Waatea News Column: Labour Party Conference 2023 marks the beginning of the Election Fight
Labour put its best foot forward over the weekend for the 2023 Election with their Conference in Wellington.
Labour have wins to champion and policy that has helped, and while they saved New Zealand from a Covid Pandemic mass death event, the unequal sacrifice across our communities led to unequal results for society.
Some have done very well post Covid, many have not.
On top of a sense that Labour have failed to be transformative is a residual bitterness many felt by being locked down.
Into this resentful electorate, Labour need to show they can still generate hope with big vision policy that looks achievable.
Food inflation is at 12.4% and the petrol subsidy is about to come off. Food Banks complain about unprecedented demand and the Housing crisis just gets more intense.
Labour have to be bold with new policy that has an immediate and material impact on people’s cost of living. There is still an electorate waiting for the Transformative policies promised by Jacinda in 2017!
If Labour can not show a relevance to voters, then all Labour have left is to point out how far right National and ACT will go with cuts to public services.
After 6 years, Labour better have more to offer voters than, ‘We aren’t as bad as National and ACT’!
Labour have to fight for tomorrow to win the election today.
First published on Waatea News.
In the US the angry vote saw the unelectable Trump get elected.
In NZ the angry vote will see the unelectable Luxon get elected.
….the country’s wealthiest are paying a median effective tax rate of 9.5 percent (including GST).
This is less than half the tax paid by middle income earners at 22 percent, or nearly 30 percent if you include GST.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/on-the-inside/488815/proving-the-wealthiest-new-zealanders-pay-low-tax-rates-is-a-good-start-now-comes-the-hard-part#:~:text=The%20report%2C%20commissioned%20by%20Minister,percent%20if%20you%20include%20GST.
To fund our failing hospitals and win the election Labour needs to make the rich pay their fair share of tax.
Only caring for the top end of town will see the rise of the angry vote.
Trump got elected because he promised to dump Reaganomics, globalism, and endless neo-con wars — and instead bring back the high-wage manufacturing jobs from abroad, stop illegal foreign labour from driving down wages, and claimed that “everyone will have healthcare”.
Whether or not you believe he was sincere is besides the point. And there isn’t a single candidate promising any of that in the local election!
Well put. It was not a brainless vote at all.
Here neither candidate is offering much. You have to go for protest – Maori Party or take a shot on the growing Freedom coalition. The only ones that do not go along with the globalist agenda.
Methinks you don’t actually give a damn about fair, you just want them to pay more.
Will Chris Hipkins be New Zealand’s Hilary Clinton?
While Bernie Sanders was filling American football stadiums with promises of a fully free health care system, funded by taxing the rich. (A policy that was wildly popular even with Fox News audiences.)
The democrats instead chose a candidate who opposed free universal health care. The rest is history.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/04/16/how-fox-news-accidentally-revealed-truth-about-support-medicare-for-all/
It was a moment so surreal, it seemed almost like a dream. During Fox News’s Monday night town hall with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), host Bret Baier asked audience members how many had private health insurance. A large majority raised their hands. He then followed up by asking how many would like to see Medicare-for-all enacted. Almost all the same hands went up — remember, this was on Fox News! — with wild cheers to boot.
Why do Centrist parties like the US Democratic Party and the New Zealand Labour party crawl and scrape to the rich, even when it costs them election victory?
Want to know why our under funded public health system is collapsing?
This is why:
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/488741/labour-faces-dilemma-after-tax-report-reveals-deep-unfairness-max-rashbrooke-says
Between 2015 and 2021, the country’s richest individuals and families – those with a wealth exceeding $50 million – paid a median effective tax rate of just 9.4 percent, the report said. That was less than half what “middle wealth” Kiwis paid – despite the supposedly progressive tax system….
– it’s a measure of how bad things are. The real measure of people’s contribution is, what share of their income are they paying in tax? And the report shows it’s only about 9 percent for the wealthiest New Zealanders.”
Parker and Prime Minister Chris Hipkins played down the chance of making any changes to the tax system in this term.
Fight or be damned.
“Either they do something about the issue and then have a big fight about tax, or they don’t do anything, and they have to say, ‘We’ve identified this huge problem and we’re going to do nothing about it.'” Senior associate of the Institute for Governance and Policy Studies at Victoria University of Wellington Max Rashbrooke
Voters aren’t quite as dumb as some politicians assume when they think a stage-managed change at the top will change Labour’s fortunes. I think it’s because voters haven’t forgotten the stuff that angered them about Labour. They gave Chippy a chance, but found it was just a cosmetic change. Afterall, he’s the guy that presided over the crisis in the education sector.
So, the only thing they had going for them was a leader that was more popular than the leader of the National Party, but that’s not particularly true anymore with the gap between them going from 16% a few weeks ago to 7% now.
The ‘Chippie Bounce’ is over and it’s all downhill from now until the election. They’ve got terrible policies and a disastrous track record. They’ve got incompetent ministers. They’ve got coalition partners that are nutjobs. There’s bad more bad economic news for voters in the pipeline with the tax going back on fuel, driving more inflation, and mortgagee sales due to interest rates.
A winter of discontent?
I agree with you Andrew. It seems people are waking up to the fact Hipkins is as weak leader if no new policies and will continue the slide in this country’s slide into debt and racial divide .
Yet National did nothing to curb high fuel costs during their 9 years
You are aware of the climate situation which needs people to think before they drive .To bring fuel costs down is counter productive .
Oh so Nationals policy of a low wage economy and high petrol costs was designed that way? Gosh, good golly, who new, I guess only pommes would know that.
Well at least Labour and Chippie will become the greatest saviour of the planet in history.
He is closing the dirty coal mines and shutting down the fossil fuel industry.
A low energy conference. No aspirations or vision for country. Same old name calling and bully tatics. They are making ACT look good.
If you don’t fight, you lose.
https://theconversation.com/the-real-cost-of-new-zealands-two-tier-health-system-why-going-private-doesnt-relieve-pressure-on-public-hospitals-206491?
Finally someone says what I have been saying for a decade.
Bismarck said:
“People never lie so much as before an election, during a war, or after a hunt”
Experienced all three myself, he even got the order correct.
All the scathing was petty wasted sound bytes. Nothing new – labour will ramp this up to a new level I think.