Author: Michael Swanson

Opinion: Michael Swanson. I’ve now covered four of the six parties (National still to come) in the New Zealand Parliament, plus TOP (and a piece on the micro-parties), as part of taking a look at the position of each party approximately five-six months out from the election. In this piece, I’m going to take a look at Te Pāti Māori. Now, I’m usually pretty cagey around Māori politics more generally because, to put it frankly, I don’t feel I’m best placed to give the view from the point of someone with deep understanding in this space. But, in the interest…

OPINION: Michael Swanson. So far I’ve written about ACT, the Greens, TOP, and Labour as we look towards the November general election. Today, I’m going to have a brief look at how New Zealand First are positioned as we continue rolling towards election day. Six months from polling day, New Zealand First finds itself in the most commanding pre-election position it has occupied in years, polling well above its 2023 result, fielding experienced new candidates, and projecting an air of calculated aggression toward its own coalition partners. The party that historically struggles in its third year of government is, for…

By Michael Swanson. With the November election now firmly in view, Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivered a Budget that didn’t follow the traditional election-year playbook and in doing so, placed a very large bet on New Zealand voters. No targeted tax cuts. No headline handouts designed to nudge polling numbers in the right direction. Willis preached prudence and discipline, with no “sugar hits” for voters, instead focusing on some directly targeted spending with a laser focus on reaching surplus earlier than forecast. It was, as Prime Minister Christopher Luxon himself framed it, a “grown-up” Budget. Whether voters agree with that…

OPINION: Michael Swanson. After being all about budget, budget, and more budget over the past fortnight…I decided to look at something a little different. Question Time. Or, more importantly, whether Question Time is actually doing the accountability thing in the way it is supposed to. For most people it isn’t exciting, in fact some will roll their eyes and just move on. But it is a major spoke in the wheel of accountability that I believe is needs a major overhaul to actually be effective. That thing is Question Time – you know, the only bit of Parliament most people…

By Michael Swanson. Budget Day in New Zealand is one of the most choreographed events in the political calendar. While the government spends months crafting its fiscal plan in careful secrecy, the opposition must prepare for a moment when they are handed thousands of pages of documents, often with only hours to react publicly, and a parliamentary debate beginning the same afternoon. The challenge is enormous, and how parties handle it reveals a great deal about their political competence and strategic priorities. The Lockup: A Race Against the Clock The lockup is where journalists reporting on the Budget get locked into…

OPINION: Michael Swanson. We vote every three years, and then, for most of us, democracy largely goes on without us. Most people find themselves watching from the sidelines as elected politicians (often heavily whipped along party lines, donor interests, and the noise of the news cycle) make decisions that shape our lives. It’s a system that works well enough, until it doesn’t. And increasingly, on the thorniest issues of our time (climate change, housing, constitutional reform) it feels like it doesn’t. With levels of trust in political institutions struggling, an option keeps popping up around the world that might help…

OPINION: Michael Swanson. Are most parties a little bit populist now? As New Zealand heads into the 2026 general election, the contrast between populism and pragmatism in political discourse has never been more stark. Voters are not just choosing parties, they are confronting competing visions of how policies should be shaped with one rooted in popular sentiment, the other in measured, evidence-based approaches. Understanding this tension is crucial, because it defines not just what policies get enacted, but the broader trajectory of the nation’s governance. Populism in New Zealand is not a new thing, nor is it always inherently a…

By Michael Swanson Should Labour extend an olive branch to The Opportunity Party? There’s a pretty strong case for such a deal, but who wins from such an arrangement? Six months out from the election, Labour finds itself in a familiar but uncomfortable position. Every poll shows Labour can’t govern without both the Greens and Te Pāti Māori. That’s a knife-edge coalition that requires three parties to stay disciplined, to avoid internal implosion, and to present a unified enough front to win over a sceptical “middle” New Zealand. If any one of those three legs wobbles, the whole table collapses. But what…