The Washington Post’s embarrassing take on New Zealand politics Justin Follow Nov 9, 2017 · Unlisted

Dear God. I don’t even know where to begin.

A shadow is poisoning Middle-earth

I’ll start by saying, I really dislike people who insists on calling New Zealand ‘Middle earth’ at every opportunity. It’s getting plain annoying at this point.

Led by veteran politician Winston Peters — who has made racist comments toward immigrants and people of Asian descent and Trumpian abuse of the press — New Zealand First has traditionally been an afterthought in New Zealand politics. That all changed this past September

This is where the long line of factual inaccuracies begin. Not only has New Zealand First and Winston Peters not been an afterthought, but they’ve been a part of two previous coalitions under MMP.

And judging by what I see, stepping outside my front door, New Zealand weren’t poisoned to death by either of them…

If that wasn’t appalling enough, Peters and New Zealand First held the country for ransom, repeatedly delaying the announcement of their decision for several weeks as they extracted more and more concessions from suitors.

Peters didn’t “repeatedly delay” the announcement “for several weeks”.He always said he would negotiate after the special votes were counted. Negotiations didn’t officially begin until after the results were released, where Labour and the Greens gained a seat each.

The final vote count was released on October 12th, Winston made his decision on October 19th. Still not ideal but it’s not ransom.

The effects of the far right’s influence are already being felt. Amid pressure from New Zealand First, the government has vowed to slash immigration by tens of thousands by making it harder to obtain visas

Labour had campaigned on it before any mention of an NZFirst-Greens-Labour coalition had come up. Before even Ardern had taken over as leader.

Andrew Little speaking to the New Zealand Herald in April:

“The commitment I am making is we have to be serious about it, we have to cut immigration. It has got to be in the order of tens of thousands”

There’s no evidence that Labour’s immigration policy was affected at all by New Zealand First and Ardern specifically denied that there were any changes made for Winston. Furthermore, it’s possible that Labour is even backtracking on “tens of thousands”.

Like American white supremacists in the age of Trump, bigots in New Zealand have also been emboldened by New Zealand First’s success into taking action beyond ranting on Internet message boards and social media. In late October, clashes erupted when white supremacists rallied in front of Parliament. Threatening fliers have also appeared in public, calling on white people to “unify” in order to “preserve identity.”

Oh dear! Look at these awful white supremacists National Front protests, EMPOWERED BY WINSTON PETERS.

Oh wait… that photo’s from 2008… when John Key was elected and when New Zealand First was voted out of Parliament… … … ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Also, if we visit that article about the threatening fliers…

Funny how that… works…

What’s happened in New Zealand isn’t just horrifying because of the long-term implications of hate-mongers controlling the country, but also because it represents a blueprint that the far right can follow to seize power elsewhere.

I’m curious on those “elsewhere” countries who also use MMP and are in the exact arrangement that we’re in…

But Peters — who took the roles of deputy prime minister and foreign minister as a condition of working with Ardern — and New Zealand First can end the coalition agreement, which would trigger the need for new elections. Put simply, while Ardern may be the public face, it’s the far right pulling the strings and continuing to hold the nation hostage.

This is simply never going to happen. It has never happened before and it’s the equivalence of political suicide for a small party like New Zealand First.

Appealing to ethnically homogenous, overwhelmingly cisgender male voters with limited education and economic prospects who feel they’re being left behind in a changing world is nothing new for the far right.

This continues to build on the false premise that Winston Peters and New Zealand First were of little relevance prior to this election.

Winston Peters was and continues to be a dinosaur in New Zealand politics. He’s been involved with national politics for a quarter of the time that the New Zealand Parliament has even existed.

New Zealand First’s vote shared peaked in the 1996 election where they struck a coalition deal with National. Not this year. Not this election.

But what is new is its savvy at exploiting democracy by doubling down on these voters while mostly allowing larger political parties to attack each other on their own, thus positioning themselves as “kingmakers” who can demand concessions from those larger parties before carrying them into power.

What’s the point? Smaller parties shouldn’t have any say? Isn’t that the diametric opposite point of even having MMP?

If she truly wants New Zealand to be a more tolerant place for all and to set a worldwide example that hate is not acceptable, it would be best for Ardern to end her unholy alliance with New Zealand First and the far right, even if it meant she might not return as prime minister. As long as the far right has power, bigotry and hate will continue to fester in Middle-earth.

Ugh.

This would be seriously criticized if it was published in the Herald or Stuff. But the Washington Post? Woodward and Bernstein?

…

THE WASHINGTON POST?

Really Marty Baron? There are hundreds of better Kiwi political analysts and reporters you could’ve chosen to present New Zealand in your paper.

Instead, you chose… this guy.

The best thing that this article has done, is to unify New Zealand Twitter in their hate of this article.

I’m sure BuzzFeed New Zealand has just discovered it’s first reporter.