What happens if Incremental Labour gutlessly fails NZ (again)? The MMP Cascade Strategy

ByMartyn Bradbury

The danger of Labour believing they can just win the next election without any actual policy is a real one.

This is the party of the global modern left wing decline defined by incremental change on neoliberal economic structures alongside the immediate and shallow adoption of whatever identity politics dogma is trending.

Labour will enter the next election boldly proclaiming, “The Labour Party of Aotearoa, slightly less cruel than National”, and fuck me if they won’t win.

Labour on a bad day is a thousand times more preferable than National on a good day and any strategy that sees National out of power is a good one, but the challenges of our times demand more than “We are slightly less cruel than National”, it demands genuine solutions to deeply entrenched problems.

take the current CGT and Wealth Tax debate inside Labour.

The TRUTH is that they need both taxes.

The TRUTH is that would be bold.

The TRUTH is that a CGT that excludes the family home, will generate extra revenue for the Government to spend BUT that won’t be realised for 3 years, that means Labour implement it, take all the shit for 3 years and have no extra funding to lesson that criticism.

The TRUTH is a wealth tax gives every Kiwi their first $20000 tax free and puts immediate money into the pockets of the poorest and the middle classes all funded from the richest kiwis. It takes the tax yoke off workers and puts it on the mega wealthy.

The reality is Labour just doesn’t have the courage for that and will instead wimp out and put in a CGT that will generate enormous political attacks with very little to show for it.

So.

How do we deal with Labour’s incrementalism?

The MMP Cascade Strategy.

It requires the Greens and the Māori Party to use the leverage they will have at the next election with Labour to negotiate the real change that Labour is too frightened to attempt.

It means the Greens demanding their wealth tax if Labour won’t and it calls on the Māori Party to demand their tax policy with higher corporate taxes and higher taxes on the rich.

If the Greens and Māori Party can use their leverage to demand real changes from Labour, we will have solutions, if however the Greens and Māori Party decide to use that leverage for Identity Politics wins, then the voters will turn their back on the Left for another generation.

We can still force Labour to do what’s right, but it will require the Greens and Māori Party acting in good faith for the true challenges NZ faces, instead of wanting Puberty Blockers to be mandatory at kindergarten or declaring Rawiri’s sneakers as a cultural treasure to be housed in Te Papa.

If Labour doesn’t have the courage, we must hope on Greens and Māori Party leveraging their political advantage in a. way that benefits everyone, not just their pet projects.

 

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26 Comments

  1. Jaconda found it easy to be nice but too difficult to make the hard calls wether it was policy or calling out her poor performing ministers .
    The 6 years Labour had in power will go down as an opportunity lost to prove the policies of the left can work to the benefit of all.

    1. This country was an attractive enough country for many to want to emigrate to, BECAUSE it was built on egalitarian and common good principles. Most infrastructure and institutions were established ‘for the benefit of all’.
      We may have slipped occasionally but overall, we have proved that the policies of the left definitely work for all, when not starved of funds and not interfered with by right wing zealots with hidden agendas.

      1. However, I agree Jacinda’s Labour govt. missed a huge opportunity. Sometimes heads need to be banged together.
        It’s happening now of course, but they are the wrong heads.
        The Greens and TPM also need to bang some heads together to make themselves electable.
        We’ve had enough of theatrics.
        The votes of minorities will not get them over the line.

  2. I agree with Martyn both the Greens and the pati Maori need to hold a gun to labours head in 2026 or before.

    The gun had to be held to Labour’s head to get the Pharmac review and then REFUSED to include the funding model in the review.

    The funding model absolutely needs a review.

  3. lets see what pefu 2026 shows little miss no boats is really nuking the economy we really could be looking at 1984 all over again i would be cautious about makeing any promises

  4. Labour were worse than useless at implementing the findings of the Welfare Experts Action Group inquiry.

    1. They were useless they didn’t implement a single one of the 42 recommendations.
      The Dhb review they threw in the rubbish bin and then ditched the lot for the current bullshit model that is being torn apart by these corrupt lot in power making it 10 times worse .

  5. If they want to win Chippy needs to go asap. Useless and a loser at the last election- thats what people will remember. We are in an era of identity politics and Kieran fits the bill in this regard – definitely not Chippy!!

