ANALYSIS: Here we go! The minor parties have shocked some life back into this election campaign.
Called together to a bar in Grey Lynn for Newshub Nations’ “Powerbrokers” Debate, leaders from the four minor parties each performed well, but all for different reasons.
There were high-fives, plenty of jibes, and a lot of laughs when ACT’s David Seymour, Green co-leader Marama Davidson, Te Pāti Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer and NZ First’s Winston Peters faced off.
This debate was also a reminder that everything is up for grabs on October 14.
The power of the minor parties is growing. Every minor party is expected to significantly grow its share of Parliament at this election, which will have considerable sway over the next government.
On current polling, the big question is: How could a National, ACT, and NZ First coalition actually work? National’s Christopher Luxon is on track to be prime minister, but it’s unclear whether he will need the support of both Seymour and Peters – or just one of them – to form the next government. And Seymour and Peters have a very testy relationship.
Newshub/The Post
About 100 journalists and political actors watched the minor parties debate at a pub in Grey Lynn.
The answer from Thursday night’s debate seemed clear: They would work begrudgingly and antagonistically.
Peters was on form at Grey Lynn’s Pocket Bar. He came out with some strange and some hilarious one-liners. All of them would have played well with the voters Peters is courting in this election.
Referring to Davidson’s previous comment that white, cis men are the most likely to be perpetrators of violence, Peters announced: “I’m not a white cis man.”
When Newshub Nation host Rebecca Wright asked about debates regarding race and ethnicity, and challenged Seymour for race-baiting, Peters interjected: “He’s not baiting, he’s imitating.”
On talk of coalitions, Seymour said nobody could really work with Peters. But both Peters and Seymour appeared to agree, if forced by circumstance, they could come to some sort of uneasy truce.
Seymour described Peters as “an arsonist showing up dressed as a fireman, saying, ‘I am here to help’.”
Meanwhile, Peters tried to position himself as an experienced leader. He interrupted Seymour, who spoke often and at length throughout the debate, saying: “That’s enough. There are adults in the room.”
Newshub/The Post
Winston Peters delivered a stand-out performance during the Newshub Nation Powerbrokers debate.
Standing in between the two men were Davidson and Ngarewa-Packer, who had teamed up, declared themselves friends, and were high-fiving throughout the debate.
While Peters wanted to appear as a mature adult, with 45 years’ experience compared to this group of relative newbies, the Davidson and Ngarewa-Packer duo repeatedly called him out about his immaturity. They positioned themselves as a team firing and ready to work together.
“Do people actually trust that Luxon is going to be able to manage these two,” Davidson asked, pointing to Seymour and Peters.
She turned to Ngarewa-Packer, asking: “We can be friends, right?”
Ngarewa-Packer agreed, telling the crowd: “You can trust us whānau.”
Luxon keeps refusing to talk about how willing he is to work with Peters, while Hipkins has ruled NZ First out. Hipkins said he was happy to work with the Greens and Te Pāti Māori.
andrew dalton/TVNZ
Labour leader Chris Hipkins and National Party Leader Christopher Luxon went head-to-head in the TVNZ leaders debate.
While he bickered with Peters, Seymour was playing a different game to that of the 3 other leaders. He was risk-averse, and during a debate packed with cracks and fiery responses, he was relatively low energy. He instead opted for fairly long answers, but few were illuminating.
The separation between the parties on law and order was perhaps the most interesting topic, policy wise. Peters said he wanted to build gang prisons, and also said he didn’t think white-collar criminals should be given jail sentences. Seymour called for higher incarceration rates, while Ngarewa-Packer said it was time to get tough on poverty.
Seymour’s energy was reminiscent of the Tuesday night debate between Chris Hipkins and Christopher Luxon, which saw contrived, predictable and uninspiring displays from both leaders.
On Thursday, as each minor party leader sought favour with different segments of the population, they were free to speak their minds and have a bit of fun. Despite some more uncomfortable discussion, it was also good-natured in front of about a hundred journalists and political actors in Auckland. There was heckling, but that was mainly from Te Pāti Māori president John Tamihere to Peters.
With three more “leaders debates” scheduled, television producers must be kicking themselves for not finding a way to convince Luxon and Hipkins that they should front up for an all-parties debate.
There is no reason they shouldn’t, and the minor parties showed they are fast becoming the most interesting parties of this election campaign.
