OPINION

Chris Hipkins has declared that Labour’s campaigning this election is going to abandon the “Be Kind” nonsense of Ardern and go negative. We are going to see a resurgence of the Nasty Party. Negative campaigning is something the left loves to do. All I can say is ‘Bring it’.

Political commentator Bryce Edwards says political parties are running the risk of turning the New Zealand public “away in disgust” if divisive tensions continue to rise.

The 2023 election campaign is heating up and tensions are rising both within Parliament and on the campaign trail.

Joining AM Early on Thursday, Edwards said he’s witnessed politics become more tense and divisive over the last year – something he’s not seen for a “long, long time”.

“It’s out there in society and the public with a lot of discontent. Polls show that people think New Zealand is heading in the wrong direction.”

He said with the visible “social dislocation” and polarisation – politicians are picking up on it

“Essentially, they’re trying to get votes out of this.”

Edwards pointed to some of the political parties’ campaign slogans: New Zealand First’s ‘Let’s take our country back’ and National’s ‘Let’s get New Zealand back on track’.

Edwards said the mood is “looking much worse than we’ve seen in a long time” and also pointed to Labour already talking about running a more negative campaign to highlight what it believes a National-ACT coalition might look like.

He believes the current type of political tactics used by parties could turn the public off and “away in disgust”. He told AM Early it “tends to produce a decline in voter turnout when things get nasty like this and polarised”.

“Culture wars are a big part of it as well because you have minor parties, especially from left to right, Greens, ACT, New Zealand First that are really pushing, you know, sort of stuff about race and condemnations and ethnicity. It really can turn people off,” he said.

“So I think that’s the real danger we’re at at the moment.”

Newshub

The usual theory is that negative campaigning lowers the turnout, but the turnout of the left is lowered by the largest amount.

So Chippy can go negative all he wants, it won’t help him. But it will really reinforce with voters that the last six years have all been a massive charade and will reveal the true nature of Labour, nasty, vindictive, spiteful and jealous.

Labour’s support will tank, and all the opposition parties will gain as people turn their backs, literally, on Labour.

Only two questions remain for me… are Labour working hand in glove with Nicky Hager on their own Dirty Politics plan, and can Labour beat Bill English’s record low score of 20.93% for a major political party?

Help Fund Our NewsDesk

We are building a NewsDesk, hiring journalists and taking the fight to the mainstream media. Will you help fund our NewsDesk?

Your Donation
Donation Period *
Details
Payment
Like What You’ve Read?
Become a Member and Directly Support this Author

Please share this article so others can discover The BFD.

As much at home writing editorials as being the subject of them, Cam has won awards, including the Canon Media Award for his work on the Len Brown/Bevan Chuang story. When he’s not creating the news,...