NZ Herald
  • Home
  • Latest news
  • Herald NOW
  • Video
  • New Zealand
  • Sport
  • World
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Podcasts
  • Quizzes
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Viva
  • Weather

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • New Zealand
    • All New Zealand
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Open Justice
    • Scam Update
  • Herald NOW
  • On The Up
  • World
    • All World
    • Australia
    • Asia
    • UK
    • United States
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • Pacific
  • Business
    • All Business
    • MarketsSharesCurrencyCommoditiesStock TakesCrypto
    • Markets with Madison
    • Media Insider
    • Business analysis
    • Personal financeKiwiSaverInterest ratesTaxInvestment
    • EconomyInflationGDPOfficial cash rateEmployment
    • Small business
    • Business reportsMood of the BoardroomProject AucklandSustainable business and financeCapital markets reportAgribusiness reportInfrastructure reportDynamic business
    • Deloitte Top 200 Awards
    • CompaniesAged CareAgribusinessAirlinesBanking and financeConstructionEnergyFreight and logisticsHealthcareManufacturingMedia and MarketingRetailTelecommunicationsTourism
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Editorials
    • Business analysis
    • Premium opinion
    • Letters to the editor
  • Politics
  • Sport
    • All Sport
    • OlympicsParalympics
    • RugbySuper RugbyNPCAll BlacksBlack FernsRugby sevensSchool rugby
    • CricketBlack CapsWhite Ferns
    • Racing
    • NetballSilver Ferns
    • LeagueWarriorsNRL
    • FootballWellington PhoenixAuckland FCAll WhitesFootball FernsEnglish Premier League
    • GolfNZ Open
    • MotorsportFormula 1
    • Boxing
    • UFC
    • BasketballNBABreakersTall BlacksTall Ferns
    • Tennis
    • Cycling
    • Athletics
    • SailingAmerica's CupSailGP
    • Rowing
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Viva - Food, fashion & beauty
    • Society Insider
    • Royals
    • Sex & relationships
    • Food & drinkRecipesRecipe collectionsRestaurant reviewsRestaurant bookings
    • Health & wellbeing
    • Fashion & beauty
    • Pets & animals
    • The Selection - Shop the trendsShop fashionShop beautyShop entertainmentShop giftsShop home & living
    • Milford's Investing Place
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • TV
    • MoviesMovie reviews
    • MusicMusic reviews
    • BooksBook reviews
    • Culture
    • ReviewsBook reviewsMovie reviewsMusic reviewsRestaurant reviews
  • Travel
    • All Travel
    • News
    • New ZealandNorthlandAucklandWellingtonCanterburyOtago / QueenstownNelson-TasmanBest NZ beaches
    • International travelAustraliaPacific IslandsEuropeUKUSAAfricaAsia
    • Rail holidays
    • Cruise holidays
    • Ski holidays
    • Luxury travel
    • Adventure travel
  • Kāhu Māori news
  • Environment
    • All Environment
    • Our Green Future
  • Talanoa Pacific news
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Property Insider
    • Interest rates tracker
    • Residential property listings
    • Commercial property listings
  • Health
  • Technology
    • All Technology
    • AI
    • Social media
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
    • Opinion
    • Audio & podcasts
  • Weather forecasts
    • All Weather forecasts
    • Kaitaia
    • Whangārei
    • Dargaville
    • Auckland
    • Thames
    • Tauranga
    • Hamilton
    • Whakatāne
    • Rotorua
    • Tokoroa
    • Te Kuiti
    • Taumaranui
    • Taupō
    • Gisborne
    • New Plymouth
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Dannevirke
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Levin
    • Paraparaumu
    • Masterton
    • Wellington
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Blenheim
    • Westport
    • Reefton
    • Kaikōura
    • Greymouth
    • Hokitika
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
    • Wānaka
    • Oamaru
    • Queenstown
    • Dunedin
    • Gore
    • Invercargill
  • Meet the journalists
  • Promotions & competitions
  • OneRoof property listings
  • Driven car news

Puzzles & Quizzes

  • Puzzles
    • All Puzzles
    • Sudoku
    • Code Cracker
    • Crosswords
    • Cryptic crossword
    • Wordsearch
  • Quizzes
    • All Quizzes
    • Morning quiz
    • Afternoon quiz
    • Sports quiz

Regions

  • Northland
    • All Northland
    • Far North
    • Kaitaia
    • Kerikeri
    • Kaikohe
    • Bay of Islands
    • Whangarei
    • Dargaville
    • Kaipara
    • Mangawhai
  • Auckland
  • Waikato
    • All Waikato
    • Hamilton
    • Coromandel & Hauraki
    • Matamata & Piako
    • Cambridge
    • Te Awamutu
    • Tokoroa & South Waikato
    • Taupō & Tūrangi
  • Bay of Plenty
    • All Bay of Plenty
    • Katikati
    • Tauranga
    • Mount Maunganui
    • Pāpāmoa
    • Te Puke
    • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Hawke's Bay
    • All Hawke's Bay
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Havelock North
    • Central Hawke's Bay
    • Wairoa
  • Taranaki
    • All Taranaki
    • Stratford
    • New Plymouth
    • Hāwera
  • Manawatū - Whanganui
    • All Manawatū - Whanganui
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Manawatū
    • Tararua
    • Horowhenua
  • Wellington
    • All Wellington
    • Kapiti
    • Wairarapa
    • Upper Hutt
    • Lower Hutt
  • Nelson & Tasman
    • All Nelson & Tasman
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Tasman
  • Marlborough
  • West Coast
  • Canterbury
    • All Canterbury
    • Kaikōura
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
  • Otago
    • All Otago
    • Oamaru
    • Dunedin
    • Balclutha
    • Alexandra
    • Queenstown
    • Wanaka
  • Southland
    • All Southland
    • Invercargill
    • Gore
    • Stewart Island
  • Gisborne

