major parties?

Yeah, it's a big part of it.

I was talking to a very astute political observer last night, just testing some ideas out, and they made the really interesting observation that they're looking at Labour and National fighting the last war.

They're fighting this war from the 2010s, basically.

And I think where the Greens are potentially showing a little bit of momentum is exactly this.

Swarbrick's been over in New York, has met the Mandami team.

They've been looking at the UK Greens who have been finding a whole different way of approaching politics.

And so Melissa Lee might be rubbing her hands saying, could I walk through the middle? So to me, that's one of the more interesting ones.

... uh, again, if you think about them playing to their base a- and, and trying to channel that popular sentiment, I, I think it could be a winner for them.

Yeah.

I think, I think that's the politics of it, right? It's the boldest idea we've seen so far, and the Greens have got to, you know, send that message, "We're not..." Labor but a bit greener is not gonna s- cut it the, the- these days, right? The minor parties are moving.

You're seeing New Zealand First, Act, and even Opportunity getting into quite significant numbers.

So the Greens need to actually really own the space, and a bold idea is important for them, and this is obviously gonna be something they can hang it on, and it's right in that sweet spot of the cost of living where people are looking at their weekly shop and going, "Oh, my." You know, "What the heck is going on here?" And so, look, there's a gut reaction.

They're tapping into the anger of the times, the anger at the, the big guys who are taking our money.

At the short end of best part of $3 billion is a heck of a lot of money on something that really you can't point and go, "This has been done before." You know, you can see things in, like, Vietnam and Sri Lanka and so forth of state government supermarkets, but not in the countries we usually compare ourselves with.

Is it good for New Zealand in the long term? I, I don't know, but it's just interesting to see them sort of shift to the other side of the equ- supply-demand equation.

And so they're facing that as well as this disunity.

I think this is one of the things is – These kind of conniptions within the National Party speak to the speed of the election cycle speeding up, right? Those four times in the past in New Zealand where parties have changed leaders in election year, 1957, 72, 1990, 2023, they were all second or third term governments.

They were when people, you know, governments were getting tired, running out of ideas.

It's a more natural process.

This is a first term government.

Right.

And so the fact that people are so frustrated and already there is pressure on the caucus and they're feeling the pressure because they're going to lose their seat.

Fair point, Tim.