JC: Is Labour a Spent Force?

Normally after an electoral drubbing such as the Labour Government received last year one can safely assume that in another two or three election cycles there will be a path back to power. Voters will simply tire of the current lot and therefore there will be an appetite for change. Maybe a John Key or, God forbid, a Jacinda Ardern turns up to virtually single-handedly propel their party to victory.

Chris Trotter: Jacinda Ardern’s Radical Reshuffle.

Kris Faafoi's departure from Parliament has left the Immigration, Justice and Broadcasting portfolios in need of new ministers.

In the case of Immigration the Prime Minister’s choice of Michael Wood to replace Faafoi is a sound one. The issues of employment, migration, and workplace relations are closely related, so entrusting the portfolios of Labour and Immigration to a single, highly capable, politician makes a lot of sense.

When it comes to the Justice and Broadcasting portfolios, however, matters are nowhere near so cut and dried. Between now and the General Election issues with considerable potential for creating serious political division are likely to test the skills of the new ministers to their limits.

Before examining those issues in more detail, however, it is important to establish what the Prime Minister has, and hasn’t, done.

Graham Adams: Jacinda Ardern and the Ghost of David Lange

The Prime Minister is increasingly looking like a political hostage as Nanaia Mahuta presses on with the Three Waters reforms. Graham Adams sees history rhyming as her powerful Maori caucus flexes its muscles.

David Lange is one of the most tragic figures of our modern political history. Highly articulate and entertaining, he was ushered into power in a landslide in 1984 during an economic and financial crisis. Feted as the youngest Prime Minister of the 20th century, he dazzled the nation with his wit and intellect.

By the time he resigned in 1989, however, he was seen as a weak and malleable leader who had backed policies he would later regret supporting. Furthermore, the fact that his party did not advertise its radical economic agenda before the 1984 election has tainted the legacy of the Fourth Labour government ever since.

NZCPR Weekly: The Turning Tide of Public Opinion

Dear NZCPR Reader,   

In this week’s NZCPR newsletter we attribute Labour’s fall in the polls to the extremism of the Maori Caucus and we suggest that for the good of the country the moderates within the party should take back control, our NZCPR Guest Commentator Professor Elizabeth Rata refutes the existence of a Treaty partnership and outlines the strategy being used by Maoridom’s wealthy elite to gain control of the country, and our poll asks whether you accept or reject being categorised by race.

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