Written By: - Date published: 11:02 am, November 12th, 2008 - 58 comments
Categories: national/act government -
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I’ve been out and about over the last few days talking to people from the left and the right as well as a few apolitical types and the sense I get is that people didn’t get what they expected from this election.
Just last night I was out to dinner with a group that included a primary school teacher and an environment officer. Both had voted Green but had done so out for cultural reasons, they are young professionals who are concerned about the environment and, from what I could gather, they found the Green brand was something they could identify with. Neither of them would be able to provide a clear explanation between left and right. In short they are typical of a lot of voters under 35.
Interestingly, neither of them had been too concerned about a National government either. In fact one of them was almost going to vote National instead of Green.
On Monday both of them read the policy for their respective areas of work and both of them were shocked.
On Sunday I went to watch a motorsport event with some National supporters. To be honest I wasn’t looking forward to it as I thought they’d spend the whole time gloating. They didn’t. In fact they seemed a little concerned at the result and like so many rightwingers who commented on the “Change to what?” thread they didn’t know what they wanted other than to see the back of Clark.
While we were on the way to get a beer one of them told me he didn’t even like John Key and was concerned about ACT.
It’s going to be a hard three years for the National/ACT government.
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Gc, yes the swing is fickle, this is something us lefties (no i don’t include you in that group) have to remedy by 2011.
Well of course that doesn’t include me. I voted National, as I did in 2005 and even in 2002.
[lprent: Sounds like you're in a rut.
BTW: the figures you did for turnout in south auckland missed the special votes. Makes a big difference and there were over 6k special votes in mangere]
A few friends of mine said…. I would have party voted Green if the Green party had not hitched it’s wagon to the self serving & corrupt Labour party.
I think you Labour supporter types vastly underestimated the desire to remove the self serving Labour party and in particular the self serving Clark & Cullen.
The turnout did miss special votes. But I’m not sure what your point is iprent. Its still clear that many of those voters didn’t turn up on polling day. Thus further damaging Labour. Overall, polling seems to be lower and in Labour strong-hold electorates, turnout is down even more.
My point still stands. That a number of South Auckland voters didn’t turn up.
Yes, and they’ll be sorry they didn’t turn up when their WFF is halved in April 09, only to be replaced by a “tax cut” that will return 1/3rd of that halved contribution of what they previously got under WFF.
Where did I get it from? Why – the National Party Policy section prior to the election (which are now “invalid links” since Sunday)
Using those figures, $70K two parents, two kids, $90 p/w under Labours WFF
In April 09, that goes down to $45 pw
and a tax cut that returns…. $18 pw.
Im picking April will be when the backlash REALLY begins.
Jasper
$70K is rich. Please explain why a rich family need welfare when they only have two children to support ?
gc: “That a number of South Auckland voters didn’t turn up”
Old News, poorer people always have worse turnouts, unfortunately they tend to be more left wing. Labour knows that and constantly try to rock the vote in poorer areas.
Now for John Banks, thats infact a fantastic trend, as all the rich oldies turned out in force to vote him in as Auckland Mayor with a turnout of… correct me if im wrong.. less than 40%? Thats fantastic.,
Yes well the turnout was particularly low in comparison to 2005 which actually had good turnout for South Auckland.
burt, they probably don’t need it.
I’m sick of hearing from people earning that much who think they’re “struggling” if they can’t afford a 3rd car or a second plasma screen or a 4th overseas trip this year.
You useless righties seem to have nothing more than a hate hangover and defensive whinging
Criminy! And all you lefties seem to be complaining about how stupid the voters are. Seems like you’ve started your own little “New Zealand Sucks” campaign.
“I’m sick of hearing from people earning that much who think they’re “struggling’ if they can’t afford a 3rd car or a second plasma screen or a 4th overseas trip this year.”
Wahooo, can tell the wife now we can get that second plasma
Well this is really the point itsnt it Gingercrush.
Key played as a ‘centrist’ or ‘Labour lite’ which denies the reality of class.
Many Labour voters took him at his word and thought he would win so didnt bother voting.
Most newer voters wouldnt even know a real class struggle or know where to look.
But now theyre in for one because Key and co have to pay for their falling profits and speculative losses by driving down wages, siphoning our savings and ripping off the Cullen fund.
Once this sort of ‘centrism’ bites us, it’ll be interesting to see where the centrifugal spin ends up.
