With MANA knocked out of the election by Labour, the Greens are the only political Party left standing that have any real answers to the inequality and environmental problems that we face as a country but the machinations of NZ politics means that they may be locked out of the power of parliament forever.
The weak showing for the Greens at the last election was written off by Russell Norman as all the fault of Internet-MANA, that seems more a blame game than reality. The Greens have become a Wellington Party rather than nation wide party and are suffering because of that.
I helped start up MANA 5 years ago because Labour + Greens could never make it over 50% without needing NZ First. NZ First will always be a conservative brake peddle against any truly progressive politics.
With Labour now chasing the middle, the Greens find themselves at risk of getting politically snookered again.
It was a scenario that was quietly bubbling away at the least election.
If Labour + Greens don’t equal over 50%, then they need NZ First. If Winston is in the mix he will want a Labour-NZ First minority Government with just the Greens as a support Party. This strategy will be the preferred option of Labour who showed last election how focused they are to killing off any real left wing politics.
To avoid this political castration, the Greens need to kit 15% and Labour need to hit 36%. With Polls showing the sleepy hobbits of muddle Nu Zilind still love John Key, those totals 3 years out from the 2017 election look optimistic in the extreme.
Far more likely is Labour and NZ First cutting a deal that leaves the Greens out in the cold again.
While not wanting to be a disagreeable old bugger ; Russell Norman’s correct in blaming Mana-Internet for scuppering the Greens’ chances at the last General Rigging ( Election . )
Kiwis are like kittens . Dangle a piece of string and lo ! They can’t help themselves . After years of them being conditioned by Corporates into instant gratification the poor old Greens don’t have a chance . All the deep state need to do is trot out a giggling , smiling jonky-clone and all is lost in Twinkle Sparkle Land .
I bought last Sunday’s Star Times for the first time in years . It was neither Starry nor Timely . It was boring . It was a trite waste of paper and ink . However , deep up its arse in its festering nether regions , there was phil goff squeaking about how vital Auckland was to the NZ economy . And down in there , on the same page in the murk of that rag , there was judith collins running a counter narrative …
All is lost . We can only tread water until we drown .
I think the Green’s are capable of getting a lot more votes.
My belief is that the hatred shown by other left parties towards InternetMana did centre/left no good including Greens. The MSM has rewritten history of the causes of the National majority, and I do not agree with the article that it was middle NZ fault or that it was some push to the right of ordinary Kiwis.
Leftie voters wanted to punish the left parties (in particular Labour) for being so divided and stupid. There were a lot of dirty tricks and the confusion tactics, piles of cash from the Nats worked.
I think next election the Greens will get more votes IF they keep their integrity in tact AND for god’s sake not go with the MSM discourse that Kiwis are turning more right and start making deals with the Nats. If they sell out like Labour on policy and go NationalLite they will go the way of the Maori party.
We are only just four months out from the last election.
Key & Co are still spewing the bile, hoodwinking many into believing under his governance, all is well and wonderful in this Godforsaken land of Noddies! In other words, Kiwis are content to continue along the road of sweet oblivion with the status quo. For the time being that is!
For that reason I’d say the NZ Green party is not quite registering on the public radar at the moment. But it’s a situation which is going to change over the next three years.
Things will have to get worse, much worse, before they can get better. It’s coming.
Wait until everything begins to turn to custard, as the destruction sets in, with the economy and society crumbling, the real effects of this decadent govt’s policies, lies,corruption, deceit etc!
Wait until more Kiwis lose jobs, while those still in the workforce are unable to earn enough to put food on the table, through lack of livable income.
Wait until more third world diseases begin to seriously maim and possibly kill our Kiwi children, a direct result of this govt’s only growing industry, impoverishment!
Wait until a home becomes totally unattainable for ordinary Kiwis, not only because of wealthy foreigners and migrants being encouraged (by govt) to buy up everything they can get their greedy hands on, but also because a mortgage will be completely unaffordable and out of reach for working Kiwis. Those fortunate to still be in the workforce, that is!
Wait until ordinary Kiwis have had an absolute gutsful of being treated as serfs by feudal overlords!
Then wait and watch as Kiwis wake up to the alternative policies the NZ Greens are offering! When NZ’s economic and social structures have broken down completely (and that will become a reality soon – the signs are there), that will be the time when the Green party comes into its own, as more and more Kiwis begin supporting it, to help bring NZ back to the egalitarian state it once was.
So the Greens are quite relevant to turning NZ around. And that can and will be achieved through Kiwis wanting, needing and demanding government change. The people will give the party the strength it needs. The recent election in Greece is evidence of this fact.
I hope that you are right. But. The MSM has effectively gained control of what people read/hear/see, and they decide what is discussed, how and whose voices we hear. People have been trained to be afraid, to think of their lifestyle/consumer choices as good and inviolable and that the left will bring them nothing but deprivation. Yes, it is all BS, but it still works.
We all need to connect with our deluded friends and families. Yes, it is hard. The alternative is worse.
1000% Mary, and Martyn I think the Greens will hang in there as the economy go to the crapper soon, but they will have to convince us that they are credible. and not just fart tax idiots.
Mary I am gobsmacked but you predict what is coming as exactly right.
