Now that Winston’s crept back into the fray, we've got the old gameplaying of not just the politicians - but the voters now too who seem to believe they can rig MMP in their favour.
They want to design their own bespoke government. After all these years, we still don’t seem to get it. Essentially NZ voters are their own worst enemies.
Nearly two thirds of New Zealand voters think the country is heading in the wrong direction – but the smorgasbord of wasted votes plays to those who indulge themselves in delusions of grandeur that MMP provides them an ability to vote tactically.
They truly believe they can change the direction New Zealand is going with a sprinkling of some self serving bias - but it sadly doesn’t work like that.
Believing you can ‘send a message’, or ‘take out some insurance’ or ‘punish’ a party, is deluded.
To vote ‘tactically’ against a party you traditionally support or to counter the perceived threat of another minor party, means you’re at the same time ignoring a raft of potentially crazy economic and social policies, to tick a box which you mistakenly believe will ‘hold the new government to account.’
John Key once famously said if you want steak, order steak. And yet still, when we say we want steak, there are some who order mince instead, and with a side of veges, ‘just to keep the chef on his toes.’
It makes no sense.
Countless polls have shown the two core issues at stake in New Zealand right now are the cost of living and rampant crime. That’s before you get to our broken health or failing education systems.
Yet a large chunk of New Zealand voters, who are desperate to see a change in direction of this country, somehow think they can afford to split their vote and yet still expect to see a change in direction.
They are not doing the maths, they are not reading the room.
Based on latest polling, a coalition of Labour, Greens and Te Pati Maori gets 45 percent of the seats in Parliament, even though 66 percent of voters think the country is going in the wrong direction.
Head scratch.
A coalition of National and Act, which would arguably change the direction of this country which two thirds of voters think is heading in the wrong direction, on latest polling has only 50.8 percent of the seats.
This makes no sense.
Don’t even get me started on Winston.
Any government involving NZ First will go in no direction, it will stall as Winston looks to negotiate, grandstand and play games – hauling on the handbrake of progress in any and all directions.
Yet in latest polling, with a backdrop of two thirds of New Zealanders thinking the country is heading in the wrong direction, NZ First is on the precipice of holding progress to ransom as kingmaker.
This will inevitably put New Zealand into a sleeper hold – right at a point in history where it needs to be taking some deep breaths and big bold steps.
Be careful not who you vote for, but WHAT you vote for.
Rhis is before we get to the woeful tail of tiny parties like TOPP, Vision NZ, Liz Gunn, Hannah Tamaki and co, the waste of time territory. We either want change or we don’t.
The stakes for New Zealand have never been higher, we are at a cross-road – and we cannot afford to stall now in the middle of the intersection.
Kate Hawkesby is a journalist and broadcaster who hosts the Early Edition show on Newstalk ZB.
5 comments:
|It is highly unlikely that Winston will hold the balance of power as he did in 2017. Having said that, NZ First has some very competent people who could offer a real contribution to our country, and strengthen the platform to heal our current, contrived racial division. I believe that NZ First should be invited to be part of the government, whether they hold a balance of power or not. I believe that people like Peters, Jones and Casey Costello would serve their country well.
Kate, well said. The numbers don't stack up for me either.
I have spoken to a lot of ppl yet I can't find 1, not 1 who admits to voting labour, or goingto vote for labour, so there are a lot of liars out there also.
I have also had a relative at my dinner table who is a reasonably smart man so I thought who was saying all the right things, around labours budget, crime, health, education policies etc and how terrible labour have been, but then said I think I will vote green! I tried to tell him that that's really a vote for the current lot ....except for more radical lunatics but he didn't get it. That's a good chunk of the problem right there! How many kiwis are like him? (Ie, he knows the country is heading in the wrong direction so is voting for greens) it does not make sense at all.
Ah, an interesting comment (quote) - " Don’t even get me started on Winston.
Any government involving NZ First will go in no direction, it will stall as Winston looks to negotiate, grandstand and play games – hauling on the handbrake of progress in any and all directions". (end quote).
Now on the basis of this comment, why has Media in NZ not said the same thing.
For those reading, scratching your head, wondering - our past Political History, that has involved Winston Peters has not helped the end of an electoral process, only delayed it, until Winston " got what HE wanted, not what HIS Party wanted". Make sense. You can find that History if you google via the internet.
Sadly Winston has proven he is not wanted in Parliament, the General Election of 2019 proved that, but sadly there are many New Zealander's of the older age group, the NZ First Party Vote people, who still think that the sun " shines of out Winston's ..."!
Thanks to Kate for being honest.
Kate, re the election, main stream media have a lot to answer for by not informing nzers properly. I was listening to peter williams interview chris lynch on a podcast and both of them were talking about the incredible propaganda that the taxpayer funded . Sadly even zb has barely mentioned co-governance or the consequences of what tribal rule would be like for nzers. In australia the voice is openly debated, even in msm and and australians get a referendum. What do we get? Silence. That is why some people don't know who to vote for in the election, because people don't know what is going on.
NZ First enabled Labour. Don’t voters understand this?
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