Checkmate?

While Te Pāti Māori and the Greens are seen as Labour’s only available coalition partners, it has no winning moves.

CHESS IS WAR on 64 squares. War is politics by other means. Unsurprising, then, that the moves of chess players and the moves of politicians have much in common.

Above all other objectives the political strategist seeks to position adversaries where they can do the least harm. Enemies only become dangerous when they are moving. When they have nowhere to go they cease to be a threat.

In the months leading up to the general election the party with the most to lose by being bottled-up is Labour. Chris Hipkins and his colleagues cannot remain dependent on the support of the Greens and Te Pāti Māori – not if they want to win. They need to move.

The key questions of the election therefore become: Can Labour reposition itself? And, if it can, then where should Labour reposition itself?

Perhaps the most obvious way Labour for Labour to reposition itself would be to rule out both the Greens and Te Pāti Māori as coalition partners.