New Zealand’s major parties slip below 60% as political landscape shifts

In a recent Raw Politics episode recorded at Parliament and Newsroom in Auckland, Marc Daalder, Sam Sachdeva and Tim Murphy analysed the erosion of support for New Zealand’s two traditional parties, Labour and National, whose combined polling now sits below 60 percent. They considered whether the political system will evolve into a multi-party arena with five or six parties of varying strength. The conversation turned to National’s aggressive plan to force the NZ-owned grocery co-operative Foodstuffs to break up into separate entities to boost competition, while leaving the Australian-owned Woolworths untouched.

Police controversies were also scrutinised, ranging from senior executives’ behaviour to the high-profile, flawed chase of Tom Phillips and the political attacks on a police officer who ran for Labour. The episode concluded with recommendations for further weekend media consumption, including a fact-check segment and a profile of Christchurch Central where the Greens are gaining traction.