I don’t normally post lists concerning the politics of my home country (New Zealand), but tomorrow is the General Election and I know that we have many readers from New Zealand. Therefore I have asked permission from David Farrar who runs New Zealand’s most popular political blog (Kiwiblog) to re-print his “top 10 reasons to Change the New Zealand Government Tomorrow“. First, a little background: New Zealand uses a proportional system of voting, so we vote for a party and the percentage of the vote won determines the percentage of people in parliament representing them. The party with the most members in parliament (or the one able to cobble together a majority from the minor parties) becomes the government and its leader becomes our Prime Minister. At present our Prime Minister is Helen Clark – she has governed for 9 years and it looks like she may lose tomorrow.
For some perspective, Helen Clark is the leader of the Labour Party and the main opposition is John Key, the leader of the National Party (pictured above on the right, talking to Rodney hide, leader of the ACT party) – both parties are to the left of the Democrats in the US – we don’t really have an equivalent of the Republican party, though National is closer to it than Labour as many Labour party members are socialists or have a background in socialism.
For those who are curious, I am voting ACT who are a Libertarian party – they closest resemble the principles of Ron Paul in New Zealand. I have helped them out a bit during the campaign and will be eagerly awaiting the results to see how well they do! This list will mean more to New Zealanders than anyone else and I am aware that this is a bit of a vanity post, but if you aren’t interested – or don’t understand, just skip it – there will be a regular list tonight. Anyway, enough of me talking, here is the list courtesy of Kiwiblog (which I strongly recommend you check out).
1. The New Zealand economy is facing the most challenging international circumstances since the 1930s. To get through it with a minimum of damage to people’s jobs and incomes will require a Government that has an unrelenting focus on economic growth – just as Kevin Rudd (Australian Prime Minister) does.
2. Winston Peters. If Governments get away with tolerating Ministers who blatantly lie, then the message it will send is that you get rewarded for lying to the public, The behaviour of Peters has been a disgrace, and only exceeded by the Prime Minister’s tolerance and defense of it. It will be healthy for Labour to get punished at the polls, so that next time they are in this situation their response will be not to tolerate corruption instead of making excuses for it. Rewarding Labour with a fourth term for covering up for Winston would be an awful message to send. [Winston Peters has been caught out accepting money to introduce certain policies.]
3. Healthcare. The ideological jihad against the private sector must stop. It is literally killing people. A coordinated approach to using all the resources out there will lead to better outcomes for those who need top quality healthcare. [Labour are very opposed to using the private sector for health - even though the public hospitals are filled to overflowing and the private hospitals have plenty of room.]
4. Tax. If Labour is returned it is almost inevitable they will massively increase taxes in their secret December mini-budget. They have shown an inability to keep a lid on spending over the last nine years. The best you can get under Labour is that they will not cancel the tax cuts already legislated. Under National [and ACT] you will have a Government that knows it is spending your money and will work hard to reduce taxes so families have more in their pockets.
5. The Electoral Finance Act. Need more be said. National will repeal it immediately (while leaving in place transparency around donations). Labour will make it worse, exempt their own MPs from much of it, and introduce full taxpayer funding of political parties. [The Electoral Finance Act puts limitations on the public's right to free speech during an election year.]
6. Law & Order. We saw this week that Brad Shipton gets out in under three years for a pack rape with a sentence of almost nine year. Sickening. But this is no accident. Labour deliberately changed the law in 2001 to allow rapists and violent criminals to get parole after one third instead of two thirds of their sentence. I have no idea why, but they did. We don’t necessarily have a lot of criminals in NZ – we just keep letting them out to keep committing crimes. National will I am sure will be tougher on criminals. Labour have said they see no need for further changes and that the status quo is acceptable.
