Author: Chris Trotter

OPINION Chris Trotter. It was a decent turnout for a cold winter’s night in the Auckland suburb of Three Kings. A rough headcount indicated somewhere between 80 and 100 voters had ventured forth to experience Labour’s Michael Wood and Barbara Edmonds live at the Fickling Centre. Those numbers, five months out from Election Day, strongly suggest that the grip of National’s Carlos Cheung on the Mt Roskill electorate is tenuous – at best. Observing the number of grey heads in the auditorium I realised that at least some of the voters in attendance will have seen something very like this…

OPINION: Chris Trotter One political advertisement stood out from the thousands that blitzed the US presidential campaign of 2024. It inflicted enormous damage on the Democratic Party’s flagbearer, Kamala Harris. The ad’s central tagline deployed just two sentences: “Kamala is for they/them. President Trump is for you.” Former President Bill Clinton urged the Harris Campaign to come back strongly against the Republicans’ anti-trans message. He was ignored. Subsequent political analysis confirmed Clinton’s intuitive unease. The ad was shown to have nudged a critical number of undecided voters into the Republican column. Refusing to acknowledge the power of transphobia is not…