Directions

Now that the final count is out, and its down to the business of putting a government together, Labour has a clear choice ahead of it: it can shift to the right and pursue policies dictated to it by NZFirst and United Future, or it can ally with the Greens and Maori Party and continue to push a left-wing agenda. In his column yesterday in the Dominion-Post, Chris Trotter argued that if it is to have any chance in 2008, Labour must move to the left:

[Shifting right] may recommend itself to Miss Clark as the moderate course to follow, but it isn't. By attempting to muddle through the next three years, she will simply hand over the political initiative to her opponents.

The vocabulary and the subject matter of political conversation in New Zealand will shift decisively to the Right. It will be their ideas that the electorate discusses; their alternatives that it evaluates; their leaders it assesses; and, ultimately, their election campaign that it responds to in three years. Which is why "muddling through" is, actually, the conservative option.

To survive the next three years and ready the Labour movement for the three after that, Miss Clark must change the political conversation. And that can be achieved only by adopting the radical option.

The "radical option" Trotter favours is trying to defuse the race issue. The first step in this process would be to convene a Parliamentary task force to consider the relationship between crown and Maori, how it has changed since the signing of the Treaty, and how it could be expressed constitutionally - with the aim of confirming any recommendations for major change through referenda.

This won't be easy - it will require something more than National's superficial soundbites for a start - and any answer will require building a solid consensus across both Maori and Pakeha. And it's that consensus, rather than change or formalisation which will be the goal. National has divided people; it's time to try and bring them together again.

It's also a smart move politically. National has repeatedly denied allegations of Maori-bashing with the claim that they are just trying to start a discussion. This calls their bluff. Like the constitutional stocktake, it says "let's have that conversation". This will either force National to play a constructive role, or expose their position for the shabby political tactic that it is.

More generally, there is another reason for Labour to go left. It is received wisdom that elections are won or lost in the centre. National has worked hard over the last two years to shift the centre towards itself - and it has achieved some success with its promises of tax cuts and Maori-bashing. Labour's challenge is to shift the centre back - and it will not do that simply by chorusing "me too". Instead, it needs to pursue its own agenda, and try and bring people with it. Otherwise, it is simply giving the game to National without even bothering to fight.