This doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. Here are the 05 and 08 prty votes for ACT in the ManukaU East, Mangere and Manurewa seats:

SEAT / 05 SHARE / 08 SHARE

Mangere / 141 / 252
Manukau East / 629 / 395
Manurewa / 232 / 575

05 results can be checked here:http://2005.electionresults.govt.nz/electorateindex.html
08 results can be checked here:http://2008.electionresults.govt.nz/electorateindex.html

So virtually no difference in the total votes cast for ACT across the three seats.

Whatever caused ACTs resurgeance, it wasn’t disillusioned PI child thumpers voting for the Freidmanites.

[lprent: fixed the italics]

I may only be in my early 20s but I do remember the 90s under National and the immense struggles my parents had to endure under them. The people who I feel sorry for now are those who are about go through the same and the kids who are going to have to watch it happen – and in many cases end up experiencing it worse than I did.

Captcha: Is Defeated

But never destroyed.

Anyway, WTF are we going to argue over now that the election is done and dusted??

[lprent: I cut everyone too much slack. Occasionally I slice it off. Keeps everyone monitoring their own behavior. I suspect that a big topic of conversation will be the relative incompetence of Key in forming and managing a coalition.]

I should note that an economically-oriented splinter faction of the Greens split off to form the “Progressive Greens”. They polled at 0.26% in 1996 and have since disbanded.

The Right has made itself incompatible with broad green ideology- not the other way around.

bleuh.

Our political spectrum is missing a divide between a strong left wing party representing the poor that the Alliance was and potentially Sue Bradford has been, and an environmental party, that could potential sit in a more Switzerland aspect on some policies to increase its pull on environmental issues. Its economically rational, with oil prices going up.

Investing in broadband and roads is most likely not going to cut back significantly on the amount of petrol we consume.

Anyway.

-Rail under the state back in the eighties was an unprofitable venture anyway, which is one of the reasons it was sold off. It still holds little intrinsic value to the country interms of freight options considering its reach is so limited.

You’ll probably be reconsidering this position after oil peaks.

-Kiwisaver is being retained, only the employer contribution is being cut (logical step), what we need now is short term relief, and part of that is not increasing costs for employers.

No, what we need now is infrastructure and knowledge investment that generates short-term relief and still grows our economy in the long term. National’s few infrastructure investments are poorly targetted and essentially just throw money at the problem.

The employees are hurting too. Why should employers have their obligations to employees lessened, instead of trying to better the lot of both? You seem a little short-sighted here.

-Even the Human Rights Commission called the EFA “inherently flawed’, but National (as I remember) has agreed to keep the cap on donations. If anything, id be more concerned about how much Labour and NZ First has been bought than National in this election.

National blocked further transparency such as revealing who was hiding behind trust donations above the threshold for anonymity. If we could charge for breaches that happened years ago, and if the laws were actually enforced, I’m sure those of us on the left would be fine with higher spending caps if they were accompanied by greater openness. As it is, only Act and the Greens have declared what looks to be all of their large donations. National, Labour, New Zealand First, United Future, and the Progressives are practically MIA.

- And under National’s ACC policy last time it was in power it was a success, cry some more elsewhere. ACC is not the be all and end all of comprehensive insurance.

Then why is it considered one of the best and most efficient worldwide? Tell me a specific, concrete example of what we’d gain from allowing private competition to ACC. And “the private sector is more efficient inherently”-type arguments aren’t concrete.

-Couldn’t care less about toll roads. We are moving into the future, not the past. Toll roads increase investment and getting infrastructure online in a shorter time frame.

As long as the tolls aren’t to build even more roads, I am for road tolls.

-Once again, if you consider how many students are taken out of the state funding loop you would see that the current system would collapse if they were to be reintroduced. Currently, MOE policy is only possible via school donations, and even then, some schools run into debt.

-Kiwisaver is being retained, only the employer contribution is being cut (logical step), what we need now is short term relief, and part of that is not increasing costs for employers.

