What a Labour, Green, Te Pāti Māori, TOP Government could achieve
If the latest polling is even half right, a Labour, Green, Te Pāti Māori, TOP Government isn’t fantasy anymore — it’s suddenly within reach. And that changes the conversation from survival to possibility.
TVNZ polls are seen as the sensible and most boring of the polling in New Zealand, for them to be showing crazy swings like five points up and four points down are either a rogue poll or an earthquake shattering reality check.
If the numbers hold, the left has options again
TOP coming in at 3% is as enormous as NZ First halting their climb, ACT falling backwards and National melting down.
As a Left Wing mercenary, my heart will skip if we can get a Labour, Green, Te Pāti Māori majority, and if TOP can be added with that mix, it would be all my Christmases come at once.
Adding in TOP (if they cross 5%) would allow Chippy to have wider options on policy than being held hostage by a more uncompromising Te Pāti Māori (whose internal frictions caused so much fear in the wider electorate thanks to the Kapa-Kingi).
Labour will hold the centre and won’t spook the horses. I don’t look to Chippy for the socialist utopia, I look to him to be a decent human being who wouldn’t have borrowed for tax cuts we couldn’t afford and wouldn’t have handed hundreds of millions in corporate welfare.
If the Greens tag team with Te Pāti Māori in the negotiating process to present a united front in negotiations, that is where we will see the real progressive policy and the heavy lifting will have to be done by the Greens (who easily have some of the best policy) and Te Pāti Māori who have some of the most socialist tax policy.
TOP could bring disruptive ideas to the mix.
So what could a four-party progressive government actually do?
A Labour, Green, Te Pāti Māori, TOP Government could produce a legislative agenda on par with the Savage Government, a rebuilding of our social egalitarianism and a focus on all the people, not just the interests of rich donors.
If you are not excited by the possibilities a Labour, Green, Te Pāti Māori, TOP Government could actually produce if we win in November, you ain’t paying attention.
Because this is the moment, right?
For years the argument has been about what we can’t do — what markets won’t allow, what voters won’t accept, what coalition partners won’t tolerate.
But if these numbers hold, that excuse disappears.
And then we find out who actually has the courage to use power when they finally get it.
Wh you assume TOP would go with the Left. They seem a sensible lot so I wonder how they would take on board some of the policies of the Greens and TPM
If the numbers hold a labour green majority government is becoming actually very likely, already at 48% on this poll, and with six months of Luxon bleeding support and energy and economic pain, labour could well get a Helen Clark low 40s result.
If the Greens had a more gender balanced proposed caucus list instead of the 80% female one they floated and weren’t alienating young progressive men who won’t vote labour so will just stay home, they would be above 10% in every poll, but they can’t help themselves. Still a red green govt is becoming increasingly possible (more possible than top passing 5%)
If labour and the greens don’t need tpm or top, good, progressive and centerist votes would flow to top and tpm in the next term and labour/green could work with them in a second term
If top gets 5% say goodbye to any scenario where labour works with TPM, Labour doesn’t like or trust TPM or want anything to do with them unless it absolutely has to, if there’s a centerist real party like top, labour would 100% form a coalition with top (and keep the greens in confidence and support)
The only way labour works with TPM is if it absolutely has to, Labour and it’s members genuinely hate TPM, see them as a mortal enemy and see any formal association with TPM as the kiss of death.
But Labour should absolutely formally rule out working with NZF because NZf has not formally ruled out labour for this election, and 80% of NZf voters want the option to work with labour on the table, meaning there’s a lot of people who want a labour govt but are planning to vote NZF to hand break that govt, Labour should rule NZF and mercilessly mock Winstons 50 years of being a life long insider and professional politician while pretending to be a populist.
Not Labour under Chippy. He is Luxon lite. Or have you forgotten how Labour refused to spend the capital that was given them when they were last in power? And Chippy’s imitative and beyond stupid ‘Captains Calls’.
While I share your view regarding Hipkins I can’t see any changes on that side of the house before the election so it will be a case of “we’re not as bad as the last lot” rather than transformative change I expect. If enough votes go to their support parties we might get some real action although pride comes before a fall and if the support parties get a decent presence in parliament they might look to their own agenda instead of what is best for most of us.
November is a long time to hold my breath! A Left win would save NZ from this current “wrecking ball” and while it will be a tough time to be in power, at least the country will be run instead of lurching from one catastrophe to another. Again, anyone who can’t see this is, to me, a sandwich short of a picnic. So those who want a better NZ, make sure you are enrolled ASAP; regularly check your enrolment; and turn up on voting day whatever the weather, no excuses! Never think anything is a fait accompli.