New Zealand's National Party marches back to power

[muriel_volestrangler]

Source: Reuters

New Zealand's ruling National party stormed to a third term in government in the country's general election on Saturday with the center-right party securing an outright election night majority on a platform to continue tight economic policies.

Prime Minister John Key's party won 48.1 percent of the vote, translating into 61 of 121 parliamentary seats and improving its performance from the 2011 vote.
...
The 53-year-old former foreign exchange dealer emerged untouched from allegations of dirty political tactics involving government ministers, and claims a government spy agency had planned mass secret domestic surveillance.
...
He confirmed he would talk to the small free-market Act Party, centrist United Future, and indigenous Maori Party, who together have four seats, to rejoin the government.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/09/20/us-newzealand-election-count-idUSKBN0HF06M20140920

[shaayecanaan]

1. He's a consummate politician

to win an outright majority in a MPP-based system in circumstances such as those is an accomplishment. Bear in mind that as a conservative, he passed legislation legalising gay marriage. He's clever enough to realise when he ought to be on the right side of history.

[wickerwoman]

10. He's getting credit for the economic recovery which likely would have happened anyway,

Labour has been in free-fall since Helen Clarke and Christchurch is at a point in the rebuild where it would rather have the devil it knows than the devil it doesn't.

The real tragedy is that National are going to see this as a mandate to roll back environmental legislation, push for charter schools and continue deregulating left, right and centre in the name of "innovation" and "choice".

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

2. ugh.

I used to think I'd like to move to New Zealand. Not so sure any more.

[yeoman6987]

5. Their immigration laws are the strictest in the World

I would bet few Americans would get the ok to be able to live in New Zealand. Good luck on your quest. You will need it.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

6. I rack up a lot of skilled immigrant category points.

with the 6 college degrees and a decade+ of IT work under my belt to boot. But I'd still want to get 'nurse practitioner' under my belt before moving, and that really is putting it pretty late, agewise, so I'll probably never do it.

[yeoman6987]

7. Well I am glad that you are doing well here

We need you here anyway. We would hate to lose you.

[shaayecanaan]

8. No they're not

they're actually less restrictive than Australia, which is why many people take up residence in New Zealand first (holding a NZ passport entitles you to live and work in Australia indefinitely).

Its actually much less restrictive than the skilled migration program in the US.

[rickford66]

12. It helps to marry a Kiwi

My wife is British but was raised in NZ. The rest of her siblings are Kiwis. We'd have no trouble moving there and occasionally make plans to do it. The earthquakes have delayed any recent trips as most of my in-laws are in CHCH. We usually go for a month and hate to return. Driving on the left and making turns is the only stress we encounter and my brain takes a couple days to rewire. My wife hates any positive publicity NZ receives as it attracts more outsiders who are buying up whatever they can. My SIL complains constantly about the Chinese in the North Island driving up the cost of everything. I remember my time there in 1969 and 1970 when women wore skirts, nylons and high heels. It was like a 1940's movie in England. Very few new cars due to the import tax. Acquaintances wanted us to buy them Levis and cigarettes at the Navy Exchange. I bought them but gave them away. Big trouble if you were caught selling the stuff.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

13. I really like the fact that the country goes all the way from

subtropical to subarctic. I'm generally a cold-weather sort of guy, but it would be nice to be able to drive up into warmer weather every so often. I though Dunedin or Christchurch looked about my speed, or maybe one of the smaller towns that far south.

[rickford66]

15. CHCH is out of sight since the earthquakes

Shortage of housing. My in-law's homes were repairable so we have several potential places to visit. I've been to Dunedin. Very nice. We thought about buying outside of CHCH or even on the West Coast. If we were younger, I'd love to be out by Arthur's Pass.

[SoapBox]

3. Center-Right...

Why can't there be a Center-Left for a change? Is the world really "conservative" or just brain washed?

[totodeinhere]

4. Remember that "center right" by their standards would probably be to the left of

our Democratic Party.

[shaayecanaan]

9. Way to the left of your democratic party

Again, its worth emphasising that this government legalised gay marriage, much like the Conservative Party did in the UK - something that the Democratic Party is still ambivalent about doing.

By New Zealand standards, the Republican party would not be conservative, but right-wing populist.

[wickerwoman]

11. They also sacked ECan and replaced them with appointed cronies.

Not even the Republicans would have the cojones to fire a democratically elected regional council and replace them with pro-corporate and agribusiness appointees so they could divy up water rights in Canterbury without worrying about pesky little nuisances like human rights, public ownership of resources, the Treaty of Waitangi, etc.

They'll probably extend the CER Act as well which gives the Earthquake Recovery Minister carte blanche to change anything he doesn't like about local legislation in the name of the rebuild, regardless of what the local democratically elected Councils want. Christchurch will be saddled with massive debt to pay for vanity "anchor projects" it doesn't want or need just so John Key and Gerry Brownlee can swan around cutting ribbons and prove that they've shown "leadership" on the rebuild.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

14. In many ways, sure.

But aren't they the ones who keep selling off government-run enterprises to cronies in the private sector, who run them down to the point that Labour ends up buying them back to fix them? That's a pretty RW trick that our conservatives would love just as much.

[wickerwoman]

16. Yep.

They're putting huge pressure on Christchurch to sell off its assets, particularly social housing and it's stake in the port and airport, to pay for nice-to-haves like a 35,000 seat covered stadium. Because we all know the best way to economic recovery is to turf out thousands of poor families in the middle of a housing shortage so that rugby games don't get rained out.

[wysi]

17. I've been here 12 years now...

... and this is about as depressed as I have been about the prospects for New Zealand. I keep telling Kiwis that they are getting more like Americans all the time... and I don't mean that as a compliment.

National is more or less using the Reagan administration playbook, and the neoliberal transition should be more or less complete by the time Key retired to his house in Hawaii at the end of this term.

[fingrin]

18. What does

one seriously expect from an Ex Wall street lackey who made his millions of the backs of others? NZ is naive and stupid to vote back in a leader who lies have been so well documented. Heres looking forward to more benefit bashing, sold assets, widening income gap, and increased poverty which is at record levels.
Nz will be kicking themselves once they realise how he has really sold out NZ and our unique way of life.
They fell for his lies about we now have a surplus, but are ignorant that National debt under the left was 8 billion and under his "leadership" it is now 82 billion in just over 6 years. All for a population between 4-5 million people.