  6. There is a solution that doesn’t include Labour. The short explanation is this: Imagine you had a choice to vote between NZF, and The Greens. Which would you chose? Which policies are closest to your views. Not exacting, but on balance, closest. For this exercise you can’t opt out. Which one? Look them up, they’re all online. Which party would you choose? Doesn’t matter what you personally think about your local candidate. You have to vote for them and the policy regardless. No local candidate? Just vote for the party. Which party? You choose.

    Now commit to that choice and implement it at the next election. It’s that easy. The long explanation takes up about three pages of text. No more whinging about Atlas or anyone else secretly gaming the system, because you just openly gamed it back.

  7. Problem is if the polls are to be believed it will be a four headed monster regardless of the flavour of choice
    You can can’t beat mmp

  8. There is no need to have policy out now as we can see at the last election you only need to whip up hate and racisim and you are in .The current lot were elected by people on this blog because they believed the racisim and lies such as Maori were being given the water and that Jacinda was making millions and had multiple houses and farms .I have never seen evidence that she owned more than one property which was her family home in MT Roskill .I have asked for evidence re the dairy farms but so far no one has produced any .If we simply look up the list of property owned by al MPs we will not find any evidence to support those lies .

    1. If Jacinda had owned property it would not have mattered to most it was her lack of policy achievement that mattered.

      1. If it does not matter why are act continually feeding the lie to its rural supporters .I have a relative who trials sheep dogs and every time he comes back from a weekend trialing he raises the same lie he has been fed over the weekend .When I ask for evidence of those farms it turns out there is none and it is just another right wing lie which he would rather believe than fact check it himself .

    2. I so agree Labour’s biggest enemy’s are the left because they think that their outlandish policy platform will win over the whole of Aotearoa. Their next biggest enemy is the right wing media where Labour can do no right look at Audrey Young’s bouquet for Reti for manning up and not making a fuss about being humiliated for a little bible bashing pip squeak. Did she think he would break down and cry and jump off something high , for god’s sake it’s pathetic. He’s a wimp and will always be a wimp and should have had a brickbat for losing the bloody portfolio in the first place for being so useless. The next biggest enemy are the rich donors who have bought this coalition, the business round table who religiously say things are looking up in their world when we all know their not especially of course when they have their mates in government . None of the right wing blogs run down their right wing mates like the left wing blogs do.This blog especially makes a big fuss of David Seymour Matthew Hooton personally i find it all so hypocritical. Let the awful people of the right get on with it and leave them to their own devices and let’s support Labour to win in the next election or sooner if winny pulls the plug or you will be stuck with this 3 headed Trump loving monsters because his friend Musk really wants to take over the world

  9. Labour were useless at so much that amazing mandate that they wasted. They could have in the first six weeks (despite not lobbying on it) changed benefits to ensure people didn’t need to be fed lunch at schools. The difference they could have made would be so obvious in three years time.

    Yes Chippy needs to go, I have no idea who would be best to take his place, I know the people I don’t want: Megan Woods, Carmel (go back to being an activist you were good on the end of a megaphone but useless since), Ginny, Priyanca. Barbara Edmonds is a worry, I heard her on Guyon for 30, when asked about taking the tax cuts off those at the top, ‘well it is very difficult to take back what has been given’.

    We need to have a financial transactions tax. We are the 3rd most traded currency in the world, we would drop lower no doubt but it is complete madness not to have this. Along with some other taxes. Stop inequality in its tracks.

    David Parker the best by a long shot.
    Ayesha is very credible in her shadow portfolio where Simeon will be as useless as Reti was because the dye has been cast by the appointment of Lester Levy – no doubt they all have health insurance.

  10. “The danger of Labour believing they can just win the next election without any actual policy is a real one.”

    SO TRUE! But you have to realize the predicament that Hipkins is in.

    Ever since Clark factionalized the Labour Party in order to control it, it has been unable to form a consistent policy platform. According to friends in the Party at a local level, any serious conversations about policy turn into an ugly argument pitting the homos against the dykes against Maori against the unionists against the feminists. A witch’s brew of toxicity.

    With hindsight the biggest blunder the Labour Party ever made was getting rid of Mike Moore. Hipkins must either stamp his authority on the shadow cabinet or kick some of the worst people into touch.

  11. The only time the Greens talk about the environment is just before an election. TPM are nuts. Labour are best to curry up favour with Winston. He’s electable and doesn’t sound like a petulant screech owl.

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