Christie: How Far Have We Fallen?

I came to New Zealand in the 1980s, and it was a very decent place to live back then.

At a time when Britain was starting to deal with race riots due to immigration, New Zealand was a broad contrast. The people were great, the culture was familiar and, above all, there didn’t seem to be any major racial issues.

Crime rates were low, even compared to the UK. People left their keys in the car when they went to the dairy and left their houses unlocked. It was a lovely, safe place to live.

So what went wrong?

Christie: They Haven’t Counted the Shy Tories

Although I voted on the second day of advanced voting, I am still watching the entire election campaign with great interest. This election is about swinging voters, and also the large number of ‘undecided’ voters that the polls continue to throw up. That makes it interesting.

It is possible that a portion of voters fall into the category of ‘shy Tories’ – a phenomenon discovered in the 1987 British election, when the polls showed a landslide to the left, but on the night, Margaret Thatcher won her third term. It was concluded that many people who were asked their voting intentions did not admit they were going to vote Conservative. Yet they did…in droves. The Conservatives won, when all the polls said that they were on their way out of government.

Christie: Should We Ignore Promises Made by Politicians?

David Seymour is currently on the radio telling listeners to ignore promises made by politicians. This is a strange thing for a politician to say, particularly as ACT has a considerable manifesto containing a large number of policies it will be hoping to get past National – and possibly New Zealand First. But he has a point. Many of the promises made during election campaigns never see the light of day. There is always an excuse – not enough money, not enough support – or in the case of minor parties, a (convenient) inability to persuade the major parties to go along.

Christie: A Debate Full of Race-Baiting

I watched TVNZ News on Thursday 28 September. (I did this so that you didn’t have to) and, honestly, it was a disgrace. According to the radio during the day, Hipkins had clearly won the second Leaders’ Debate the previous evening (Wednesday), and the knives of the oh-so-biased media were well and truly out.

I watched the last half hour of the debate. OK, I am a political tragic, and it was lucky that I was enjoying very civilised company earlier in the evening, otherwise I would have watched all 90 minutes of it. I doubt that I missed much, however.

Christie: Snatching Defeat from the Jaws of Victory

David Seymour needs to pull his head in

I was considering voting for ACT at the election. Maybe I still will, but I have to admit, David Seymour’s recent antics have made me think twice. The election is now only a few weeks away. If voting mirrors the current polling in any way, we should have a National-ACT government next month. It cannot come soon enough.

Christie: We Have to Succeed

Like most of us, I am delighted to see the trend in the polls showing that a centre-right government is more and more likely next month. Momentum seems to be gathering for a change of government. Even the media, with their enormous left-wing bias, seem resigned to the fact that the incumbents are on their way out. It can’t come soon enough.

National and ACT will be better stewards of the economy than Labour. In 2017 when this government came to power, total Crown expenditure was $99 billion per year. In 2022, Crown expenditure had reached $151 billion per year – an increase of 55 per cent in five years. And don’t forget, inflation was low in all but the last of those years.

Christie: The Truth and the Tax Debate

They say there is nothing more certain than death and taxes, but bringing the latter of these matters to the fore in an election campaign is often political suicide. The Greens do it on a regular basis, as a shout-out to their own voters, but the main parties generally know to leave it well alone during the run up to an election. That is why it is so surprising to see taxation as a headline issue in Labour’s current campaign. By telling us what they are not going to do before this election, they are, perhaps unwittingly, telling us what we can look forward to if they are re-elected. And the resignation of the Revenue Minister in a fit of pique because he could not get his way on wealth and capital gains taxes is a sure sign that these policies are on the agenda; and, if Labour wins again, they will be implemented sooner rather than later.

Christie: Why Wealth Taxes Won’t Work

At the 2020 election the Greens proposed a wealth tax. I remember being horrified that, if Labour needed the Greens to govern, they might make the introduction of a wealth tax one of their bottom lines. While we had often discussed a capital gains tax, this was the first time a wealth tax had ever been mentioned. But once the election was over, Labour did not need the Greens to govern, so that was – as they say – that.

As it turns out, it wasn’t.