The survey of 1000 people run by research company Dynata in late November showed that 64 per cent of the public thought that New Zealand society is becoming more divided. Only 16 per cent thought NZ has become more united in the last few years.
This survey backs up an earlier one carried out in January by Curia Research in which a large majority of 72 per cent said that we are more divided, with only 10 per cent believing we are less divided.
The cause of disunity: inequality
It is the unequal distribution of wealth that most New Zealanders believe is at the heart of this decline. According to the Herald’s survey, 74 per cent believe that wealth inequality is pushing us apart. In addition, when asked if “Our distribution of wealth is fair and good for the country”, 46 per cent disagreed and only 24 per cent agreed.
The second most significant factor in declining social cohesion is housing inequality. According to the poll, 70 per cent believe that access to housing is a cause of the growing division. And when asked if “Our access to housing is fair and good for the country”, 60 per cent disagreed, and only 21 per cent agreed.
The Government’s Covid response is also seen as a factor. According to the Herald, “51 per cent said it had divided us and 37 per cent said it was unifying.” But the majority of New Zealanders (57 per cent) agreed with the statement that “Our response to Covid has been well-judged and appropriate”.
The pandemic has exposed real problems and division
There is a tendency to view a lot of New Zealand’s current social cohesion challenges as being primarily due to conspiracy theories and opposition to vaccines. This is certainly the argument being put forward strongly by academics from The Disinformation Project. In responding to the Herald survey, Kate Hannah and Sanjana Hattotuwa have emphasized the problem of misinformation and disinformation as being at the heart of the problem.
However, the survey results and related evidence shows that the problem of increasing social divisions and declining social cohesion is more closely related to the very real material struggles the public are facing in their day-to-day lives. Academic focus on global conspiracies, social media, the internet, and public ignorance can distract from understanding and addressing material inequality.
There is no doubt that Covid has been a genuine driver of division and polarisation. This wasn’t initially the case in New Zealand’s experience of Covid. When the first wave of the virus swept the country it actually led to much greater unity. The public rallied and joined the “team of five million”, and most took seriously the Prime Minister’s instructions to “Be Kind” to each other. And by winning the elimination fight against Covid in 2020, Labour was rewarded with a historic 50 per cent support at that year’s election.
A major survey at the time by the Pew Research Center asked citizens in a variety of countries about their perception of conflict and tension. It showed that New Zealand was one of the least polarised nations. For example, while 90 per cent of Americans believed that there were strong conflicts between people who support different political parties, in New Zealand only 38 per cent believed this to be the case – the third-lowest country in the survey.
Everything fell apart in 2022
The Government’s continued assertion of “He waka eke noa” (We are all in this together) started to wear very thin in 2021 with the arrival of the Delta and then Omicron variants of Covid. This changed everything. As did the rollout of vaccines.
The peaceful lull of 2020-21 ended, and there was an explosion of polarisation, ugliness and toxicity. The Government’s Covid management was suddenly criticised from across the political spectrum. The “team of five million” fell apart, and intolerance and division grew.
As Sociologist Paul Spoonley told the Herald last week, “by late last year, early this year, what you notice is the trust in experts, trust in Government, trust in the media really take a big dive.”
And then, of course, there was the Parliamentary lawn occupation in February and March this year, which can be seen as a symptom of how much anger and alienation had been building up in New Zealand, not just during Covid, but probably well before it.
Much of that protest was an incoherent expression of all sorts of reactionary, backward and unconscionable worldviews. But it was also an expression of alienated, discontented and hurt people. Most of the people there were poor, unemployed, marginalised, and vulnerable, even if some influential leaders of the protest were not.
What was particularly surprising was to see how much public support they had – one survey showed that nearly a third of New Zealanders were sympathetic. It therefore continues to be most unwise or even dishonest to write that protest off as simply involving conspiracy theorists or white supremacists.
Instead, there needs to be an acknowledgment that the Government’s policies to deal with Covid – while well-intentioned – also created other real harms and grievances. Economically, there has been an estimated transfer of a trillion dollars to the wealthy, especially driven by money printing and policies designed to inflate asset prices. Housing has become even more of a crisis for those at the bottom of the economic pile.
Political polarisation is back
If the Parliamentary protest achieved anything – it has laid bare how divided New Zealand society currently is. It was an expression of the stressed social fabric that has been developing in this country. And that’s something that we must take very seriously. We can’t just try to sweep it under the carpet or pretend that it’s all down to social media or misinformation.
