Dunne's Weekly: It's Now Lowest Common Denominator Politics Instead Of Informed Political Debate

MMP was expected to break the old Parliamentary duopoly of National and Labour and lead to far more inclusive and diverse political debate. Certainly, the increase in the number of parties in Parliament has spread the range of views being heard in the House, but it is doubtful that this has led to a greater level of debate about those views.

Contrary to what some might imagine, Parliamentary debates are not free-ranging expressions of opinion, where differing ideas and policies are contested. They are extremely regimented. Most debates are time limited, with speaking times (ten minutes per speaker) and speaking order pre-determined evenly between the government and Opposition sides of the House. A typical debate comprises twelve speeches, with each of the six parties currently in the House getting at least one call.

Debates have therefore become occasions to state party positions, rather to contest differing ideas. Consequently, MPs often appear to be no more than the delegates of their respective party when speaking in the House, rather than legislators debating the merits of specific legislation. In short, contemporary political debate has become all about political parties rehearsing established political opinions to their respective political audiences, rather than debating new ideas and seeking to reach consensus about the best way forward.

The same tactic also applies to the wider approach most parties take to promoting their interests. In this respect, it is worth recalling Hillary Clinton’s observation that good political stories always contain a “goodie” and a “baddie”. So, when the parties tell their stories to their supporters, they are always the “goodie” identifying the “baddie” they are fighting to protect the country from, as the reason why people should vote for them.

The current spat between New Zealand First leader Winston Peters and Green MP Ricardo Menéndez March is a case in point. The row is less about Menéndez March’s use of Aotearoa to describe New Zealand than it is about asserting the respective brands of New Zealand First and the Green Party.

To traditionalist, anti-multicultural New Zealand First, the very presence in Parliament of Mexican immigrant Menéndez March is bad enough, but his reference to Aotearoa instead of New Zealand was wokeness in the extreme. Peters’ comments were therefore a dog-whistle to those voters who hold similar views, that New Zealand First is in their corner.

The obverse applies in the case of the Green Party. To them, Menéndez March was showing proper respect to tangata whenua by referring to New Zealand by its original name and acknowledging their traditional rights and role. But neither New Zealand First nor the Green Party has any real interest in debating their respective positions with each other – the far more important point for both was to window dress where they stood for the benefit of their supporters.

The same goes for ACT and Te Pāti Māori and their dispute over the Treaty Principles Bill. Each desperately needs to be able to portray the other as intolerant, unreasonable and anti-democratic to validate its own position and strengthen its appeal to its core supporters. Again, it is less about reasoned debate of differing points of view than an absolute statement of an unshakeable position. The last thing either seek or want is any form of compromise or reasoned discussion.

This sharpening political fundamentalism is creating a difficult problem for both National and Labour, more traditionally broad churches than narrow lines of opinion. It is more acute for National at present, simply because it is the leading party of government.

Prime Minister Luxon often looks hamstrung by the extreme or unreasonable positions of his support partners. While he cannot endorse them, because they are not what his party stands for, he cannot reject them outright either, because that would destroy his coalition government. But pretending the differences are not there at all, as Luxon often appears to do, is the worst position of all. It leaves the government looking weak and indecisive. Therefore, to resolve this dilemma, National needs to better develop its own political story, complete with its own “goodies” and “baddies”, instead of just hoping, as currently appears to be the case, that its tick-box list of achievements will carry the day.

It is a smaller but similar problem for Labour at present. However, it will grow as the election nears and more attention is paid to the radical policies of the Green Party and Te Pāti Māori and how they might be accommodated in a future Labour-led government. Opposition leader Hipkins is frequently critical of Prime Minister Luxon’s current difficulties, seemingly unrealising that precisely the same challenges are lurking just around the corner for him in the run-up to the election.

The demise of political debate as it used to be, in favour of the fervent, dogmatic statement of party opinion as incontrovertible fact as we have now, has dramatically changed the nature of political discourse around the world. The absolutist way the Trump Administration and its allies operate is the obvious extreme example. But our political system is not immune from these features. The redefinition here of political debate to be less about the exchange of ideas than the statement of pre-determined positions should be viewed with increasing concern, rather than just becoming accepted, the way it seems to be.

Over fifty years ago, the satirical television show Monty Python’s Flying Circus attacked the then emerging lowest-common-denominator approach to resolving complex issues in a skit where the existence of God was decided in a wrestling match, by two falls to a submission.

Sadly, that is precisely the same approach we are taking to complex political issues today.

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