With the Māori Party putting Tāmaki Makaurau, Te Tai Hauāuru and Waiariki in play the possibility of the Greens + the Māori Party being in Parliament is one worth exploring.
If the Greens and the Māori Party are in Parliament, they should immediately meet to form a panel that can agree on a shared list of policies that would be passed within the first 100 days of the next Government.
Even if Labour does, or doesn’t need them.
If Labour just fall short of a majority because the Māori Party lift it through the Overhang, then the Greens and MP would have leverage to get a policy platform through in the first 100 days that could actually be transformative.
If Labour has a majority on its own, the Greens + MP should still meet and form a policy platform with the threat that if Labour don’t adopt it and form a coalition then the Greens and MP will attack Labour for the next 3 years from the Left.
For Labour, they would want a coalition Government. 2023 is a generational shift in NZ politics when for the first time, Gen Xers + Millennials outnumber Boomers at the ballot box. The time to build a broad coalition Government tailored for this shifting dynamic is now.
The negotiating team for the Greens & MP meeting Labour should be Nandor, Sue Bradford, Laila Harre and a representative from the Maori Party.
The most aligned policy platform in the MMP spectrum is the Greens and Māori Party.
The Rubiks cube of MMP could produce a Labour+Green+Māori Party Government which would be the most progressive government in our lifetime.
This could produce the transformative change Jacinda promised in 2017.
The Greens and Māori Party need to be extremely strategic here. This is what everyone has been fighting for.
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To me transformation must mean a progressive tax system that addresses the huge inequities and unfairness that currently exist and a good starting point would have been a wealth tax that the Green party is advocating.
That appears to have been ruled out by Adern not wanting to scare any of their newly inherited voter support.
The nasty Natz have jumped on the suggestion that it will happen and scare the bejesus out of all those who put self interest and greed ahead of anything else and are still scaremongering as they always do when the very rich are asked to pay just a very small amount towards a more equitable system.
Once again Labour have dismissed any progress in this most important area and if we are going to achieve transformation then isn’t tax a starting point ?
Looks like they will continue to put a friendly face on the ravages of the market with no intention of transforming neoliberalism at all. Market economics is like covid it reaches out and infects everything and there is no cure.
Good – at least some are starting to get it. Labour (and in fairness National) have no intention of being brave anytime soon regarding policy. Confirmed this morning on Newstalk ZB so no wriggle room or backtracking from the Blairite. It’s the Tony Blair-John Key-Helen Clark strategy.
There is very real risk here for Labour. Their adoption not of centre left but dead centre politics (with tinkering on the sides) is a long term risk particularly when your party represents a cult of personality with a very long tail. British Labour under Tony Blair adopted the same strategy and we know how this fell apart under Gordon Brown and those that followed him.
The advantage for Labour is that they know they can wave shiny, bright things in front of Jimmy and he’ll jump in the air like a 3 month old cocker spaniel. Tamahere and Maori will be different, John knows how the game is played and had bad history with Labour. Utu will come in a black and red flavour should the Maori party become queen makers.
I am not so convinced that a good starting point for addressing the huge inequities and unfairness that currently exist is a wealth tax that captures a good many ordinary home owners (and yes, in Auckland the starting point is around $1 million… and why should singles be penalised?). Inequity and unfairness are complex structural issues. It’s not surprising that Labour are not keen, in its current form. On investment properties, yes, I agree. The batch-come-mansion by the sea? Why not? But hey, hands off the family home, Greens. Want more revenue from taxation? Tighten up corporate loopholes? Increase GST? The former: Unworkable? Unrealistic? Too hard? The latter: surely unpopular with all voters – hell, who wants to willingly pay more for stuff! Just exacerbating inequity? (many are struggling as it is, yes). But a modest GST increase combined with a long over-due exemption on fruit and vege. Unworkable? Unrealistic? Too hard? Little political will? God knows, we want folk to SPEND, SPEND, SPEND … CONSUME more worthless rubbish, much of which pollutes the planet anyway…. and the cheaper the better. And I thought the Greens were an environmental party.
Both parties (greens and Maori) parties must do first is honor their promise’s made to us before the last 2017 election that they still have not completed.
For instance’ those both parties promised the Gisborne people during a ‘rail freight/passenger’restoration meeting that when next in Government they would restore our broken rail system the the ruling National Government destroyed deliberately by cutting rail maintenance fro the line and it was partly washed out during a heavy rain storm in 2012 and never repaired then.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/three-political-parties-come-out-in-support-of-restoring-mothballed-gisborne-wairoa-rail-link/RRB7PWWZZJ65LQ4FIGDCXPBPEY/
‘Promises must be kept to keep out faith in them’.
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I like your negotiating team !
They could ALL try learning from someone with wisdom.
‘You forced your civilisation upon us and now look where we are: global pandemic, climate crisis, species extinction and, driving it all, widespread spiritual poverty. In all these years of taking, taking, taking from our lands, you have not had the courage, or the curiosity, or the respect to get to know us. To understand how we see, and think, and feel, and what we know about life on this Earth.’
‘your civilisation is killing life on Earth’
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/oct/12/western-worldyour-civilisation-killing-life-on-earth-indigenous-amazon-planet
Sad that people’s wealth in $$$ has become the obsession of a former environmental party in policy, when there is continued destruction of our planet. Labour has also dropped the ball and for example is bringing in more fishing trawler quoters for fish like Orange roughy. (on a positive note the COL have extended the boundary for Maui dolphins). Need to have cameras on board fishing trawlers, because funny enough only the boats that have camera’s find they have too much by catch, those without cameras apparently never report that they net endangered animals at all!
Around the world environmental destruction.
Insect numbers down 25% since 1990, global study finds
This article is more than 5 months old
Scientists say insects are vital and the losses worrying, with accelerating declines in Europe called ‘shocking’
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/apr/23/insect-numbers-down-25-since-1990-global-study-finds
Fifth of countries at risk of ecosystem collapse, analysis finds
Trillions of dollars of GDP depend on biodiversity, according to Swiss Re report
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/oct/12/fifth-of-nations-at-risk-of-ecosystem-collapse-analysis-finds?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
This idea that the Greens were originally a single issue party is a myth. I joined the Greens when it first became part of the Alliance. To join the Alliance you had to join one of its constituent parties, and I saw the Greens as most closely aligning with my own politics. Environmentalism was a big part of that, as it was for the Values Party, which merged with the Greens at inception (and which my parents had been part of in its early days).
However, my recollection of Green Party meetings back then was the focus being on reversing the neoliberal agenda which had been foisted on an unwilling public first by Labour, then National. The environment, while an important issue for me back then, did not seem as urgent as it does now, while the economic and social carnage of Rogernomics and Ruthanasia was palpable.
You can argue about how well the Greens are getting the environmental message out now, but I think they actually have a greater emphasis on the environment now than they did then. Ultimately, though achieving ecological sustainability goes hand in hand with a sustainable functional society, where everybody is included.
It is just that with environmental collapse staring us in the face, and the complete denial of scientific knowledge by the powerful but feeble minded puppets and media magnates, the emphasis has shifted a little.
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