Ok.
It’s October 18th.
Labour have been swept to a historic and unprecedented under MMP, majority Government.
IF the Greens are returned and we get a surprise on the night with the Māori Party winning an electorate seat and pulling in one off the party list, what should the Greens and Māori Party do with a Labour Party that doesn’t need them?
The first thing they should do is contact each other and put forward a joint Māori Party/Green Party negotiating team that has a list of demands that the Greens and Māori Party want in a first 100 days time line.
Now.
Labour could say, ‘we are the majority, why do we need this’, and the comeback of course would be, ‘Sure, but this is the price of keeping us inside the tent because if you don’t agree it is open warfare between now and 2023.”
The only thing Labour fears is a ruthless and never ending attack from the Left that exposes all the caution and meaningless gesture symbolism of their Government.
So.
Even if Labour does win a majority and the Greens and Māori Party get in, they still have leverage to negotiate if they play smart.
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Here’s hoping. The issue is climate change. Given that the two environmental parties have both been captured by identity politics, the Greens co- leader terrifyingly so, my hopes lie low. A new environment party, 2023.
Agreed Snow White 100% Greens party is now a substitute for another alliance party or “values’ Party and not really any more as a serious ENVIRONMENTAL WATCHDOG AS THEY SHOULD HAVE BEEN.
Cleangreen – I voted Values back in the day, and don’t think the current Green hierarchy are socially concerned like the Values Party was. They are socially divisive, Tory style – or worse.
When Bill English decided to metaphorically castrate our young New Zealand males, he at least lumped them all together and didn’t differentiate on ethnic or other grounds. English was toeing the neolib line, whereas some Greens seem governed by their own foibles and feelings, while the planet burns regardless of colour race creed gender or any human idiosyncrasies.
Could be that Green Peace, Forest and Bird, and other environmental groups are who we should be massively supporting when politicians are so erratic and fickle about the big stuff.
The tax cuts for the wealthy are a cunning Tory bribe which will attract a lot of the greedy Boomers and middle class back to National. It seems like the Greens cannot rely on Cloe in Central Auckland and it is also unlikely Labour will win over 50%. Therefore it cannot be discounted that National and Act (and NZF?) may be in with a chance.
Whats happened to the polls? If they show that Labour is maintaining their big lead, some of us need to tactically use our two ticks for the Greens, and if they also look reasonably safe then the Maori party and maybe NZF.
If John Tamihere is in, we will finally see some serious changes. I’m just sorry that he placed himself way down the List. He should have just stepped up to the plate, imo.
He was the ONLY candidate on The Hui to speak out with any passion about our most vital asset, after the land itself, and that is the water of Aotearoa. He would finally end the bottling/ exporting madness, given half a chance. I very much hope that he does get in, but being way down the List it seems a long shot.
Ranked at #18, Peeni Henare will be returned anyway. I hope that Tāmaki Makaurau voters understand this, and that by voting for Tamihere they get, at very least, two MPs for their one vote. But they will get much more than that, as Tamihere is not the pushover that so many other MPs have been. He will bring in needed changes.
The question of “What do they do if Labour don’t need them?” won’t even arise if J.T. is there. He would never follow the idiocy of the Greens in handing over his Question Time to the Nats – that was a creepy move on their part, to say the least.
J.T. has sufficient Mana, and the absolute conviction with which he speaks his truth, to command the parliament when he is speaking and to ensure that the media cannot just cancel out whatever he has to say. Change will happen. (He just has to get in.)
Kheala: “J.T. has sufficient Mana….”
Mr Front Bums. Could anyone ever take him seriously, after that godawful revelation?
D’Esterre – Tamihere refers to women as “ front bums “, and Tamihere asked a teenage girl on talkback radio what age she lost her virginity during that shameful roastbusters debacle, and Tamihere says that Pakeha – I gather all Pakeha – are asymptomatic racists, and that makes Mr Tamihere another perfect exponent of neoliberalism mechanisms for alienating and keeping groups of people down.
The asymptomatic allegation is sneaky sort of stuff – if my doctor told me I was an symptomless leper, I’d get another doctor – but Mr Tamihere may derive mana from posturing like a medieval Jesuit, in the absence of provable facts. It’s worked before.
“Labour have been swept to a historic and unprecedented under MMP, majority Government.”
Not the first time. Remember the 2104 election?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_New_Zealand_general_election
However. And fortunately: “On election night counts, the party appeared to hold the first majority since 1994 with 61 seats, but lost one seat to the Green Party on the official count.”
At that time, we didn’t like the thought of the Natz being able to govern alone. No reason why we’d trust that Labour lot with a parliamentary majority, either. Especially after the depredations of Rogernomics.
Davidson should really go. She made it into the UK Guardian as the co-leader of a New Zealand political party, proselytising about normalising usage of the word ‘cunt.’ Not in her job description, and not her job. We have better ways of publicising this country, and none of them are by sounding like Donald Trump gone wrong.
The NZ Greens need new leadership.
Shaw betrayed the Greens and betrayed the environment when he handed the Greens parliamentary voice over to the National Party, in one of the dirtiest, slimiest deals ever.
WHY is he still there?
Green party Ocean Protection Policies
Labour will have a long memory concerning the Maori party, and the Greens were a support party during the last three years; keep them onside. Little chance of a racist Maori party being elected anyway.
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