The year 2008 has proven to be a year of great political tests for a whole range of reasons on both the domestic and international fronts.

The year began with Winston Peters being tested over his re-call of events with the Owen Glenn donation saga. Peters, ever wanting to protect the image of him and New Zealand First as being the squeaky-clean 'corruption free' party of local politics, at first held up a sign during a press conference boldly declaring in capital letters 'NO' as his denial that he had ever received donations from Glenn,the wealthy billionaire expat businessman. However, Peters, who had made a number of enemies across all sides of the political spectrum over the years, received his comeuppance when a series of leaked emails and phone logs detailing his conversations with Glenn (who demanded that his desire to be made New Zealand Consul in Monaco be expedited by the then foreign minister as a quid pro quo for a donation request from Peters) became public knowledge.

That began a year of slow decline for Peters and his party as the great performer of New Zealand politics began to engage in a round of legal semantics in order to deflect the charges being made against him. Peters would have made both Bill Clinton and Richard Nixon proud of his efforts as he sought to obfuscate his way through the mire but without any effect as even more damaging disclosures were made about his receiving donations from other big, wealthy donors such as the Vela family. At that time, Peters was also racing minister and it was alleged that in 2005, New Zealand First received significant donations from the Vela family's racing businesses and other figures within the racing industry in order to influence some of the beneficial racing policy changes that were later successfully introduced by him as minister, with backing from the former Labour government.

The unwinding of Winston Peters had its climax in the parliamentary privileges committee inquiry into the affair whereafter his fellow MPs voted to censure him and demand that his party fully disclose its donations tally from 2005 and afterwards to both Parliamentary Services and the Electoral Commission.

The ultimate outcome was that Peters and New Zealand First finally bit the electoral dust on November 8th and, so far, it seems that Winston and NZ First, despite saying they will make a Douglas MacArthur style comeback have become silent with no media releases having been issued since just shortly after the election. It was the Labour Party, though, that was the other big loser on November 8th. During 2008, Helen Clark watched her government scrape along the bottom of the electoral ocean as the Peters/Glenn saga, ministerial mistakes and a slowing economy saw all hope of a fourth term evaporate for Labour. On the contrary, unlike NZ First, it faces the prospect of perhaps returning to office in three years time - that is if it provides a vigorous opposition from the left.

Under new leader Phil Goff, it seems that it is providing a vigorous opposition in the House but not where it matters most - out on the streets and amongst the working people who will be impacted by rising unemployment, taxes and punitive new labour laws come the new year. Labour has so far taken a back seat approach in not leading popular campaigns on the Employment Relations Amendment Act (which introduced the 90 day no grievance rights probation provision) and other regressive changes. It needs to do this in 2009 or else its credibility will be called into question by hard core working class and middle class socially progressive voters who might look elsewhere, meaning that support within the centre-left could transfer to the Greens, Alliance or other left parties.

The new John Key National Government though will be the one facing the most tests. For most of 2008, the only test the National Party faced from electors was whether or not it would make a credible government and this test it passed (with help from right-wing allies Act, the Maori Party and United Future) on November 8th. Now with the election beginning to recede into popular memory, the new National Government will be facing the prospect of riding stormy seas as the domestic recession of 2008 is superceded by the impacts of the oncoming global recession of 2009. This will result in rising unemployment, income inequality, poverty and pressure on social spending, all of which will test the new administration's desire to be centrist. The need to balance the competing needs of both support parties, Act and New Zealand First, will prove another test for Key during his full year as PM.

Internationally, the greatest political test that the world was focused on was the race for the White House. American voters began the process three days into 2008 when the Democratic Party voters of Iowa chose a first-term senator from Illinois with, as the winning candidate put it, a 'funny' name - Barack Obama. This triumph was largely unexpected as Hillary Clinton was said to be the anointed one for the Democratic Party presidential nomination by the media and commentators alike. In a year, though, when American voters began to feel uneasy about their economic future and the trajectory that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were taking, wanted to opt for change. On the Republican side, this meant a gradual tilt towards a man who was seen as a 'maverick' within his own party - John McCain. After claiming the nomination, McCain lost much of his maverick image as he became the usual run of the mill Republican standard bearer with the mantras of low tax, minimal health care coverage, global dominance and laissez-faire economics predominating. In a year when (to paraphrase an earlier Bill Clinton campaign maxim) the 'economy was the message, stupid' Americans opted for fresh change with Barack Obama who will, on January 21st (New Zealand Time) become the first African-American to be sworn into that office. This will mark one of the most historic presidential transitions in American history but when he takes over, Obama will be tested from his first day in the job as to how he handles the problems he inherits from George W Bush with number one issue being the economy.

Other politically testing moments during the year have included the ongoing crisis in Zimbabwe where Robert Mugabe played around with both his opponents and the lives of his fellow countrymen in an ever desperate attempt to retain power. Ditto with the Burmese/Myanmese military regime whose response to the cyclone which struck that country in May was to control the flow of aid to victims in a cynical (and successful) attempt to retain power. The Chinese Communist regime overcame questions about its environmental and human rights records by staging (in propaganda terms) a successful Olympics and Paralympics games season. At the same time as the Olympics was being staged, the pro-US regime in Georgia foolishly decided that it would attack Russian-backed seperatist forces in South Ossetia and Abkhazia, only to end up with a bloody nose at the hands of Russian forces as a result.

The greatest political test came near year's end as financial markets around the capitalist world melted down and this is still being played out as Christmas approaches. This has set the scene for our entry into 2009 and will provide the backdrop for what could be one of the most crises ridden years of this new century both nationally and internationally.