27/08/2026
People ask “what are you going to do?” Fair enough.
But I think it is worth pointing out just how grim the established brands of New Zealand politics are. We need a splash of the cold water of reality on our face, before we can set our sights on improving our lot.
The parties of the right in New Zealand are simply no good.
The Prime Minister has made it clear he does not like New Zealanders and spends much of his time criticising them.
Former PM Norman Kirk said National represented a shallow and materialistic outlook. He was speaking in the early 1970s and they have declined greatly since that time. Sober conservatism has become infused with a nasty Social Darwinism, a kind of “move on” outlook where inconvenient outcomes are dragged away out of sight.
National Party candidates often fail to show up to public meetings. Democracy is an embarrassing and uncomfortable three yearly hassle for those who see themselves as managers. They are upset by jeers and catcalls from their social inferiors.
Their support largely comes from those who grew up in the good years of social and economic security, and who have now shamefully pulled the ladder up on the young working class who have come behind them.
ACT and New Zealand First are filled with louts getting a free ride from a decaying media after clickbait headlines.
Paul Henry, a third rate entertainer, calls school students “little sh*ts” after a career of behaving like one on national television. The ACT Party, big on law and order, has seen a parade of crooks pass through its ranks over the years, and even at their non-felon best represent the worst of the New Zealand psyche – venal, mean, and hypocritical.
NZ First is a cynical exercise. The Minister of Foreign Affairs tells MPs who are New Zealand citizens to “go home.” He has spent decades as the ragebait troll of New Zealand politics, scratching the itch of mindless anger, and I am quite certain chuckles to himself as his latest anti-woke tirade creates horror amongst urban liberals. On the positive side, his party is a congelation of absolute chancers that will fall to pieces like wet cardboard the moment their ageing leader calls it quits.
The opposition is less offensive but also less confident, and because we expect them to be on “our side” end up even more disappointing.
Chris Hipkins has made it crystal clear he has no intention of delivering – ever – the type of bold and strong change of direction this country needs.
His programme, even if followed through, will not alter the lives of the working class majority in a meaningful way. At best it will delay the ongoing collapse of their living standards, the concentration of wealth and power, and our hurtling trajectory towards climate catastrophe that is curiously arriving “faster than expected.”
“Chippy” accepts the system. He is part of the system. He is a good option for middle class professionals with pleasant manners to support. This is such a distant galaxy from where the proud and radical founders of the Labour movement began.
Another development is the Opportunity Party and their current success. OPP somehow manages to present itself as simultaenously a radical alternative and a middle of the road cosmic balancing force. In reality it is neither.
OPP is a controlled opposition, filled with people who seem to have no understanding of politics but who chirrup about “evidence based policies” – as if they themselves have no moral or ideological bias.
There is something deeply aggravating about political novices who go on about being “sensible” and “grown up”, as if they are some kind of special breed of politician/human incapable of making dumb and self-interested decisions like everyone else.
One particularly amazing concept they love to promote is how the “market” will solve our environmental crisis. This really does make me think they are being bankrolled by some savvy corporates.
Behind the scene are paymasters and a “Board” who seem to make the calls. I am amazed some people who seem to think that this cooked up venture will deliver “change”.
How can you deliver change when you position yourself as some kind of coalition partner for hire, a kind of trendy new age teal-coloured New Zealand First cutting deals? At least Winston is a good card shark, whereas OPP will be smashed to bits as soon as they arrive full of vim at the coalition negotiations.
The Opportunists are a symptom of the absolute loss of bearings in our politics, where many people are so desperate for a circuit breaker they run like lemmings towards any brightly coloured novelty.
So much for the 2026 general election. Yet, there is some good news.
Next week, a look into why the democratic socialist politics of the Alliance offer a way out of the political maze for Aotearoa New Zealand.
