New Zealand politics - 10/11/2017

I have not been following the ins-and-outs of post-election politics in New Zealand but Martyn Bradbury catches the essence.

Winston Peters is ‘damned if he does and damned if he doesn’t’

What happens if a Labour led Government gets announced?

Martyn Bradbury

theDaily Blog,

11 October, 2017

As we get close to crunch time, what happens if there is a Labour led change of Government announced at the end of the week?

The backlash will begin.

The corporate mainstream media have been claiming National have some type of moral claim on forming the Government since election night and if a Labour led change is announced they will begin framing it as a shock result that was completely unexpected (despite NZ First+Green+Labour being the majority on election night and everyone knowing the Specials were going to help Labour and the Greens).

The new Government will be immediately tested by powerful anti-democratic forces who will move to spook the stock market off the back of this supposed ‘shock’ win by Labour.

Once the new Government policy of stopping foreign speculators buying land is announced, there will be pressure from China and Australia to either reverse that decision or face consequences. China could stir domestic anger and we could see large scale protests in Auckland and Australian banks will start threatening mortgage rates going up if they can’t guarantee ownership of the land for their offshore interests.

Once the full impact of building 100 000 new houses while dramatically slashing immigration and banning foreign purchase of land sets in, the property market will drop sharply and the new Government will get blamed for this.

Campaigning for the election and winning the election will be the easy part for Jacinda, facing a hostile political system  that will do everything to limit any real policy change once Governing is the real challenge.

It's all supposed to be decided on Thursday