Jacinda’s popularity is based on hope, emotional intelligence, compassion based reasoning and the ability to connect personally and empathetically to voters. Painting her as emotional and flakey with no policy as Matthew Hooton did when she won the leadership is a sexist wishful fantasy on behalf of the right, and it should be shown the contempt it deserves at the ballot box next month.
Women holding out for gender equality in Parliament after this election are likely to be disappointed. The main mechanism for achieving gender equity within parties is the party list, and most of the parties that will do well in 2017 are far from gender equal. There are currently 38 women in parliament, and the outlook for doing much better is poor.
If there is a desire for change within the Maori electorate as strong as it is forming within the General electorate we need to start thinking about a Labour + Green Government because if this Maori support joins middle class support joins workers, women, beneficiaries and most importantly young voters, Labour will have a shot at a 40+ result now.
New Labour Party Ad
The simple truth is that TOP can only implement their policy with Labour, they can’t do it with National, but the TOP electorate are alienated by tribal identity twitter politics so TOP can appeal to them by outraging Twitter.
Imagine if the media held English to account the way they did Metiria?
Jacinda’s speech on Sunday was one of the most significant speeches in my political life and dare I say it, the life of this country.
Research by Associate Professor Lisa Marriot from Victoria University reveals that 5 per cent of welfare recipients are investigated compared to .01 per cent of taxpayers. Welfare fraud attracts 800-1000 criminal prosecutions a year compared to 60-80 for tax fraud. Of tax dodgers whose offending reaches about $270,000, 18 per cent will be jailed. Of those welfare fraudsters who have obtained around $70,000, 67 per cent can expect jail time
Some ad-hoc adventures I’ve had over the last few weeks.
The enormous significance of political magic is made clear principally by its absence. None of Jacinda’s four male predecessors had it. Contact lenses and a new haircut couldn’t make it appear. Speechwriters working in shifts couldn’t summon it. Focus groups couldn’t even tell the party where to look for it. But no Labour member; no Labour voter; had the slightest difficulty understanding that the Magic was passing them by.