Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Does Labour know what they lost this weekend?

Stuart Nash turning up at the conference over the weekend - that was quite a coup for New Zealand First.

Now, clearly what New Zealand First is trying to do is emulate what Reform - Nigel Farage's party - in the UK is doing. 

If you've been following what they're up to, they have had a huge number of politicians defect to Reform. And every single time it happens, the news media covers it and it makes Reform look like the party with the momentum. That is what New Zealand First is trying to do.

That's why you had both Stuart Nash, formerly of Labour, and Harete Hipango, formerly of National, at the conference over the weekend.

Now, despite the circumstances of Stuart leaving Parliament, he's actually a really big defection from Labour because he's a very capable politician.

He managed to turn Napier into a red seat in 2014, despite the popularity of the Key Government at the time. He was one of the few ministers in the Ardern administration that voters on the right actually had time for.

He is, and I think that's because he's a proper centrist in the Labour Party - not crazy left like a lot of them are, a little bit more to the right - which is why he's probably going to find a better home for himself in New Zealand First than the Labour Party of 2025.

Now, I don't know if Labour realizes what they've lost with Stuart Nash leaving. I mean, of course, he's really been out of Labour since the moment Chippy fired him, but I don't think they even realized then what they'd lost because they haven't replaced him.

 And what I mean by that is they haven't gone looking for another true centrist politician.

Back in the day, Labour had heaps of them. They had Phil Goff, David Shearer and just going back through time - Richard Prebble, Roger Douglas, Mike Moore - it wasn't that unusual to have a good little centrist or righty sitting in the Labour Party.

Now, name one for me.

I mean, you might have once been able to say Chippy, but he's allowed himself to be pulled so far to the left, I'm not sure you could call him a centrist anymore.

Now, you cannot, as a Labour Party, win over the centre voter if you do not have politicians that the centre voter likes. And Stuart Nash, I think, was probably the last one of them.

I would say: total coup for New Zealand First.

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