News: NZ Election

As I’m sure you’re aware, the New Zealand election is over, and it was a landslide. Though I wasn’t prepared to take anything for granted, the writing was pretty much on the wall when it came to a Labour victory – but the sheer extent of the red wave (and here, that means left) caught everyone by surprise. Not only is Labour a majority government – a thing unheard of since 1946 – but several electorates that have been held by National MPs for up to twenty years have flipped.

Now Jacinda Ardern holds an overall majority of sixty-four (out of one hundred and twenty) seats in the House of Representatives, and 49.10% of the party vote. According to George R.R. Martin, this means she’s only a bell toll away from nuking Auckland City, but after several weeks of stress this news makes it feel like the ground is much sturdier under my feet.

More than anything else, it’s a reassuring reminder that qualities such as compassion and common sense are valued enough in society that they can win the day at election time. Although what happened here isn’t remotely comparable to the toxicity of campaigns occurring overseas, there was certainly an added amount of nastiness to the proceedings this time around, from Gerry Brownlee’s stupid attempt to churn up conspiracy theories, Judith Collins’s weird dog-whistling to undermine Jacinda by referring to her as MISS Ardern (to rile up those that disapprove of the fact she’s an unmarried mother) and the true awfulness of parties like the New Conservatives and Advance New Zealand (the former were essentially anti-everything that’s not a straight white Christian male and the latter are our homegrown bunch of QAnon looneys who think Covid-19 is a hoax).

It’s also worth noting that the ACT part shot up in numbers, largely because David Seymour has realized that stoking white grievance, the gun lobbyists and the usual handwringing over “free speech” will get him votes. This is the same guy who was so busy complaining about the gun reform laws to reporters outside Parliament that he totally missed being in the House to vote against its passing.  

But most kiwis didn’t fall for this bullshit, and that’s made me think about old stories and concepts like that of the Fisher King: the idea that a country’s mental, physical and spiritual health is tied to that of its ruler. For the record, I’m not fond of the whole “Saint Jacinda” thing, even if it is spoken in jest – she’s no more or less than an intelligent woman doing her job competently and conscientiously. But there is a correlation between good leadership and decent people.

It’s never quite as straightforward as the horses in Macbeth eating each other after the murder of King Duncan, or the destruction of the Pridelands once Scar takes over in The Lion King, but these ancient tales always have some basis in truth. I haven’t felt like a particularly great person lately, and that’s been seeping into all parts of my life, from social media to work. Now that the strain and anxiety of the election cycle is behind us, I can… go back to worrying about the pandemic, climate change and the American president. But I can do so knowing that New Zealand is in good hands.