OPINION
If you ever wanted proof of the disconnect of the elites, look no further than the blaming of the public for the ongoing failure of the legacy media, rather than being introspective about seeking whom to blame.
Then there is the empirical evidence of the IPSOS research company that carries out an annual survey about populism and discontent around the world. This year they have included New Zealand for the first time and their results were released last Friday afternoon: Populism global survey: New Zealand results.
Naturally the left-wing commentators have seized upon the results as some sort of proof that Kiwi voters elected a nasty, vindictive government in 2023 to replace the government of “kindness”.
Again, there is a failure of the elites to be introspective about the results the IPSOS research shows, namely:
“New Zealand needs a strong leader to take the country back from the rich and powerful” – 66% of New Zealanders agree with this statement (and 16% disagree). This compares to a global survey average of 63%. In New Zealand, the demographics who are more inclined to agree are Maori (82%), leftwing voters (79%), those on “low incomes” (77%), and those aged 65+ (72%).
“New Zealand’s economy is rigged to advantage the rich and powerful” – 65% agree with this statement (17% disagree). The global figure is 67%. Demographics more inclined to agree are leftwing voters (84%), Maori (79%), low incomes (73%), and those aged 18–34 (71%).
“The political and economic elite don’t care about hard-working people” – 63% agree with this statement (19% disagree). The global figure is 67%. Demographics more inclined to agree are leftwing voters (76%), Maori (76%), those on “medium income” (70%), and “low income” (68%).
“New Zealand is in decline” – 60% agree with this statement (18% disagree). The global figure is 58%. The demographic more inclined to agree is Maori (66%). Left and right voters agree in similar proportions (61% and 59%).
“The main divide in our society is between ordinary citizens and the political and economic elite” – 60% agree with this statement (and 20% disagree). The global figure is 67%. Demographics more inclined to agree are Maori (78%), leftwing voters (74%), “low income” (69%), “medium income” (65%), and aged 16–34 (65%).
“New Zealand society is broken” – 58% agree with this statement (and 23% disagree). The global figure is 57%. Demographics more inclined to agree are Maori (67%), Low income (66%), and the unemployed (65%). Left and right voters agree in similar proportions (59% and 58%).
“Experts in this country don’t understand the lives of people like me” – 56% agree with this statement (and 20% disagree). The global figure is 62%. Demographics more inclined to agree are Maori (73%), “low income” (66%), and leftwing voters (63%).
“Traditional parties and politicians don’t care about people like me” – 55% agree with this statement (and 18% disagree). The global figure is 64%. Demographics more inclined to agree are: Maori (69%), Low income (63%), Aged 18–34 (60%), and leftwing voters (63%).
Democracy Project
The media and political elites are utterly baffled at the rise of populism and, worse still, their narrative that populism and populist leaders are somehow a bad thing kind of proves just how out of touch they are with their audiences and the voters.
It rather begs the question that if populism is bad, is democracy good? Or is it only if democracy comes up with the right answer?
Clearly both Bryce Edwards and Marc Daalder think it is the latter, that democracy is good – until it delivers up a leader or party they don’t agree with.
Bryce Edwards notes:
This rise of populist discontent is related to declining trust and faith in political and public institutions. Throughout the Western world, citizens have been losing faith in many of the key parts of democracy over recent decades. This anger with elites then sped up following the global financial crisis of 2008, with special concerns about economic inequality and vested interests. Discontent fuelled radical political movements and figures around the world – from Brexit in the UK to Donald Trump’s election in the US, as well as fostering a growth in radical critiques of society relating to movements like Black Lives Matter, MeToo, and heightened concerns about other issues relating to gender, ethnicity and sexuality.
Arguably, since the Covid pandemic, distrust in politicians, the media, and other elites has increased again. In explaining this, some analysts point to the failure of governments to deliver what the public expects of them, together with the many “polycrises” plaguing countries like New Zealand (climate change, cost-of-living crisis, infrastructure deficits, transport problems, etc). Concerns about elites becoming preoccupied with culture wars and identity politics are also pinpointed as alienating the public.
Others point to causes like social media, misinformation, and conspiracy theories. These are the favoured explanations of Newsroom’s Marc Daalder who writes about the IPSOS survey results today, saying “These are shocking numbers” – see: New Zealand broken and in decline, Kiwis say.
Democracy Project
There is no “arguably” about it at all. Jacinda Ardern and indeed the whole parliament at the time, were in lock step, goose-stepping their way to totalitarianism, with the bought-off legacy media cheerleading from the sides. We saw what they did; some of us marched to Wellington to say so, and were beaten and abused for the temerity of saying it out loud.
That fateful day in Wellington, when the “system” stomped, clubbed and destroyed a peaceful protest, was the tipping point that this survey has captured.
Sure we threw that lot out, but National and Christopher Luxon are still there, even though they agreed with it all. Hence the discontent continues to this day.
Daalder quotes academic Paul Spoonley, who co-runs the anti-extremism research centre He Whenua Taurikura set up by the Labour Government, who says that Covid temporarily produced greater social cohesion in 2020, but then caused fractiousness: “That unravelled, quite spectacularly, in 2021 and 2022. If we jump to the 2023 report, what we found is those high levels of social cohesion and I would suggest trust, particularly trust in government, had literally evaporated over the previous two years. The key indicator of that was the protests that were occurring around New Zealand, most notably in Wellington.”
Daalder has published a second article today, saying that the populist survey results also “reflect a prevailing sense of disenfranchisement. The egalitarian, progressive, future-looking New Zealand is a thing of the past” – see: New Zealand’s crisis of confidence (paywalled).
He points also to survey research showing that the public doesn’t think very highly of the main two political leaders – both Christopher Luxon and Chris Hipkins have negative favourability ratings at the moment, and looking at the preferred prime minister polls it’s clear that “a majority of respondents would prefer someone other than Luxon or Hipkins to lead the country”. In terms of the two leaders, Daalder says “People view them as out of touch, steeped in business-speak or Wellington bureaucracy and unable to relate to everyday people’s lives.”
Democracy Project
These elites love to talk about social cohesion but what they are really hankering for is a Stalinist or Maoist style of social cohesion. It is really the only cohesion they are after, where the state ‘solves’ all of society’s ills, even if it means sending malcontents to the gulags.
Kiwis are mad as hell. That is why trust in media has fallen off a cliff. It isn’t our fault: it is entirely the media’s fault. We saw them too, cheerleading and playing favourites instead of telling us the news. Have you noticed how the legacy media constantly try to reframe every discussion of how the media are failing as an existential threat to democracy, not about journalism and their own role in seeing trust decline.
One media personality who gets it is Leighton Smith. In this interview with Nick Cater he laments the government and media stifling debate, and gives ivermectin as an illustration of that. He also says the Parliament protestors were misrepresented and Ardern and other politicians, with the exception of Winston Peters, made the mistake of not listening to them.
The continued disconnect of the elites, both in parliament and in the legacy media, will continue to erode trust until and unless they are willing to listen to the truths that keep smacking them in the face and start to actually change.
Until that happens they best get used to the rise of populism and a populist leader, which right now in New Zealand can and will be filled by one party in particular and it is not the National or the ACT Party.
Voters and audiences have had enough: they will seek replacements for politicians who fail to listen and seek out media who do listen.
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