Election fever builds in Auckland, Political Parties shore up issues
While the world is busy watching anxiously the outcome of the mother of all elections – the US president elections, which will reveal the outcome in next couple of days, we have an election fever gearing up in our own backyard at Auckland.
The Mt Roskill by elections on December 3, necessitated by incumbent Phil Goff’s election as Auckland’s mayor has kind of intensified electioneering environment in the Auckland.
The way political parties are organizing their events around the scheduled Mt Roskill by elections with an eye on the November 2017 general elections is interesting.
The last two weeks has been relatively busy on the political space in Auckland, with Labour Party for obvious reasons taking a lead in orchestrating their moves in order to shore up key issues that they believe will help them cross the line in 2017.
The Labour Party needs to be seen as job-ready for 2017 if presented with an opportunity at all.
The National Party is not too far behind in crafting their moves cautiously, although they are appearing to have a media verdict of having an upper hand in comparison to the Labours in retaining the job in 2017.
During the last two weeks, the Labour Party has set the ball rolling with three different announcements of light rail in Auckland, “training levy” on businesses hiring migrant workers and six months paid full time work to unemployed work-ready youths in New Zealand.
This way it has carefully articulated its stand on three different issues of public transport [in Auckland], immigration, and “left wing politics.”
Understandably, since the party has multiple goals in mind, (by election and general elections), therefore a room for vagueness has been left in all these three announcements, possibly deliberately.
The good thing for the Labours is that despite the vagueness in these major announcements it has not caused a major stir among the targeted recipients of these proposed policy initiatives.
The media is largely of the opinion that the Labour is holding its ground for now, however unconvincingly.
This is definitely a better show for the Labour Party and their leader Andrew Little, who is appearing to cobble together main issues to question National’s fourth term at the parliament next year.
All said but that there is nothing to take away from the National Party so far in the last two weeks.
They started with depicting Labours for their alleged “pork-barrel” politics of light rail in Auckland.
Since then the party has maintained a relatively low profile in terms of shoring up their main issues for the elections. Their ministers are relying on raising some feel good global indicators on New Zealand’s economy and safety at different public platforms.
But nothing big is coming out from the party, suggesting that it is holding back itself for some more time before they cut loose with some major announcements. Till then they are not giving anything away about what will be their main issues for the next elections.
This seems to be a right strategy for them as of now. It is not their fault that the Labour party had no choice but to shore up issues for the next elections.
The Labour Party may have to keep in mind that although they have taken a lead but this is not going to be a short sprint to 2017 where an early lead will matter most.
Rather it is going to be a marathon where one has to effectively last until the end to expect a desired a result.
The fact that the National Party is holding back on some major announcements, such as in areas like crime and policing, as being regularly suggested by Police Minister Judith Collins around the country, clearly suggest that they have their game plan perfectly in place.
Irrespective of what happens in future, it is obvious that Auckland’s political space is intensifying.
While the world is busy watching anxiously the outcome of the mother of all elections – the US president elections, which will reveal the outcome in next couple of days, we have an election fever gearing up in our own backyard at Auckland.
The Mt Roskill by elections on December 3, necessitated by...
While the world is busy watching anxiously the outcome of the mother of all elections – the US president elections, which will reveal the outcome in next couple of days, we have an election fever gearing up in our own backyard at Auckland.
The Mt Roskill by elections on December 3, necessitated by incumbent Phil Goff’s election as Auckland’s mayor has kind of intensified electioneering environment in the Auckland.
The way political parties are organizing their events around the scheduled Mt Roskill by elections with an eye on the November 2017 general elections is interesting.
The last two weeks has been relatively busy on the political space in Auckland, with Labour Party for obvious reasons taking a lead in orchestrating their moves in order to shore up key issues that they believe will help them cross the line in 2017.
The Labour Party needs to be seen as job-ready for 2017 if presented with an opportunity at all.
The National Party is not too far behind in crafting their moves cautiously, although they are appearing to have a media verdict of having an upper hand in comparison to the Labours in retaining the job in 2017.
During the last two weeks, the Labour Party has set the ball rolling with three different announcements of light rail in Auckland, “training levy” on businesses hiring migrant workers and six months paid full time work to unemployed work-ready youths in New Zealand.
This way it has carefully articulated its stand on three different issues of public transport [in Auckland], immigration, and “left wing politics.”
Understandably, since the party has multiple goals in mind, (by election and general elections), therefore a room for vagueness has been left in all these three announcements, possibly deliberately.
The good thing for the Labours is that despite the vagueness in these major announcements it has not caused a major stir among the targeted recipients of these proposed policy initiatives.
The media is largely of the opinion that the Labour is holding its ground for now, however unconvincingly.
This is definitely a better show for the Labour Party and their leader Andrew Little, who is appearing to cobble together main issues to question National’s fourth term at the parliament next year.
All said but that there is nothing to take away from the National Party so far in the last two weeks.
They started with depicting Labours for their alleged “pork-barrel” politics of light rail in Auckland.
Since then the party has maintained a relatively low profile in terms of shoring up their main issues for the elections. Their ministers are relying on raising some feel good global indicators on New Zealand’s economy and safety at different public platforms.
But nothing big is coming out from the party, suggesting that it is holding back itself for some more time before they cut loose with some major announcements. Till then they are not giving anything away about what will be their main issues for the next elections.
This seems to be a right strategy for them as of now. It is not their fault that the Labour party had no choice but to shore up issues for the next elections.
The Labour Party may have to keep in mind that although they have taken a lead but this is not going to be a short sprint to 2017 where an early lead will matter most.
Rather it is going to be a marathon where one has to effectively last until the end to expect a desired a result.
The fact that the National Party is holding back on some major announcements, such as in areas like crime and policing, as being regularly suggested by Police Minister Judith Collins around the country, clearly suggest that they have their game plan perfectly in place.
Irrespective of what happens in future, it is obvious that Auckland’s political space is intensifying.
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