Labour's greatest enemy: indifference
Where is NZ Labour most vulnerable?
Columnist Verity Johnson put it in a nutshell: “I know I should vote Labour - I just don’t want to”. Arguably New Zealand Labour are wise to keep their powder dry while the National-led coalition gets itself in a mess. But, “Labour just forgot how to talk to the left”, Johnson concludes.
What’s more, Thursday’s blood-on-the-floor disaster for UK Labour has got Antipodean Labour supporters worried too.
NZ Labour’s choice to keep relatively quiet and not draw attention to their Starmer-like “muddling through” leadership may be working for the time being. But forgetting how to communicate with one’s constituency, if that’s a valid criticism, is hardly a route to victory. And Johnson is a self-confessed middle-class lefty, not a person with little or no tertiary education, ripe for capture by a populist alternative.
How effectively does Labour speak to or for the low-wage workers who are struggling to make ends meet? Someone might leap in and cheer for Labour’s pay equity policy, for example. But who’s listening?
There’s a wider backdrop of declining trust in government and in public institutions, and a loss of confidence – regardless of who wins future elections – that our children will be better off than ourselves. Under such circumstances, some people may not even vote, while others turn to populist parties such as NZ First, Reform UK or Australia’s One Nation, which are rising in polls. NZ First is openly targeting a disaffected (or former) Labour voter.
Surveys don’t use her exact wording, but there’s some indirect evidence to support Verity Johnson’s point.
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