Had a read of this and thought it was interesting.
A few months ago people back home were still telling me that Helen was a shoe-in, and now it looks like the Nats are leading.
Most interesting bit was about Winston. Looks like he’s up to his old tricks. The majority of the wrinklies supporting him would like to see him in coalition with Labour, but once again he refuses to sya who he’ll make a deal with (whoever gives him the most of course). I can’t believe those old codgers are going to fall for it again.
What good news! But I fear National have little choice other than to get up near the 50% on their own and hope ACT can manage a seat or 2. They’d be mad to put their hopes in NZ First like they did last time. Alas, this likely means either another 3 years of labour leadership (there’s an oxymoron) or 3 years in bed with the moody NZ First leadership (and no doubt Mr Peters as Deputy PM again).
Well, from what I saw in the past couple of weeks, it’s not so much that National is picking up support as that Labour is losing it, and since most Kiwis are still stuck in the FPP mindset, that leads to a National gain. But the interesting thing about all this is, looking at the polls while I was back, that while National has made gains, Brash is still lagging as preferred PM. How that plays out could be worth watching. And National were beginning to squander their gains in some advertising that pushed their luck. Winston is, yes, up to his usual tricks, and playing them for all he’s worth. The Greens seem to be losing ground, but I don’t know why yet. ACT seems likely to be in their death throes, and got a fairly swift kick thanks to Winnie successfully outing an pedophile (and editor of a NAMBLA-esque magazine) staying in NZ on a work visa who was Rodney Hide’s mate, and to whose defence Hide had immediately leapt. But he did put his foot in it big time last week - he said at a public meeting that he didn’t think Brash was capable of leading the country, and other various knocks on Brash’s worthiness. Brash was at that same meeting as one of the other speakers. So I’m pretty sure Winnie’s just blown any chance of coalition with National. And Labour won’t touch him with a 10-foot pole.
Personally, I want a Labour victory. Not because I like them, not because I like Auntie Helen, but because I hate Brash, and I would rather see the country only mildly fucked rather than totally fucked. And I think Labour has a shot if they grab one particular policy issue of National’s and make people aware of it - the indecision of Brash on whether or not to keep the no-nukes policy. Considering how that has essentially become part of the NZ psyche, if that gets pushed out there, the Nats are buggered.
I hope there is a National/NZ First Coalition. It’s about time NZ business got some fucken encouragement from the Govt instead of being robbed to support the career beneficiaries.
And, hold the laughter, but I think Winston would make a good PM. He would do more for the PR value of NZ than than “Helen Back” or Don Brash. All National needs is decent Leadership and they would hose in.
Winston would, I reckon, suck as PM - he’d have no-one to fight with. And that’s the only time Winston ever does anything - when he can score points by having a go at the big and powerful. If he was the big and powerful, he’d die.
Screw the 39% Tax for all the hardworking people…my gosh,my friend’s dad is a high school teacher earning an average income and even he has to pay that much.And all that hard earned money by hardworking people are used to buy KFC for stoners in jail who kept ‘clean’ during their jail cell drug search,Welfare Bribes,Hip Hop concerts,NZ Idol,‘Fruits in schools programme’,the screwed up controversial tertiary institute Te Wananga O Aotearoa,and many other crap…So my vote is with National 100%
yep I was once for a short time. Still think Labour has go it wrong tho. I firmly believe in a country that encourages businesses to thrive and grow, and thereby create more work opportunities.
People shit all over capitalists like Bill Gates, but how many jobs has he provided, directly and indirectly?
NZ has a massive pool of people who think differently and are very talented. Unfortunately most of them pour those talents overseas and we end up importing people to handle even ‘key’ postions like Teaching and Nursing.
Our health system is worse than the UK (and that is saying something) Education is very expensive (and for a country that needs more educated people, that is also sad)
The whole Wananga thing makes my blood boil…again - If it’s not another Maori TV scandal it’s something else. Violent Crime in NZ is out of control. Kids out of school face a HUGE uphill battle to get into their own home by the time they are even 30.
