Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Andrew Dickens: Why is Qiulae Wong polling so well when her policies are so radical?

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Andrew Dickens: Why is Qiulae Wong polling so well when her policies are so radical? · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: If Kyu Lai Wong is generally considered to be the
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: best thing in last night's debate, how did she do it?
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: And how is her fringe party keeping popular enough to
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: perhaps enter Parliament? I think her greatest strength last night
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: was that she behaved like a normal person. It struck
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: me that she was the only person on our screens
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: that was not a career politician. And that includes the panel,
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: who were full of broadcasters who make their living talking
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: about politics all the time. But Kyu? Kyu was 38.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: She's had a career background in sustainable business. She's been
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: successful enough to buy a house. She's got kids. She's
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: comfortable speaking her mind. She's authentic. And beside her were
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: a couple of politicians who have only ever really been
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: politicians their entire life, and an old warhorse who seems
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: to have been there since the treaty was signed. So
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: Q seems normal. And that is attractive to 8% of
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: the population at the moment, which gives her party the
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: Trump hand. But... Make no mistake, opportunities policies are the
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: most radical in play right now. The citizens income or
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: UBI or basic income guarantee or social dividend or whatever
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: you want to call it, combined with a general land
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: tax of 1.75%, that's really out there. They are far
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: more radical than anything any other party has ever come
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: up with. They're far more radical than the Greens. It
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: makes a capital gains tax impossible. suggested by Labour, seem moderate.
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: If top ever got their way with their policies, New
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: Zealand would go through a very painful transformation with no
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: guarantee that would come out the other end any better.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: But Kulai Wong's trick has been that she appears to
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: be prepared to compromise with seemingly everything. Unlike, of course,
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: the radical Greens, you can't change Chloe's mind. And Kulai
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: Wong reacts with a common-sense attitude that is completely absent
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: from her party's policies. So it's a strange old thing.
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: Is it the Peter Dunn effect coming back? Is top
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: the united future of today? Is top destined to hold
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: the balance of power for a term or maybe two
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: and then fade away? What do you think? For more
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live to Newstalk
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: ZB from 5am weekdays or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.