NEW ZEALAND — On October 12, New Zealand held its first general election under the new mixed-member proportional (MMP) voting system.
Expanding from 99 to 120 seats, the NZ parliament now consists of 65 constituency MPs and 55 list MPs. Parties' constituency representation in parliament is "topped up" by their party, or list, vote. Of the 120 seats, National, formerly the governing party, won a total of 44 seats; Labour won 37; New Zealand First won 17; the NZ Alliance won 13; the Association of Consumers and Taxpayers won 8; and United won 1. A majority of 61 seats or more is required to form government. New Zealand First, led by Winston Peters, is currently holding coalition talks with both Labour and National to determine who will govern.
CONOR TWYFORD interviewed MATT ROBSON for Green Left Weekly. Robson is president of the NewLabour Party, one of the five partner parties of the New Zealand Alliance, and, along with 12 other Alliance candidates, was elected as a list MP on October 12.
Question: Now that you have a stronger base in parliament what steps will you be taking to maintain solidarity with the grassroots of the Alliance?
We're holding a round of consultative meetings with all the electorates, asking for feedback on the election campaign, how to use the increased resources that we now have, and what steps we might take to improve both the internal political life of the Alliance and its organisational strength.
Greater parliamentary resources will allow us to mobilise public support behind the progressive policies of the Alliance — for example, repealing the Employment Contracts Act, which was a union-smashing device, and which is on the political agenda in Australia. It will also allow us to advance the work of the Alliance in the electorates and to work with all progressive sectors, including the labour movement.
Question: What is the role of the list MPs in this new political environment?
With MMP we have a more democratic representation because of the existence of list MPs. The constituency MPs are elected on a first-past-the-post basis and they can often be elected on a minority of votes. We have only one constituency MP, Jim Anderton. He has built a solid base in his own working-class seat in Christchurch and he won over 50% of the vote in that seat.
List MPs are elected on the basis of a proportion of the party vote throughout the country; you can see what a democratic advance it is that we are not shut out of the parliamentary institution by the undemocratic nature of the first-past-the-post elections.
List MPs will be spokespeople for the party and will therefore represent various sectors, such as the labour movement, women, health, Maori, and so on. And they will organise across constituencies, rather than be confined to a geographical area as constituency MPs are. So the potential for them to organise, mobilise and educate is far greater than most constituency MPs, apart from somebody like Jim Anderton, who is naturally an organiser on a national basis.
Question: You have a majority of women (seven out of 13 MPs) in your new caucus — a world first.
This is no accident. It's a conscious decision of the Alliance to work against the socioeconomic discrimination against women. The fact that we have leading women in the Alliance is part of the progressive program that the Alliance stands for. It's a big advance for New Zealand, and it's a big advance for the Alliance. It's something we're very proud of.
Question: What role will the NewLabour Party play in the future?
The NewLabour Party initiated the talks to form the Alliance. Since that formation in 1991 we have worked closely with the other parties to build a cooperative political movement. We'll continue to do that. We'll be advocating NewLabour's program for the working class in New Zealand and, at the same time, we will work with the strengths of our partners in the Alliance. For example, the influence of green politics inside the Alliance has been a part of its wider appeal.
Question: Why do you think the Alliance vote fell so dramatically (from 17% to 10%) during the last week of the election campaign?
We will be doing a thorough analysis of that. First, we had ranged against us the whole apparatus of the establishment — the media; the other parties, including the Labour Party; and the Business Round Table. We had United (on the centre-right) decrying the Alliance as the party which would lead to economic ruin.
Secondly, the Labour Party put on its left-wing face. There were large sectors of the population under the illusion that Labour had changed and would now defend their interests. The former leader of the Labour Party, David Lange, who has now resigned from parliament, actually advised voters that Labour can't to be trusted by pointing out that both Labour and the National Party were cross-dressers in economic policy.
There are of course tactical and organisational matters that we have to look at very objectively to see how we can improve on putting our program forward. Another important aspect was that the union bureaucracy actively worked against us, despite the support of many of its members.
Question: The Alliance repeatedly stated during the election campaign that it would only go into coalition with other parties before the election, so that voters would know exactly what policy arrangements they would be voting for. Do you regret holding this position?
It did affect our vote in the sense that voters were led to believe that the Alliance, if it wasn't part of a government, wouldn't be influential. This led many voters to believe that it was better to be part of the action, through perhaps Labour or New Zealand First joining together to defend their interests.
However, there was widespread public support for our position that parties should talk beforehand and declare their coalition policies, and declare who they'd go into coalition with: A public opinion poll taken before the election showed that 69% of the population agreed. However, many people did express the opinion that you have to be "realistic", and basically that half a loaf is better than no loaf at all.
Now, after the election, with New Zealand First, a reactionary, extreme chauvinist party, showing its real colours and entering into a bidding war for cabinet seats with Labour and National, our position has gained respect. Through this experience many people realise that they were tricked, and that our position was the correct one. So we don't regret it, because it was the only honest position to put forward, and we have to educate our supporters, or potential supporters, on the need to end this game-playing of normal bourgeois politics.
Question: Winston Peters and New Zealand First currently hold the balance of power and could form a government on the right, with National, or on the so-called left, with Labour. What do you think will happen, and what role in each case would the Alliance play?
The "balance of power" is a misnomer. What Winston Peters holds is the balance of who can make up government. He is damned both ways.
If he goes with National he exposes his true colours to ex-National supporters who had placed their faith in New Zealand First. If he goes in with Labour he drags Labour even further to the right than they already are. Both parties will have to break their promises.
The role of the Alliance is to go through this experience with the masses and use our parliamentary position to explain why it is important to hold the party to its policies, both before and after an election. Only the Alliance offers that. We're very optimistic because we believe that we have a unique opportunity to mobilise people against the direction followed by so-called social democratic parties, and we look forward to working with our allies throughout the world.