In New Zealand, the general election on October 14 will be, to some extent, a judgment on the extensive co-governance policies implemented by the Ardern-Hipkins administration across a broad array of policy including water management, planning standards, health, and education.

In an odd coincidence, it looks likely that October 14 will also be the day Australians vote in a referendum on the proposed Voice to Parliament, which will decide whether Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders win a constitutional right to a permanent body advising the government on matters affecting Indigenous peoples.

In both nations, race-based policies are polarising and fraught.