This is a thread for Kiwis to discuss the upcoming elections. International folk may comment of course but hopefully with some understanding of the parties and their policies.
Which party will you be voting for and why? I have only included the names of those that are currently in Parliament (minus JAP who is retiring at this election) in alphabetical order, any other party that is not currently in Parliament is listed under Other.
Poll: Which party will you be giving your vote to?
Greens (37)
35%
National (34)
32%
Labour (14)
13%
ACT (11)
10%
Other (6)
6%
United Future (5)
5%
107 total votes
Your vote: Which party will you be giving your vote to?
I have selected ACT. The main reason is because having studied economics at university I find it hard to see any other party whose focus is on saving rather than spending.
These are my personal classifications of the various parties:
National (currently polling around 50%) - conservative party that doesn't seem active - their role appears to be to just simply govern. They'd rather just keep everything running as it already is without offending anyone by proposing any reforms. They made minor reforms to employment law by introducing the 90 day trial period where any employees can be sacked within three months for any reason the employer sees fit without recourse to remedies, but this is a very minor tinkering that has little effect on employment (given that it is more the shortage of jobs, rather than the risk of employing someone bad, that is keeping employers from employing more people).
Labour (30%) - their main policy platform appears to be a capital gains tax to fund their spending promises. They basically advocate spending more on all sectors (health, education, welfare) but the CGT by itself is nowhere near enough.
Greens (10%) - socialist party that agrees with everything Labour does. Despite claiming to be an environmentalist party, there really is nothing that differentiates them from Labour. They claim to be further to the left and care more about the environment, but that is more just a title and label rather than any difference in substance to what Labour is already advocating.
ACT (2%) - I support this party because I consider myself a Libertarian. They believe that tax cuts fuel the economy by encouraging investment. Unfortunately the personalities aren't popular so they receive very little share of the votes.
United Future (1%) - basically a one-man party who supports whichever party wins the election and just does some bureaucratic ministerial role in government. The leader appears to see politics as just his dayjob rather than someone who wants to have revolutionary policies to change the country.
"It’s a shame likeability is so crucial in politics. It’s the quality that allows John Key to con his countrymen more royally than any other leader in the world right now" - John Ansell, former advertising executive to the National Party (under Brash) and ACT.
Would be interesting how the economic stagnation is addressed.. GDP going from a high end 1st world country a few decades ago to a below-par low-end 1st world current status is a huge deal.
I steer clear of the greens, they have some good ideals but imo have a really stupid way of achieving things and have no idea how to handle fiscal issues.
gotta love that act has the smae amount of votes as national and labours winning some people must be trolling or its just a terribly squed poll which is more likely
On August 01 2011 23:58 Archaron wrote: gotta love that act has the smae amount of votes as national and labours winning some people must be trolling or its just a terribly squed poll which is more likely
ok going back to topic. there has been a lot of heat on national as they promised that unemployment would decrease, however since they have been in power the unemployment has increased. however we are in a recession, so unemployment was going to go up no matter who is in power. I feel that the policies of the other parties (especially labour) would worsen the recession problems in NZ. therefore at the moment I think that national are best party for NZ.
On August 02 2011 11:30 Alethios wrote: This thread seems more like a podium for the OPs personal opinions than a place for discussion.
The whole purpose of this thread though is to get the ideas started and then if people disagree with me they can post rebuttals and debate about it. I hardly went into detail as I could have easily talked about what my feelings are on the health system, the education system, the welfare system, etc... But all I did was give a broad summary of the different political philosophies of the various parties.
On August 02 2011 11:51 Aetherial wrote: It's like choosing between a douche and a turd sandwich...
Isn't this always the case? Seems like it's rare for somebody to be happy about their choices of representation, but don't forget that not voting is the worst way to go about it, since you might end up with the worst possible outcome. Anyway, just pick the douche, else you'll get the stinking turd...
EPT![[image loading]](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/--DFGYlCUYF0/TctEhOO-e9I/AAAAAAAAAJY/_kgfXjzmyaY/s1600/3369064-Sheep_everywhere-New_Zealand.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://philip.greenspun.com/nz/sheep.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3280/2448748665_aaf13e4db0.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://www.amazingaustralia.com.au/animals/pictures/mating-kangaroos-1.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/5479909.jpg)
