The Labour Party used to be "slightly left" and "the good guys", concerned with people, with helping people. Though you can't reasonably blame Labour for all the countries woes, I think you can blame them a lot more than they seem to get.
Why Labour lost (and why I will never vote for them again):
- Race-based law - the intention was (I think) good, but the delivery was *awful*, they rush things through, avoided discussion and were certainly not transparent. Most of us were raised to not judge people by race, and we all got called racist for being uncomfortable when we were told to.
Read more
- Jan Tinetti and education - why is she still employed?! 1 in 5 children make the basic year 8 level in maths, and english and science scores are poor too. Given this they tried to add Maori to everything, did it badly and, again, called everyone racist when this was pointed out. The result? Massively declining education, losing teachers/lecturers in droves, children not bothering to go to school, and aggressive/rude Maori teachers deriding students.
- Matauranga Maori and the attack on academia - not a science, it takes more that being a "holistic system" to make a science. Watching the witch-hunt as they attacked educators and lecturers was disgusting. Chris (*spit*) Hipkins even presided over the death of Latin in the school curriculum. Latin, unlike most subjects, provides a historic study of early western civilisation, and crucial understandings of foundational ideas such as church/state, the senate, republicanism, democracy, etc. This almost felt like a cultural attack (but was likely just ignorance).
- Anti-science "friends" - with so many emerging tech and science areas now, the Green and Labour parties need to held far away from the regulatory space. The moratorium on GM was just bad, pushing research and researchers overseas, and destroying a growing sector. Labour/Greens going after AI, autonomous tech, genetech, crypto, and the like... scares me. The people regulating these things need to be educated to understand them instead of stoking the fear of the public. The potential uses of AI particularly is staggering - this tech will soon revolutionise medicine, health, business infrastructure, education, and it's important that NZ doesn't bow to fear-mongering from the Labour/Green. Don't miss out because ignorant people try to make you afraid!
- Delivery vs ideology - they tried to force ideology that many/most disagree with, that was clearly not in-line with historical agreements (some kind of racial partnership between 2 of our races). This was not what I and many voted for, and should not have been allowed. NZ lacks protections which other countries have, allowing Labour to try to steer us into a racial quagmire.
Mostly, a number of people who seem very underhand and sly, spent a year messing with things they didn't understand while insulting anyone who questioned them. And things got worse - far worse than "everything went down over covid" can excuse. Even now they lost, you will hear *very* little accountability from any one of them. They learned nothing. Never side with racists, people who are afraid of science, or people who don't value education - history is filled to the brim with lessons.
(Oh, and a Justice Minister who drove drunk into a car, threatened a cop, ran from the cop, and was hunted down by dogs. By this time in Labour's tenure, such behaviour seemed almost normal.)