Nicola Willis, somehow managing to keep a straight face, claims to be the defender of working people. That the deputy-leader of the National Party, by no means a stupid woman, is prepared to offer up such a ludicrous proposition indicates just how deranged our politics have become. That there are working-class voters out there who will take Willis’s claim seriously should not, however, be received as proof that National has quietly embraced socialism. Rather, it should be taken as a measure of just how emphatically so many of Labour leaders have rejected it.
Not all of Labour’s leaders, however. Not while David Parker remains a member of Chris Hipkins’ Cabinet. Parker is a stern critic of economic inequality, most particularly of the way New Zealand’s tax system allows the über-rich to avoid paying their fair share of tax. For nearly two decades he has championed the introduction of a Capital Gains Tax (CGT) finding sufficient support among his own caucus colleagues and Labour’s rank-and-file to embed the policy in a succession of Labour election manifestos.
