The Other Side

Stuart Nash to cross the left/right divide.

Lovin' you has go to be (Take me to the other side)
Like the devil and the deep blue sea (Take me to the other side)
Forget about your foolish pride (Take me to the other side)
Oh, take me to the other side (Take me to the other side)

Songwriters: Steven Tyler, Jim Vallance, and Holland-Dozier-Holland.

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Jim Anderton famously said, “I didn't leave the Labour Party. The Labour Party left me,” he was right; they did.

I was in my second year of Intermediate at the time of the 84 election, and I’ll never forget the celebration on election night as my parents and family friends revelled that the bastard, which was how my dad referred to him, that that bastard Muldoon, was gone.

Six years later, my schooling was done, and by the time Labour lost power in 1990, it was hard to tell where the Roger Douglas era ended and the Ruth Richardson one began. I, along with some of you, I’m sure, was utterly disillusioned by Labour, and since then, first the Alliance and then the Greens have been my political home.

I had a lot of respect for Helen Clark and Michael Cullen—how could you not? They are giants in our political history—but I never considered voting for them.

Jacinda and Grant were a different story, though. I trusted them as much as I trusted my own party. Others, too—Megan Woods in particular—come to mind. I didn’t vote for them. I loved my Greens and still do, but any lingering ill-feeling towards Labour was long gone. They had most certainly returned to being the party whose loss Anderton mourned.

Lately, former Labour MP Stuart Nash has been making claims similar to Anderton's, accusing Labour of abandoning their roots. In this newsletter, I’ll argue that Labour has done nothing of the kind. They are, and have always been (apart from that bit with the dastardly Douglas), a party for the people.

From what I see, Labour has not left Mr Nash at all; he has left them.

I should add that I’ve never met Nash. I hold no animosity for him, but I do take a dim view of those who discredit a party focused on improving people's lives purely out of self-interest. Labour didn’t leave you, Mr Nash; the departure was all yours - if you were ever there at all.

Labour Heritage

Stuart Alexander Nash is the great-grandson of Labour Prime Minister Sir Walter Nash, who led the party for 12 years and was Finance Minister to Michael Joseph Savage during the Depression and through WW2 under Peter Fraser. Some large shoes to fill.

Stuart became an MP for a term in 2008 and re-entered parliament in 2014. He was a minister across several portfolios during the Ardern government before being sacked by Chris Hipkins on March 28, 2023, for revealing confidential cabinet information to two of his donors. Nash confirmed that he would not contest the 2023 election the following month.

While Labour viewed divulging such information as unacceptable, giving at least the appearance of corruption, other parties were rather more relaxed about such things and curiously had Nash’s back.

Corporate Reinvention

Following his departure from parliament, Nash undertook a career in corporate land and started making pronouncements that were very much at odds with his Labour background and favoured employers over workers.

Like this in relation to employers giving pay rises that were less than inflation:

From the start of this year, perhaps after some New Year’s resolution, Nash has focused on celebrating the coalition's successes. Yes, you read that right.

Be it Sunny Kaushal’s moves to turn shopkeepers into the constabulary:
Loosening citizen's arrest laws is a "pragmatic" move - Stuart Nash

Backing the buy-up of Aotearoa by rich foreigners:
NZ need not fear investment from the super-wealthy

Or allowing the wealthy to jump the queue for a cool $5m:
Stuart Nash: Government has 'done a really good job' on golden visa

A series of puff pieces have also been published about Stuart keeping his marriage fresh and selling his house. Gripping stuff, I’m sure.

Attacking the Greens

Not content with sucking up to the government, Nash decided this week to get stuck into the Greens. As you might imagine, I was less than impressed, given there were already more than enough people attacking them over Benjamin Doyle and Tamatha Paul, and posted:

In relation to this story: Former Labour minister launches scathing attack on Green Party in which Nash called the Greens a bunch of “rogues and vagabonds”.

