I hate national. I tried to cope saying it wouldn't be that bad but holy shit these guys suck. Their entire term has just been the dumbest policy decision after dumbest policy decision.

[–] absGeekNZ 2 points 1 month ago

But look on the bright side. At least we won't know how much smoking uptake has increased.

[–] angrystego@lemmy.world 9 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Rip, I thought NZ was more based than this.

[–] Dave 10 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

We had quite the government change about a year ago.

I note the article describes the government as "centre-right". This is a common description for the party that the prime minister is from, but the government is made up of three parties. That centre-(edit: ~~left~~) right party, a populist party, and a much-further-right party.

[–] TagMeInSkipIGotThis 4 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

I think in the media we see parties described in a way that clashes with historic understandings of where the left, centre & right are purely because the right has been driven so much further to the extremes than 50+ years ago.

I would describe the parties like this:

TPM: Left
Green: Centre-Left
Labour: Centre-Right
NZ First: Centre-Right
National: Right
Act: Far Right

I'm sure some would argue Green & TPM are Far-Left, but neither are really calling for the over throw of the capitalist state or anything so I just don't really see it, i'd put Act at Far-Right because they essentially want to dissolve the power of the state entirely outside of its role in policing internally & externally.

[–] Dave 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I'd be pretty confident saying TPM and Greens are not "far left". Your description of "Left" is probably accurate. Others might describe them as far left simply because they haven't been exposed to Lemmy like we have.

I think I'd need definitions before confidently putting Labour as centre-right. Ostensibly Labour is for the working class and National is for small/medium businesses owners.

NZ First is a tricky one because they just kinda go with whatever the minority is yelling about.

Act is also pretty interesting because I am 100% sure they don't say what they really want.

[–] TagMeInSkipIGotThis 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Yeah, I'm very critical of Labour because they're socially Left, but through electoral fear tend to economically right. If you work through their recent record its been some wins for workers on the employment rights levels without fundamental changes to the neo-liberal economic system which is slowly but surely impoverishing their base.

I agree re NZ First, and they're more populist than anything else which means they could land anywhere at any given election, but most of their voting base is still at the greypower end which tends towards more right wing socially & economically.

[–] Dave 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

For NZ First I honestly feel like there are more young NZ First voters than there have been my whole life.

It just sucks that people are so disenchanted by life that they vote for the guy saying how bad things are instead of trying to learn about the individual problems and voting for people trying to solve those problems.

[–] TagMeInSkipIGotThis 2 points 1 month ago

Yeah it sucks, traditionally you'd think Winston would curb the worst of the Right's economic impulses at the expense of socially liberal policy, but it sorta seems now that he's traded all these culture war "wins" his base want for almost nothing apart from his MFAT toy.