THE GOVERNMENT ISN'T POPULAR, BUT NEITHER ARE THE OPPOSITION PARTIES

 

Despite being less than six months old, the National-led coalition is already unpopular with the electorate, but so too are the opposition parties.

WHILE the 1News Verian poll might have confirmed what some of us suspected, that the National-led coalition government is already unpopular, it has also underlined that none of the present mix of parliamentary parties are setting the electorate alight. National might have dropped to 36 percent support in the latest poll, down two percent from the last poll, but Labour has risen just two percent, to 30 percent support. And despite polling at just four percent and seven percent respectively, NZ First and ACT command cabinet positions and the ability to pursue policies that the public don't support. NZ First's ridiculously low poll number certainly blows apart Shane Jones repeated argument that his party has 'a mandate' to pursue its market-friendly policies. If anything, NZ First's lack of public support highlights that this party is in the pocket of corporate interests.

A February poll, conducted by research company Ipsos New Zealand, revealed that the majority of New Zealanders think that our present economic and political system is rigged in favour of the rich and powerful. There clearly is widespread support for policies that represent the many and not the few. But the present government's 'solution' is a further dose of austerity that will only drive the country further into recession. As commentator Bernard Hickey observes:

'The Government's constant talk of inheriting a financial mess, its freezes on transport, housing, and water project grants and decisions, and a cavalcade of state sector job cuts has unnerved businesses and consumers into snapping shut their own wallets….A coalition that prides itself on being a better economic manager than Labour is talking the economy into ever-deeper recession, as shown in collapses in business and consumer confidence in March and April, along with slumps in factory, services, and construction activity reported in the last fortnight.'

Meantime, Labour, in particular, seems intent on pursuing its tired and uninspiring business-as-usual centrist policies even when the public supports much more radical ones. That message doesn't appear to have reached Labour leader Chris Hipkins or, if it has, he has already decided to ignore it. There is a reason for this: a fundamental shift in Labour's economic direction would unnerve the ruling class and Hipkins desperately wants our rulers to regard him as 'a safe pair of hands'.

Unfortunately, Labours' slight rise in the polls, more by accident than design, will probably only confirm to its present conservative leadership that Labour is on the right track. And the danger is that the Labour-linked left will again join it on the road to nowhere.

Let's hope that won't include the Green Party. Of all the party leaders, Chloe Swarbrick is the only one to have talked of the need for fundamental economic and political change. How this translates into actual Green Party policy remains to be seen.