DESPITE THE best efforts of the right-wing media to talk up the National-led coalition government, it remains stubbornly unpopular. Newstalk ZB's hubby and wife team, Heather du Plessis-Allan and Barry Soper, might want us to believe that its unpopularity is due solely to the 'cost of living crisis' and because their government is having to clean up the mess left by the previous Labour government, that argument is tenuous at best. The fact remains that this government's attempt to shore up local capitalism at the expense of those least able to carry the economic burden, is not the change that people expected when they voted National and its political allies into office. ACT leader David Seymour's recent comments that not enough public servants have been sacked will only ensure that charisma-free Prime Minister Chris Luxon remains only marginally more popular than a fart in a crowded elevator.
The coalition's unpopularity has even prompted Labour leader Chris Hipkins to speculate that we might all be looking at a one-term government. This is a big call since a one term government has, historically, only happened twice in New Zealand. And both were Labour governments, in 1960 and 1975.
Nevertheless, it's understandable why Hipkins should say it. He needs, firstly, to revive the enthusiasm of his foot soldiers for the battles ahead. Secondly, it negates any momentum for Labour to turn away from the very centrism that lost it the election in 2023. Yes, there might be some tinkering with the policy mix but, under Hipkins, Labour is not about to disavow neoliberalism. He much prefers presenting Labour as a 'safe pair of hands' to those who have an interest in maintaining the status quo while allowing the coalition government the room to fall flat on its face in 2026.
The problem with this strategy is that Labour is also not popular. It is struggling to maintain the support of less than a third of the electorate that still bothers to vote. At a time of economic crisis and the working class doing it hard, any party that claims to represent the working class should be doing better in the polls. But Labour's ongoing failure to present itself as a viable and progressive alternative to the coalition government, will not convince the deeply disillusioned and cynical that their lives would improve markedly under a Chris Hipkins-led Labour Government.
His recent comments that a Labour Government would not 'necessarily' restore all the climate change policies that the coalition government is presently dismantling, suggests that Hipkins could well take Labour further to the right.
Our representative democracy ran aground many years ago, leaving us with parliamentary parties that have remained loyal to an economic creed and political ideology that doesn't work for most people and most people don't want. Perhaps the only parliamentary politician who gets that is Green Party co-leader Chloe Swarbrick. Such is her faith in our representative democracy that she recently wrote that politics should not be left to the politicians.
Given that Swarbrick opposes neoliberalism and has already declared her opposition to the tinkering with the system that Hipkins continues to favour, Hipkins should not assume that he can rely on the Green Party to help him form a government in 2026. Unless, of course, he's ready to declare that centrism is dead. Don't hold your breath.
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