Chris Hipkins’ ruling out of wealth and capital-gains taxes last week was a shock. It turns this week’s Labour slogan into: “In it for you — well, not really.”
Apart from echoing the silliest thing the generally wise Jacinda Ardern ever said, it reinforces the shocking suggestion, initiated by her, that the party leader is some sort of dictator. So if the party wants to get what it really wants, it has to ditch an otherwise excellent and plausible leader?
The Green Party is far more democratic, using its members to build policy, and while the leaders can pace the public announcement of it in detail, they can’t change it. The urgency of taxing excess wealth was well described by candidate Jordan Walker in the weekend Herald, along with the Green Party recipe for doing so.
The Greens’ Pledge to Renters is a perfect fit to that bid to end poverty. Remember when student allowances went up fifty dollars, so the landlords put the rent up by the same amount? Rent control is vital. (Incidentally, all those commentators who said this will reduce the availability of rental homes have never explained what becomes of available homes if the landlords don’t buy them. They won’t evaporate.)
Crazy, off-the-cuff leader-led decisions apart, Labour remains far better for the less well-off, and the environment, than roads-and-prisons National — just as the Green Party, now more obviously than ever, is better than Labour; and given the numbers, will have a powerful influence in coalition.
