New Zealand, a country that has labored under left-wing government for the past six years, has apparently switched direction by electing a new right-leaning government in their general election, which took place on Saturday. Preliminary results show that the National Party (center-left) has garnered approximately 39 percent of the vote, with the Labour Party, which had been in charge, tallying only 27 percent.
The country’s new prime minister will be former businessman Christopher Luxon. Luxon’s National Party is expected to form a coalition government with the ACT New Zealand Party, which garnered 9 percent of the vote.
Official results are expected on November 3.
Outgoing Prime Minister Chris Hipkins conceded late Saturday night after realizing he would not have the numbers necessary to form a coalition. Hipkins took over from previous Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern in January after Ardern told the nation that she no longer had “enough in the tank” to run for office again. Ardern had taken office in 2017 after a Labour Party landslide.
No such landslide occurred this time, as the nation is still recovering from Ardern’s draconian Covid-19 policies. Some claim that those policies allowed New Zealand to suffer fewer Covid-19 infections — but were a serious detriment to the economy, which has yet to rebound. Ardern is currently in the United States, having accepted a teaching position at Harvard.
“You have reached for hope and you have voted for change,” new PM Luxon told supporters after the win, adding that he’s looking to get the country “back on track.”
Luxon said that he was working with ACT and the New Zealand First Party, which won 6 percent of the vote, on a governing coalition. He hopes to have a government set by early November, when the Pacific Island Forum and APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) meetings take place.
“We are working very strongly to build relationships and also to work through arrangements with respective parties. We are going to do that confidentially,” Luxon said on Monday.
Hipkins, who has only been in office since January, was downcast over the results, but offered words of encouragement for his followers.
“But I want you to be proud of what we achieved over the last six years,” he told supporters in Wellington.
Among those accomplishments were the aforementioned Covid-19 policies, which most New Zealand watchers credit for a serious downturn in the economy, and a new climate-change policy, which will see the nation attempt to be the first in the world to tax animal emissions (cow burps and flatulence) in an effort to defeat climate change.
Many consider the election results a repudiation of Ardern’s Covid and climate policies. Former Brexit Party official Jim Ferguson suggested prosecution of Ardern over her pushing of mRNA vaccines for Covid-19.
“Jacinda Ardern’s Labour Party Thrown Out of Office in New Zealand Election. Will the new government bring prosecutions to bear against former Prime Minister #JacindaArdern for her pushing of the #mRNA vax and her locking down and persecution of #NewZealand,” Ferguson posted on X.
Likewise, farmers who might be subjected to the emissions tax considered the election a victory.
“It’s a weight off our shoulders,” said sheep and beef farmer Joe Lloyd.
Other farmers echoed Lloyd’s sentiment.
“Labour pitted urban New Zealand against rural New Zealand, and undermined our businesses by painting us as the polluters of the planet. We’ve been bombarded by regulations. They did everything they could to knock farmers’ confidence,” said fellow farmer Alastair Reeves.
Some claim that the New Zealand results portend a similar fate for left-wing governments around the world.
“New Zealand just had an election and completely rejected the far left labour party,” posted X user Republican Politics Enjoyer. “We are seeing a complete collapse of left wing parties around the world at the moment.”
Even Elon Musk lauded the result: “Congratulations and thank goodness!” he posted to Luxon on his X platform.
Whether the new coalition government will undo the damage that Ardern and her far-left cronies have done in New Zealand is yet to be seen, of course. In New Zealand, those on the political Right are more akin to moderate Democrats in the United States. But at least the Kiwis are headed in the right direction.
