76% of Kiwis rate National Coalition poor to neutral

Days after Tesla shareholders approved a $1 trillion1 ($1,000,000,000,000) pay package for Elon Musk, government satisfaction continues to fall in many Western countries, such as the US, UK, France, Spain, Netherlands and Croatia.

Satisfaction with democracy in nine surveyed countries fell below 50% in eight of the countries2.

Sweden remained the only outlier, with a majority of 65% feeling satisfied.

The large majority of respondents support democracy and say it remains crucial, but were largely dissatisfied with their government and system’s direction.

The biggest dangers to democracy were seen as: fake news, lack of accountability, extremism and corruption.

Disinformation is seen as the biggest danger in France, the UK, Sweden, the Netherlands, and Poland.

In the US and in countries in the south of Europe, respondents were more likely to identify corruption as the greatest threat.3

It’s a tale of two worlds in many ways.

Citizens increasingly feeling dissatisfaction within the political systems, and on the other hand, the immense power and resources of oligarchs and the corporate class that frequently works government to their advantage.

For example, here in New Zealand, National is rapidly concretizing corporate healthcare for the first time into New Zealand’s primary health landscape, and hardly anyone realises or cares.

After Cecilia Robinson’s Tend Health PHO win, the government followed up with Green Cross corporate being rewarded a PHO status, even as the primary health crisis continues unabated, and community GPs continue to ring alarm bells.

Why does it matter?

Because corporate healthcare is for profit healthcare, and rather than profits being re-divested into communities and to encourage new doctors to take up primary care/GP practice, money will instead be divested into people like the Robinsons and/or private equity investors (many who could be foreigners). In addition, there isn’t a lot of profit to be made into preventative medicine, is there?

Think about it.

In America, Trump’s “big beautiful bill” will advantage the wealthy and make them much richer all at the expense of the poorer – while costing America US$4.6 trillion over 10 years in the process.

But the issue isn’t necessarily one of Musk or even corporates and their investors, as much as it shows the inadequacy and imbalance of our systems, and the ability of corporate machinery and industry to outfox, out-match, out resource and outmaneuver government and regulations, which they masterfully label as “red tape”.

Like all propaganda, that phrase has an element of truth.

Often, government departments can be inefficient, ineffective, overly bureaucratic, even fearful etc. but the solutions proffered by the lobbyists and their paid-for politicians do not provide a better alternative.

Private industry is also too often imbued with greed, corporate failures, fraud, and mostly demonstrate an inability to widen their perspective from short term profit – eschewing responsibilities to the environment, communities, workers etc.

Of course these are all generalisations only, and the truth is far likely to lie between i.e. there is no doubt there are many incredible government staff imbued with pride in their work, heart and soul, and there are many business owners who work hard and serve their communities and staff.

But regulation and oversight is ultimately about balance.

London’s disastrous Greenfell Tower incident is testimony to this after the Tory government “cut red tape” to please businesses, and the rapid deterioration of Boeing safety standards after the company merged with McDonnell Douglas – shifting its corporate culture to one that prioritized financial targets over engineering and safety, led to disastrous results.

Ultimately, regulation is somewhat essential – and balancing the shortcomings of both elements of government and the private sector can be beneficial.

Yes, the solution is nuanced and balanced, because ultimately what lies beneath it all is people who operate in systems.

That brings me to the National Coalition’s performance – reaching another record low of 39 out of 100 in the latest poll released today.

39 out of 100 would be what Christopher Luxon and David Seymour might call “unacceptable and disappointing performance” if it were anyone else’s portfolio.

Extraordinarily 76% of Kiwis rate the Government at 6 out of 10 or less, with almost half giving them an abysmal 0 – 3.

National are only seen as the better performers in law & order and defence, although objectively, crime has not improved under National. And in fact is worsening under most measures, including a raging meth crisis that started on National’s watch, and their inability to hire 500 cops – while losing experienced ones.

The Green Party retains top billing on climate, water protections / pollution.

But perhaps what’s most eye raising about all of this is that the Coalition remains neck and neck in the polls compared to Labour.

It’s time for Labour to consider who is best positioned to take the party forward to the 2026 election, and/or to consider the public’s appetite for refreshment/new energy in both policy, messaging and approach.

A miss would be catastrophic, and as Politik reported this week, while Winston Peters aired criticism of Luxon’s latest admission of asset sales, he did not care to say it was a red line in any Coalition agreements – which spells “don’t look at what Peters says, look at what he does”.

i.e. As Peters / NZ First campaigned on no foreign buyers of homes, and then promptly went back on that post-election-win, there’s no guarantee that NZ First will protect NZ’s assets if National / ACT can form government again.

This is an excerpt from Mountain Tui Substack