And Helen shut down our Air Force in a time when defence is being stepped up globally.
We have as much coast line as the US and we are allowing our waters to be raped by whoever wants to fish them, so we reduce our airforce? :loco:
We have a “Treaty Industry” now, which, funded by the govt, is training lawyers and consultants to continually battle for land claims and other issues. The outcome is irrelevant it seems, but any new claim will generate millions in funding to the industry while it is being fought.
I’m not saying National is the answer to all of this, but Labour is doing Sweet FA.
Oh and I think the Maori Party will do nothing but reduce Labour’s haul. Might be lucky to get 5% but on the whole, they may actually reduce Maori representation which is not good.
Actually I was mostly aiming that at ac_twnz there, who seemed to be reeling off the party line like a champ. I agree with a lot of your points, but personally I doubt National will do any better, and I wouldn’t trust Don Brash any further than I could throw him. If the Nats were under a different leader, I might consider voting for them.
I’m just sick to fucking death of the demonization of beneficiaries, when it’s 90% bullshit propogated by those who’ve never been short of a dollar and swallowed hook, line, and sinker by people who think having things hard is not being able to buy a second car. People like that make my fucking blood boil.
[quote=“Tetsuo”]Actually I was mostly aiming that at ac_twnz there, who seemed to be reeling off the party line like a champ. I agree with a lot of your points, but personally I doubt National will do any better, and I wouldn’t trust Don Brash any further than I could throw him. If the Nats were under a different leader, I might consider voting for them.
I’m just sick to fing death of the demonization of beneficiaries, when it’s 90% bullshit propogated by those who’ve never been short of a dollar and swallowed hook, line, and sinker by people who think having things hard is not being able to buy a second car. People like that make my fing blood boil.[/quote]
yeah we are on the same page. I think it’s the usual left or right situation.
I agree with Winston’s stance on compulsory super, tighter immigration etc and I am reasonably frustrated that he gets so much shit when generally he is right. I mean, most people think he was an idiot over the wine box affair, but at the end of the day he was 100% right, yet no one tends to remember that.
I think it will be bloody interesting if he is the kingmaker again, and in doing so manages to grease himself into the seat. Anything is possible, and it’s shaping up to be a doooooooozer this round.
At the end of the day, I view NZ politics as entertainment more than anything. If I don’t then I get upset with the royal fuck ups going on down in the (potentially) most incredible country on the planet.
On a tangent, since I’m due to update my enrollment information soon, what happens with the electorate vote for expats? Do we just get a party vote and that’s it? Do we vote in the electorate we last lived in?
I am not sure. I guess so, or you can probably register anywhere you feel home is. You’d need an address, so whatever NOK or postal address you use would probably determine it.
I have been a slacker and haven’t got that far, but I feel led to spend my vote this year.
I’m actually going to pop down to the “embassy” after the typhoon’s passed and handle it that way. Online they need your last registered residential address, and I can’t remember what one it was :s
I honestly don’t think National would do any better than Labour at this. Labour are pretty crap, but National’s worse. I’m pretty out of touch these days, but from all my reports back home, things have been going pretty well recently. I’d be happy to have Helen back.
As for taxes - how about tax cuts then? This one seemed good to me:
Voting in Taiwan is easy. You don’t need to be registered or anything, as long as you’ve touched NZ soil in the last 3 years or so. You vote in the last electorate you voted in. I’ve voted here twice before, and it was a breeze. Just bowl up to the embassy before election day, and it’ll be fine.
