Atlas Monitor | 21 Sept 2014
Winston Peters was denied his anticipated ‘king-maker’ role; Hone Harawira and The Internet Mana Party were disconnected; and Labour and the Greens are Left in tatters. It couldn’t have been a better result for John Key and The National Party who cruised to their third election victory without the need to make any concessions through a deal with NZ First or any other minor party in order to form a government.
The close race many had expected was not to be and the nightmare campaign during which serious allegations of “dirty politics” and corruption as well as illegal spying saw Justice Minister Judith Collins ‘crushed’ under the pressure of her own hubris and PM John Key put on a stunning performance of prevarication, sophistry and spin.
The drama threatened to derail National’s campaign; however ultimately had little impact on the final result as NZ voters were presented with no credible alternative government.
Kim Dotcom has taken credit for destroying Hone Harawira’s political career saying brand Dotcom “poisoned” the campaign and Internet Party leader Laila Harre has expressed regret for not “pulling” KDC from the front line of the campaign.
Defiant in defeat Labour Party leader David Cunliffe has blamed KDC for ruining the Left’s chances despite Labour rejecting overtures by The Green Party to work together on presenting a credible alternative government. Cunliffe has arrogantly refused to resign on the back of Labour’s worst result since 1922 but has called for a leadership primary.
Roughly 1 million people did not vote at this election with 77.04% of eligible voters taking part; up from 74.2% at the 2011 election.
The last week of the election campaign was dominated by KDC’s “moment of truth” event which was joined by journalist Glenn Greenwald as well as fugitives Julian Assange and Edward Snowden who were beamed in by satellite; broadcasting startling revelations and allegations about the GCSB’s Orwellian surveillance state apparatus.
Up until that moment the campaign had been hijacked by bombshell revelations in Nicky Hager’s book Dirty Politics which depicted National’s dubious alliance with notorious blogger Cameron Slater in orchestrating a sustained attack campaign on their political opposition. Interestingly the first chapter in Hager’s book quotes National campaign strategist Simon Lusk explaining
There are a few basic propositions with negative campaigning that are worth knowing about. It lowers turnout, favours right more than left as the right continue to turn out, and drives away the independents. Voting then becomes more partisan
The irony cannot be overstated and one wonders if it had occurred to Hager et al that the last minute assault on John Key and the National Party’s credibility would in fact be proving a theory Hager had detailed in his own work?
Another point of irony is perhaps the existential battle taking place between John Key and KDC. Upon closer examination one might argue that hey have more in common with each other than they do with the vast majority of New Zealanders. They’re both obscenely rich and both got into politics after becoming richer than most New Zealander’s can imagine. Both have spent most of their adult life living outside of NZ and both have Germanic heritage of one form or another.
Max Key and Mona Dotcom were seen partying together an at Auckland nightspot and one might be tempted to make the analogy between the Montague-Capulet feud that formed the plot of one of Shakespeare’s most famous plays.
Shakespearean analogies have featured more than once during the 2014 campaign with Labour candidate Steve Gibson referring to Key as Shylock the Jewish moneylender in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice.
It will be interesting to see what the National government’s third term brings and to what extent the allegations of the questionable spying activities of the GCSB endures. This is a major issue that won’t and ought not go away easily.
In the immortal words of William Shakespeare’s character Marcellus in the play Hamlet;
Something is rotten in the state of Wellington
