You may be right. It's something we will never really know. I think Bill English was unpalatable to Winston and vice versa. Jacinda and the Labour caucus probably hoodwinked him a bit too. I think he has some serious regrets.
NZ First voters are the ones that should have some serious regrets. They stuffed this country when they voted for him in 2017. Common sense? Turn it up! They voted for him purportedly because they like what he says about immigration, he gets in and immigration is forgotten and instead it’s the baubles of office for Winston & ‘1 billion trees and a Provincial Growth Fund’. Let’s be honest: they really vote for him because they have a crush on him, he’s never delivered anything except the Super Gold Card in his entire career.
'Australia will decide the New Zealand election' A cheeky social media video is claiming Australia has the opportunity to sway the election.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2023/09/why-this-ad-campaign-says-australia-will-decide-the-new-zealand-election.html
With up to an estimated half a million New Zealand voters residing across the Tasman, the ad said if every one of them voted, their contribution would surpass the votes indicated in the polls for the individual minor parties including ACT, Greens, NZ First and Te Pāti Māori.
"Australia has always guided New Zealand. We showed them how to make pavlova, gave them their best music in Crowded House, their best athletes in Phar Lap, and their best actors – like that Gladiator bloke," the ad said.
Who’s who in the Election Fringe Festival
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/whos-who-in-the-election-fringe-festival
Vision New Zealand -the political arm of Brian Tamaki’s Destiny Church is led by his wife, Hannah Tamaki. This will be the second election the party has contested after receiving 4,236 votes in 2020, or around 0.1 percent of the total vote. Since then the party has somewhat confusingly become a component party of Freedoms New Zealand, an umbrella party also sheltering Sue Grey’s Outdoors & Freedom party.
DemocracyNZ - Former National Party MP for Northland Matt King was ousted from his seat by Labour’s Willow-Jean Prime by just 163 votes back in 2020.
Leighton Baker Party - Another party revolving around a single leader whose popularity was enshrined during the Parliament protests, the Leighton Baker Party has a similar platform to many other parties made concrete during that time. That means opposition to vaccine mandates, lockdowns, gender education, relationships with extra-national organisations like the UN.
New Conservatives - Baker’s old team have rebranded yet again. First they were the Conservative Party, then New Conservative, and now New Conservatives with an approachable lower-case font and a new cheerful slogan: let’s smile again.
New Zealand Loyal - Former television and radio presenter Liz Gunn gained a small following during the early days of the pandemic, railing against vaccine mandates and lockdowns on livestream.
Animal Justice Party Aotearoa New Zealand – their policy platform includes ending experimentation on animals, establishing a commissioner for animals, reviewing the animal welfare act and extending live export bans.
Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party - human rights lawyer Michael Appleby has led the party through most of its near-30-year history, now with Northland’s Maki Herbert as co-leader.
New Nation Party - Another party registered just this year, New Nation was briefly a part of the Freedoms New Zealand umbrella with Sue Grey and Brian Tamaki. But now the party’s going it alone, led by Wellington electricity entrepreneur Michael Jacomb.
NewZeal - Formerly known as the ONE Party, NewZeal is a socially conservative Christian party led by former National MP Alfred Ngaro.
NZ Outdoors & Freedom Party - Environmental lawyer Sue Grey joined the party in 2020, bringing with her supporters from the recently-defunct Ban 1080 Party.
Women's Rights Party - Slogan: Protect sex-based rights. This party was formed by former Labourites Jill Ovens and Dawn Trenberth, following anti-transgender activist Posie Parker’s visit to New Zealand in March.
Overseas votes seem to boost the greens the most - so our productive people "fleeing NZ" might really be greens voters. that's a plot twist.. ;)
Green voters tend to be younger whereas Nats tend to be older NZ property and asset owners. So those National voters would have more need to stay in NZ. I also agree that NZ has been rewarding its wealthier retired land owners, more than it has its younger income earners struggling to start out.
I was talking to an old Green voter the other day. He was saying “they’re the only ones doing something about the climate”. I just held my tongue. They are doing absolutely nothing about ‘the climate’, and in any case NZ is only responsible for 0.17% of global emissions. The Greens stand for radical Treaty of Waitangi policies & radical ‘wealth tax’ policies: wealth taxes do not work & invariably have been dumped whenever they have been tried in Europe. The Greens are marxists who engage in ‘the politics of envy’.