to ac_twnz: I’m with Tetsuo on this one. Beneficiary bashing is bullshit. There are at least two things you need to take into account here: the number of beneficiaries has been going steadily DOWN under Labour. It didn’t under National. And if you want a good understanding of what Ruthanasia (cutting benefits) does to the economy I suggest you check out this link…
As for National, I have no particular like or dislike for Helen Clark, but I loathe Don Brash. A man who has lived on a $400,000 salary for the last 15 years? Who then takes a paycut to only $100,000 to be Nat leader? Does anyone at all wonder how much empathy he has for the vast majority of Kiwis on the average salary of aroung $30,000 a year? THE RICH DO NOT LIVE IN THE SAME WORLD AS THE RESTOF US!!! Don Brash certainly doesn’t either. Add to that the fact that he gives me a vibe of being seriously seriously “whitebread”… and his comments about mainstream and non-mainstream…sheesh, give me a break. Where has he been the last 30 years?
As for Winston, the thought of him being anywhere near the reins of power is enough to give most of NZ’s Asian trading partners the screaming shits. And don’t forget, if is he really is the brillant politician some think he is, how come he got so thoroughly shafted by Bolger, Birch et al in 1996-1999? Having previously been a Nat, it isn’t like he can claim ignorance.
Act gone? That is disappointing, rather have them in Parliament being permanently stuck on 5% support, than have their politics being hidden inside the far-right wing of the National Party…
As for Peter Dunne, the only good thing I can say about him is that he is very pro-Taiwan. But United Future are best summed up by this quote I heard " UF are a personality cult in search of a personality"
Bring back the McGillicuddy Serious Party I say. At least we know they were clowns.
I was talking to my father a few weeks ago and he was telling me to start asking around for 30:1 bets on Winnie becoming PM. I asked him how much he’d been drinking which he surprisingly denied completly.
Anyways, the prospect of him or anyone from National repsenting us on the world stage scares the crap out of me. I meet Winston a few times in the nineties, the first time was at a speech he made where he struck me as being a brillent politician - able to read a crowd and say exactly what they wanted to hear. The next time I was hammered in a Wellington bar and I recoiled when I shook his hand. No kidding,
I hate to admit, but I was wrong for sticking up for National before.I take it back.I’ve been thinking alot these last few weeks and talked to some friends about the election and I realised I was brainwashed.My vote is going to Labour now…But the student loan policy with no interest was the biggest attraction…At least it keeps all my friends in New Zealand.And the refugee policy kinda put me off…I don’t think targeting refugees is fair…When I went thru Auckland Uni,about a quarter of the people in my pharmacy class were refugees from Iraq,Afganistan,Former Yugoslav countries,etc…I doubt refugees are draining resources from the country…most of them have endured hardship and infact are very hardworking.Some of the older people might not be able to find job because their english isn’t particually good therefore no one will offer them a job(or their degree is unrecognised here)but at least their children are making something out of this country eg.becoming health professionals and giving something back (well the friends I have anyway)
Here’s something that might be of interest to my fellow countrymen and anyone else who might care:
The Voice Booth Election Podcasting - interviews with Winston Peters, Helen Clark, Rodney Hide, Don Brash, Peter Dunne, and Rod Donald available for download, with more to come - next one up is Jim Anderton.
I tried to get on the electoral role a couple of weeks ago just before the cut off. Filled out the form on the website, tried a million combinations of previous addresses and nothing, so I had to fark around with setting up a new previous address. Shagged around some more with details here and there and clicked the submit button.
Then I was directed to a page where I could either choose to print the info out and post it back to NZ, or fax it. Geez, getting hard I thought. POST something? Can’t remember when I last did that, besides not much time to make it back before the cut off.
I thought I might as well spend a couple of NZD and fax it back. Took the 7 pages of forms home and faxed it to the number. Ring ring, ring ring, ring ring, no answer. Next day the same. Then the cut off date came.
So, I am not registered, damn it. I did read that if you have been away outside of NZ for 3 years or more then it is not a mandatory requirement. But the form a had all sorts of Qs about my last visit to NZ, so I have no idea what they mean by 3 years away.
