I’m giving both my votes to Labour. Last time I gave my party vote to the Greens because I felt Labout may have needed a partner. This time Labour has both my votes.
I loathe Don Brash but EVEN if I didn’t loathe him what the fuck does he hope to get with the “I-can’t-tell-you-yet” re: tax cut policies???
Who the fuck is putting Winston up in the polls??? We need to bump off some Grannys!
Ok it it is clear, I am voting Labour. Mini Kiwi poll; who are who are you voting for?
:: waves at calm kiwi ::
…I was Functions Manager at parlaiment between 2000 and 2002. I am still honour bound by my oath to talk about the goings on behind the walls… suffice to say, I went in to Parliament with very firm ideas on what party I supported, and when I left, I didn’t have a clue! 
Just to give you a few impressions of some of the key players: Don Brash is actually a very nice and polite man, as is the Prime Minister. Mr Prebble was one of the smartest men in Parliament, and together with Mr Peters they kept the house in order. Mr Tamihere called a spade a spade, and he gave me a particularily memorable introduction to parliament (That I can’t elaborate on!) The Rt Hon Jonathan Hunt was a consummate host.
…I supported a quite right wing party when I went in, but when I left, I was leaning the other way…
I’m gonna vote for the Progressives this year. Mr Anderton is a good man, and together with Matt Robson they have done good work. I fear that with his party’s reduced profile this year there maybe a chance he could go: (although I doubt he will loose his electorate seat) so I will do my best to give him a fighting chance.
**calm kiwi ** and Banquet Bear,
A bit of a hijack, but what’s the general feeling of New Zealanders towards the MMP system? Is is still liked / considered valid? I was living in NZ at the time of the referendum that chose MMP. I seem to recall that there was some provision for a “review” of MMP a certain number of years after it was put in place. Has that review taken place?
from me too.
I have traditionally been a Labour supporter. I won’t be voting though because after five years living in Australia*, I really have no idea what is happening politically in NZ. I generally approve of the stuff I do hear about. The stance on Iraq for example.
*I’m about to become a citizen of Australia, but I’ll maintain my NZ nationality as well.
Ignorant question:
Does NZ have preferential voting like Australia coughFamily Firstcough does?
I’m sick to death of Helen’s “nanny knows best” state and its numerous idiocies, scams, and lack of accountability, however the economy is doing reasonably well, and I can’t see the man who, lest we forget, lost twice to Gary Knapp doing any better in charge. My electorate MP is Phil Goff, so I can at least vote for him without holding my nose at the polls; I suspect both votes will go to Labour for the want of a better alternative.
I look do look forward however to the annihilation of the Greens and Destiny First - of all the local billboards, theirs is the only one which has been vandalised, which is heartening - and the dissolution of the Maori Party, should they win a few Maori seats, in endless revelations of nepotism, squabbling, and financial scandals.
I also support compulsory euthanasia for anyone who votes for Winston, and if he ends up as kingmaker again I shall give serious thought to moving to Melbourne.
Not a New Zealander, but I just have a question. How powerful is the Maori Party in NZ?
A buddy of mine who is from Hastings has the utmost contempt for the party and its ability to act as a kingmaker in the elections. All you have to do is mention Maoris and he goes off on one of his rants about a rugby stadium and various other plots of land that have been given to them. He still refuses to vote in the National elections figuring that the Maoris will have all the power no matter who wins.
Sarah, the system in New Zealand is called MMP (Mixed Member Proportional). It’s a “tick the box”, first past the post system, but you get to cast two votes, even though there’s only one house of parliament. Your first vote is to elect a local member for your electorate. Your second vote is a “party list” vote. Political parties are allocated additional seats (with the members being chosen in order from a nationwide list) so that a party’s total number of seats in the house is roughly in proportion to the party’s total “party list” vote. For example, say Labour gets 40% of the total “list vote” across the country. It also wins 40 specific local electorates. It’s allocated an additional 8 seats so that its total number of members (the 40 electorate members plus the 8 list members) make up 40% of the total number of seats (120) in the parliament. All parties have to meet the threshold test of 5% of the nationwide party list vote (or one electorate seat) before they can be allocated any list seats.
Aha. I see. Thanks!
No-one quite knows yet, since they’re a relatively recent phenomenon after Tariana Turia {eventually} flounced out of Labour over their foreshore and seabed policy: they’re almost certain to pick up a few of the {traditionally Labour} Maori seats, but I can’t see them getting enough to give them kingmaker status, which is what they need under MMP if they’re not to be another fringe party - which is what will happen since they don’t seem to have any actual policies beyond being Maori, and no mainstream {read: non-Maori} appeal.
Hard to say how much they’ll appeal to Maori in general, since this election is basically being fought over tax reductions and who can promise the biggest bribes to students and families. The one plank of their platform, that ownership/custodianship of the foreshore and seabed should be vested in Maori rather than the Crown, is one of those emotive issues that to be honest doesn’t practically affect anyone, Maori or not: if I were Hohepa Timiti living in West Auckland and trying to bring up three kids on an average income, I’d be voting with my hip-pocket like everyone else.
Most of the Maori Party’s appeal is emotive rather than pragmatic, with a lot of rhetoric over Treaty settlements, reparations for historical injustices, and hot air about the foreshore and seabed: the so-called “Treaty Industry” which alienates a lot of non-Maori. My prediction is that they’ll pick up four or five seats, rapidly degenerate into bickering about who’s the most Maori, have a financial scandal or two, schism and re-schism, the smart ones will get their snouts into the trough, and the rest will be toast by the next election. You read it here first.
