Staunching drift from the left
December 2nd, 2011
Phil Goff took the rap for Labour’s crushing defeat, and it’s clear the party needs to take a good hard look at itself. Apart from the support which leaked away to the Greens and NZ First, Labour lost ground because it had no plainly defined message to stamp it as either a modern social democratic party, or an old-fashioned workers’ party.
The capital gains tax, moving up the retirement age threshold, inclusion of agriculture within the ETS might have sounded “bold” to those who promoted them but along with fiddly tax concessions like removing GST from fresh fruit and vegetables didn’t add up to a coherent platform, in the face of global fiscal austerity.
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Duncan Cotterill