Kotahitanga: From above and below.

It was good to read that Te Pāti Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer suggested that we “get past ourselves” and collaborate with others, highlighting ongoing policy coordination with the Green Party and the Labour Party. Green Party co-leader Chloe Swarbrick stated, “We’re meeting regularly as the leadership of the Greens, Te Pāti Māori and Labour and identifying where those areas are for collaboration”.

Chris Hipkins agreed on finding ways to work together, although, as might be expected, he was more lukewarm, arguing that Labour would be vigorously competitive during the 2026 election.

That position reflects statements made by Labour MP Willie Jackson at the 30 November Labour Party conference, where he argued that Labour needed to pitch its policies to a mythical “middle New Zealand” and distinguish itself from the Greens and Te Pāti Māori.

Jackson also said he was responding to “claims from the right” that Labour had been “captured” by the Greens and Te Pāti Māori. Perhaps he was rattled by an earlier Facebook post by Winston Peters, which included an image of Jackson literally in Debbie Ngarewa-Packer’s pocket.

The truth is that to ensure the coalition of chaos fails to obtain a second term; Labour also needs to get over itself and ignore the right’s race-baiting rhetoric. More than ever before, we need an alternative, progressive coalition of the willing from above and below. Kotahitangi is precisely what we need at the present conjuncture. Kotahitanga is, of course, one of the core values of social work in Aotearoa.

Kotahitanga: Social workers work to build a sense of community, solidarity and collective action for social change. We challenge injustice and oppression in all its forms, including exploitation, marginalisation, powerlessness, cultural imperialism and violence.

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The present coalition government has been and continues to be utterly devastating to the social fabric of Aotearoa. This is a government committed to disunity, division and discord. In its short time in office, it has been hard at work to recolonise social institutions, roll back workers’ rights, dismantle our social support systems, refuse to invest in essential infrastructure, unleash market forces, and punish the poor. It rewards landlords, listens to tobacco lobbyists, and makes plans to drill for gas and build boot camps and prisons.

It is sometimes difficult to spot the themes that run through the many separate policies and pieces of legislation they intend to enact. Their spokespeople are not the most articulate; they don’t lay out a coherent vision for social change or make the case for a new set of values. They don’t join up the dots like Margaret Thatcher was fond of doing. But they are on message. One brutal step at a time, they are returning to the core neoliberal mission to end any notion of the public or collective good, to prioritise market economics, and to build a strong and muscular state to manage and control dissent.

This is a neoliberal government that is shifting the delicate balance between liberalism and democracy towards the former and away from the latter. In the name of “free speech”, they want to legislate for universities to permit pundits of hate speech and disinformation. Instead of deepening democracy and creating opportunities for co-governance in every social institution, they are acting to constrain democracy.

The New Zealand government is already one of the most centralised in the overdeveloped world. There is no second chamber of central government, and the scope and autonomy of local government are seriously constrained. At a time when many international cities are opening up decision-making and democracy to local citizens through participatory budgeting and citizen assemblies, the coalition’s Minister for Local Government, Simeon Brown, wants to restrict the scope of local democracy further.

In particular, the coalition wants to remove the four well-being provisions in the Local Government Act 2002, which allow local authorities to legally promote “the social, economic, environmental, and cultural well-being of their communities, taking a sustainable development approach.” Local government bodies are ideally placed to respond to community needs. They are close to the ground and capable of listening and responding to local people, especially when they take steps to engage the community and open up decision-making processes. However, the sole interest of the coalition is in dampening dissent and ensuring an environment for local businesses, not community well-being or social solidarity.

Closing down this coalition at the next election will require an alternative coalition from above and below. Te Pāti Māori, the Green Party and Labour understand how to work with social movements, including the labour movement, and have shown that they can do so at the many marches and protests called to resist this government, defend workers’ rights, support Palestinian liberation, and to toitū Te Tiriti.

What we need in Aotearoa today is not an appeal to “middle New Zealand” (whatever that is) but a broad-based populism of the left that shifts the so-called centre away from neoliberal norms towards an open, democratic form of socialism. That requires a heterogeneous, inclusive coalition, a movement of movements – including Māori, Pacific People and Tangata Te Tiriti movements – that respects differences while coordinating and working together under the banner of kotahitanga. Of course, political parties and social movements are distinct entities, often distrustful of each other, but we can work together, and in Aotearoa today, we must.