Point of Order: A lurch to the right?

Not that the PM can see (or rather, not that she is willing to acknowledge)

The thud reverberating around the country on Saturday – according to a raft of political commentators – was the sound of a party vote collapsing. The Labour Party vote.

But that ominous interpretation didn’t reach the ears of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who insisted in an interview on RNZ’s Morning Report that the results from local body elections are not “necessarily indicative of a shift in feeling on national politics”.

Really?

Kate Hawkesby: Local body results reflect the mood for change

I’m pleased that the woeful turnout for the local body elections still at least saw change.

There is a mood for change – a strong one it would seem, and the results should be a wake-up call to anyone left in the Beehive still not believing that people are sick to the back teeth of the establishment.

We are sick of the status quo, we are sick of where we’re at. It was, as one political commentator pointed out, “a bloodbath” for the left.

Bryce Edwards: Voters have sent a very strong signal, but will Central Government listen?

The results of the local government elections will be very difficult to process for the political left. Overall, it was a disaster for progressives, and a boon for conservatives. The left has to deal with a sea change of gigantic proportions, in which favoured liberal candidates – such as Efeso Collins running for the Auckland mayoralty – have been trounced. The other Jacinda Ardern-endorsed mayoral candidate – MP Paul Eagle in Wellington, was humiliated with his fourth place.

The extent of the wipe-out for Labour, Greens, and leftwing candidates was like a mirror image of the wipe-out of the National Party just two years ago at the 2020 general election. Throughout the country, progressives have done very poorly, with very few exceptions.