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News Article :-
After an election campaign of fits and starts, in which neither major party appeared to offer much solace to a weary nation, voters in New Zealand on Saturday ousted the party once led by Jacinda Ardern and elected the country’s most right-wing government in a generation, handing victory to a coalition of two conservative parties.
New Zealand’s next prime minister will be Christopher Luxon, a former chief executive of Air New Zealand, whose center-right National Party will lead a coalition with Act, a smaller libertarian party.
Addressing a euphoric crowd at his party’s victory event on Auckland’s waterfront, Mr. Luxon thanked supporters and promised a better and more stable future for the country.
“Our government will deliver for every New Zealander,” he said, to whoops and cheers. “We will rebuild the economy and deliver tax relief.”
The rightward drift ended six years of the Labour government that was dominated by Ms. Ardern, who stepped down early this year.
“She’s probably the most consequential prime minister we’ve had since David Lange,” the Labour leader who came to power in 1984, “and, from an international point of view, most charismatic,” said Bernard Hickey, an economic and political commentator in Auckland, New Zealand. “But this election is the landmark of her failure.”
For many voters, Ms. Ardern and her successor, Chris Hipkins, failed to deliver on the Labour Party’s promise of transformational change. In the weeks leading up to the election, New Zealanders, buffeted by the currents of global inflation and its larger Asia Pacific neighbors’ economic woes, overwhelmingly cited cost of living as the primary concern driving their vote.
The coalition is a return to form for New Zealand, which since moving to a system of proportional representation in 1993 has had only one single-party government — the Labour government elected in 2020 under Ms. Ardern. But it is the first time National, which last governed alone in the early 1980s, has been in coalition with a more conservative partner.
With most of the vote counted, support for the Labour Party, which won 50 percent of the vote in 2020, buoyed by the country’s strong response to the coronavirus pandemic, has collapsed to 27 percent.
The National Party won 39 percent of the vote, up from 26 percent in 2020. Among the smaller parties, the Green Party took 11 percent of the vote, and Act won 9 percent. But those results could shift slightly after “special” votes were counted, including those of overseas New Zealanders. That could potentially force Act and National into coalition with New Zealand First, a longtime kingmaker that played a role in Ms. Ardern’s ascent, to push the right-wing coalition over the halfway mark.
Addressing party members in Wellington, Mr. Hipkins said he had conceded the election to Mr. Luxon and celebrated Labour’s accomplishments on alleviating child poverty and navigatin
News Article :-
After an election campaign of fits and starts, in which neither major party appeared to offer much solace to a weary nation, voters in New Zealand on Saturday ousted the party once led by Jacinda Ardern and elected the country’s most right-wing government in a generation, handing victory to a coalition of two conservative parties.
New Zealand’s next prime minister will be Christopher Luxon, a former chief executive of Air New Zealand, whose center-right National Party will lead a coalition with Act, a smaller libertarian party.
Addressing a euphoric crowd at his party’s victory event on Auckland’s waterfront, Mr. Luxon thanked supporters and promised a better and more stable future for the country.
“Our government will deliver for every New Zealander,” he said, to whoops and cheers. “We will rebuild the economy and deliver tax relief.”
The rightward drift ended six years of the Labour government that was dominated by Ms. Ardern, who stepped down early this year.
“She’s probably the most consequential prime minister we’ve had since David Lange,” the Labour leader who came to power in 1984, “and, from an international point of view, most charismatic,” said Bernard Hickey, an economic and political commentator in Auckland, New Zealand. “But this election is the landmark of her failure.”
For many voters, Ms. Ardern and her successor, Chris Hipkins, failed to deliver on the Labour Party’s promise of transformational change. In the weeks leading up to the election, New Zealanders, buffeted by the currents of global inflation and its larger Asia Pacific neighbors’ economic woes, overwhelmingly cited cost of living as the primary concern driving their vote.
The coalition is a return to form for New Zealand, which since moving to a system of proportional representation in 1993 has had only one single-party government — the Labour government elected in 2020 under Ms. Ardern. But it is the first time National, which last governed alone in the early 1980s, has been in coalition with a more conservative partner.
With most of the vote counted, support for the Labour Party, which won 50 percent of the vote in 2020, buoyed by the country’s strong response to the coronavirus pandemic, has collapsed to 27 percent.
The National Party won 39 percent of the vote, up from 26 percent in 2020. Among the smaller parties, the Green Party took 11 percent of the vote, and Act won 9 percent. But those results could shift slightly after “special” votes were counted, including those of overseas New Zealanders. That could potentially force Act and National into coalition with New Zealand First, a longtime kingmaker that played a role in Ms. Ardern’s ascent, to push the right-wing coalition over the halfway mark.
Addressing party members in Wellington, Mr. Hipkins said he had conceded the election to Mr. Luxon and celebrated Labour’s accomplishments on alleviating child poverty and navigatin
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NewsTranscript
00:00 After an election campaign of fits and starts, in which neither major party appeared to offer
00:05 much solace to a weary nation, voters in New Zealand on Saturday ousted the party once
00:11 led by Jacinda Ardern and elected the country's most right-wing government in a generation,
00:16 handing victory to a coalition of two Conservative parties.