-Even the Human Rights Commission called the EFA “inherently flawed”, but National (as I remember) has agreed to keep the cap on donations. If anything, id be more concerned about how much Labour and NZ First has been bought than National in this election.

- And under National’s ACC policy last time it was in power it was a success, cry some more elsewhere. ACC is not the be all and end all of comprehensive insurance.

-Unfortunately, Med School is hardly cheap. Considering ACC will still cover the majority of hospital work, hospital charges won’t be an issue. But than again, once you sink over $100k and 5 years into a degree, maybe, just maybe you can comment.

-Couldn’t care less about toll roads. We are moving into the future, not the past. Toll roads increase investment and getting infrastructure online in a shorter time frame.

Hi hi Ari, I see I’m not the only green geek here who can’t sleep. Looking forward to seeing a few more Truckin’ good geek posts over at your place once the despair of this night has subsided.

Weirdly enough, the most angry feeling on the top of my internal agitation list at the end of this night (as some peeps have already mentioned above) is that Winston got more votes than ACT and Maori and yet they get maybe 10 seats between them.

I’ll freely admit that I am not sad to see NZF gone for many many reasons, but even so, WTF kind of democracy is our MMP system that this could be allowed to happen?

Well, given we’ve got our fifth National government now, I think I can guarantee more Truckin’ posts. Not necessarily geeky ones, though

I’m not so much angry as wary. The more moderate face presented by Key- if genuine- could mean that this election has just forced National to take three very difficult years in government while trying to be more like Labour. I’m hoping that will mean that this is a very short Government.

As to dislike of NZF- I’m with you on both counts. I’m glad Winston is gone, but I’m upset that he’s not taking Act, UF, and possibly the Progressives with him. I’ve never understood why we: a) have a threshold at all, and b) let electorates bypass the threshold. I’ve actually got something drafted for G.Blog that goes into this. For now I’ve just posted the election results over there.

As for what National will do: I find it pointless to speculate before they’ve even come to a solid agreement with their coalition partners or even appointed a cabinet, let alone announced their first policy. Speculation is best when informed by more data.

Bye bye Kiwisaver
-Not being sold, need I say that again or can you not read, but then again, its not like it is any better than the 10 other banks out there, the one reason why it succeeded was because it didn?t have barely any start up costs
* Er… I said Kiwisaver. not Kiwibank. Key said “never selling Kiwibank” on the TV3 Leaders debate.

Bye bye ERA

* no comeback? You await with bated breath the ECA?

Bye bye EFA
-Hamstrung attempt to restrict any opposition to Labour anyway, excellent example of labours desperate attempt to get back into power
* Have you even read the EFA? National would have been required to list the donors to their ‘secret trusts’ as well. Why do you think they’re so keen to repeal it… could it perhaps be they don’t want to reveal just how much they’ve been bought?

Bye bye cheap doctors visits
-since when?
* I refer you to Tony Ryalls speech last year “let the market decide”

Bye bye cheap hospital visits
-since when?
* again, Tony Ryalls speech “charge for “non essential public services”

Bye bye public education
-since when? (Not to mention that the public education system is incredibly underfunded anyway)
* yet, National are more than happy to double the amount of state funds given to PRIVATE schools.

Bye bye free roads
-Roads don?t build themselves. We have had toll roads for years, other countries have them, why not us? Money doesn?t grow on trees
* ah, but National won’t stick to the ‘must be one free road’ mantra.

Bye bye Kiwirail
-I really wouldn?t be that sad to see Kiwirail to go, not only is it a drain on the government, but an unprofitable and unviable venture. It was better off in the private sphere
* Fully disagree. Rail in the private sphere was always underfunded, undercapitalised, and could be done so much better. Queensland government bought back rail, and look where that is now .Amongst the most used transport system in Australia, at no expense of roads, buses or other transport methods.

Juvie it is.