7. Public Service Independence. Where does one start? The Police Commissioner hounded out of office on Helen Clark’s lies (this is beyond dispute). Madeleine Setchell and Erin Leigh. The attacks on the Auditor-General for doing his job over the illegal Parliamentary spending. The disgraceful behaviour towards the Director of the Serious Fraud Office because he exposed the truth about Winston’s donations. A neutral and independent public service is preferable to the US model where politicians appoint their supporters to everything. Throwing out Labour will help restore an independent public service.
8. Education. By the time kids are at secondary school, it is too late if they can not read or write. Their future prospects are blighted and wasted. National’s focus on early detection and intervention for children who can not read, write or count could be the most important thing they do. National will spend more money on eight year olds that can’t vote than 18 year olds that can.
9. Moderation or Radicalism? A John Key led Government will change direction and policies from Labour, but not radically so. The focus will be on improving economic growth, jobs and incomes. National looks to make up around 95% of a National-led Government. The alternative will be an unstable radical Government where Labour makes up less than 75% of it, and economic growth will be well down the list of priorities of its coalition partners. National, ACT and United Future may disagree somewhat on the policies for economic growth but they all see them as vital. The Green Party sees economic growth as a necessary evil, and to be tolerated only under duress. Chris Trotter said that a Labour/Green/Maori Party Government would be the most leftwing Government in 70 years, and he was right.
10. John Key. He will be a great Prime Minister. Give him the chance to prove it.
So remember Kiwis, vote tomorrow! But before you do, check out the ACT party 20 point plan – it has some great stuff in it!
UPDATE!
Tonight New Zealand voted for a change of government. I am (obviously) thrilled as my party (the libertarian ACT party) now has 5 members in parliament and is part of our new government. Let freedom reign! Here is a little video clip from one of our favorite New Zealand political bloggers in response to the result:
Oh – and just when you thought it couldn’t get any better, Winston Peters (item 2 above) has been removed from parliament with his party, and the Prime Minister has resigned as head of the party – calling for a new leader to replace her. It really doesn’t get much better than that!
I voted ACT too….. I’m glad Peters is a gonner…. what a loser, although I think he had some good ideas he was so arragant eh….
No Republicans? Get me on a flight to New Zealand….
Im from the U.S and dont know about N.Z politics and I hope everything workes out for them. Im kind of in the middle between left & right.Good luck.
You really are a little nazi lasseiz fare chip off the old private school neo conservative block aren’t you? Crawl back under your stone and die.
All of you National voters will definitely get a little more cash your pockets with John Key’s tax cuts. Too bad you’re going to be spending that tax-cut money to pay for your own healthcare when National privatizes ACC!
I think every NZer who voted National/ACT should be sent to America to fend for themselves…that’s where your country is headed now (actually, you’d probably be better off in America now that Obama has just been voted in…maybe healthcare will now be cheaper in the States than in NZ!).
Ambivalence and ignorance is bliss, New Zealand!!
And maybe all of the Jews would be better off in Israel. What ever happened to doing positive things for your country and coming together for the greater good? I’m going to be facing someone that I Didn’t vote for. What makes you so special that you shouldn’t cope with Change?
Our healthcare system is going to drop off the map. Quantity not quality is not what I’m looking for in insurance. Universal heath care is going to over medicate, misdiagnose, and encourage us to stay at home and “Tough it Out”. I think there are quite a few cancer patients who think walking it off may be a bad idea.
Don’t be so daft, You should focus on your own country and it’s problems without making an undereducated assumption about others’.
I wasn’t making an undereducated assumption – you were (you assumed I was just some American; I’m not). I’m an ex-pat American who works in the NZ media (and my partner works for the NZ government) – I have to deal with NZ policy everyday.
esl: I knew full and well that you weren’t American. Not a stretch to figure that out after you shouted “New Zealand!!”
What you fail to catch was a much more polite way of me saying “Leave my country out of this.” You’ve clearly made up you mind about where you want to be in this world, we have no need to hear of our own problems again.
