IT'S THE END OF CENTRISM, BUT CHRIS HIPKINS HASN'T NOTICED

The Labour Party should draw inspiration from the stunning victories for the left in Brazil and Serbia, but not for the reasons that former Labour Prime Minister Helen Clark suggests.

THE STUNNING election victories of the Serbian Student List and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's movement in Brazil are not isolated events. Nor is it a coincidence that they have emerged at a moment when public anger continues to rise at an economic and political order that enriches the wealthy while demanding sacrifice from everyone else. Across Europe, from France and Italy to Albania and beyond, people are making it clear that they no longer accept bearing the cost of crises they did not create. As one Italian protester bluntly declared: 'We reject the ruling class.'

Former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark has proposed that the victories in Brazil and Serbia offer hope for 'parties of inclusion, sustainability, and decency everywhere. Next NZ?' It is an appealing interpretation for those committed to the political centre. But it is also a deeply selective reading of what is happening around the world.

Clark cannot present these election outcomes as a vindication of the centrist politics she has championed throughout her political career while ignoring the wider wave of protest that surrounds them. The revolt under way is not simply directed at authoritarian figures such as Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil or Aleksandar Vucic in Serbia. It is also a rejection of the economic fundamentalism that has dominated politics for decades, regardless of whether it has been administered by the right or the centre-left.

The crowds filling the streets of France are not protesting against a far-right government. They are protesting against the austerity policies of Emmanuel Macron, a politician who has consistently marketed himself as the reasonable, moderate alternative to political extremes. Yet for the working class, Macron's centrism has meant cuts, insecurity, rising costs and a government that appears more responsive to financial interests than public needs. Similar frustrations can be seen across Europe, where establishment parties continue to defend an economic model that concentrates wealth at the top while offering little more than managed decline to everyone else.

That is the broader context in which the victories in Brazil and Serbia should be understood. Voters are not simply choosing decency over extremism. They are expressing exhaustion and anger with a political and economic status quo that has failed to deliver economic security, social mobility or democratic accountability. They are rejecting a system that tells ordinary people there is no alternative while living standards stagnate and inequality widens.

Yet here in New Zealand, Chris Hipkins and the Labour Party continue to offer much the same neoliberal formula that has defined politics for the past four decades. Despite mounting evidence from around the world that voters want something fundamentally different, Labour remains reluctant to challenge the orthodoxies of privatisation, deregulation, fiscal restraint and market-led policymaking. Instead, it promises a kinder, more competent version of the same approach. It's Jacinda Ardern 2.0.

This is precisely why Labour continues to struggle in the polls. The party's problem is not one of presentation or messaging. It is not a matter of finding the right slogan or sharpening its media strategy. The problem is that too many voters see little reason to rally behind a party that appears unwilling to confront the economic structures driving the country's housing crisis, widening inequality and declining public services. Offering more of the same has never been a recipe for political renewal.

Helen Clark may be reluctant to acknowledge it, but the real lesson from Brazil, Serbia, and the protest movements spreading across Europe is that the age of centrist complacency is coming to an end. People are no longer satisfied with politicians who promise stability while presiding over growing insecurity. They are demanding alternatives to an economic model that has delivered extraordinary wealth for a small elite and diminishing prospects for everyone else.

If Labour wants to regain public trust, it should indeed draw inspiration from events overseas. But not for the reasons Clark suggests. The message from Brazil, Serbia, and the streets of Europe is not that voters are searching for a more polished version of the political centre. It is that they are looking for a decisive break from the status quo. Until Labour understands that reality, it will continue to find itself on the wrong side of a global political mood that is increasingly impatient, increasingly angry and increasingly determined to reject the ruling class.