Nash said the current Green Party was the Alliance party “in drag” and said he would not be surprised if they were not in parliament by 2029.

To be fair, the Greens are like the Alliance; that’s why I vote for them. They care about people and the planet, red and green causes, and that’s just fine with me.

Nash said, “The current crop of Green MPs are a pale imitation of those committed pioneers who formed a party to drive environmental accountability and change by working within the political system.”

Cool story, bro. I look at the current MPs, at Chlöe and Marama, Tamatha, Julie Anne, Lan, Ricardo, Benjamin and all the others, and I have no doubt that people like Rod and Jeannette would be incredibly proud of them. I only take from Nash’s comments that he prefers a quieter, less outspoken Green Party that doesn’t challenge things.

Good luck with that, Stuart.

Stuart First.

Then, yesterday, an article that revealed Nash’s admiration for NZ First appeared.

In that paywalled article, Nash is quoted:

“I still enjoy the company of politicians and I especially enjoy the company of Winston [Peters] and Darroch [Ball, Peters’ chief of staff],” he said.

“I have an immense amount of respect for Winston Peters. I think he is one the best politicians in Parliament at the moment. I enjoy his company [and] I enjoy just listening to what he says.

Give me a bucket. Nash sounds just like Republicans kissing up to Trump.

When asked whether he intended to run, he responded, “Never say never.” To be fair, I think he’d fit right in with NZ First's lazy corruption schmooze fest and smug unaccountability.

Nash continued sucking up:

“It will always be up to the leaders of a party to determine where they go. I’m not prepared to make any comment on what NZ First might do in the future, but like I said, Winston I have an immense amount of respect for - the man and his legacy and his experience and competency and capabilities.”

Attacking Labour.

In that article, there are also a number of quotes from Nash on his former party:

“I think Labour is losing touch with the people who returned it to power in 2020 and gave them power in 2017.”

Nash provides no basis for that view; it’s little more than a fart in the wind.

As I see it, Labour has been entirely consistent with those who elected them in 2017. As for those who delivered a landslide victory in 2020, it wasn’t that Labour changed, but people returned to where they came from. The Covid election was an anomaly, delivering Labour a majority; they would inevitably decline from such a high.

“Labour can’t forget its roots. When it does, it never does well. When it gets back to its roots, it’s a party that defends the rights of the working class, but by the working class, I mean those who work really hard, not those who complain the loudest.”

Let’s be honest, Stuart, by the working class, you mean the middle class. Those at the bottom have plenty to complain about in terms of attacks on their conditions and pay, quintessential Labour territory, and their focus, but those aren’t the people you’re interested in. Are they Stuart?

“Labour’s got to be very careful because people will say ‘shivers, if I vote for Labour and they’re going to be in power, then how much of a say are the Greens or the Māori party going to have in the policies of a Labour-led Government?‘”

Actually, Stuart, Labour has demonstrated that it acts quite responsibly when forming coalition arrangements and has worked productively with the Greens without making deals against the interests of those who voted for them—unlike, you know who.

You’d better hand that bucket back because the idea that people should be concerned about Labour working with the Greens and Te Pāti Māori rather than Christopher Luxon bending over backwards to accommodate the marginal desires of ACT and NZ First is stomach-turning - especially from the great-grandson of Walter Nash.

So what now for Stuart? Has Winston decided that Jones makes for a good boot boy but is hardly leadership material? Will all of this ingratiating result in a high position on the NZ First list?’

In my view, Nash is a disgrace. I never trusted the man; he always seemed like a hangover from the Douglas era of Labour MPs who drank the neoliberal kool-aid.

What do you make of Nash’s statements and actions? Is there some validity in them, or are they simply driven by self-interest and a desire to return to politics, regardless of which party he might represent?

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Have a great day, all you lovely people. It looks like a real cracker out there; I can hear the happy sounds of Saturday morning sports over the fence.

To end, Aerosmith with The Other Side, somewhere Nash seems destined to go.