Opinion: In the latest in our State of the Nation series, a 46-year-old civil construction worker shares his views on the 2026 election, and the leaders at its forefront.
How many people live in your household? Two. Me and my son.
What is your annual income before tax? $165,000.
Which ethnicity do you identify with? New Zealand Pākehā would cover it, I think.
Have you decided who you'll vote for in the November election? I'm about 90% of the way there. I think I'm going to go Opportunity.
What's your thinking behind that? I've always sort of leaned left, it’s always been Labour or the Greens and I'm weary, I suppose, of the backwards-and-forwarding [of the two main parties]. Just the doing of things and then the undoing of things in the next political cycle – it’s tiresome, and it'd be nice to see a bit of a way forward.
I feel like the two main parties have had plenty of opportunities, and there just seems to be lots of tinkering rather than structural change of anything.
Which particular policies of the Opportunity Party appeal to you? I guess, it's not quite a protest vote, but it's getting a bit that way. A pox on both your houses, I suppose.
I just like a fresh face and a fresh set of ideas. I don't think you're ever going to find a party that you agree with across the board. I think it's just time to take a different look at the stuff that we're doing in New Zealand. You know, maybe there is a better way because the two main parties have had plenty of shots at it, and the big issues have stayed the same for decades now – healthcare and education and the cost-of-living and looking after the environment – perhaps it's time to take a fresh look at it.
You said you’ve voted for the Greens in the past. Do they not appeal at the moment? Oh, they still very much do. I like so many of the things that they do and what they stand for. What troubles me, I suppose, is their ability to get stuff across the line. Good ideas seem to get diluted, and perhaps that's just a consequence of MMP. But it would be nice to perhaps have some other seats at the table, and maybe the Greens would find themselves with a bit more traction in some kind of a coalition agreement, if Opportunity were part of that as well.
What’s your impression of the current coalition government? Is there anything they’ve done that has rubbed you the wrong way? Oh, a tremendous amount of it. I think the enthusiasm, particularly of NZ First, to get stuck into the conservation estate, and Shane Jones' enthusiasm for mining at all costs. I think our natural environment is one of the things that is so precious to this country, and it's what people come from around the world to experience. And I would hate to see that put in jeopardy, for my own sake and for the sake of my son and for future generations, I think we'd be doing ourselves a huge disservice.
I work with a lot of a lot of people from te ao Māori, and the pain that I see them experience through what seems to be a lot of different attacks on Māoridom and the Māori language. And it just seems so unnecessary. Some of it seems petty and vindictive.
And, I guess, the general stuff you expect from a right-leaning government, that we're less about helping people and more about enabling profit. [I don’t like] what David Seymour and the ACT Party have done with gun ownership, and this stupid war on whatever 'woke' is defined as. If woke is about caring about people who are different from you, then string me up. It just seems like a catch cry for people who are resistant to change.
What are your impressions of Chris Luxon? He seems to be someone who's good at not rocking the boat. Whether that’s a valuable asset in a boardroom is probably a different discussion. I think a lot of people probably thought the wheels were going to fall off this coalition pretty quickly, and credit to him for managing to avoid that, whether through good luck or good management. But he doesn't seem to be all that relatable. As somebody who has admitted to being wealthy and sorted, I’m not sure how much empathy or connection he has with the struggles of a lot of people.
But the Labour Party isn’t quite doing it for you either? No, not at the moment. I think perhaps a Kieran McAnulty type would be. There's still, I dare say, a hangover from the last time Chris Hipkins was in the hot seat. I wonder whether people, including myself, are just saying well we need something more; for much of this term they seem to have been content just to sit and watch. And I get the idea that you don't bark at every car, but you've got to present at some point what would be a credible alternative to the current government. And I don't think they've done a very good job of that.
I'm not sure Chris Hipkins is the greatest political communicator of our time. The times I've seen Kieran McAnulty on Q+A and other things, he comes across really well, and he's very direct. Perhaps that's what we need.
Do you feel secure in your job? Yeah, I do. Thankfully.
AI is not a threat to your line of work? I don't like it very much, but it's not a threat to my job, I don't think.
What's your view on the big AI data centres that are being proposed or planned around New Zealand? Do you see them as an opportunity or something to press pause on? Definitely something to press pause on. I don't think the industry itself is well understood. It seems to me that as soon as there's potentially an opportunity to make a buck [from AI], we've almost tripped on our own shoes in our enthusiasm for doing so. I'd like to see a bit more understood about the long-term effects of these things and how they're going to be powered and whether the owners of them are going to contribute to the infrastructure grid that enables them to operate. We have enough trouble building solar or wind farms or hydro, let alone bunging these things up everywhere. So I’d definitely like to see a pause on advancing these until they're better understood.
Do you think that New Zealand should be part of the Paris Agreement? Absolutely.
What do you think of the National Party's proposal to raise the superannuation age to 67? It seems like a bit of a kick in the teeth. But, on the other hand, I think it's probably the right thing to do, given we've got this huge lump of the baby boomer generation reaching retirement age, and my generation and those that follow are considerably smaller, so I guess the burden of the cost is going to fall on a smaller group. I doubt it's going to be all that popular, but I'd probably support it, reluctantly.
Do you think it should be means tested? Yes, I do. I'm just not sure quite where you put that boundary, but I certainly think that there's a lot of wealthy people who could easily fund their way through a very comfortable retirement who wouldn’t think twice about drawing down their superannuation.
We need to put a bit of rigour around how you qualify for Super – I definitely think there needs to be a conversation about that.
As a parent, what’s your view of the new education curriculum that the Government is in the process of introducing? I hope there's not too much of a move away from the creative stuff into just pure maths and spelling and literacy and so on. I mean, nobody ever went to sleep at night listening to a maths lesson. You still need to encourage the arts and music and nurture kids' natural creativity, and so there's a balance to be struck somewhere. I guess education's always evolving, and we need to make sure we keep up with best practice, but at the same time not get distracted by the latest trends.
It's funny, during the John Key-led National government, these open-plan classrooms were being promoted as the next best thing, and now we're going back the other way under a government of the same colour. I'm not sure that's an argument you ever win because there's fans of both [kinds of classrooms] on both sides.
'I love my local MP but loathe his party, so I'm splitting my vote down the middle'
Opinion: Our latest State of the Nation interview proves that warmth, visibility and listening skills go a long way in politics, with one North Island voter supporting her MP, despite deeply disliking his party.
Sat, Sep 26
I would hate to see us move away from encouraging and promoting te reo; I think that's really really important for our kids. My son speaks better te reo than I do, and asks me, ‘how come you don't know this stuff, Dad?’
This interview has been edited for length and clarity. The views expressed are not those of TVNZ.
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