What the Greens + Māori Party should immediately do
With the Greens and the Māori Party winning last night in the Labour Party landslide of 2020, there needs to be some immediate strategic planning.
The Māori Party and the Greens need to meet and form a panel that can agree on a shared list of policies that would be passed within the first 100 days of the next Government.
Only a Labour Green Māori Party Government could be transformative.
With economic turmoil around the corner and the shifting generational dynamics now at play, Labour fear most an attack from the Left.
For Labour, they would want a coalition Government. 2023 is a generational shift in NZ politics when for the first time, Gen Xers + Millennials outnumber Boomers at the ballot box. The time to build a broad coalition Government tailored for this shifting dynamic is now.
The negotiating team for the Greens & MP meeting Labour should be Nandor, Sue Bradford, Laila Harre and a representative from the Maori Party.
The most aligned policy platform in the MMP spectrum is the Greens and Māori Party.
The Rubiks cube of MMP could produce a Labour+Green+Māori Party Government which would be the most progressive government in our lifetime.
This could produce the transformative change Jacinda promised in 2017.
The Greens and Māori Party need to be extremely strategic here. This is what everyone has been fighting for.
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I recall when Key invited the Maori party and the Greens to the table….. was smart politics and it further isolated Labour.
This would most probably not happen this election but just imagine if Labour not only asked the Greens and Maori party to the table but also asked ACT to form an agreement with Labour within the first month to promote any common policy which they agree upon…after all Jacinda wants to form a government for all New Zealanders….
Imagine how left out National would feel…. It would be good for the Nats to give them a chance to lick their wounds and actually start a top down clean out of their party.
Jacinda may not want to upset her growing base and David S may fear that forming any agreement with Labour may lose him base support as what happened to the Maori party folloeing having worked along side Keys Nat party.
An offer from Labour to Act to work on specific common policy goals though would prove to NZlanders that Labour is working for all New Zealanders…. Even if Act turned the offer down if it was offered publically then it would look really inclusive.
” but also asked ACT to form an agreement with Labour within the first month”.. I had been thinking the same thing.. It makes sense to have the widest range of input into the laws that will have to follow whatever plan is devised… It might even put a muzzle on the worst of the NZNRA idiocy that Seymorebutts has invited into their party…
I recall when Key invited the Maori party and the Greens to the table….. was smart politics and it further isolated Labour.
This would most probably not happen this election but just imagine if Labour not only asked the Greens and Maori party to the table but also asked ACT to form an agreement with Labour within the first month to promote any common policy which they agree upon…after all Jacinda wants to form a government for all New Zealanders….
Imagine how left out National would feel…. It would be good for the Nats to give them a chance to lick their wounds and actually start a top down clean out of their party.
Jacinda may not want to upset her growing base and David S may fear that forming any agreement with Labour may lose him base support as what happened to the Maori party folloeing having worked along side Keys Nat party.
An offer from Labour to Act to work on specific common policy goals though would prove to NZlanders that Labour is working for all New Zealanders…. Even if Act turned the offer down if it was offered publically then it would look really inclusive.
the maori party has a different job to do and can do it better from outside any support arrangement or coalition with government. need to be able to speak loudly and unapologetically about mana motuhake and tino rangatiratanga for as long as it takes for the NZ majority and the government leaders to get used to hearing it. and be working on the ground to encourage the sort of work that needs to happen at hapu, iwi and national level to prepare for transformative change such as a moari parliament.
I would very strongly advise Labour to bring the Greens and the Maori Party (if they make it back) into the tent. This election result may never be repeated under MMP.
The major parties will fight over the middle, I do not think we will see another minor party trying to establish itself in the middle of the road again, you eventually get run over. The place of minor parties is on the outer edges, where ACT and the Greens are, Maori party are the only exception to this, but they can place themselves anywhere on the spectrum, depending on the mood of the day.
The next election will be the telling one and both Labour and National will need the support of minor parties to form a government. Barring outright disaster, National are not going to return in a landslide, any time soon, If it comes down to tin tacks, National will have to concede far more to the minor party of the NRA and climate science denial to form a government, than Labour will to the Greens/Maori parties if a working relationship is already established and working from the previous three years.
So, yes, Labour, bring them in now, and work for some of that transformative change, do not under any circumstances try to coast to the next election, as that will be punished. Spend some of that political capital while you have it. I do not expect to see anything like this again in my lifetime.