Is There Another New Zealand on Mars?

As I often remind BFD readers, Australian journalists mostly know next to nothing about New Zealand politics. To be fair, until I became a BFD contributor, neither did I. Which was a pity, because not only is NZ politics fascinating in its own right, but Australian and NZ politics complement each other in often illuminating ways.

Unfortunately, that level of insight is beyond the ken of most Australian journalists. Their basic ignorance also means that even a supposedly conservative, “newspaper of record”, The Australian, can unwittingly publish the following unadulterated gibberish.

New Zealand now essentially has two conservative major parties for the public to choose from.

I imagine most of you are scratching your heads, wondering, “Is there another ‘New Zealand’, somewhere?” Because “conservative” surely couldn’t describe Socialist Cindy and her merry band of deep red pranksters, surely?

Oh, you deplorable, ignorant fools! Are you a Political Analyst at Victoria University? No, no you’re not. So you’re simply incapable of the superior intellect needed to make such astonishing assertions as this:

Labour’s five years in power have been incredibly conservative, despite the radical times. Very little in the way of far-reaching reform has been pushed by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, and few radical policies have actually been delivered.

Ardern and her deputy prime minister, Grant Robertson, have been incredibly cautious and limited in their ambitions while in power.

“One has to belong to the intelligentsia to believe things like that: no ordinary man could be such a fool”

George Orwell.

I mean, sure: if you forget about the “Christchurch call”, gun confiscation, police knocking on doors over social media posts, gleefully bragging about creating a two-tier society, Ihumatao, Three Waters, He Puapua, whining that “capitalism has failed us”, co-opting the media… sure apart from all that…

Traditional issues for the left like inequality, housing, and poverty have been deprioritised.

Except that Ardern and her government have banged on about all three endlessly. The only sense in which they’ve been “deprioritised” is that the government is so spectacularly inept at actually doing anything about them that all have got worse. But in just five years, the Ardern government has spent a billion dollars and more on emergency housing. At the same time, the number of New Zealanders on benefits has risen by the highest numbers in a quarter-century.

So very, very conservative…

But, to a champagne academic reclining on a yacht driven on a gale-force wind to the left, a person merely walking leftwards on the shore appears to be drifting to the right.

And it’s all a mystery as to why the peasants are revolting.

Last night’s poll wasn’t the only one indicating that Labour is in trouble. The party would be wise to also heed the results of last week’s Horizon Research survey which indicated that 35 per cent of the public felt “disappointed” with Ardern – another 28 per cent felt “angry” with her. Many of these people also indicated that they voted for Labour at the last election.

The Australian

So, what’s changed?

It couldn’t possibly be that New Zealanders are no long dutifully terrified by Covid, but dismayed by what they saw happen to peaceful protesters on Parliament’s lawn. Nor could it be that they’ve seen through the PM’s spin, the glossy magazine shoots, and the lickspittle media. It certainly couldn’t be that Kiwis have had a gutful of a radical, racist, co-governance agenda that they certainly never voted for, or were even told about until the He Puapua report was leaked.

No, it must be because the government isn’t socialist enough.