One thing I have never understood is why the religious right have not been able to get its act together and achieve a proper Parliamentary presence.
I know there was United Future in 2002 under Peter Dunne. But that was a marriage of convenience, a relationship with benefits of some pretty strange bedfellows. And it subsequently crashed and burned.
At the first MMP election in 1996 there was the Christian Coalition which went close, achieving 4.33% of the party vote. Its then leader, Graham Capill, was subsequently convicted of multiple sexual offences against girls under 12 years of age and sentenced to nine years imprisonment in 2005.
In 1999 the movement split. The Christian Heritage Party stood again and gained 2.38% of the vote. But also standing that election was the Future Party (1.12%), which subsequently gave United Future its christian beliefs, and the United Party which had Peter Dunne elected to Ohariu on a sweetheart deal with National.
In 2002 United Future peaked at 6.69%, thanks to a digital worm liking Dunne’s centrist bland utterances. Dunne subsequently employed the worm in the party’s advertising, thankfully without the same result. National’s implosion that year released a number of voters who found comfort in Dunne’s centrist musings. Christian Heritage scored just 1.35% of the party vote.
In 2005 United Future crashed to 2.67% of the vote. Other Christian parties standing that year included Christian Heritage (again) this time on 0.12% and Destiny Church which fared slightly better on 0.62%. The election campaign was dominated however by another group of Christians that paradoxically do not vote. The Exclusive Brethren Seventh Day Adventist Church were discovered to have paid huge amounts towards publicity for an anti Labour Green campaign and National leader Don Brash was publicly implicated, despited denials.
2008 was a bad year for christians. The New Zealand Pacific Party, formed by outed Labour MP Taito Phillip Field, failed miserably and scored 0.37% of the party vote. Even the Bill and Ben Party did better. Christian Heritage had succumbed to infighting and Capill’s conviction publicity and did not contest the election.
In 2011 a rebranded Conservative Party achieved 2.65% of the vote. Dunne’s United Future Party sank further to achieve 0.6% of the vote. Only National’s nod and wink in Ohariu saved him.
In 2014 funded by huge amounts of money from Colin Craig the Conservative Party scored 3.97% of the vote. Craig was subsequently accused of decidedly unconservative behaviour for a married man by his former press secretary Rachael MacGregor. For some bizarre reason the legal repercussions of that are still felt today.
And in 2017, no doubt burned by ongoing publicity relating to Craig, the Conservative Party achieved only 0.2% of the party vote.
Apologies for the length of this but the basic point that I am making is that if the Christian Conservative Block ever got its act together it could establish a presence in Parliament. Thankfully it has not.
How are things looking this year? Even more chaotic.
We have three, yes three conservative christian parties standing for Parliament.
There are the New Conservatives, the inheritors of the the parties managed by Graeme Capill and by Colin Craig. But they have descended into Trumpian American Republican let’s ban all face mask territory. And they are showing signs of being decidedly racist.
From Corazon Miller at Newshub:
The [New Conservative] party – which emerged from Colin Craig’s Conservatives – wants a full repeal of the post-Christchurch terror attack gun-laws. Its rhetoric has drawn comparisons to white nationalism.
Canterbury man Lee Williams has spoken out at rallies against what he sees as the infiltration of the West by people of colour.
“A New Zealand is going down the exact same path of importing in an alien culture that refuses to integrate,” he is heard at a recent free-speech rally.
He has given his full backing to the New Conservative Party in another video on his page.
Williams is not the only strange person involved. Leader Leighton Baker thinks that the Government is wanting to turn the country into North Korea. Deputy Elliott Ikilei wants to “get rid of anything that changes Māori to something special and high up”. Botany candidate Dieuwe de Boer is concerned that declining Western populations are being replenished by migrants. The Christchurch shooter thought the same.
One of their policy platforms is to ban single women with young children from having sleepovers. Maybe they should extend this to former Conservative Party leaders, just to be sure.
Other Christian Parties include Vision New Zealand, aka Destiny Church. They actually wish to acknowledge and respect the Treaty of Waitangi. There goes the chance of any meaningful relationship between them and the New Conservatives.
There is also the One Party. Its vision is “to stir the hearts of the nation to arise and pursue righteous change in Aotearoa New Zealand”.
And they have produced this, um, campaign video.
Co leader Stephanie Harawira is part of the Harawira clan.
The party has a weird combination of policies. For instance it wants the use of drugs decriminalised and treated as a health issue. Although it also advocates the use of boot camps for recidivist drug users.
I can’t say that I have seen any media attention paid to One Party. Perhaps because it has not done something overtly outlandish. So far.
Of course National has paid a great deal of attention to the Evangelical movement and has some pretty interesting candidates in safe seats. Its next leader may be a fundamentalist christian. National will hope that these movements crash and burn because they are probably taking conservative votes and nuking them.
For all christian conservatives can I offer to them one example of a New Zealand leader who implemented the concept of applied christianity, to make sure that all kiwis were looked after and the poor had sufficient to live with dignity.
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