The Green Party is committed to working with Labour to change the government this September.
“Our relationship will continue to be sound now that Jacinda Ardern has assumed leadership of the Labour Party, and our congratulations goes out to her and new deputy leader, Kelvin Davis. Our goal remains the same – to change the government this September, and we’re looking forward to working together to achieve this,” said Green Party Co-leader Metiria Turei.
“Andrew Little has spent the last two and a half years standing up for all New Zealanders, working to bridge the gap between rich and poor, and to call out the National Government’s many failures. We thank him for that.
“What’s important now is that we show New Zealanders we have answers to the problems we face as a nation; homelessness, families struggling to get by, climate change, and dirty rivers and lakes. These are problems National has failed to address or solve – it’s time to change the government,” said Mrs Turei.
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Kelvin Davis didn’t seem that embracing of the Maori party. We wont have to wait long to see how Jacinda goes, she is a favourite of the right wing which I am skeptical of.
I thought Davis’ response was almost pitch perfect. He left the door open but he also made it really clear that the Mp need to up their game in respect of working for Māori if they want to be part of the next govt. Not a great fan of the man myself, but I respected what he did there.
So Weka, do you think it is all over for Hone and the Mana Party?
I am no fan of Davis because of the last election – I thought he was a total prick back then.
I had hoped HH gets into parliament again, but he’s been making some dick moves of his own lately so at this point I’m probably not bothered either way.
Like you I’m not a fan of Davis, too much macho politics there. But I’ve seen him do some good stuff too so I guess we will see.
Thanks for your thoughts Weka. IMO Hone is a real Leftie, Davis isn’t.
I agree that HH is well to the left of anyone in Labour. Not sure where Davis fits on the L/R spectrum within Labour though.
Is that Hone, “execute drug dealers if they’re immigrants” Hawawira? TBH, I have very little respect for the guy.
He didn’t say that though. He said that he wanted the death penalty for the people importing the major amount of P into NZ from China. But yeah, he did it in a very racist and inflammatory way, and it’s one of the dick moves I was referring to above.
Weka, this is something I just wrote about Davis in the “so they wanted headlines” post. I first met him on a picket line outside a Serco prison and I do not think he is macho at all.
He was instrumental in Serco losing their contract to run Mt Eden.
Here’s John Palethorpe:
🤔 John Palethorpe @jjpalethorpe 12h12 hours ago
“Two years ago today-ish @NgatiBird came to the Serco protest I organised. He was helpful, polite, kind and furious. Good to see him kick on.”
He exposed the treatment of prisoners in Manus Island and other detention centres.
He is very strong on prison reform and the need to stop sending people with addiction and mental health issues to prison – he said this is a health issue and we need to stop punishing people for being ill.
A friend of mine who does a lot of voluntary work in the domestic violence/ woman’s refuge area said he has worked really hard in this area and had always been incredibly supportive of their work. She is a left-wing feminist and thinks Kelvin is great.
There are two charter schools that he is supportive of but they are community led Māori run schools that will easily fit into the Labour Party’s special character model as they both use registered teachers and are fulfilling a particular need.
Any news from NZF?
I’m pissed off with what’s happened this morning, to the point that I won’t ever again support Labour.
Andrew Little – an honourable person – has stepped down, in favour of a Women’s Weekly show pony and a fellow who’s far too much of a macho poser for my taste .
I hope that Labour suffers a humiliating defeat: it deserves no better. And the worst of it is that it’s condemned us to a further 3 years of the Dipton Deceiver. Christ almighty!
Where have these people been? Surely they’ve learned from the last coupla years that polls aren’t to be relied on?
A couple of observations from a young member of this family: “Letting himself be bullied out of office by reporters is shameful.” And “The Corbyn experience was evidently lost on them.” And isn’t that the truth…
Also from said family member, in response to claims that Ardern would attract the yoof vote: ” I feel I should point out that the only politician to reach the youth vote recently was the trade union fossil Jeremy Corbyn.” Exactly.
I also respect Andrew Little and I’m deeply saddened that he’s been made to feel so bad and that he’s gone. I don’t think it’s fair to refer to Ardern as a “show pony”, though. It seems to me that women in politics get abused if they’re not glamorous/don’t play the fashion game and if they are/do. She’s a smart, capable woman and a bloody good communicator. As to whether she’s ready for leadership, well – I hope so… Either way, this smacks of desperation and that’s not a good look this close to an election. I’ll do my best to support the new leadership because I care about the long-term interests of NZ and as far as I’m concerned Labour is central to any left-leaning government. We need to keep fighting for this election and for the health and heart of the party.
^^^^^^ this. Her answring questions off the cuff was astute and almost flawless. English is a career bureaucrat who pretends he has been a farmer. How that makes him more suited to be a PM I do not know. Can we dial back the appearance-ism when discussing Adern and focus on skill sets she has or lacks. Anger can bring deep seated bias to the surface folks.
+1
She just demonstrated that she’s more than a show pony for those that had missed it previously.
Tracey: “Can we dial back the appearance-ism when discussing Adern…”
Ha! Are you seriously suggesting that the Labour party has been blind to Ardern’s looks and the opportunities it presents for publicity? They’ve exploited that aspect enthusiastically; it’s part of the reason why she was deputy leader, and without doubt partly why she’s now leader. In the past, I’ve heard commentators say as much about her rise within the party.
