The New Zealand Party Political Compass™

Labour - or at least the present Labour leadership - appears to be reclaiming something of its pre-Rogernomics approach on matters such as health, while embracing the broad prevailing economic orthodoxy. National combines the Friedmanite enthusiasms of its leader - and most of its members -with decidedly conservative social policies.

The Maori Party's policies are less defined than the others in several areas, posing us with some dilemmas.

Destiny, by comparison, is in keeping with recent political developments of the U.S. Christian Right. Evangelicals, mindful of the difficulties encountered by camels attempting to pass through the eyes of needles, have traditionally kept a distance from big business. However Destiny has blended its taste for the free market with social policies that are anything but laissez-faire. In Destiny's view, the state should be present in bedrooms but not boardrooms.

ACT's hardline law and order approach reflects its willingness for the strong arm of the state to assert itself in certain non-monetary matters. United Future looks to us like National-Lite, while the Progressives, on matters like cannabis legalisation, display an authoritarian tendency that contrasts with the more consistently liberal social policies of the Greens.