Election 2023: Labour Party accused of failing to stay true to its values

The Labour government has failed to earn themselves another term.

That was the view of unionist Fala Haulangi who described the result of the 2023 general election at the weekend as a huge wake up call for Labour.

The election night result will see New Zealand’s 54th government led by National but confirmed MPs and roles will be hanging on over half a million special votes which have not yet been counted and the result of the Port Waikato by-election.

Currently National and the ACT Party have sufficient numbers to form a government, but things could change, and they may still need NZ First if they are to govern.

Meanwhile, the Labour Party were decimated in the election, winning only 34 seats, from the 65 they achieved in the 2020 landslide victory.

Haulangi, speaking as part of a four-member panel on 531pi show Pacific Mornings said: “The Labour party need to sort their own sh*t, and maybe really look at themselves and find out why the hell [it happened].”

The panel – which included political commentator Emmaline Pickering-Martin, community leader Pakilau Manase Lua and economist Dr Filipo Katavake-McGrath - discussed what a National and ACT coalition could mean for Pacific communities and highlighted the overall importance of Pacific voter turnout.

Political commentator Emmaline Martin-Pickering said the preliminary election results are a clear indication of people wanting change, but Māori and Pacific voting rates were abysmal in really key areas.

“Did we really vote for change or are we just over this whole political system and all the crazy politics going on? It seems everyone's kind of over it and it showed - a very specific part of society voted and got the outcome that they wanted.”

Economist Dr Filipo Katavake-McGrath said as a country we’ve been here before.

“Look, this happened in 2008 when society was up against a global financial crisis. And we are seeing that now, that as a society, we are facing a cost-of-living crisis.”

Katavake-McGrath said it remains to be seen whether Pacific communities will benefit from the policies the National Party is proposing for the country. He said only time will tell if history repeats what happened when National last came into power.

He said the immediate measures National plan to introduce will do nothing for the cost-of-living challenges that people have in their day-to-day lives.

“With a National-led government that will not want to incentivise people to do one thing or another, I can't see where cost of living is going to improve for Pacific in the near term.

“The campaigning [of National] has boiled down to the idea that the economy needs to have demand taken out of it. Commonly, the way you take demand out of the economy is to take people's incomes away by making them unemployed.”

Community leader Pakilau Manase Lua said the overwhelming National win was not a shock.

However, he did not expect to witness the crumbling of several decade-long Labour strongholds such as Mount Roskill, where former Labour minister Michael Wood is just one of the 21 party MP’s who lost their jobs on election night.

The Tongan community leader still doesn’t think the outcome will be entirely devastating for Pacific communities.

“[National] have done some good things in the past, albeit through influence from minor parties like the Māori Party. National don't get all up in your business like Labour tends to do as well.”

Instead, he is hopeful that a National-led government will take a step back and trust “communities to do what they do best”, as opposed to a “meddling and micromanaging” Labour government.

Unionist Haulangi was concerned for worker’s rights, especially as National aims to restore the 90-day employment trial period as part of their first 100 days in government.

Haulangi was also worried for young people and emphasised her distrust of the ACT Party leader.

“That bloody David Seymour has made it quite clear he wanted to be the deputy prime minister and that he's going to do away with [the Ministry of Pacific Peoples]. Not just that, but blowing it up. And me personally, I don't want that kind of deputy prime minister to run our country, saying things like that about our people.” ‘

Haulangi said Labour’s refusal to own a wealth tax set them up for failure and ultimately drove Labour loyalists to vote Green, National or not at all.

“They didn't have the balls to make a change. If you don't have that, then get out, get somebody else to be the leader because that really shows and you're not listening. You're not listening to people at the bottom who are your hardcore supporters.”

Pakilau said from this election campaign, it is evident Labour is quickly becoming a party that has lost its way in terms of its own values.

Pickering-Martin said Angee Nicholas – a 29-year-old Cook Islander who is only 30 votes ahead of Labour’s Phil Twyford in the contest for the Te Atatu seat – is wonderful and young but is lacking.

“Nicholas falls into that privileged National category where people who may have had really great lives growing up, who have businesses, who own homes - the National kind of voter base,” says Martin-Pickering.

“It's hard to imagine having the lens of our people put into any policy decision making or any table discussions, which is massively concerning. We make up a large percentage of the population and we're growing and so it's really important that we have Pacific representation.”

With the possibility of no Pacific candidates even making it into the new National-led government, Haulangi said maybe it’s time for Pacific women in leadership for the opposition.

“They really need to look at if Chippy is not the guy to lead the team. Hey, we got our sister Carmel there, we got our sister Barbara Edmonds there. They're very capable people and it's about time the Labour Party needs to start looking at the Pasifika woman who can lead the party.”