This is the fourth in our series comparing two parties’ voters head to head, and like Labour and OPP, it’s two groups that already sit close together on the compass: Labour and the Green Party. The numbers below come from 152 Labour supporters and 220 Green supporters who answered the KiwiValues survey. Given how close these two already sit, most of the survey plays out about how you’d guess: close to a wash. Where they do split, it’s less about tax and more about how far the state should override the market to protect the environment, and, on one of the newer questions, how far New Zealand should tie its defence policy to its Western allies at the cost of its relationship with China.
Where they split
The clearest gaps here aren’t about tax or welfare, where these two mostly agree. They’re about how far the state should step in to override the market, whether that’s for the environment or, in a question added to the survey only recently, for foreign policy.
Mining versus the environment: the widest split we found
Asked whether mining and drilling are necessary for New Zealand’s economic future even if they harm the environment, Labour voters lean toward disagreeing, averaging -0.26, with a wide spread of opinion inside the group. Green voters disagree far more firmly, averaging -0.65, with most of the group clustered on the disagree side. Both groups reject the trade-off. Greens reject it much harder.
Mining and drilling are necessary for New Zealand’s economic future, even if they harm the environment.
Cutting red tape: Labour shrugs, Greens have decided
On cutting regulations and red tape to encourage economic growth, Labour voters sit close to neutral, averaging -0.11, genuinely split inside the group. Greens disagree clearly, averaging -0.45, with most of the group on the disagree side. Where Labour hasn’t made up its mind, Greens already have.
We should cut regulations and red tape to encourage economic growth.
A brand new question: defence ties with the West, at China’s expense
One of the newest statements on the survey asks whether New Zealand should deepen defence ties with allies like Australia and the US, even if it strains our relationship with China. Only 28 Labour and 51 Green respondents have answered it so far, so treat the size of this gap loosely, but the direction is already clear: Labour voters lean toward agreeing, averaging +0.08, while Green voters lean the other way, averaging -0.30. This one hasn’t been asked before, so there’s no earlier round to check it against.
New Zealand should deepen defence ties with allies like Australia and the US, even if it strains our relationship with China.
The same shape, Labour near neutral and Greens leaning firmly one way, turns up on a few other questions too: whether you’ve nothing to fear if you’ve nothing to hide, whether capitalism still holds up, whether private developers can build houses faster than government, whether authority should always be respected, and whether government should add gender identity protections against discrimination. None of these needed a chart of their own, but they all point the same way: on most of the questions that do split this pair, Labour is the one sitting closer to neutral.
What they agree on
Set the market-versus-environment questions aside, and Labour and Green voters look like the same group answering the same survey twice. Two agreements stand out, one because it’s never come up in this series before, the other because it’s the one question every other comparison in this series has split on.
New Zealand handled COVID well, no argument
Asked whether New Zealand generally responded to the COVID pandemic well, both groups agree clearly and by almost the same amount: Labour +0.73, Greens +0.77. It’s one of the strongest agreements in the whole comparison, on a question that hasn’t featured in this series before.
Generally, New Zealand responded to the COVID pandemic well.
Guns: the one question every other pair in this series has split on, this pair doesn’t
Every earlier article in this series has found a gap on gun ownership somewhere. Labour and OPP split on it. OPP and Greens split on it too. Labour and Greens don’t. Both lean toward disagreeing that people should be able to own and possess a firearm, Labour at -0.34 and Greens at -0.39, with almost no daylight between them. Whatever divides Labour and Green voters, guns evidently isn’t part of it.
I should be able to own and possess a firearm.
The same near-agreement shows up on government’s duty to protect your rights, on whether government itself threatens civil liberties, and on wanting closer international ties like the European Union. On all three, the two groups’ averages sit within a few hundredths of each other.
How sure are we
Both groups here are a solid size: 152 Labour supporters and 220 Green supporters. Since we only call a gap real when the two groups’ confidence intervals don’t overlap, that’s enough to trust the direction of every gap above. The defence-ties question is the exception: it’s new enough that only 28 Labour and 51 Green responses have answered it so far, still comfortably above what we need to plot a group at all, but treat the exact size of that gap loosely. The direction is the reliable part.
We checked every shared question against an earlier, much larger round of responses: 991 Labour voters and 562 Green voters then, against 152 and 220 now. Every finding above held its direction in that round too. Two of the agreement findings shuffled which party led by a hair, not which way either leaned: on government’s duty to protect your rights and on whether government itself threatens civil liberties, Labour used to average a touch higher than Greens; now Greens do, though both groups still clearly agree either way. As always, this is a self-selected sample that skews younger and further left than the country as a whole. You can see exactly who has answered so far.
For how the compass and this kind of comparison are built, see the methodology page.
Want to see where your own answers land? Take the survey at kiwivalues.nz.