Election 2026 is Old Zealand vs New Zealand

The Election year is upon us and as the economy limps along after this Hard Right Governments mutilation of public funding WHILE BORROWING $14billion for tax cuts we couldn’t afford, $14billion for attack helicopters, $3billion in undeserved Landlord tax breaks, $200million for gas and oil subsidies, $300million for Tobacco subsidies and $6million for Michelin Star wankery, voters are asking, ‘WTF happened’?

Luxon promised growth, growth, growth and all we’ve had are culture war revenge fanatics masquerading as social policy.

Nicola Willis is such a wide eyed free market acolyte (she was previously on the NZ Initiative Board ffs), that she believes as a matter of faith that if you cut State expenditure, the market steps in and does it cheaper.

These free market economic dynamics work well when you have large population density to generate the competitiveness, but NZ is 3 enormous and sparsely populated Islands and we have always required the State to be the 40% foundation stone.

The decision early in 2024 to destroy the infrastructure pipeline with the construction industry has generated a cascade failure inside the economy as tens of thousands with skills have fled for Australia.

National have mutilated the economy with their ideological vandalism.

Bernard Hickey makes this point…

The Luxon-Willis doctrine for the economy is to repeat the recipe adopted by both National and Labour Governments after recessions since 1990. They have constrained growth in Government spending to reduce public borrowing in the expectation that this will help interest rates fall even further. In turn, this was designed tempt households and businesses to step forward and replace debt-funded Government stimulus with private stimulus for the economy in the form of spending, investment, employment and wage growth funded with mortgages and business or farming loans.

It worked in the wake of the 1990/91, 1997/98, 2007/08 and 2020 recessions because firstly businesses (1991-2000 & 2002-08) and then households (especially from early 2000s onwards) were able to reinvest profits and/or borrow significantly more to pump extra money through the economy and fire up growth in consumer spending and house-buying and building.

That increase in household debt was possible and encouraged through the early 2000s as banks unshackled from lending and capital controls increased household debt from 60% of disposable income in 1990 to almost 180% by 2009. Since 2013, the Reserve Bank has restricted household borrowing through Loan to Value Ratio (LVR) and now Debt to Income (DTI) Ratio controls to reduce financial stability risks.

The Kaka

 

…State cut backs so the private sector can step up doesn’t work like it did in the past because private debt is so high now!

It’s not just the Economy these right wing stormtroopers have embarked up, it is also the social maiming as well.

They almost started a race war for Christ’s sakes!

I appreciate our post covid bitterness turned on Labour for having the temerity to save 20 000 lives, but to be fair, most of those 20 000 were boomers who repaid Jacinda by voting for NZ First, so no good deed has gone unpunished here.

The last election wasn’t a vote, it was grudge fuck against Labour, and I honestly don’t believe the vast majority who did vote National, ACT or NZF HAD ANY IDEA how crazy shit was going to get.

This Government’s venal donations for legislation crony capitalism strangles the common good for the profit margins of the well connected.

So.

We have to throw these buggers out this year or their 19th Century White Settler Privilege becomes cemented into place for corporate interests.

Election 2026 is Old Zealand vs New Zealand.

Bernard Hickey makes this point from the latest polling data…

Old anti-vaxx men prefer the coalition. Young women don’t.

A majority of male voters (54%) supported the centre-right, whereas 58% of female voters supported the centre-left. Voters under 40 years old were more supportive of the centre-left at 57 percent, whereas over 60 year old voters are more supportive of the centre-right, at 60 percent.

The Kaka

 

…Old Zealand are boomer white culture war males who thrash in fury at Trans, climate change, Māori, vaccines, the Treaty and are virulently pro Israel and Trump.

They are culturally threatened, have property and are economically anxious.

They are driven by Social Media Hate algorithms.

They have power because they religiously vote to ensure their privilege.

The good news for New Zealand is that Old Zealand are a shrinking electorate.

In the battle between Old Zealand and New Zealand in the 2026 election, Gen Xers are going to be the difference.

Look at the demographics.

Estimation for 2025 (or more recent)

If similar age proportions hold, then:

• • If 60+ voters are ~28-30% of the voter roll, and

  • Under-40 voters are ~35%,

then in a total roll of ~3.6 million enrolled voters (approx current size), you’d expect:

• • 60+ voters ≈ ≈ 1.0 to 1.1 million

  • 18-40 voters ≈ ≈ 1.25 million

Polling data tells us that you are more likely to be a reactionary redneck if you are over 60 (and male) and are far more likely to vote Left if you are 18-40 and female.

There are around 1.3million Kiwis aged between 40 and 60, that is Gen X, we are the ones who are going to be the decider in this election.

As a generation, do we want to side with the rednecks of Old Zealand or support New Zealand?

Thanks to our middle class woke activists during the social media cancel culture Lynch mobs, we drove many young men into the arms of the reactionary right, we need to show those men that there is a place on the Left for them.

Old Zealand trades in the spite and malice of culture war hate while in lockstep with the Billionaire class, the Banks, the speculators and the polluters, isn’t it time to break the power of these pricks?

It’s time for Gen X to step up to help Millennials and Gen Z win the 2026 Election.

Old Zealand is dying metaphorically and literally. New Zealand is the future. Which one wins the Election?