Instead of improving the lives of ordinary
New Zealanders Labour in government instituted radical co-governance for which they had no mandate.
Under First Past the Post, the political pendulum would eventually restore Labour to office. Under MMP there is no such guarantee. The once mighty French Socialist Party scored less than 2% in the last presidential election. In Israel, the Labour Party that once dominated has just four MPs.
If the Greens can stop losing their MPs their boast that they will take over from Labour is a real threat.
The Labour membership can decide that the party failed because it was not left enough. Be like the British Labour Party when they elected extreme left Jeremy Corban who led the party to a record defeat. Or the membership can follow the example of the present British Labour Party that elected a competent, moderate leader, Sir Keir Starmer, who has won a record majority.
I have been in Labour in opposition. I was on the campaign committee. The Greens and Te Pāti Māori will always out-promise Labour. The Australian Labor Party taught us that Labour’s winning formula is to have economic credibility.
In Australia, the ALP now governs federally and in all the states bar Tasmania. Australian Labor leaders who lose elections resign on election night.
Chris Hipkins has too much baggage in my view. Pisa results show he failed in education. As Covid response minister he promised to be “front of the queue” for vaccines. We were not. This column predicted when he became PM that if Hipkins did not immediately seek a fresh mandate then he would lose big in October.
Hipkins claims he is “just a boy from the Hutt’. He is a middle-class, lifetime, professional politician who went from student politics to the Beehive.
Labour has got an authentic potential leader, Barbara Edmonds. Her mum died when she was 4. Her dad raised his children on a benefit. At university she was a mother when she earned her double degree. The Inland Revenue Department hired her as a tax lawyer.
Edmonds did not go to the Beehive as an apparatchik but on secondment from the department to advise National Minister Michael Woodhouse.
Woodhouse described Edmonds as “first class”.
National MPs were very critical of the partisan way Labour MPs chaired select committees. The exception is Edmonds. Christopher Luxon described her chairing of the Finance and Expenditure committee as “very, very smart, very, very considered”.
As Labour’s shadow finance minister Edmonds has identified where Nicola Willis is vulnerable. Willis is funding tax cuts by borrowing.
Edmonds’ claim that a Labour government would have reduced the civil service headcount by 2% and returned the Budget to surplus is not credible. Labour has opposed every reduction of the bureaucracy.
Edmonds is yet to reveal where she stands on wealth taxes.
Maiden speeches are revealing. Edmonds said, “I do believe in a fair, efficient, and cohesive tax system that has a broad base with low rates”. Ruth Richardson and Roger Douglas would agree. She is also on the record as saying that “tax was a major factor in the fall of the Roman Empire. It was through over-taxation”.
Edmonds seems to know that no country can tax its way to prosperity.
The caucus only appoints MPs they rate to be their campaign directors. Despite having fought only one general election, Edmonds was made deputy campaign director.
Hipkins cannot extract Labour from the swamp of identity politics. The powerful Māori caucus has forced the party into adopting co-governance. Labour’s Pacifica voters know that they are the big losers.
Edmonds’ husband is Ngāpuhi. One of her sons has played for a Māori and a Samoan rugby team. Multi-culturalism is Edmonds’ reality. Maybe it is Labour’s Pasifika MPs who can bring Labour back to its core message; equal opportunity for all.
It takes management skills to be a successful mother of a large family. My own mother had six children when she earned her university degree. Edmonds has eight children and was a minister. She must have remarkable management skills.
Edmonds says her eight children rule her out of ever being Prime Minister. Being the mother of eight is more challenging than being the chief executive of Air New Zealand.
Edmonds has been a whip. I found it easier being leader than it was being a whip dealing with MPs’ chaotic lives.
Edmonds has been an MP for less than four years. Given the mess that Labour is in, she is wise not to seek the leadership.
Providing this column has not destroyed her prospects, if Labour wants to be in government again, the membership must draft Barbara Edmonds.
