I can remember Jesus Christ and Mickey Mouse running for parliament. It was a bit of a let down when the announcer on TV read the results for “Mr J Christ” and “Mr M Mouse”.
This is great news. Looks like NZ, as P J O’Rourke would say, now has a government with adults in it.
This isn’t purely me wearing my conservative hat, either. I voted Labor in the last Australian federal election, because the conservative coalition had grown arrogant and had frankly gone too far, I was happy with Obama’s victory for pretty much the same reasons, and now - although the political wings are reversed, the same applies to NZ, I reckon.
This is a kick in the arse New Zealand needed. Rather than passively riding global economic success (only with pictures of mountains pasted over the top), NZ might now be in a better position to show the world its brains and innovative nature (it has both in abundance).
I just heard that Obama won in NZ.
I wish! Instead, although it may look like something different, it isn’t, really. No real grown-ups – most of those who will have real power under this National-led government have been at this before, and their level of childishness in decision making and in what they do and say in Parliament has been noted over the years.
I didn’t expect Labour to pull off the miracle win this time, and I’ve said so here before now. National’s win was inevitable, because we get sick and tired of political parties and give them the push in this country. The wheels were coming off Helen Clark’s cabinet two or more years ago. In Labour electorates, even Goff’s Mt Roskill, the party vote for National was highest.
My mood today is pessimistic. Only if Key manages to get the Maori Party on board will his government be a majority one (more than 50% of the vote), and he isn’t in a position where he needs to do that. I can only wait now for the new cabinet to prove me wrong. Hopefully, Key will keep his sort-of word and keep Roger-flamin’-Douglas out of cabinet.
I have friends who doubt that the word will be kept, though.
Thank You!
I am calling friends in New Zealand later today and you have given me my opening line!
The scariest thing about it is that ACT will probably be part of the government. I didn’t get to vote, having been out of the country too long, but I’m deeply disappointed in the results. I predict chaos. And deep regret and anger from the electorate as the Nats sell everything off (again - although this was Labour’s fault in the first place). I did expect the Greens to do a little better than they did but hopefully they can keep pressure up in the House to try and keep things honest.
The only real bright note from this is the end of Winston Peters.
Since Clark is now stepping down as leader of Labour who are the frontrunners for that spot?
ETA: I voted for STV as well - but I’ll take MMP over FPP which is, IMO, the worst of all possible setups
Phil Goff is the main front-runner, with the only serious challenger I can see being Michael Cullen. There’s also Trevor Mallard, David Cunliffe, and perhaps Annette King or Ruth Dyson as possibilities. Goff was number 3 on the party list, behind Helen Clark and Cullen.
And none of those options have the shine of success about them.
There are only two things I’ve enjoyed about this election. Winston (bitterly ordering Journo’s about to the last) failing to get 5%
and Lockwood Smith, shooting himself in the political foot and removing himself from any important position.
Yeah but Smith has been doing that off and on for years.
Maybe this was once too often;
Friends of mine once tried to talk to Smith about student loans (he was Min. Education at the time,) most MP’s would have told them to write a letter to the office, he told them to ‘Fuck Off’. They were more surprised than offended.
The Greens might pick up an extra seat or two through special votes. Special votes tend to be quite good for the Greens.
Michael Cullen has now walked off into the sunset.
Bill and Ben are the tenth most popular party in NZ, with over 11,000 votes: “Honest is the best policy, and we’ve honestly got no policy”.
A McGillicuddy campaigner and acquaintance of mine said that MMP was really the end of the party. Under FPP people in a “safe” electorate that didn’t want the favoured candidate essentially had a throw-away vote, and could be persuaded to vote McGillicuddy Serious as a protest vote. Things changed under MMP with people less likely to protest vote, using their party vote tactically. Their electorate vote might still be ineffective I suppose (although if the weekend showed anything, with the Nats taking the Labour stronghold of Central Auckland there may not be such a thing as a safe seat).
Hmmm… so we have a Nat + Act + Peter Dunne govt for the next term. Should be interesting times.
How he (Peter Dunne) continues to get re-elected has always been a bit of a mystery to me. I remember going to a meeting where he spoke, and thinking that he was unremarkable at best. He must be an extremely good local member.
Be interesting to see if Key will work with Turia and Sharples, especially given that now he doesn’t have to. Just keep that bastard Douglas out of Cabinet, for God’s sake.
I was quite impressed by how Key strategically nobbled Peters by announcing beforehand that he wouldn’t work with him. Risky, in that if Peters had gotten back in Key would have been in an awkward position, but effective in that those centre-right NZ First supporters who could see that the wind was blowing against Labour basically had their hands forced: if they wanted any meaningful representation, they had to swallow their bus passes and vote National. A more elegant job of taking someone out while still keeping your hands clean I haven’t seen.
What I don’t get is why nobody in Parliament is calling the slimy bastard out for hopping into National’s bed so eagerly. First he screws the Greens out of their rightful ministerial positions and gets a cushy role for himself with the Labour government. And now he’s getting a position in National’s government, even though he’s got absolutely nothing to offer them.
(missed the edit window)
Basically, Peter Dunne is as bad as Winston Peters, except everyone seems to like Dunne for some reason.
Yes, that’s the bit I just don’t get. He seems to have few, if any, principles other than a determination to end up on the winning side.
It’s interesting to see that he hasn’t got an absolute majority in his electorate. I wonder how he’d fare under a preferential voting system? Here he’d have to rely on preferences from the other candidates to get across the line.
That’s an interesting point – I reckon he’d be gone under a preferential voting system. He only beat the Labour candidate in Ohariu by 1170 votes, and the Green candidate there got 2229 votes. Given how he treated the Greens last time around, I doubt many of those 2229 would have ranked him above Labour.
I just noticed that there are still 2513 special votes to be counted in that electorate. His seat’s not completely secure just yet!