Written By: - Date published: 3:00 pm, November 7th, 2008 - 55 comments
Categories: act, election 2008, greens, helen clark, john key, labour, maori party, national, progressives, united future -
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Have you still not decided who you’ll vote for? The final poll shows the race between a National/ACT/United Future or a Labour/Green/Progressive/Maori government is neck and neck, so your choice matters. Here is some advice and tools that may help:
When choosing who to vote for there are three things you should consider:
policy – what does the party plan to do? Is that in the best interests of you, your family, your community, and the wider world?
trust – do you believe that the party will do what it says it will?
competence – do you think the people who would govern if that party is in power are up to the job?
Change for its own sake is not a reason to vote for a party. The Government has a very important job, you want the best parties to make up that government. Vote on the issues that matter to you, not trivial things that parties often concentrate on. The biggest issues for most people are having a job, getting enough money to afford a decent standard of living, health and education. Real freedom is not light-bulbs, it is having the income security to afford the life you want for you and your family.
Since Labour came to power, unemployment has fallen to record lows, wages have risen strongly, crime is down, health and education have improved, Working for Families and tax cuts have reduced tax to nearly zero for many families, government debt has been reduced, and private saving has been encouraged with Kiwisaver. A Labour-Green government will continue to build on this record. This article describes NZ under a Labour-led government
National’s record is wages dropping and high unemployment, this time their policies are to weaken work rights. National will not be putting more money into health and education, it would increase government debt and cut Kiwisaver in half. National’s tax cuts would increase tax for many families and would only give others 1-2% more in after-tax income. This article describes NZ under a National-led government
- This test calculates how well your personal views line up with the policies of each party
- This tax cut calculator is the only one that includes money you would lose from Kiwisaver contributions under National.
- The Standard Line series of posts addresses a number of the issues that have arisen during this campaign.
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Scoopit!
What impresses me about the steady trickle of noxious righties with their flacid little ‘pre-gloats’ of a runaway National victory, like Seti above, is just how little they care.
1. They don’t care that gloating is rude.
2. They don’t care that it reveals a meaness of spirit and a weakness of character.
3. They don’t care that in the not implausible event of Labour/Greens forming a coalition govt, that they will have been proven wrong.
4. They don’t even care that all their blowhard piffle reveals that they do not even understand the basics of MMP.
This inablility to care, a lack of empathy and understanding of how your actions or words might be read by others, is the defining feature of right wing politics. They are the centre of their own little universes; devoid it would seem of any other consideration but themselves.
Elections come and go, as do governments from time to time. Even sadly, good ones. It is the price we pay for being loyal to the principle of democracy. Tommorrrow, regardless of the result, I urge those of us on the left to pay that price with dignity.
My prediction is that the result will be close. The difference between the major blocs will likely be in the order of a handful of seats. In that we should all take pause, for in it there will be no cause for overweaning joy, nor sneering put-downs from either side. This nation, along with the whole of humanity, is facing a critical juncture in the affairs of civilisation. Important choices face us all that wholly transcend the petty bickerings of partisan politics.
I do not believe that National has demonstrated any capacity to cope with the radical transformations that are about to be thrust on us all, whether we like it or not. Their policies are fundamentally rooted in the same worldview that bought us the Muldoon and Bolger govts. Even the faces have not changed, nor have they appeared to learn much, except to how to run more deceptive election campaigns. But in doing so they have explicitly made promises that will prove vexacious to honour, and for this reason a National led govt would likely tear itself apart within a single term.
And as much as Labour has long served the ordinary working people of this nation with vision, courage and steadiness…. I believe that this election will be seen as a turning point in which the Greens will have the opportunity to lay an enduring claim to being the future of the left. Moreover the Maori Party will likely face it’s first real political testing, and out of that any lingering delusions about whether the interests of the Maori people and that of the capitalist/ownership class can be politically accomodated will get sorted.
