Election year has only just begun, but Heather du Plessis-Allan and Barry Soper are already ripping into the Greens on air;
https://www.rnz.co.nz/podcast/mediawatch?share=9330bb2d-f301-4237-90b6-1a67e31ce87b
Presumably in the hopes this will shift "swing voters" from Labour to National. But I wonder if this kind of strategic denigration could backfire on them Streisand Effect style.
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In the 1999 election campaign, National PM Jenny Shipley regularly ripped into the Greens over their drug law reform policy. In the end the Greens got just over 5% of the vote and the Coromandel seat. A big improvement over their polling at the start of the campaign.
So the PM's attacks didn't certainly seem to hurt the Greens. But there's a good chance that many people who might otherwise not have voted, or voted ALCP, heard about the Greens' progressive drug policy from Shipley.
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So what might the left learn from this when it comes to campaign strategy this year? As the new age saying puts it, "where attention goes, energy flows".
Any time we draw people's attention to all the things wrong with the ruling parties, we draw it away from a focus on what a better government *could* do if elected. Also, I suspect the flaws of the regime are pretty obvious to most of us. Harping on those flaws seems more likely to turn people off, than to inspire us to turn out in Nov.
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So my suggestion to left parties, and the left in general, is the same as it was in 2017. We need to talk about policy. Not how badly the current lot have governed, policy for doing it better.
The right wins by focusing people on trivia and polarising Culture War issues, and whipping up scandal. The left wins by describing a society that supports a great life for our people - all of us - and what role government can realistically play in getting us there.
Policy, policy, policy.
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@strypey as we go over regularly, I am NOT a Green party spokesperson. And I have no insider knowledge. But we've talked about policy from start to finish for several elections in a row. There's no reason to suspect this time will be different.
@strypey this is, I think the lesson of Mamdani. There is an appetite for policy that clearly improves people's lives, and is clearly achievable.
Finally, a reminder that the #PolicyNZ tag is there for anyone to use. To describe specific policies you'd like a future government to enact. In as much detail as you can. Let's do everything we can to make positive future visions and policy detail the focus on political debate in 2026.
We got this.
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@strypey In my view we have to stop focusing on endless growth as the basis of the economy. It is like a giant Ponzi scheme because we are beginning to exhaust the resources that drive growth and are mortgaging the future in a way we can't repay. In my view, the focus needs to be on a more sustainable model for the economy that enables future generations to have a good quality of life i thoroughly recommend checking out Earth Overshoot Day. It tells us endless growth will endanger our future both within NZ and globally. #PolicyNZ
