Today is the last day of the 2023 election campaign for now), and after midnight, its illegal for us to talk about politics for a bit - which is likely to be a welcome relief. Its been a gruelling and yet also boring election campaign, in which the status quo parties wanked on about law and order and the size of each other's fiscal holes, while ignoring the murderous cow in the room. There was also the sight of them desperately avoiding appearing next to the smaller parties, for fear that actual ideas might enter the campaign, and even to avoid debating each other. The message I took from it was that the status quo parties were arrogant, irrelevant, cowardly, and had nothing to say to me - at best they were intent on ignoring Aotearoa's real challenges of climate change, inequality, and housing, and in National's case, they wanted to make all of those problems worse.
From the beginning, Labour's sheer cowardice and reluctance to offer anything suggested they wanted to lose, and were going to do so by default. But National's desperate step of ruling Winston in, then their desperate threats to call another election if they had to work with him - a decision not up to them - plus a late rally from Labour means the outcome is a lot less certain. I still think we're likely to get a National-ACT-NZ First coalition of racism, cruelty and chaos out of this, but there's now a slim chance of Labour making it back (in which case I guess we get to see what the long-dreamed-of Labour-Green-Te Pāti Māori coalition will look like in practice). In any case, it looks like the Greens are on track to have a good election, so that voice will be there to demand a better future, even if National and ACT try to burn us all to death. We'll know tomorrow night, or in early November when the specials are counted and the results finalised.
(And if the worst happens, well, any coalition of chaos is likely to be short-lived, and taint the participants thoroughly. So there’s always that to hope for...)
Anyway, at this stage, all I can say is: if you haven't voted: please remember to do so. You can vote at any polling place, and you don't need ID (though having your EasyVote card will make it fractionally quicker). If you're not enrolled, you can do it on the day. Elections are won by those who turn up. So make your voice heard, and vote.
