Why the Left Stumbled in New Zealand

“It was a coincidence that the New Zealand election fell on the same night as Australia’s ‘Voice’ referendum to recognise its indigenous population. But it is no accident that New Zealand’s Labour party and Australia’s Labor party, which called the referendum, are reeling at the scale of their defeats,” Nic Fildes writes for the Financial Times.

“[Executive chair of political profiling group Australian Development Studies John] Black said that New Zealanders had clearly had enough of ‘progressive style government’ initiatives at a time of a cost of living crisis and post-pandemic economic stress that right-wing parties had capitalised on in the run-up to the election. [Chris] Hipkins ditched some of [Jacinda] Ardern’s grander reform projects, saying they were ‘too much too fast’ at a time of high inflation. But it simply handed the initiative to the opposition,” Fildes reports.

“‘Both [Hipkins and Anthony Albanese] were out of step with the blue collar people who have been putting Labour in government for 100 years,’ Black said.”

Original article by Nic Fildes, Financial Times, October 21, 2023.