Dr Oliver Hartwich: Should NZ’s Luxon, Hipkins consider grand coalition?

Ahead of New Zealand’s 2017 election, I floated the idea of a grand coalition between National and Labour in a few columns. The circumstances back then made it appealing. The two main parties commanded more than 80 per cent of the vote. A temporary partnership, I argued, could deliver the difficult reforms that no smaller coalition would attempt.

With polls pointing to a very tight outcome in November’s general election, several commentators have now begun making the same case. But the circumstances that made the argument reasonable in 2017 no longer exist today.

Ani O'Brien: Who really wants a Grand Coalition between Labour and National?

The whole idea is borne of establishment panic

The sudden enthusiasm for a “Grand Coalition” between the New Zealand Labour Party and New Zealand National Party is being presented by proponents as a sober, pragmatic response to the complexities of modern governance. Its advocates speak the language of stability, maturity, and responsibility. They gesture toward international examples, invoke economic necessity, and lament the supposed distortions of coalition politics under MMP. But under the paternalistic managerial tone and the carefully chosen euphemisms, is an admission of political failure and more troublingly, a repudiation of the democratic choices voters have been making and the subtle-as-a-gun signals they have been sending to the political class.