Why won't the Left politick?

I consider myself a lefty and, to prove it, I’ll spend the rest of this article complaining about the left.

My gripes with the Labour Party, in particular, are many. I feel their policy is milquetoast, and that they have spent too much time and energy pandering to the centre, betraying their working-class voter base. I feel that their time in opposition should have been a slam-dunk, as they were handed more than enough easily-returnable serves by those currently in government.

Maybe I’ll spin those off into their own designated blog post, because the thing that is really fucking me off about the left, at the moment, is that they refuse to politick.

The Right Bloc has politicking down to fine art. As soon as MMP was introduced, they got in the weeds. National did not run anyone against Peter Dunne, in his entrenched Ohariu seat, in the election of 1999, after Dunne’s party had propped-up the previous National-led government. In 2005, Don Brash (then leader of National), sat down for a very public cup of tea with Peter Dunne in Epsom (not that it helped him lol). Epsom was the stage for later National politicking with John Banks, with the infamous Teapot Tapes, and then again, with John Key plainly endorsing David Seymour for the seat. You would also be unable to convince me that National running Simon O'Connor against Brooke van Velden, in Tāmaki, was anything but tacit approval for her to take the seat.

Where’s the Left Bloc’s Teapot Tapes? Where are the handshake agreements for constituent seats? Well, if they won’t do it, I will. If any party presidents wish to take me on as Campaign Manager, please treat the below as an informal application. 

It’s great that the Greens are not running anyone in Whangārei. Gary Payinda has a chance of winning against Lloyd Budd. Quite a strong chance, if Lloyd Budd continues making appearances in public. Ditto for Manurewa, Arena Williams has one of the safest seats in the country, the Greens are smart to not run anyone there. Michael Wood is also running in Mt Roskill, with no Green candidate opposing, which gives him a much greater shot of ousting Carlos Cheung.

It’s also a canny move of the Greens to not run anyone ‘high profile’ against Ginny Anderson in Hutt South. I mean no shade against the staunch animal and climate advocate, Courtney White, but she is, in her own words, ‘now stepping forward’. The last election saw the National Party candidate, Chris Bishop, gaining 44.37% of the vote, and Labour candidate, Ginny Anderson, gaining 41.28%. A close margin, for sure. 

Also in the plus column is Labour running Naisi Chen against Chlöe Swarbrick in Auckland Central, and Craig Renney against Julie Anne Genter in Wellington Bays. The incumbents, both members of the Green Party, have shown how strong the support is, and Labour would do well to leave them to it, by not running anyone at all. The second best thing is running these two.

That’s all fine, but feels more like boilerplate ‘strategy’ than it does ‘let’s dismiss the journalists and (allegedly) shit on the elderly voter base of NZ First’. There is no intrinsic teamwork in these decisions. I want to see that comrade culture the left is always being accused of. I certainly don’t want to see active obfuscation.

Mount Albert has gone Labour its entire existence but, last election, it was only won by 18 votes. The runner-up was National candidate, Melissa Lee. 23.69% of the vote went to Green candidate, Ricardo Menéndez March. This election, all three of those aforementioned candidates are running, as is TOP leader, Qiulae Wong. Melissa Lee has a far bigger chance of getting this, because of this left vote-split, and the writing has been on the wall since the last election.

The last time Waitākere was an electorate, back in 2011, National won it by only nine votes. Although not a perfect analogue (as the refurbished Waitākere electorate has parts of the old Kelston and New Lynn electorates), in the 2023 election, New Lynn went to the National candidate in a fairly close bid. I think, in the 2026 Election, Labour should have pulled their Teapot Tapes card here, and openly backed Green candidate, Steve Abel, for Waitākere. Vanushi Walters, the Labour candidate, should have run in Upper Harbour, again. There’s nothing like name recognition in an electorate race.

Te Tai Tokerau is fractured between the incumbent, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi, who will be running under the Te Tai Tokerau party, Aperahama Edwards, running for Te Pāti Māori, Willow-Jean Prime, running for Labour, Hūhana Lyndon, running for the Greens, and Maki Herbert, the Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party (ALCP) leader. This is too many cooks. Before you think I’m labouring the point, including the ALCP candidate, Maki Herbert got 6.96% of the vote last time.

There is a similar bid for Te Tai Tonga. The incumbent, Tākuta Ferris, is running as an independent. Labour, Greens, Te Pāti Māori, and ALCP, are also running for the seat. The fight for Waiariki also ties in nicely, with the Greens running a fairly high-profile Tania Waikato against Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi. Before we tie-up this bow of the Māori electorates, one question remains - Do you consider Te Pāti Māori to be left-leaning? 

I think they are, but I also think they weren’t always. I think Te Pāti Māori should, on paper, be the most centre party Aotearoa has. I think the problems facing Māori are systemic, and the only evidence-based policy to address these issues align them with those of the Greens. They are both fighting for a standard of living for the most impoverished, and for measures to be put in place to sustain the whenua. 

Te Pāti Māori is currently campaigning on a stance of not wanting any party votes, this election. They want only electorate votes. This provides the answer to the Māori electorate problem - the perfect left politick maneuvre. The Greens withdraw all candidates in all Māori electorates, and endorse Te Pāti Māori’s candidates for these seats. Te Pāti Māori, in turn, encourages everyone who can to vote Te Pāti Māori for the electorates, and the Greens for party vote. Hūhana Lyndon is number seven on the list, and Tania Waikato is number 13. With the explicit endorsement of Te Pāti Māori, this could mean more to the Greens than those seats they’ve never won. 

This agreement would be more than the sum of its parts, as it presents unity to the voter base. For maybe the first time ever, Aotearoa politics could learn something from American politics. Zoran Mamdani, when trying to secure the Democratic nomination for mayor of New York, ran on a campaign of ‘I think I will be best for this job, but vote for this candidate second in the ranked voting, as he will also be great’. With our MMP, there must be a culture of collaboration. I think this collaboration should be on full display, in advance of the elections, to give voters the confidence that their vote is not wasted.

To that end, Labour should endorse Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke for Hauraki-Waikato. She ripped-up a bill and performed a haka to disrupt the voting on a bill that would erode the efficacy of the nation’s founding document. That’s as punk as it gets, and Labour should be taking notes, not running someone against her. At the very least, this would provide an olive branch, of sorts, for the horrible mismanagement of the Foreshore and Seabed Act.

I want to leave you with a wild prediction: Kahurangi Carter may pull through, and win Christchurch Central. I make this prediction after the news that Duncan Webb will not be standing in the electorate again. Webb is an advocate for the plight of Palestine, a proponent of democracy in Taiwan, and a clear voice on government intervention on Climate Change. I think Kahurangi Carter can capitalise on Christchurch Central’s radical streak, here. If not this time, next time, for sure. Hold me to that.