Regardless the actual outcome tommorrow (and that is far too close to call) I remain both hopeful and profoundly optimistic for this country. Latent within the Maori, Green and Labour parties are people of tremendous vision and leadership capacity. They will not remain unheeded for long.
bobo – nah coz i is voting the greens tomorrow.
i’m quite relieved the whole campaign is over really. been thinking Labour would probbly lose this one for over a year now so its nice they are still in with a chance.
there has not been a lot of talk about the consequences of national losing again this time – i can hardly imagine the awesomeness of that scenario – and the MSM would be doomed.
Lew, probably not.
feck.
I’d be interested to see how National’s factions survive government though. Key’s got them playing a funny little tune ideologically, and coalition partners will be in the mix as if the DeeJays had one too many pills. oompsta graunchda oompittty clunk.
And if the left gets in, Dunne may resign rather than face up to his burnt bridges I suppose.
not sure the morgan poll is too exciting – poll period october 20 thru nov 2nd. a little bit out of date even though it is the last to be released (nice marketing gary morgan). Safe to assume half the respondents were polled prior to october 27 a lot has happened in the last 10 days, most negative or Labour..
Herald poll period october 29 thru nov 5 – much more current. Not sure of the TV3 an TVNZ polling periods…..
dont worry folks
have faith
john keys is gonna get wendell wilkied
wiki that
hehehehehehe
To be honest I thought they were going to lose the last one after watching the first few hours of results on tv, but they pulled through and the media grinds down your expectations of Labour winning if you believe it all. But National still haven’t groomed any major coalition partner apart from the usual, would be suicide for Maori to go with them in the end.
quite an inspirational comment there RedLogix – cheers!
If National wins does that mean the Guru Kevin Roberts will resettle here ready to rebrand NZ under John Keys tourism portfolio… 100% black polar neck sweaters….
gotta go now folks
have ahappy election
SP AND LPRENT THANKS FOR THE RIDE
and make sure the tories dont get the last word
bye for now
Have a good one Randal
ReLogix: I agree with you. Over on Colin Espiners blog there is a whole team of posters who say the most nasty of anti-Clark, anti- Labour, anti all things liberal. I asked of them what effect did they think they had on the 90% of the people who just look but don’t post? (90% watch, 9% post sometimes, 1% post a lot) I suggested that the nasty stuff that they post would be unlikely to get others to join them and it certainly put me off. I would not like any of the poisonous ones standing behind me ever. The dialog amongst the right, centre, and left can be good fun and informative but there is nothing from the nasty ones.
Its Over – and you tomorrow night will be crying into your Lion Red while the Nats swill French champagne to celebrate the demise of the most corrupt government this country has known.
But we are a kid caring bunch on the right – so while you are drowning your sorrows maybe you will wantt o play this classic from Roy Orbison
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dA7zNk2YLk a wonderful tune
Hey look, Monty said something on topic, and proved a point.
The wonders never cease.
night all, Vote before you drink.
Well I actually concur with your sentiments RedLogix however if the situation was reversed and it appeared National was about to be routed I doubt very much you would extend yourself to be the voice of restraint as the rabid left twisted the knife.
Of course I could be wrong…
RL: The long game is important, and I agree with you – the outcome tomorrow will be important mostly as a stage-setting exercise for years to come. The major achievement of the Thatcher Years was to move the political centre; and the major achievement of the Clark government thus far has been in changing NZ’s political orthodoxy. It’ll take a lot of changing back.
As far as I’m concerned, there is only one genuinely bad outcome from this election – and that’s Nat/ACT/UF in government alone. If the mÄori party end up in there, they’ll be a powerful moderating influence – especially if they have more MPs than ACT. They’ll change the face of NZ politics if they’re in government, and I’ll be genuinely pleased if the Nats will work with them. I’d have said the same of the Greens.