In politics, it doesn’t matter a damn what men look like, but it sure does matter for women. That’s what a lifetime of politics-watching has taught me. If you doubt this, just take a look around parliament now, and think about previous parliaments: plenty of plug-ugly men, right enough, but no ugly women. Not a one.
So: whether we like it or not, Ardern’s looks matter in the political process. I would greatly prefer it were that not so, but it is. One of the reasons that I like Andrew Little is that he’s not a looker; in my view, this is a very good thing, since his appearance doesn’t get in the way of the message.
I think that I can be forgiven for suspecting that identity politics has also played a role in the unseating of Little. If the policy platform is good – and it is – it shouldn’t be necessary to change leaders an eye-blink from the election, no matter what the polls say. Yet now we have Ardern and Davis. That looks like identity politics to me.
And if the polls keep sliding – as they may well do – what then?
Yes. Agree on the shallow nature of (largely mainstream media led) response to politicians.
I do see some good in Ardern, but I feel her success is more to do with her charming the centrist middle and upper classes – and then that is spun in and though the media.
This is the socially liberal centre ground of politics, where there’s some concern for the least well off, but not enough sincere, deep, commitment to the necessary substantial change required of the whole system
I see it as the Green Party have broken left, and Labour has broken right. It also looks to me that James Shaw’s enthusiastic support of Ardern puts him more on the right of the GP.
The plus side may be that Labour soak up some of the potential NZ First votes.
But I’m not sure it’s a good thing for the left in NZ long term. Centrist Labour-led governments have continued to collude with pulling the whole of society, and its dominant values, to the right long term. This is not the way to dismantle the vast inequalities plaguing our society.
“career bureaucrat” = treasury robot, incapable of reading public service rules about accomodation allowances.
Red-blooded: ” I don’t think it’s fair to refer to Ardern as a “show pony””
I speak as I find; that’s how she comes across to me. It seems to me that both she and Labour have not been averse to her parlaying her looks into being an interview subject for WW articles. I’d point out further that this has nothing to do with her being a woman per se; men can be show ponies too: Trudeau, eg. And Obama: who was also a brilliant speaker. And look how that turned out…
Andrew Little, on the other hand, is plain, in every sense of the word. I greatly prefer pollies to be like this: it concentrates attention on the message, as opposed to the messenger.
“She’s a smart, capable woman and a bloody good communicator.”
I remain to be convinced of her smartness and capability. As to giving speeches: talk is cheap, and fine words butter no parsnips, as the saying goes. Let’s judge her by what she does, not what she says.
I preferred Andrew Little as leader; he’s done sterling work reining in a divided and fractious caucus and pointing them in more or less the same direction, yet he’s been treated shabbily by his party. And I think that the polls have been the stalking horse used by at least a part of the caucus which evidently still prefers factionalism to all pulling together in the cause of unseating the Nats and their hangers-on.
As I pointed out above, it appears that these people haven’t paid attention to what’s going on overseas. In virtue of what should they think that this polity is immune to the political upheavals we’ve seen elsewhere? Don’t take polls at face value! And look at what Jeremy Corbyn managed to do in regard to the youth vote: as also pointed out above. Even Corbyn’s most ardent admirers wouldn’t characterise him as handsome or charismatic, yet he galvanised the youth vote.
I remain very angry at today’s turn of events. I’m done with Labour. This evening, I got the begging e-mail from Ardern. Would I be getting out my cheque-book? somebody asked me. I’ve donated before, after all. Not. A. Chance.
At least a tiny piece of positive to take home today that the MoU is still there, and Andrew Little is still in senior role.
I sincerely hope Jacinda tells Tuku Morgan and his Brown Tories to piss off. Don’t give them any legitimacy.
+1 DS in the nicest possible way of course. MP are only lurking around because they are about to become extinct – pretty fitting, since they kept the Natz in power.
Maybe, but the MP came into existence because Labour failed egregiously to address Maori concerns. In fact, Clark threw them under the bus, which was her biggest political strategic mistake. You may hate the Maori Party for siding with National in what was basically a hate crush, but they represented people who used to be Labour constituents. Trying to appease JAFA real estate developers at their expense was strategically stupid and morally indefensible. Labour cannot take Maori for granted. This is not England transplanted to the Southern Hemisphere (as Brash and ACT would have it), this is constitutionally and culturally a bicultural or multicultural nation. If I would propose a slogan for Labour instead of the insipid “A fresh approach,” I would say FOR ALL.
I hope a glimmer of hope is dangled in front of them and they win no seats.
I don’t mind that Little resigned, he didn’t feel right about continuing. I like the Adern/Davis ‘Labours Got Talent’ new faces. All the wise people here have a much better idea of the political effect it will have and the outcome . All I know is VOTE LEFT.
Interesting that we have Maori in leadership positions across most parties – Davis, Turei, Bennett, Peters, Flavell, Harawira.
Metiria is marvelous.
Challenging the neo liberal narrative .
Gutsy and bold and does it with a smile to boot. And I also like that she and the Greens paid homage to the work Andrew Little has done . That’s important and its the honest truth . Im going to vote Labour to help shore up the Labour vote , but tbh , Id be just as happy to vote for the Greens . They are both going to change this country for the better.
Heh… we are going to have a couple of caring Boudicas setting the direction and that’s all good.
Meanwhile the Dipper can go back to his NZ Initiative mates with his tail between his legs,… for the second time .
This change late in the piece has the Natzis worried even Hoskings has gone on the attack mode trying to discredit Jacinda Adern and she hasn’t even started in the job ?