Authorities need to learn that the wrong approach to polarisation is to ignore and disparage the disaffected. Recently there has been a tendency in political and media circles to either ignore the existence of growing divisions or mock the marginalised.
Unfortunately, this is especially so for the “tribal left”. For those favouring the current Government, the existence of growing divisions is a very inconvenient fact while their team is in power. And those on the right often seek to opportunistically utilise the divisions for their own electoral advantage.
This all risks toxic polarisation becoming just another political football for left and right to aggressively kick backwards and forwards. It will be a shame if efforts to understand and deal with growing divisions and polarisation end up being characterised by the problem itself – the tribal left disparages the existence of divisions, and the tribal right champion it disingenuously. The left sneers at the “deplorables”, and the right seeks to find populist policies that might scratch the itch.
Of course, political polarisation has always been something of a business model for politics. Along with various social media companies and the media itself, politicians and their proxies have a vested interest in driving up outrage, promoting divisions, and stoking up culture wars. It can bring in an audience or even votes, while at the same time diverting public debate and attention away from substantive issues.
Ultimately, this all just feeds into a culture war, when what we really need now is for left and right to be focused on real solutions for the “bread and butter” concerns around jobs, housing, health, and other factors that make immense differences to people’s lives.
And the rest of us must somehow learn to be less tribal, embrace critical thinking and keep our leaders focused on the real issues and divisions.
We need to acknowledge the real divisions in society are growing, and recognise they are based on genuine pain – especially in terms of economic struggles – and then have political conversations and debates that aren’t plagued with point scoring, nastiness, and smears.
The growing social divisions need attention. The political polarisation that develops out of this isn’t needn’t be a bad thing if it involves a focus on policy solutions rather than toxicity towards opponents. There’s nothing inherently wrong with various political parties and the population having strong or radical views, as long as there is some sort of ability to debate and have civil tolerance towards those with different views.
In contrast, what is particularly destructive is a growing “tribal polarisation” – when political debate breaks down into mindlessly cheerleading for your own political tribe while expressing hatred for opponents. Unfortunately, we are also seeing much more of that at the moment in New Zealand. And the fear is that the coming election year is going to be much worse.
Dr Bryce Edwards is a politics lecturer at Victoria University and director of Critical Politics, a project focused on researching New Zealand politics and society. This article was first published HERE
It is the unequal distribution of wealth that most New Zealanders believe is at the heart of this decline. According to the Herald’s survey, 74 per cent believe that wealth inequality is pushing us apart. In addition, when asked if “Our distribution of wealth is fair and good for the country”, 46 per cent disagreed and only 24 per cent agreed.
The second most significant factor in declining social cohesion is housing inequality. According to the poll, 70 per cent believe that access to housing is a cause of the growing division. And when asked if “Our access to housing is fair and good for the country”, 60 per cent disagreed, and only 21 per cent agreed.
The Government’s Covid response is also seen as a factor. According to the Herald, “51 per cent said it had divided us and 37 per cent said it was unifying.” But the majority of New Zealanders (57 per cent) agreed with the statement that “Our response to Covid has been well-judged and appropriate”.
The pandemic has exposed real problems and division
There is a tendency to view a lot of New Zealand’s current social cohesion challenges as being primarily due to conspiracy theories and opposition to vaccines. This is certainly the argument being put forward strongly by academics from The Disinformation Project. In responding to the Herald survey, Kate Hannah and Sanjana Hattotuwa have emphasized the problem of misinformation and disinformation as being at the heart of the problem.
However, the survey results and related evidence shows that the problem of increasing social divisions and declining social cohesion is more closely related to the very real material struggles the public are facing in their day-to-day lives. Academic focus on global conspiracies, social media, the internet, and public ignorance can distract from understanding and addressing material inequality.
There is no doubt that Covid has been a genuine driver of division and polarisation. This wasn’t initially the case in New Zealand’s experience of Covid. When the first wave of the virus swept the country it actually led to much greater unity. The public rallied and joined the “team of five million”, and most took seriously the Prime Minister’s instructions to “Be Kind” to each other. And by winning the elimination fight against Covid in 2020, Labour was rewarded with a historic 50 per cent support at that year’s election.
A major survey at the time by the Pew Research Center asked citizens in a variety of countries about their perception of conflict and tension. It showed that New Zealand was one of the least polarised nations. For example, while 90 per cent of Americans believed that there were strong conflicts between people who support different political parties, in New Zealand only 38 per cent believed this to be the case – the third-lowest country in the survey.
