The conservative National Party led by John Key has won the New Zealand election with the biggest vote in 60 years. Unfortunately they will not gain an outright majority due to the MMP system of multiple member electorates. Nevertheless it is one in the eye for the Left who thought they had it in the bag due to John Key's pledge to privatise government businesses and assets.
We sometimes like to ridicule out cuzzies across the ditch, but the fact is that policies and political trends across the Tasman are inevitably adopted here in Australia shortly after their implimentation over there. New Zealand introduced the GST in 1986, we brought it in in 2000. NZ introduced an emissions trading scheme last year, we will have it next year. Similarly election victories across the Tasman are usually replicated here shortly after.
If I was Julia Gillard I would be very worried.
The latest Newspoll shows that while Gillard's personal popularity has improved due to the foreign affairs agenda of the past two months, there hasn't been any improvement in Labor's poll ratings. Tony Abbott is still on track to win the next election. There is still a yearning for change in this country as we drift further off the rails and deeper in debt.
In 1985 the Aussie bush band Bullamakanka released a song called New Zealand Leads the Way. The victory by John Key and the conservatives gives hope that Australia's agony will soon be coming to an end.
