Hide’s winners and losers
Rodney Hide writes in the HoS:
There’s also every likelihood that voters won’t decide the Government. That could be up to Winston Peters. It’s deplorable but that’s MMP and that’s Peters’ cunning. To vote New Zealand First you must not care whether Cunliffe or Key is Prime Minister and whether the Greens are in Government. A vote for Peters is for any of the above. Peters will go with who is best for him. You have been warned.
That’s a good way of putting it.
Cunliffe has been the campaign loser. He may well end up Prime Minister but he has Labour polling in the 20s. He would start his Prime Ministership on the back foot without popular support and with the Greens and others in the box seat pushing him around.
In January Labour averaged 33.5% in the public polls. This has been their average every month this year:
- Jan 33.5%
- Feb 32.2%
- Mar 30.7%
- Apr 30.5%
- May 29.9%
- Jun 27.9%
- Jul 26.6%
- Aug 26.1%
- Sep 24.8%
In eight months they have lost 8.7% – not in one big hit, bit a long slow gradual decline.
The other loser is Hone Harawira. He sold out himself, his party, his electorate. The best to be said is that he wasn’t cheap. Kim Dotcom kicked in $4.5 million.
Harawira may do well with Dotcom’s bankroll but his integrity is gone. It’s not something he can buy back.
Hone got 1.1% last time without selling out. He was 0.1% off getting a 2nd MP. On the average of the polls taking Dotcom’s money is only going to get him that 2nd MP.
The big winners this election are the Greens. They are the third party of New Zealand politics. Labour must now figure out how to work with them.
The Greens are looking like their caucus may be over half the size of Labour’s.