Everything fell apart in 2022
The Government’s continued assertion of “He waka eke noa” (We are all in this together) started to wear very thin in 2021 with the arrival of the Delta and then Omicron variants of Covid. This changed everything. As did the rollout of vaccines.
The peaceful lull of 2020-21 ended, and there was an explosion of polarisation, ugliness and toxicity. The Government’s Covid management was suddenly criticised from across the political spectrum. The “team of five million” fell apart, and intolerance and division grew.
As Sociologist Paul Spoonley told the Herald last week, “by late last year, early this year, what you notice is the trust in experts, trust in Government, trust in the media really take a big dive.”
And then, of course, there was the Parliamentary lawn occupation in February and March this year, which can be seen as a symptom of how much anger and alienation had been building up in New Zealand, not just during Covid, but probably well before it.
Much of that protest was an incoherent expression of all sorts of reactionary, backward and unconscionable worldviews. But it was also an expression of alienated, discontented and hurt people. Most of the people there were poor, unemployed, marginalised, and vulnerable, even if some influential leaders of the protest were not.
What was particularly surprising was to see how much public support they had – one survey showed that nearly a third of New Zealanders were sympathetic. It therefore continues to be most unwise or even dishonest to write that protest off as simply involving conspiracy theorists or white supremacists.
Instead, there needs to be an acknowledgment that the Government’s policies to deal with Covid – while well-intentioned – also created other real harms and grievances. Economically, there has been an estimated transfer of a trillion dollars to the wealthy, especially driven by money printing and policies designed to inflate asset prices. Housing has become even more of a crisis for those at the bottom of the economic pile.
Political polarisation is back
If the Parliamentary protest achieved anything – it has laid bare how divided New Zealand society currently is. It was an expression of the stressed social fabric that has been developing in this country. And that’s something that we must take very seriously. We can’t just try to sweep it under the carpet or pretend that it’s all down to social media or misinformation.
Authorities need to learn that the wrong approach to polarisation is to ignore and disparage the disaffected. Recently there has been a tendency in political and media circles to either ignore the existence of growing divisions or mock the marginalised.
Unfortunately, this is especially so for the “tribal left”. For those favouring the current Government, the existence of growing divisions is a very inconvenient fact while their team is in power. And those on the right often seek to opportunistically utilise the divisions for their own electoral advantage.
This all risks toxic polarisation becoming just another political football for left and right to aggressively kick backwards and forwards. It will be a shame if efforts to understand and deal with growing divisions and polarisation end up being characterised by the problem itself – the tribal left disparages the existence of divisions, and the tribal right champion it disingenuously. The left sneers at the “deplorables”, and the right seeks to find populist policies that might scratch the itch.
Of course, political polarisation has always been something of a business model for politics. Along with various social media companies and the media itself, politicians and their proxies have a vested interest in driving up outrage, promoting divisions, and stoking up culture wars. It can bring in an audience or even votes, while at the same time diverting public debate and attention away from substantive issues.
Ultimately, this all just feeds into a culture war, when what we really need now is for left and right to be focused on real solutions for the “bread and butter” concerns around jobs, housing, health, and other factors that make immense differences to people’s lives.
And the rest of us must somehow learn to be less tribal, embrace critical thinking and keep our leaders focused on the real issues and divisions.
We need to acknowledge the real divisions in society are growing, and recognise they are based on genuine pain – especially in terms of economic struggles – and then have political conversations and debates that aren’t plagued with point scoring, nastiness, and smears.
The growing social divisions need attention. The political polarisation that develops out of this isn’t needn’t be a bad thing if it involves a focus on policy solutions rather than toxicity towards opponents. There’s nothing inherently wrong with various political parties and the population having strong or radical views, as long as there is some sort of ability to debate and have civil tolerance towards those with different views.
In contrast, what is particularly destructive is a growing “tribal polarisation” – when political debate breaks down into mindlessly cheerleading for your own political tribe while expressing hatred for opponents. Unfortunately, we are also seeing much more of that at the moment in New Zealand. And the fear is that the coming election year is going to be much worse.
Dr Bryce Edwards is a politics lecturer at Victoria University and director of Critical Politics, a project focused on researching New Zealand politics and society. This article was first published HERE
13 comments:
"And the rest of us must somehow learn to be less tribal..."
I wonder what could have promoted this, Bryce.
Could it possibly be the endless favouritism and positive racism overtly doled out by this government towards Maori?
Could it be a runaway Maori caucus enacting racist legislation which only considers Maori?
Could it be a PM who promises to rule for everyone but then rules largely for Maori...and even that she proves incompetent at.
