Labour Day 2023

A day for gratitude and reflection.

What does Labour Day mean to you?

For some it’s the changing of the sporting codes as football goals and rugby posts are packed away and cricket takes over. Saturday morning I heard that wonderful sound of leather on willow, followed immediately afterwards by the sound of leather on fence. A common occurrence as the batting team tend to sit in front of our house and do their warm ups there.

I popped out to the back deck to check out the games and was surprised to find a young lady with purple hair wearing just a bra leaning over our fence and using it to shield herself as she changed. She was having a right old laugh with her mate who had a peroxide beehive and what looked like a lot of last night’s makeup. Gotta love Westie cricket.

The artificial pitch is by us so we get the lower level social games, the competitive stuff takes place out in the centre of the field. If you’ve ever seen the ANZ adverts with the young lad making the Black Caps, impressing the young ladies with his solar panels, the field in those ads are the ones over our fence. Not to be confused with the ASB ads in which Nicola Willis moonlights as a want to be homeowner who suffers from cold feet.

Not actually Nicola Willis. Image: ASB.

Labour Day weekend is traditional for some as their first swim of the season, which loosely runs from then until Easter. Shout out to the very first subscriber to Nick’s Kōrero, Alison, who had her first swim of the year this weekend. Wisely in a heated pool, let’s be honest you’d need a wetsuit or a masochistic streak to swim in the ocean at this time of the year. Also a shout out to the people who’ll message me telling me they have had a swim in the sea this weekend. We’ve certainly had a couple of cracker days here in Tamaki Makaurau - I still think you’re mad.

I was trying to think of that saying about what you’re not supposed to wear before Labour Day, I think it’s a snooty east coast of the US thing. My wife offered that you aren’t supposed to plant your tomatoes in the garden before Labour Day, which wasn’t exactly what I was trying to think of, but helpful nonetheless.

Turns out it was you’re not supposed to wear white AFTER Labour Day, so I had it completely wrong. Given we’re in the southern hemisphere maybe a better suggestion here would be not to wear black after Labour Day. Not sure that would catch on, even at the beach.

For many of us it is a day to gratefully remember all that the Labour movement has done for working people in this country. I wrote about that this time last year, it’s free here if you’d like to take a look, many of you won’t have read it before:

Although Labour Day is about the achievements of the Labour movement it’s impossible not to think of the party this year. For many of us, myself included, the day is tinged with a great sadness this year after the party that has done so much for New Zealanders suffered such an election defeat.

Some might say it’s too soon to talk about what happened in the election. I would argue that not only is it not too soon for some of these conversations, but with hindsight some of them should have happened a while ago. Punches were no doubt pulled in the interest of trying to win the election and the unwritten rule is that we all have to show full confidence in our side, even when we can see it isn’t going so well.

For me, and I suspect a few others, the point in this campaign when I knew in my heart the left were going to lose was the announcement of the GST off of fruit and veges policy. It’s an ok policy with some benefits, but it’s not the game changer you’re looking for during an election campaign with every indication showing you’re behind by some distance. I mean no criticism of all those who fought so hard during the campaign, but that announcement to me felt like surrender.

The sad reality though is that the NZ public tend to give parties a couple of terms and then turf them out. There is only so much any party can do to swim against that tide. I don’t think there is a way Labour, and the left, could have won this election unless we had a much better media willing to fully challenge dishonest claims and really spell out to people what policies mean. Or in other words - do their job.

For example the fact that the tax cut amount National were telling people they’d get, would only go to a few thousand households, should have been yelled from the rooftops by every media outlet from the day the policy was announced.

I’m not going to criticise Labour for trying to fight the election in the centre. Having a great set of policies, that people on the left love, is all well and good, but it doesn’t win elections if others don’t buy in to it. To be honest though, I think a lot of Kiwis had stopped listening, no matter what was said.

So we on the left can beat up Labour for not offering a more progressive tax system, and loyal Labour folks can bemoan the Greens for running the policies that they wish their own party had been running. But that doesn’t get us anywhere. What does get us somewhere is agreement, and that for me was a real positive of the campaign. The parties of the left didn’t beat each other up, unlike those on the right, even if off the field some of the supporters were demonstrating rather less sportsmanship.

I’m actually a bit more optimistic than perhaps I’ve indicated thus far. A lot of Kiwis, a majority, care about a fairer tax system, they want free dental, they do think something should be done to address Climate Change, but the left need to make it easy for them.

In my opinion the Greens and Labour should develop a core package spelling out what a coalition between the two would look like. A well considered, and agreed upon, plan to deliver the things that most New Zealand voters actually want. Unity is important, people won’t vote for such a package if the fundamentals are not supported by both parties.

Chippy with Green Party co-leader James Shaw. Photo credit: Getty Images.

