“The left is now more strongly occupied by the Green Party and the Māori Party. The right has strong voices. National has aligned itself with either the centre-right or more right-centre. So Labour has to work out a position to stand that is coherently different from all of those.”
Finding this position won’t come easy, and it could take the party to work out exactly what it hopes to stand for in the coming decades.
“I assume the party will bounce back,” says Wilson.
“It’s probably wrong to write off a major party just because it’s had a bad election, but we live in volatile times in politics around the world now. Parties don’t always survive. The Socialist Party in France hasn’t survived. It became historically irrelevant not so long ago. There is a risk for Labour in that as well. It would be unfortunate to see it in my view. I there ought to be a role for Labour in New Zealand.”
The Labour Party’s decision to stand firmly in the centre has seen the party lose votes to both the left and the right.
“In 2020, the country moved to the left and the three parties on the left all gained, while the parties on the right didn’t,” says Wilson.
“But in this election, people have jumped away from Labour to the left, to the right and in every direction. There’s something to learn from Labour’s attempts to stand in the middle. There is, of course, a big middle ground of voters, but being in the middle doesn’t mean you don’t want change. Being in the middle simply means you are looking to give your vote to the party that you think will make the changes you want.”
Labour’s unwillingness to fight for a wealth or capital gains tax meant there was little to differentiate the party from National – and voters were left disillusioned.
“An awful lot of New Zealanders felt we’d earned the right to a more equitable tax and benefit system that would allow the country to spend money where it was needed for the benefit of most New Zealanders,” says Wilson.
“Labour shied away from that, thinking it would not be popular enough to sell it. It wasn’t brave enough to take that on. And, in effect, what that told voters was that it was a timid party.”
Listen to the full episode of The Front Page podcast for a broader analysis of all the challenges facing the Labour Party as it looks to rebuild after this tough election.
The Front Page is a daily news podcast from the New Zealand Herald, available to listen to every weekday from 5am. It is presented by Damien Venuto, an Auckland-based journalist with a background in business reporting who joined the Herald in 2017.
You can follow the podcast at iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
