. The fact it was contained was no credit to the government but to the New Zealand Police.
There are then other dividing factors: The left-wing hinges on taxing the rich and benefiting the poor, the more common philosophies of state-owned capitalism and stakeholder capitalism and a host of policies and approaches.
The increasing menace of gangs with their inter-rivalry affecting the peace and tranquillity of neighbourhoods and sometimes an entire city and the insecure feeling of the small retailers including owners of dairies, liquor shops and gas stations (mostly owned by people of Indian origin) are cited as mounting law and order issues that the current government has failed to address. Compounding these are the rising cost of living, a slow public health system, and a failing education sector that has risen as major challenges to the government.
The ideology conflict
Notwithstanding these issues, the average New Zealander must decide if there should be a major shift in political thought- that is if the country should move towards a centrist or even a right-leaning government, given the rising popularity of the ACT Party.
Vivek Ramaswamy, one of America’s successful tech and healthcare entrepreneurs and Founder and Executive Chairman of Strive Asset Management said that no citizen in a democratic society should want executives from US$10 trillion financial institutions to play a larger role than they already do in defining and implementing social values.
“Part of what it means to live in a democracy is for those questions to be determined by the citizenry, publicly through debate and privately at the ballot box, where each person’s view is unadjusted according to the number of dollars that he controls in the marketplace. The everyday citizen in Western democracies now correctly senses that something is amiss. His voice counts for less when corporate elites use market power to settle political questions,” he said.
We will carry some of these discussions to the Electionlink launch for the National Party.