They also need to take people with them. Yes there was dog whistle racism involved in opposition to Three Waters and Co-governance. But many people I suspect just didn’t understand what was happening, or why, and felt like something was being imposed on them. I’m not defending that point of view, but I acknowledge it exists.

Whether it’s that, the introduction of a CGT or Wealth Tax, or the need to do something about agricultural emissions, a large amount of public education is required to overcome the misinformation used by the right to mislead the public.

Labour and the Greens, soon to be in opposition, need to not only be relentless in highlighting inequalities and unfairness from the next government but also in offering a very clear, bold, and positive plan for our country. People will be looking for one before too long.

I’ve focussed on the Greens and Labour as Te Pāti Māori have indicated pretty strongly that while they won’t be going with National they prefer to remain independent.

As for TOP, we really need to talk about them. The left can’t afford to keep losing a couple of percent every election because people won’t face the reality that without a deal in an electorate, some serious financial backing, or changes to the current threshold, they are just not going to get there. If the people who voted TOP this time had instead given their party vote to either Labour or the Greens then National and ACT would not be able to form a coalition without support from another party.

And for goodness sake can Labour and the Greens decide one way or another about strategic voting in electorates? For something that doesn’t much impact who wins it certainly creates a lot of noise and division. Either divvy up some electorates and don’t stand against each other, or make it a free for all, just be clear what it is.

Yes the two parties have different things to offer, and that is important so that people can opt for which they prefer with their party votes. But the supporters of both parties want pretty much the same things, it seems crazy to me that we compete against each other in the first past the post system we use for electorate contests.

There are big important things for the left to fight for right now. Considerations far more important than who the next Labour leader is, or any of that sideshow. I’ve said in other newsletters that I think they should stick with Chippy. If there is another candidate for the role ahead of the next election I can’t see any benefit in changing now. Best in my opinion to leave it alone for the next six months at least.

Photo: https://www.facebook.com/chrishipkinsmp/photos

Chippy will be a lion in opposition and he will make Luxon squirm at Question Time. I reckon the new PM is going to get found out big time, there is nowhere to hide now that he has the job, although I’m sure some media people will give him a long honeymoon. There is only one person I think could do that role as well as Chippy, Grant Robertson, but he has been pretty unambiguous about not seeking the job.

There are other capable people, but I just can’t see them beating Luxon in three years. Parker, Sepuloni, Woods are all passionate, intelligent, good people, but it took a Jacinda Ardern to get the Nats out last time and I’m not seeing it. If there is a young contender they’re not the finished article yet, give them six months taking the fight to the government to see what emerges. Maybe it’s a Kieran McAnulty, maybe a Ginny Anderson, or maybe Chippy remains the best option - I rather think he might.

So what of these “other things”? There has to be a push for greater honesty and transparency in our political campaigns. The fourth estate is not performing its role of informing the public properly. Perhaps most disappointing was the state broadcaster, TVNZ, who with the likes of Jenny-May Clarkson or Jessica Mutch McKay spent far too much of this campaign looking like National Party cheerleaders.

The other aspect of our electoral process that desperately needs reform is the funding of political parties. Only the interests of the wealthy are served by allowing a small number of individuals to skew our political process by providing huge sums in funding to get the things they want. That disparity in what the parties can spend subverts our democratic process and it stinks.

National will oppose reform of course, any change will have to come through pressure from the left. Just like every other positive piece of progress that’s been achieved in this country.

Most of us no longer work in factories or in mines, in the conditions that existed when the Labour Party was created. A lot of us are not in unions and don’t think of ourselves as providing “labour”.

But whether you are an independent contractor, or a gig worker, or you work in a white collar profession that is about to become obsolete due to AI, then you will need the Labour Party standing up for you as much as people have ever needed them. If you work in any Public Sector position you definitely need them, and though they may not be in government they’ll be with you in protest, or on the picket line, fighting for you.

Wishing a very happy, relaxing, and peaceful Labour Day to all those who know how important these hard won rights are and how important it is that we have a strong Labour Party, and allies, standing up for them and against those who seek to undermine them.

Thank you Labour, for this day, and for all it represents.

My apologies to paid subscribers, this one would have been paid but it didn’t feel right somehow on this day to include a paywall. The next one will certainly be for you, thank you for your support which enables be to do this writing.

If you’re in a position to join them, and can afford a couple of dollars a week, that would be enormously appreciated. But if money is tight I certainly understand and I’m grateful that those who contribute give me the opportunity to keep much of Nick’s Kōrero free. Kind of in keeping with the philosophy of a hero of mine, which seems relevant today - “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.”

No song today, instead this clip is a fabulous reminder, especially on this day, that there has never been anything wrong with what Labour stands for. It is for a fairer, more egalitarian society, and it remains as important today as it ever has been.