Join forces or Key’ll be back
Greens and Labour learn Hollywood lesson to launch election alliance.
SO, Labour and the Greens are joining forces to change the government next year. Sure, that announcement this week generated as much excitement as if they’d said they were the teams in a new series of The Block.
But this news was significant. It was the first shot fired in a looming election battle which will have an extra edge.
It’s still more than a year away, so it may seem early to be talking about it.
Hence the country reacted to the announcement in pretty much the same way that rhinos at watering holes in Africa react to those little birds that try to feed off stuff in their ears – meh.
The current National-led Government seems to be sleepwalking towards an unprecedented fourth term. Noone’s ever done that in New Zealand before.
But the electorate loves Prime Minister John Key. He has the knack of saying the things that most New Zealanders really care about: like, that he wouldn’t have killed that gorilla.
He’s like the new boss at work that people aren’t sick of yet. Just when it seems like more workers are backstabbing him in the lunchroom, he’ll put out something like a meat raffle or he’ll shout beers on a Friday, and people will forget why they’re mad.
Even a year out, a bet on Key winning a fourth term as PM would be a useful part of any TAB multi.
But strange things can happen when one-time rivals decide to team up. Take that awesome last America’s Cup, which Kiwis have since banished from their sporting memories.
The Government must be feeling like Team New Zealand must have felt when they were 8-1 up in the finals. But Oracle’s Larry Ellison had former rival Russell Coutts on board.
Team New Zealand were so relaxed they even took a rest day. That day was all Ellison and Coutts needed to regroup and conjure up the sorcery required to power them to victory.
This uniting of former enemies in pursuit of a common good is a common theme in the movies.
In 1984’s Terminator, Arnold Schwarzenegger was the most frightening baddie on screen as the cyborg sent back from the future to kill Sarah Connor before she can give birth to the son who would one day save humanity.
But in the sequel, 1991’s Terminator 2: Judgement Day, Arnie was on Sarah’s side.
Rocky is another movie hero who had to team up with a rival – one he spent two movies trying to conquer.
But in Rocky III, when faced with the invincible-looking Clubber Lang, it’s Apollo Creed that he turns to for help in recapturing ‘‘the eye of the tiger".
And then, of course, there’s Tom Cruise in Top Gun. His character, ‘‘Maverick’’, spends the whole movie in a running battle with ‘‘Iceman’’, played by Val Kilmer.
By the end, the two realise that only by working together can they shoot down the required number of Russian jets in order to save the REUTERS world from war.
We won’t see until next year whether the alliance tactic will be a winner for Labour and the Greens.
But with MMP, you’d think it’s worth a shot. Nothing else they’ve done has worked.
At stake is not just the chance to get the pin number to the country’s eftpos card for the next three years – but history itself.
Key can leave a legacy as New Zealand’s official, legit, longestserving and therefore most popular prime minister ever.
Labour and Greens are the first to hammer a stake into the ground and say nah, not on their watch.
Strange things can happen when onetime rivals decide to team up.