Kieran McAnulty: Labour Party campaign chair on Australian Labor's election success

It was a big weekend in Australia, with Anthony Albanese's Labor Party returned to power over Peter Dutton's Liberal/National coalition.

The result flew in the face of multiple polls, which as recent as two months ago were predicting a resounding win for Dutton.

The 'Trump effect' has been widely attributed to Labor's rise in the polls during the campaign. Could we see something similar in New Zealand? 

New Zealand Labour's campaign chair Kieran McAnulty, who was at Albanese's election night party, joined Nick Mills to discuss the result. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Wellington Mornings podcast with Nick Mills
from News talks 'b.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Labor Party campaign chair and why are up at MP
Karen McNulty joins us.

Speaker 3 (00:17):
Good morning, Karen, Hello, how are you doing good? Thank you?
Thank you?

Speaker 2 (00:21):
So what made you go to Australia over the weekend.
It was very interesting seeing you in the stadium and
what were your thoughts going through your mind when you
saw such a landslide.

Speaker 3 (00:33):
Yeah, well, obviously we're well underway with our preparations for
our own election and well, who knows, but we're assuming
next year. It might be earlier the end. It's a
good opportunity to go over and be with the Australian
Labor people, the same people that are doing the job

(00:54):
that I'm doing on behalf of our Labor Party, and
see how they went about their campaign. I mean, not
everything is directly transferable. We can't just say oh, because
they did it at all work here they have a
different electoral system, but there's definitely lessons at play. They
ran a very good campaign and they highlighted the likely

(01:15):
impacts of a change of government in terms of significant
cuts to government spending and the services that people rely
on and so obviously we see parallels there because that's
what's underway in New Zealand at the moment.

Speaker 2 (01:28):
There's rumors floating around that a company, a New Zealand company,
was involved in helping the Labor Party in Australia that
also is connected to you guys here. Can you confirm
or deny that without mentioning any names.

Speaker 3 (01:45):
It's no rumor, it's true. There's Talbot Mills is an
international company that has New Zealanders working in it and
they support They provide commercial services and the Labor Party
uses them. They have been involved supporting other parts. But

(02:06):
he's around the world as well. So I don't want
to pretend that we're trying to keep something secret that's
not a secret at all.

Speaker 2 (02:14):
What are your thoughts on the coalition leaders going into
another election? You know, you said that you think there
could be a snap election earlier, or you said you
didn't know. I was not going to put words in
your mouth, but you know there is a possibility. They
would be absolutely nuts to go into a snap election
right now, wouldn't they? With Seymour and Peter's sort of

(02:37):
the parallels with Trump.

Speaker 3 (02:39):
Yeah, Well, look that's something that Luxon is going to
have to face. Is he tried his best this morning
on the usual media rounds to try and paint this
as people choosing good economic management. It just it seems
to have escaped him that the two parties that Canada
and Australia have chosen stand for completely different policies than

(03:02):
the one Luxe and is putting forward. He's also needs
to fund up in New Zealanders and defend the fact
that the two parties that he's in coalition with going
down a track that have just been significantly rejected by
the Canadian and Australian people. The approach to culture wars,

(03:22):
to division, to distractions alongside what Trump has been doing
is a concern for a lot of people and we're
seeing that reflected to some degree in New Zealand. In
regards to I'm so sorry. There were two elements to
that question that can I miss the first one? What
was there?

Speaker 2 (03:40):
But I just wanted just before I get that second part,
weally wanted to ask you when you're saying about the
coalition partners for the National Party, but when you look
at what happened to the Greens in Australia, I mean
that's your natural obviously coalition partner. And if the same
thing happens here, and you also said about the racial stuff,

(04:00):
well to party, Mary's obviously another coalition partner for you.
So if you put those two together and put them
with you, that doesn't actually that's probably a hindrance to
you as well.

Speaker 3 (04:11):
Well. This is what I meant earlier around not everything's
directly transferable. They have a proportional system that's located within
each individual electorate and it's not across the board. So
in New Zealand, if a party gets five percent, they
get five percent of the seats. In Australia they might
get five percent of the first preference rates or higher
in some cases and not end up with a single

(04:32):
seat at all. So that's one of those things that
isn't directly transferable. I mean, you could touch on the
fact that doesn't. Tried to get some swell of support
against what they call welcome to country recognition of the
traditional owners of the land, but four large events and

(04:52):
that was completely rejected by the electorate. They said, this
is not what we're interested in. We're interested in cost
of living, we're interested in the health system. And now
you're going on about welcome to country. This doesn't reflect
our priorities. There are many different things that are actually
more relevant to New Zealand, and that is the fact
that the Australian Labor Party campaigned quite effectively on what

(05:19):
the cuts that would come with a changing government would
mean to the health system, to housing, to many of
the services that Australians rely on. And it stuck out
for me because that is the situation that we're facing now.
We were promised in our last election that a national
government would be able to spend less, tax less, pay

(05:41):
down debt and not impact the front line, and none
of those things have come true.

Speaker 2 (05:45):
Well, I wonder what you know when you were hopping
on that plane going over there, and when you hopped
on the plane to come back, what differences you had
in your mind. I mean, you'd probably be pretty damn
excited coming back, wouldn't it.

Speaker 3 (05:57):
I'm very happy with the outcome because it means that
working people in Australia will have a government that focuses
on them and that's why I'm in politics. But at
the end end of the day, you've got to be
measured in what reflections you make. There are some things
that are relevant for us, and we've certainly got a
few ideas about how we can learn from that outcome

(06:19):
and put ourselves in our best position possible to win.
We know that we need to put forward a policy
platform that reflects the priorities the kiwis and we're well
underway in that respect. I've just reminded myself of what
the other aspect of your question was, is that we're
not predicting a snap election, but we're preparing for one
because ultimately they where we do have a government in

(06:42):
this country that's made up of three completely different parties.
One wants to pull the National Party to the right,
the other wants to pull them into a more interventionalist approach.
At some point, we're saying that it may well fall
apart and we've got to be ready for that, and
we've got a plan in place already. But we're constantly
reflecting on that and taking any lessons that we can,

(07:02):
and the Aussie election certainly gave us some to reflect on.

Speaker 2 (07:06):
You very much for joining us, Kieren Karen mcinnulty, their
Labor Party campaign chairin wire Rapper MP, who was in
Australia at the celebration on Saturday night.

Speaker 1 (07:16):
For more from Wellington Mornings with Nick Mills, listen live
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