00:20 New Zealand's next Prime Minister will be Christopher Luxon, a former chief executive
00:26 of Air New Zealand, whose centre-right National Party will lead a coalition with ACT, a smaller
00:31 Libertarian party.
00:33 Addressing a euphoric crowd at his party's victory event on Auckland's waterfront, Mr
00:38 Luxon thanked supporters and promised a better and more stable future for the country.
00:43 "Our government will deliver for every New Zealander," he said, to whoops and cheers.
00:48 "We will rebuild the economy and deliver tax relief."
00:52 The rightward drift ended six years of the Labour government that was dominated by Ms
00:57 Ardern, who stepped down early this year.
01:00 "She's probably the most consequential Prime Minister we've had since David Lange, the
01:05 Labour leader who came to power in 1984, and, from an international point of view, most
01:11 charismatic," said Bernard Hickey, an economic and political commentator in Auckland, New
01:17 Zealand.
01:18 "This election is the landmark of her failure."
01:21 For many voters, Ms Ardern and her successor, Chris Hipkins, failed to deliver on the Labour
01:27 party's promise of transformational change.
01:30 In the weeks leading up to the election, New Zealanders, buffeted by the currents of global
01:35 inflation and its larger Asia-Pacific neighbour's economic woes, overwhelmingly cited cost of
01:41 living as the primary concern driving their vote.
01:44 The coalition is a return to form for New Zealand, which since moving to a system of
01:49 proportional representation in 1993 has had only one single-party government at a Labour
01:55 government elected in 2020 under Ms Ardern.
01:59 But it is the first-time national, which last governed alone in the early 1980s, has been
02:05 in coalition with a more conservative partner.
02:08 With most of the vote counted, support for the Labour party, which won 50 per cent of
02:13 the vote in 2020, buoyed by the country's strong response to the coronavirus pandemic,
02:20 has collapsed to 27 per cent.
02:22 The National Party won 39 per cent of the vote, up from 26 per cent in 2020.
02:29 Among the smaller parties, the Green Party took 11 per cent of the vote, and ACT won
02:34 9 per cent.
02:35 But those results could shift slightly after special votes were counted, including those
02:41 of overseas New Zealanders.
02:43 That could potentially force ACT and National into coalition with New Zealand First, a long-time
02:48 kingmaker that played a role in Ms Ardern's ascent, to push the right-wing coalition over
02:54 the halfway mark.
02:56 Addressing party members in Wellington, Mr Hipkins said he had conceded the election
03:01 to Mr Luxon and celebrated Labour's accomplishments on alleviating child poverty and navigating
03:07 New Zealand through the coronavirus pandemic.
03:10 The Christchurch massacres and the White Island volcano eruption.
03:14 "We will keep fighting for working people, because that is our history and our future,"
03:19 he said.
03:20 The National Party had campaigned on a platform of tax cuts, saying it would offer relief
03:25 to ordinary families.
03:27 Critics have questioned the funding for those cuts, which rely heavily on foreign ownership
03:32 of New Zealand property, and some have said that they disproportionately favour some 300
03:38 New Zealand landlords while cutting benefits for disabled people.
03:42 Inflation, which was at 6 per cent in July compared with 6.7 per cent one year earlier,
03:49 appears to be easing, according to the most recent government data, though New Zealanders
03:54 will most likely endure pain for some time to come, as the country weathers high house
03:59 and rent prices, a high cost of borrowing and the effects of global shocks.
04:04 "When it comes to the economy," said Grant Duncan, a political scientist in Auckland,
04:09 "we're a cork bobbing around on an ocean."
04:12 The new national-led government, despite being more conservative, was unlikely to make significant
04:18 changes on many social issues, said Ben Thomas, a former press secretary for the National
04:24 Party.
04:25 "Nobody wants to re-litigate abortion or homosexual marriage," he said.
04:30 Unlike the states, where there's a constant battle to try and roll back progressive legislation,
04:36 the conservative tradition in New Zealand is a "we've always gone just about far
04:41 enough."
04:42 But ACT may seek to push policy priorities of its own, including a referendum to reconsider
04:47 the role New Zealand's indigenous Maori people play in policy-making.
04:52 What they actually want is a referendum which defines away any kind of standing or rights
04:57 guaranteed to Maori by the treaty, Mr Thomas said, referring to an 1840 agreement that
05:03 governs New Zealand legislation to this day.
05:06 He added, "What you might broadly call racial tensions a over race and policy, Maori policy,
05:13 treaty policy a are greater than at any point since 2005."
05:17 At the same time, the country was still contending with a multi-billion dollar recovery from
05:22 cyclone Gabrielle, which in February devastated swaths of the country's North Island, exposing
05:29 dangerous infrastructure fault lines, said Craig Rennie, an economist for the New Zealand
05:35 Council of Trade Unions.
05:37 The National Party had not announced any plans for how it would manage New Zealand's climate
05:42 vulnerabilities, Mr Rennie said.
05:45 "Where are we going to be in six years' time?
05:48 What are we going to do to tackle some of the really big issues, be it climate change,
05:53 renting, employment security?" he said.
05:56 "Those things haven't been being debated, because the country is tired.
06:01 It was unclear whether the new government could easily solve these and other problems,"
06:05 said Dr Duncan, the political scientist.
06:08 "I'm not saying they're going to do a bad job," he said.
06:12 "I just don't have any confidence in them doing a bad job."