Remember what our elders who went through two world wars and a depression said?
“Don’t live beyond your means”
Key wouldn’t know what these past generations meant or knew, and Key will bring this next market crash to us as he carries on borrowing to prop up this paper thin economic boat they row.
It will spring a leak and split apart before our eyes.
Auckland real estate prices will plummet 30% to 50% as Toronto did in 1992 when I lived there and the bank took our home as we had lost our asset value in it and the bank had to take it.
Key is a liar, a carpetbagger, and a Judas Priest.
“Fart tax idiots” – Have you watched the DVD “Hot Air” – the NZ politics of climate change – it covers the history of the hijacking of a carbon tax by opponents and creating the ‘fart tax’ label in order to demonise it in the public’s eye.
What a bloody depressing ramble. Do you have some inside Imformation the rest of us are unaware of?. It may not be as positive as it is now but any prognosis I have read does not paint such a dire outlook. If it is going to be that bad it will driven by world events which are very difficult to predict or plan for
There is a big move to the far left or right. Give it 3 years and see what happens. Can’t hide the bad figures forever surely.
I think a/the real issue is that 60 percent of voters voted for right wing/conservative parties at the last election. Unless things change dramatically, that just leaves 40 percent of the vote to be shared between Labour and the Greens. Hence, New Zealand First’s position as being a necessity for any non National led government, and them acting as brake on any sort of progressive government.
1000%+++++++++
Winston is vital here you are right.
He is charismatic and his camp is good to help us to the win in the overthrow of these greedy ACT NatZ divisive, “divide and rule” slimy merchants of the rich.
They are traitors to their country.
Winston is claiming this already as he sees the warning signs as he is now one of the longest serving politicians now.
Experience is everything nowadays in this “Johnny come lately” political scene.
The Greens have staying power – and they will need it. The stagnant western economies are depending on a resurgence of growth built around the availability of cheap oil, which for the moment the Gulf States have decided to allow. This may begin to appear in the next few years, but failure to regulate the speculative and financial sectors is likely to allow another GFC relatively soon. There was ’87, and the AFC in ’98, then the subprimes in 2008 – financial market crisies are stripping away soft and technical growth faster than it can be invented.
Mana internet was a good idea – but honesty does not prosper in NZ politics at present – you need to be a suppurating mass of corruption, and a compulsive liar with a fair bit of non-mammalian DNA and $50 million worth of misappropriated counterintelligence resources.
The Greens need to prepare to pick up the pieces and make something of the wreckage. Labour… have long since lost their way.
Agreed. 1000%
Besides of such strategic political considerations, I feel the Greens have no easy task in New Zealand. While they have a rather robust following in some urban centres, and a few pockets in the regions, they are struggling to convince more voters to vote for them.
Part of the problem lies there, where a major challenge lies for the whole left together. It is the very unfriendly, unhelpful MSM having drummed into the public that the Greens are just basically wanting us to change to degrees that are not supposed to be “realistic”.
When you have Paul Henry, Mike Hosking, Sean Plunket and a fair few others hold key positions in the MSM, telling people their crap, and do anything but inform about what really lies behind climate change, and how damned serious the challenges are, then it is an uphill battle, for all that want to inform.
Scientists struggle as well, as few are reported on and quoted, and as most do not dare to speak out against their employers, government and certain stake holder private research funders.
So we only mostly get the odd news item on what the intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports, and people may hear it, but it goes out the other ear as quickly.
The government has abolished much public broadcasting, there is stuff all balance, heaps of bias, infotainment and dumbing down, so people do not get the hard news there are.
Hence most simply hear the tunes coming from Key and government, like we need growth, we need cheap petrol, as that is a “good” thing, we need to produce more milk powder, meat, cheese and so much more, never mind the water quality.
Auckland needs 2.5 million population, they tell us, but they do not tell us that increased droughts will mean shortage of water in future, as the Waikato is already sometimes struggling to add the water Auckland needs to keep going.
And who even goes further to tell drivers, that they may need to change their life styles, and use public transport more, walk and cycle again. Oh, you cannot do it, they may not vote for us, so it goes.
Being green in a country with one of the highest per capita carbon and other fossil fuel emissions in the developed world is not easy to achieve. It would be painful for some, and they will do all to stigmatise and marginalise the Greens as the supposed “extreme left” and “nutty” threat.
I feel sorry for the Greens, they deserve better, but as politics is a challenge, they also need to do better, and recently we should have heard them more often.
Yes Mike and Martyn,
We need a court challenge to Minister of Broadcasting to halve the public service media and give it over to opposition parties for their media use as ACTNatZ have all control now.
That’s right . Unless ‘The Left’ get on top of the media, it’s going to be like farting against thunder once again.
The only option, short of starting up new radio and TV channels, and news papers, is to get super aggressive with them .
Take them head on and really show the courage of their convictions. Don’t let them talk crap or deliberately misconstrue the message.
Get into some proper ding dong rows with them . Call them out.
Don’t let them get away with cheap shots.
Let them know they have been in a proper debate.
Question them vigorously when it’s obvious they are showing bias, and get passionate !!!
Bob Hawk did it years ago in Austrailia with great success.
This whimpy cow towing to them has got to stop !!!!!!!
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