Maybe you should be looking for the source of the problem, Bryce - this racist government.
It seems glaringly obvious, but not apparently to you.
I’m sure the author is well aware of the Maori/Others divide being promoted by Labour. But the survey didn’t address this. That’s a surprise - I would have thought that racism - the preferment of Maori interests over all others - is by far the biggest issue facing New Zealand.
S usual DeeM.
An arrow right to the heart of the matter.
I agree with DeeM that it is the forced and patronising focus on Maori and co-governance that is causing the division in our society. Adversity can bring people together in shared misfortune - in wars and depressions people can unite to share one another's distress - and without being too soppy - we have seen this happening around Covid. Undeniably there has been some degree of inter-racial friction - ask the dairy-owners - but I know Maori and pakeha who are deeply disturbed by this constant pushing by the government -driven media to force Maori into victim-mode. The kinship feeling is still there but it is under considerable strain.
Don't be too hard on Bryce, Dee M. He is one of a handful of educated, moderate, and insightful academics who are trying, actually with difficult considerations, to support awareness of what is actually going down in NZ.
To make any changes, you and I alone can do no more than vote but people like Bryce and others are a guiding light that also helps to keep us sane.
Sometimes one has to say things very quietly or even speak in riddles. This is what we are coming to!
MC
An article in the Herald on 2nd December says there were 2 Herald-commissioned polls, and that both asked respondents about 4 “Key issues considered divisive by Kiwis”. The issues were NZ’s Covid response, Distribution of Wealth, Access to housing and A farming-based economy. Astonishingly, it seems not to have occurred to the Herald that Labour’s determined imposition of an unmandated agenda whereby the state distinguishes between citizens on the basis of ethnicity, might be a tiny bit divisive. Ah, but the Herald has taken the King’s shilling and dare not rock the waka.
"Much of that protest was an incoherent expression of all sorts of reactionary, backward and unconscionable worldviews."
It appears Bryce got his insights int the Protest exclusively from the "Far-Woke" parts of the PIJF-funded media.
You can fool some of the people all the time and all the people some of the time but you can’t fool all the people all the time.
Perhaps politicians and the media should stop treating Joe Public like morons.
It might surprise politicians to know that Joe Public is full of well educated people who can comprehend difficult stuff. People consume media from many different sources, so trying to control the narrative is a pointless waste of time because the truth always comes out, eventually.
That’s why the Govt Covid strategy fell apart, there was a different truth to the one Jacinda was pushing.
The polls have reflected her decline ever since.
It ain’t rocket science people !
Adversity is nothing new for all peoples. We all have to face up to the problems that arise.
All the above comments
recognize the main division in our current pathway. Its name is Maori.
The cause of the problem is not inequality. Inequality is inherent in all societies because we are by nature not all equal. We all have different gifts and talents we will not all rise to the same level when placed in identical environments. But it is our differences in talents and gifts that make each one of us important to the flourishing of society.
The source of the division in our society is not inequality, because this has and will always exist. The root of the problem is a persistent and sustained attack on the culture that is responsible for what was called Christian and later renamed as Western Civilisation. We are now in a post-Christian society and without a shared moral framework founded in the Divinely instituted religion there is no common bond to unite men into working for what is truly the common good.
All we have is men with itching ears making up their own rules and falling into the pit, dragging society along with their madness. Our society reflects an abandonment of not only Divine truth but also the Natural law. It is doomed to fail if people don't turn back to the ways that generated modern civilisation in the first place. It will only take a few more generations at most. If those generations even come into existence in the first place.
Still persisting with a rather Ardern propaganda-led description of the Wellington protest. Isnt was far right, or white supremecist, or even mostly supported by the poor. It was a cross section of new Zealanders appalled by the mandates and the way they were treated by government and media
There is not enough division in NZ. There are too many apathetic people who just don’t care enough to have an opinion. There are too many who think “She’ll be right”. There are too many who don’t realise their right to equality and to one-person-one-equal-vote has been taken away. There are too many lily-livered cowards, and not enough courageous leaders. The passion about the current situation should be greater – people should be on the streets. While the country has been sleepwalking, the government have already imposed racist apartheid and killed democracy, and most are still watching the sports channel.
It's great to see this item was published in the NZ Herald!
That is why a cool head and quiet talking is required to have meaningful and open debate.
The main issue, co-governance, is NOT being discussed. Parliament should be echoing with that word every day but is not because we have no effective opposition.
Much gratitude to Bryce for being on this.
MC
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