National have campaigned on a liberal (in the American sense) platform: on 28 August John Key said “I’m not going to campaign on a moderate, pragmatic, progressive agenda for New Zealand and then sign up to a radical right-wing agenda.” If he goes back on this statement, which was made explicit on this and other occasions and was a common thread through the campaign, National will have to answer to the electorate. That is the self-correcting nature of democracy, and whichever way the cake gets sliced tomorrow and in the following days, my ultimate faith is not in a party or a group of parties – but in the wisdom of crowds. As they say, it’s hard to fool all the people all the time, and despite mounting evidence to the contrary I retain my faith in people to make good decisions.Individual people, no matter their ideology, do not have a monopoly on wisdom.
Activists I know have talked about a 1,000 day campaign if the Nats win, and I think that’s what will happen, and it’ll be important and relevant.Whoever wins this election has a hard road ahead of them – like Barack Obama has a hard road ahead of him as POTUS. Whoever wins the election will have to put up or shut up – the pretty talk which wins elections will simply not cut it. Those of you who genuinely believe John Key is an empty vessel should be rejoicing – because if he is, he’ll fail in the coming years, and be supplanted by a superior alternative in 2011. I don’t think John Key is an empty vessel, and my concern isn’t that he’ll win – it’s that he’ll win and be competent enough to make significant changes to political orthodoxy in NZ. The dude is hyper-competent, he’s driven, he’s ruthless, he’s decisive and he’s pragmatic. That makes him dangerous.
This is what the Labour campaign should have been about all along, and if they lose tomorrow, in a sense they’ll have deserved their fate.
L
Any thoughts about Pundit saying that Labour’s internal polling by UMR has Labour-Green ahead of National-Act by one point?
And what I got from the article was that it was simply Labour and Green.
Doubt its accuracy, but food for thought I guess.
Pascal’s bookie
November 7, 2008 at 7:35 pm
Swampy,
Labour’s record is making government bigger and more draconian, nanny state leading onto police state.
how do you feel about the fact that Key has said it will be a priority to start collecting DNA samples from everyone charged with an offence that could receive a jail sentence.
– Where has that statement been made? reference?
Social engineering reforms without any reasonable justification are intended to break down the traditional structures of stability in society
Nah. I’m guessing you are talking about Civil Unions and the like? If so you’ve got it barse ackwards. The biggest proponents of social engineering in that case were those who felt that the State should only recognise certain types of relationships.
— How about, Labour liberalises the sale of alcohol back in Helen Clark’s DPM days, then they have just realised it caused a few problems
This though, The USA is one of the world’s most democratic country., is funny.
In the US they have
- Written constitution that all laws have to conform with.
- 2 houses
- binding referenda in a lot of states (Propositions)
NZ only has a dumb electoral system called MMP and nothing else to protect democracy. Bill of Rights can’t be enforced, single house and no respect even for non-binding referendums.
It will be what it will be. Get some sleep. I’ll see you all on the other side when we see who gets to say “we won, you lost – eat that!”.
Swampy: Know what you’re voting for.
“Currently, DNA samples can be taken only with a suspect’s consent, or where people are suspected of an offence punishable by more than seven years imprisonment.
That requirement precludes DNA samples being taken from those suspected of a wide ranges of significant offences, such as assault with a weapon. And it requires police officers to go through the complex process of applying to the High Court for leave to take a DNA sample where consent is not obtained.
National thinks DNA samples should be taken in a wider range of circumstances.
So, we will require DNA samples to be taken from all those arrested for offences punishable by a term of imprisonment.”
http://www.johnkey.co.nz/index.php?/archives/267-SPEECH-To-the-Police-Association-National-Conference.html
L
Your tax cut calculator is seriously broken.
On my salary of 58.5k, it says that I will get 37.76 / week under Labour in 2008. What I actually get (and this is reflected in my actual payslip) is 16.53 / week.
Also cell B80 has a mistake in it, it should be / 52.178.