BY MICHAEL TUCKER

AUCKLAND, New Zealand - The question dominating political discussion leading up to October 12 elections to Parliament here, is which parties will combine to form a government and whether this can produce a stable administration.

"What we are facing if various political parties carry out their threat to not be part of any government is total instability in New Zealand politics," warned National Party prime minister James Bolger September 9. "The enormous financial implications of that are too scary to contemplate."

A similar warning was issued September 20 by Peter Shirtcliffe, chairman of Telecom, one of the country's three largest corporations. "The new and untested political system in New Zealand is bringing its own uncertainties, not the least of which is the proliferation of political parties," he told a business audience in Sydney, Australia. "If the policies of the populist parties in New Zealand are implemented your investment values are at serious risk."

For the first time elections are taking place using a form of proportional representation. Electors get two votes - one for which party they want to dominate Parliament, the other for which candidate they want in their electorate.

Parties must garner 5 percent of the vote nationally or have a candidate win in an electorate to gain representation in Parliament. Only parties that can prove they have a minimum of 500 members are eligible to seek registration to be listed on the ballot. For this election, 27 parties have registered.

For six decades governments in New Zealand have been formed by either the National Party, the main capitalist party, or the Labour Party, a social-democratic party. Labour was forged early this century as the political voice of the union movement, but few unions today retain formal ties to the party.

Bipartisan campaign against workers
Since 1984 with the election of the Labour Party government of David Lange, and continuing in 1990 under the present National Party government, these two parties have pursued a bipartisan course. They have sought to more aggressively promote the trading interests of New Zealand capitalism on the world market and to carry through a radical restructuring of the economy.

This has included widespread privatization of state enterprises, the lifting of tariffs and subsidies, removal of most protective labor laws, the increasing commercialization of health and education, and many other measures that have slashed jobs and eroded the social wage. Today, the government boasts an annual budget surplus and zero net public foreign debt. Financial commentators often point to this restructuring as an example for other capitalist governments to follow.

This course has been carried out without significant opposition from, and at times with the support of, the top union officials.

As the capitalist crisis deepened with the onset of a world depression during the 1990s, capitalist politics moved further to the right and the previous stable forms of parliamentary rule have begun to fall apart, with splits from both National and Labour. Four parties will likely predominate in Parliament after election day, and at least three others stand to be represented. While National party has a clear lead in the polls, it is not expected to win a majority that would enable it to form a government on its own.

As debate and maneuvering between party leaders over potential post-election coalitions dominates the discussion, underlying policy differences center on the question of the extent and speed at which to pursue their anti-worker course -

especially whether to cut more deeply into the social wage, including health, education, and retirement pensions. While prominent capitalist spokespeople increasingly demand this course, many also fear the consequences.

The resistance of working people to the effects of the social crisis and the course of the government has been reflected in the months leading up to the election. There have been a series of strikes by industrial workers and teachers over union contracts, occupations of campus administration buildings by university and polytechnic students to protest hikes in tuition fees, and ongoing public protests against cutbacks in health care.

National Party leader Bolger, while advocating a continuation of current policy, is promising to spend a little more on health and education. This is also the platform of Labour Party leader Helen Clark.

Rise of New Zealand First party
The most significant factor in the election is the rise of New Zealand First, initiated as an electoral vehicle by rightist politician Winston Peters. While the party's platform differs little from National or Labour, it is Peters who puts his stamp on it with sharp nationalist rhetoric.

He presents himself as the champion of ordinary New Zealanders against the government's sell-off of land and assets to "foreign domination." He targets big-business corruption and conspiracies. He scapegoats immigrants for the social crisis. He is promising to boost police numbers and to increase jail sentences. And he promises to clear unemployed youth off the streets by putting them to work as auxiliaries to support the cops, on military training schemes, and in workfare programs.

Peters was a cabinet minister under Bolger. He initiated New Zealand First after breaking with the National Party prior to the last election in 1993.

The other major party in the election is the Alliance, a coalition of five parties dominated by the New Labour Party of James Anderton. A former president of the Labour Party and member of Parliament, Anderton led a major split from Labour following the 1990 elections. The Alliance proposes a halt to privatization, a return to protectionist tariffs, and increased taxes to finance a restoration of traditional state-funded health and education.

The present minority National government has been in office since the last election with the commitment of the Alliance not to vote against it on motions of confidence.

For much of the year, New Zealand First has been in second place to National in opinion polls, ahead of Labour and the Alliance. In the lead up to the election, the three parties have been running neck and neck.

Two right-wing parties that are expected to gain representation in Parliament are ACT New Zealand and the Christian Coalition. ACT, whose candidates include former Labour and National cabinet ministers, proposes deepening the economic course of the past 12 years, including the privatization of health, education, and retirement pensions and an end to welfare benefits. Its leaders argue that social welfare is producing a growing criminal "underclass", largely Maori and Pacific Islander, that is responsible for the social crisis.

The Christian Coalition advocates similar policies to ACT while focusing on opposition to abortion and gay rights and on calls for tougher prison sentences and restoration of the death penalty.

Another party, led by members of Parliament who have split from Labour and National since the last election, is United. Currently in coalition with National, it is also expected to be represented in the new Parliament.

The Employers Federation has mounted a $1 million advertising campaign urging voters, "Let's not go back," a call to uphold the bipartisan policies of the past 12 years.

A number of other parties, including the Communist League, not listed on the ballot for the party vote, are standing candidates in individual electorates.

Michael Tucker is a member of the United Food, Beverage & General Workers Union in Auckland.  
 
 
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