Class warfare? Sheesh we’re living in 2008. Not the days of backwards and irrelevant thinking. Class is not an issue for the right or for the left. Let it go already.
And keep thinking your pathetic thoughts about what a Key government will do. We on the right will sure be proud as Labour looks forward to a second term in opposition.
gingercrush:
2008, 1928, 1876, so what?
Look at China today the elephant to our gnat.
http://indymedia.org.nz/newswire/display/76356/index.php
Class struggle on the up, Marx to the max, finance capital relying on the world economy being baled out by China. oops
http://japanfocus.org/_Nouriel_Roubini-The_Rising_Risk_of_a_Hard_Landing_in_China__The_Two_Engines_of_Global_Growth_____U_S__and_China___are_Stalling___A_Debate_
any links to the pansy wong story?
I’ve had the same experiences as IB. A number of friends and colleagues who told me that they were voting National – and then admitted that they didn’t really want to, didn’t trust Key, and really admired Helen Clark.
To which the only response was WTF.
Price of infotainment I guess.
class issue should be let go, real no event
“It’s going to be a hard three years for the National/ACT government.”
I agree, but the second term should be easier as we work our way back up the OECD
Hi Mike,
With what I wonder will we work our way back up the OECD I wonder, in three years time.
With the collapse of America’s currency in the next 12 months looming. The US bankrupt and not in a position to rebuild since it’s lost all it’s jobs to China.
With China collapsing because it’s biggest market is gone and Europe will fall too because they don’t have jobs any more either, other than the service industry.
Half off all the big container ship companies have gone bankrupt already because nobody is ordering anything.
The world economy is gone, kaput, because of the machinations of a few Wall street banksters. Irreparable, Unfixable, no longer there.
We are just going through the motions of some semblance of normalcy but Fonterra has a hole of 300 million in it’s budget. The reserve bank has been offered loans of billions by the Federal Reserve in order to keep this bankrupt system tagging a long just a bit longer so the Banksters can get a couple of more bailouts for their thieving banking mates.
So with nobody able to buy our expensive milk and beef and with the US house market no longer in existence and nobody needing our wood, what will we sell for that pie in the sky growth?
Because Mike, JK’s promise of growth is untenable and will remain just that: a pie in the sky promise but it’s my guess you’ll find that out for yourself any day now.
Rave,
Thanks for those links.
Daveski
I agree with you. I also think this comment
“While it was good to see democracy in action our collective intelligence took an exponential nosedive on Saturday.”
can be almost directly attributable to two things;
the method of politiking being about branding, slogans, “hot buttons” etc and less about actual policies.
the media which seems to repeat verbatim the slogans branding efforts and hot buttons without examining and prsenting and educating its listeners, readers, and watchers on ACTUAL policy
I wont exucse 20-somethings from responsibility to go online and read policies. It’s what I did and I am twice that age. I found that apart from Nat Rad and the occasional journalist piece (usually deep within a newspaper and nowhere near the front) actually policy was hard to find.
People cant know what they dont know, and that is surely one of the goals of the media?
I’m wondering if our political journos are too embroiled/ensconsed in the political culture and in fact have on many occassions slanted their reporting whenever they think an election will get boring (ie one-sided) they have done this to both Nat and Lab Governments in our past. The only other possibility is that they actually take everythig thrown their way at face value. If that is the case the collective intelligence of our media is frightening.
We need some editors with balls, to pay their people to investiugate not regurgitate. Frabkly these days a democracy is only as good as its press is responsible and journalistic. We seem to have reporters moe than journalists.
The presidential style campaign as well as the media obsession with Peters and and trivia, diverted the real issues away from the public eye. I agree that too many people did not know what ‘change’ means. I think many believe it means a change of leader and little else. Ive had a couple of conversations with family who are confused about the implication of their support for the Maori Party. In no circumstances would they have voted in support of National and yet indirectly they have. Maori voters wont make the same mistake twice.
I’m so glad you’ve managed to find so many people who are concerned about National getting into power. It means that Labour’s obviously a shoo in in three years time.
Of course, if it doesn’t come to pass will you bury your heads in the sand (like is occurring at the moment) and blame it on:
a) the right wing media conspiracy
b) the ‘flawed’ MMP system
c) voters who wanted to vote one way but voted the other in a moment of insanity
d) limitless amounts of big business/religious right money who ‘stole’ the election from the rightful winners
e) a policy bereft Labour party who were rejected because they were so out of touch?