The NZ First/Act effect

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

Opinion

Iain Boyle refers to Winston Peters as “wily and duplicitous”, suggesting that votes for NZ First would be wasted (August 5 letter) — but not so!
Mr Boyle blames Winston for installing Jacinda Ardern in 2017 but in effect it was the misguided public vote offering only Labour and National, both of which had weak results in the lead-up polls, to form a government.
In 2020, NZ First became the “whipping boy” for the failures of Labour in the previous term.
With National and Labour having ruled out a post-election capital gains tax, both parties may well get less voter support from middle-New Zealand than they expect. 
It looks like whichever of those parties becomes able to form a coalition government, they will continue to rule out a capital gains tax or similar — limiting sources of funding to repair our disaster-ravaged infrastructure.
If there is that limit of central government not being able to fund infrastructure repairs through taxes, and selling more of our national assets to overseas interests, a further burden will fall on local bodies, farmers and ratepayers. 
This is why a future government requires the handbrake effect of NZ First and Act — if only they will get our votes and work together.
 
Dennis Pennefather