I’m voting Labour, electorate and party vote. I have friends who say they’ll split their vote, which is cool and their right – but I’m not that imaginative. I come from a family who religiously voted National and tied blue ribbons to the car aerial up until 1980 when we got sick of Muldoon.
The ordinary NZers, mate. It’s a democracy, after all. sigh
Last time I gave the Greens my party vote and Labour my electorate vote (I was in Palmy so that went to Maharey). I’ll possibly do the same thing again (but in Napier, so Fairbrother will get my electorate vote). Or I might give my party vote to Labour. Still got a bit of time to decide.
Oh, and count me in on any Winston-destroying missions. I’d rather see some sort of wacky coalition deal between Labour and National than let Winston get any power.
Winston does like to cook, though. Watch out, he might start work a a restaurant near you.
Hiya 
I actually knew Don Brash when I was a wee thing growing up on the North Shore, I was friends with his daughter. I know he is a nice man. I’m fairly convinced he is a crap politician though (Bill Rowling was a nice man…hardly effective though).
Mr Prime Minister is a “what you see is what you get kind of chap(ess)”. She is good at dodging a bullet and sometimes too keen to chuck out someone to save herself or the party but perhaps that’s part of what makes her an effective leader.
I always liked Prebble…until ACT. I have no doubt he is smart but the Labour to ACT switch just doesn’t seem right to me. I like Rodney Hyde, I think he is clever and witty and commited. I think he has a place in parliament (just in the opposition). We need watchdogs and whistle blowers to keep them honest. Hyde does that well. I just don’t like ACT.
I also like Tamihere. I still think he may recover from his lastest beating to do good things.
Ice those in love with Winston ain’t normal! They range from old ladies impressed by his suits (and apparently his hair???) to bloody bigots. Jeeeez if Al Queda ever visit here it is because Winston invited them.
WINSTON EVERYONE KNOWS THE OLD LADIES WILL VOTE YOU IN AGAIN…SHUT THE FUCK UP!!! Any party that shakes his hand in coalition deserves all the shit that will bring them. He has such a sterling record.
You are so right. I think the Maori party will get 4 or 5 of Labours (Maori) seats. Yet who will they give their support to? Labour? Then the whole party looks pointless. National? Political suicide surely. They lose before they start. Labour has done well for Maori. Voting the Maori seats to the Maori party can only be counter productive, look what happened last time they wern’t held by Labour.
As for your first post I agree with everything you said EXCEPT for mentioning the Greens and Destiny in the same sentence! I’m not a Greenie but they have effectively supported the govt, the day Destiny supports a govt I am leaving!
I didn’t say “normal”, I said “ordinary”. Opinionated blue-rinsers and corner bigots are just as much ordinary Kiwis as you and me-- and that’s what is sad. Peters plays up to the same insecurities and fears as hundreds of other politicians before him – and he’ll get his votes, 'cause there are enough NZers around who think (gasp!) he’s telling the truth.
I’m concerned about the Destiny crew. They would seem to be the inheritors of the “Family First” mantle, let alone anything else they have in their manifesto with regard to fashioning NZ in their own moral image. Again, like Peters, they’ll speak to a sector of ordinary NZers who think theirs is the path to political salvation. They could end up, somewhere along the line, as kingmakers.
Can’t see it, Ice Wolf: Christian parties, even the relatively staid “traditional family values” ones, have always fared poorly. We’re just too secular a society for them to have any real traction, and Brian Tamaki is so obviously a shyster headed for fraud charges for anyone but a few mad zealots to vote for him.
That leaves Christian Heritage and the lovely Graham Cahill… Enjoy your stay in the Big House, bastard: maybe now you can learn about abuse up real close.
I am out of the country, perhaps permanently, but am voting in this election. Being away my list vote is the thing. It will probably go Green, mostly to help ensure they keep in the game and have some influence in reigning in the right wing of Labour.
The Christian Parties (such as Destiny, which did not exist when I left the country) have no chance at all. Thank Og. Now or in the forseeable future. We are secular in nature and do not take kindly to people legislating morality.
I suspect the Nats are in for an ever-lengthening term on the opposition benches. After the relatively affable Jim Bolger, and the very strong Jenny Shipley (although I consider both misguided) they seem to have hd a lot of trouble finding a convincing leader.
Peters reminds me too much of Muldoon. I still cannot believe he holds a seat. The people of Tauranga must be up mad. Not to mention his showing in the list polls.
ACT I would like to see disappear off the face of the planet, although perhaps Rodney Hide could stick around as an Independent.
That should have read Graham Capill in my earlier post. As for Winston and the people of Tauranga, he’s shrewd. Despicable, but shrewd. He knows that his audience is the retired white middle classes who yearn for a 1950’s NZ where Chinks were greengrocers, boongas were cleaners and the Maa-rees knew their place, and he gives them what they want to hear with his race-baiting demagoguery, while they can tell themselves they’re not racists because he’s a Maori and doesn’t he look nice in a suit? He was an effective Opposition MP for National, but proved he had nothing constructive to offer when he had his earlier chance at being kingmaker.
The ABC reported that both major parties were launching their official campaigns yesterday. How were they? Glitzy? Were the two leaders “presidential” in style?