Media

  • Video
    • All Video
    • NZ news video
    • Herald NOW
    • Business news video
    • Politics news video
    • Sport video
    • World news video
    • Lifestyle video
    • Entertainment video
    • Travel video
    • Markets with Madison
    • Kea Kids news
  • Podcasts
    • All Podcasts
    • The Front Page
    • On the Tiles
    • Ask me Anything
    • The Little Things
  • Cartoons
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / New Zealand

<i>Dialogue:</i> Taking the fright out of our politics

13 Nov, 2001 06:17 AM4 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

By COLIN JAMES

The message from John Howard to Helen Clark is that if she wants three terms, it would help if she picked and soothed the electorate's frights.

Howard made up ground steadily all year, with policy backflips and high dives and oodles of money. But suburban fright at real and
imagined Asian perils gave him his election-night cushion.

Clark has got the general message. Though once anti-war, she is yielding not a millimetre on the Afghanistan war. She used up some political capital taking Tampa refugees. Going awol on Arabs and Afghans right now is unthinkable.

So there she is, knives on her chariot wheels, riding with the Valkyries ... well, not quite, but you get what I mean: firm, reassuringly resolute, a Prime Minister for uncertain times.

With help from Bill English, who has jumped in the same tactical hole as Jenny Shipley did over Singapore free trade, opportunistically but also incomprehensibly threatening withdrawal of support for something his party backs to the hilt.

And with help from Alliance potentate Jim Anderton, who faced down mutiny in his ranks to prove himself once again the glue in this Government. No prodigal son of Labour has done more to deserve to feast on the fatted calf.

He had no choice, you might say. If the Coalition collapsed at this time into an election, the Alliance would lose seats and the Greens gain. That would mean life on the margins, in the twilight.

But Anderton has made a choice. He has committed himself to governing and has found personal reward in building up his economic development portfolio far beyond the playpen Labour planned for him.

What do his Alliance opponents offer? Veteran leftwinger Len Richards gave the clue in an interview for television: "We fought against the Vietnam War." A three-decades-old emotion.

You can say the same of mantras about the workers' struggle. Once unions undoubtedly spoke for workers, when they were mostly unionisable and unionised. But now, as Margaret Wilson, no raving right-winger, has noted, many workers, particularly in information and communications technology, don't want union help.

To which you might add: many others have got out of the habit. That is a legacy of National's union-bashing Employment Contracts Act; it is also a product of a diversifying society. That is why Wilson left individual contracts in her union-friendly Employment Relations Act.

So to presume - as the Alliance does and as Australian Labor does - that unions represent all or even most embattled suburban families, as they once did, misses the point.

Of course, unions do represent large numbers of employees, especially in the public sector, which is the last great factory complex, with its production-line hospitals, schools and universities.

But as a proportion of the total that is only a frail minority. The Council of Trade Unions' intelligent new top brass has recognised that and is adjusting.

Across the Tasman, unions have greater strength and greater influence on the Labor Party. But even there unions no longer reach wide enough to transmit accurately to Labor leaders the fears of ordinary suburban folk amid the fracturing realities of social change.

The left's great-sounding device of the 20th century has its receptors too narrowly tuned for the 21st. Howard sensed the fears better through his fingertips. Labor lost heavily in what used to be its heartlands.

Clark needs unions for organisational reasons, so she is sensitive (up to a point) to their needs. And she isn't your average suburban mum, instinctively aware of suburban fears.

But, having seen 1980s Rogernomics trash Labour's core vote, which she has only just retrieved, she is not about to lose it if she and her focus groups can help it. More hospitals and schools are only part of the story. It is also about frights, which can cut across old ideologies.

Ideologies can work for niche players, as the Greens have shown on both sides of the Tasman. But a big player needs the suburbs. Its game is won or lost on strength that looks like conviction, reassurance and down-to-earth practicality.

Howard had just enough of that. Clark looks like she has, too. Which means, right now, a tiny bit of war. The Alliance isn't going anywhere.

* Email Colin James

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Save

    Share this article

Latest from New Zealand

live
New Zealand

‘A lot of rain’: Serious flooding, slips concerns as yet-another storm bears down

10 Jul 10:02 PM
New ZealandUpdated

Car crashes into Hamilton house, driver assaulted by neighbours

10 Jul 09:59 PM
EnvironmentUpdated

Dog helps find rare bird colony 'not seen for decades'

10 Jul 09:53 PM

From early mornings to easy living

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from New Zealand

‘A lot of rain’: Serious flooding, slips concerns as yet-another storm bears down
live

‘A lot of rain’: Serious flooding, slips concerns as yet-another storm bears down

10 Jul 10:02 PM

Electrical storms are set to hit at evening rush as Auckland braces for 16 hours of rain.

Car crashes into Hamilton house, driver assaulted by neighbours

Car crashes into Hamilton house, driver assaulted by neighbours

10 Jul 09:59 PM
Dog helps find rare bird colony 'not seen for decades'

Dog helps find rare bird colony 'not seen for decades'

10 Jul 09:53 PM
Ryan Bridge: Plenty of reasons to feel depressed - here's what we must remember

Ryan Bridge: Plenty of reasons to feel depressed - here's what we must remember

10 Jul 09:30 PM
Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP