It’s a New Zealand election with a twist. What’s at stake?
“Millennial centrist” Qiulae Wong answered a job ad to lead her party last year. Now she wants to channel Australia’s teal movement and redraw a Kiwi electoral landscape dominated by “the two Chrises”.
Meanwhile, unemployment is at its highest since 2015, and New Zealand’s economy has barely grown in three years. Housing affordability, rents and a shortage of social housing remain major concerns. Ageing public assets have also raised questions about how to pay for better infrastructure.
New Zealand is also juggling deep trade links with China against security ties with Australia, the US and other Western partners. Connor Graham says the parties’ stances differ markedly on issues such as whether to explore technology co-operation under the AUKUS Pillar Two agreement (the part that does not involve nuclear submarines). This election will be defining for how the nation engages with a fast-changing world order and the shape of its longstanding “independent foreign policy mantra”, he says. It has resonance for Australia, too, he contends, “which is also wrestling with its place in a changing world, with its closest ally, the US, particularly unpredictable.”
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