My Father, Mother, several friends, numerous acquaintances, and about twenty percent of the people I see everyday work for the US gov’t. I’m not impressed, It could be anything from Defense to taxes to sweeping the floors in a local shelter. Could there be a more ambiguous career? Not impressed and it proves nothing about you knowledge of NZ Gov. A few minutes of internet searches and I could sound like a kiwi too.
Ron Paul freakin’ rocks! I love a fiscal conservative! Republicans get such a bad rap… We just would rather rely on ourselves than our “ever-so-efficient” government.
Hmmm… Another New Zealander here who isn’t particularly chuffed about the outcome of the election. Having only reached voting age last month and being one of the few high-school aged students who got to vote, I’m almost certain that if the voting age were lowered by even a year, Labour would have stayed in Government. Every single student I talked to over the course of the Monday following the election said they were furious about the results of the election. And that’s approximately 80 of the more intelligent students in my high-school. Although it may have been a regional thing as all of my teachers were rather dejected also.
What i find funny is that the ACT spokesman on law and order is actually a criminal himself. Not convicted of course but he held a forged passport and the police came looking for him. And know he talks about zero tolerance. Ha!
if things don’t work out you could join up with your western neighbours. think about it; New Zealand, Australia’s 7th state! it has a ring to it.
National are a lot more right-wing than you explain. National is very similiar to the Republican party.
This article is extremely biased and maybe the author should do some better research (i.e the economy article, the healthcare article, probably all of them actually)
John key is a multi-millionaire BUSINESSMAN, and will do the same as every other national government (make himself and his friends wealthier in the name of a “better looking” economy, create a bigger gap between rich and poor, sell NZ assets and abolish social welfare for the needy).
I notice this article doesn’t mention John Key lying about how many shares he owned in NZ rail and how he sold them back (for quite a bit) to his own country after his party sold NZ rail originally. They are also PRO-WAR.
Don’t listen to this Cretin, do your own research, and figure things out for yourself.
Don’t give up the NHS. NEVER.
Become another tribute vassal State of Indonesia like your convict brothers- Yob-stralia.
Ah, several years later and let’s see what’s changed.
National party being shaked up with a the Maori party are giving support to Hone Harawira, a racist and quite frankly, a moron. Contrast that with Winston Peters and the two parties are no different.
The healthcare system currently in place leaves room for both public and private sectors. Should one choose to they are very much within their right to choose private healthcare as opposed to public. Removing public care doesn’t solve problems, it just removes options. Fun update; National has since risen GST from 12.5% to 15%. They justified this by lowering Income tax
in a manner that after a weeks grocery shopping the GST far trumps the amount saved on income. Or atleast this is the case for low income families. The opposite is true for the rich. And talking about a government that “knows it is spending your money”, just this week the government has plans to replace all their cars with BMW 7 series cars totalling $200,000 each. The reason, the old cars are an appaling 3 years old. If only I could spend millions in tax payer money because my car is old. The Electoral Finance Act didn’t restrict free speech- it restricted the amounts one could spend to advertise or insult any political party. And arised from every party abbusing their spending restrictions in the 2005 election. But feel free to leave that out- remain vague. And all National done for crime is implement the 3 strikes law- a law system which has shown to be a broken system in the country of its origin. And that system in no means kept Brad Shipton in prison. And as for eduacation, didn’t national JUST cut funding from early childhood eduacation? While labour were in power they took away interest on student loans- more than what National can claim. And isn’t politics involved in a list on this site about things not to talk about online. #3 I believe.
Tomorrow it begins again
After 4 and a half years of National it’s rather amusing to come back and read an old list like this.
They really took care of the economic growth situation didn’t they, assests smassets, who need ‘em, bit like jobs really aye.
I will admit to feeling extremely sorry for poor old Rodders – Don Brash of all people, how could they. Ohh well, he got his just desserts in the end, and really NZ, how many more times are we going to believe a word out of Banksys mouth… seriously, couldn’t believe it when he was made Mayor and now the leader of ACT – it scares me how short some memories are