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After seeing this nifty Game of Thrones-themed image, I learned that New Zealand is having an election in a couple days.

image for the lazy

As our resident Kiwi, @Elbbsas , what are your thoughts on the election (if you have any and are willing to explain)?

After seeing this nifty Game of Thrones-themed image, I learned that New Zealand is having an election in a couple days.

image for the lazy

As our resident Kiwi, @Elbbsas , what are your thoughts on the election (if you have any and are willing to explain)?

Well, first off, that is an amazing image. It's missing some parties, but eh, what can ya do.

Onto my thoughts. I included some chatter on how elections are done here, plus general stuff on the different parties. Keep in mind that I am relatively young, naive, biased, and will therefore not have a completely accurate or impartial view about any of this. Also, I think everyone should know that they should never ask my opinion on things unless they are prepared for a massive wall of text. =P Whoops? Hopefully it's interesting/readable?


I'm looking forward to the election, as it's my first time voting on something that's actually important. (Cough cough, flegs). We down here also have a multi-party system, so if you don't want to vote for the top two contenders (Labour/National) voting for a third party actually makes an impact. These single-statement summaries seem accurate to me, but I don't watch Game of Thrones with any frequency so I don't know if the characters match or not.

The Contenders

National: Grow the Money, Pay the Debts
I shall preface this by saying that I do not like National, so I am very biased and don't know that much about them. National is the current government, and are the ones responsible for the fleg debacle. They are classed as a centre-right political party and promote lowering tax as to "encourage private enterprise." They generally have the votes of people who are doing well, economically.

Labour: Time For A Change
National's traditional opponent. Centre-left, and usually go for supporting everyone. Health care, student debts, superannuation, and so on. I say "usually" because they screwed Māori out of their water rights through scaremongering. Labour also was the victim of anti-communist movements during the Cold War, which helped usher in the Robert Muldoon National Party, (also known as New Zealand Nixon). They tend to grab for student voters and the people who support having free things. That's Daenerys up there, right? Freed the slaves? It's a bit much, but I think Labour would like the comparison. Plus, Labour's last Prime Minister was Helen Clark, second female PM, so it has that connection.

New Zealand First: I Just Want What's Best, Trust Me...
This party is also known as The Racist Party. When they say New Zealand First, they mean it. Historically they are also the Kingmaker party, which is bad, and usually has the support of older people. In my family we've joked that Winston Peters's vote is the only one that counts because of it. Thankfully in this election he seems to be sliding out of Kingmaker position in the polls. So yes, accurate statement is fully accurate.

The Opportunities Party: My Only Loyalty Is To The People
Why the smeg are these guys here? They literally just started existing this election. From what I've heard they "don't want to run government, they just want to hang out" or something. While they support finally writing a consitution, as they were only founded late last year I do not trust them to uphold anything as they have no history. AKA they've made promises, but I don't know if they are the type or have the ability to keep them. Plus a family member keeps harping on about how amazing they are, and that is colouring my opinions.

Greens: Uhh, guys? ...Cl-Climate Change?
The Greens are the traditional Environment party, so picture any environmental party and that's generally the Greens. Since New Zealand is all about being clean and green (spoilers, we aren't doing so hot there) having Jon Snow is pretty amusing.

Now to quickly run through the other currently registered parties:
The Māori Party: The Māori party, who usually support National governments and promote Māori rights.
The Mana Party: The other Māori party, currently not in government.
ACT: Promotion of individual freedoms, usually buddies with Natonal, and say their platform is "government accountability/transparency."
United Future: Focused on promoting communities, and say their platform is "common sense."
The Cannibis Party: Gosh, what do YOU think they're for? =D They haven't gotten into parliament yet.
Ban 1080 Party: They aim to ban the use of sodium fluoroacetate, used in air drops to try kill off mammalian pests. Just an aside, pretty much every mammal other than bats is an introduced threat here. House cats are at the top of the food chain.
The Conservative Party: They are... conservative. I'm going to leave that there.
The Internet Party: Kim DotCom's tantrum. I honestly thought they were gone, and when certain American events were happening I was reminded of this lot.
Democrats for Social Credit: They oppose banks being in charge of the economy.
New Zealand People's Party: They seem to be the anti-New Zealand First in that they focus on immigrant rights.
The New Zealand Outdoors Party: They support protecting the environment and New Zealand's "outdoor heritage."

Wow, I hadn't even heard of some of these guys.

Ok, so, election. I may or may not be using this as an opportunity to review what I know. =D

In our system, the goal is to gain 61 seats and thus be the majority. Usually Labour/National get the meat of the seats, but have to form alliances with other parties in order to get the magic number. We vote every three years in a Mixed-Member Proportional (MMP) voting system. We have two votes -- a party vote and an electorial vote. Party is for the party, electrorial is for the local representative of the area. The general idea for the latter is to go: "Do you think the current one is doing a good job? Then vote for them. If they dun goofed, vote for the other one. Don't vote for a third party in that case, 'cause it will not count." These guys will represent the local area that voted for them (one per each region or so) and have dibs on the seats in Parliament gotten through the Party vote.

...At least, I think that's how it works. Don't quote me on any of this.

National has been in charge for the past nine or so years, with John Key being our Prime Minister. During this time, we had a rapid exchange of Labour leaders (After Helen Clark left there was Phil Goff, David Sherer, David Cunliffe, and Andrew Little) which is currently settled on Jacinda Ardern since the start of August. John Key resigned in December last year and was replaced by Bill English. This means that techincally, both large parties have a new face to show off, for once. Plus, the charismatic individual has switched from National to Labour. So that's one big thing.

Another big thing happening around then was the Green's co-leader, Metiria Turei, publically disclosing how she had commited benefit fraud in mid-July. It's been tossed around that this would have been leaked by another party so Turei leaked it first to put a positive spin on it, which was done through trying to "open a discussion" about why people felt they had to commit benefit fraud. This didn't work. Turei resigned in August.

So I suppose you could say this election has had a touch of musical chairs.

I don't believe there were any other major events, other than TOP throwing a strop because they didn't meet the critera for the "minor parties debate" run by TVNZ, and Winston Peters not attending said debate, and thus the debate was remarkably civil and avoided sounding like children pulling pigtails. If I had my computer I'd trawl through and find other major events, but on a tablet I think that's a little too much effort spent for little gain.


Like I said, I'm looking forward to the election. It's been interesting to see how people respond to the various promises and the various kerfuffles that have happened. Yet personally, I am unsure as to where my vote is going to go. My opinion has shifted several times as I've been typing, so even if I said "I shall vote for Cannibis!" I wouldn't continue to hold that opinion. Knowing me, I'll only figure it out on election day (which is on Saturday). I do think you can work out what I'm leaning towards though.

Also, I have been finding it interesting how different voteability is compared to the US. This election we have early voters booths set up in supermarkets to make it as easy as possible for people to vote, and a lot of going around and double checking enrollment. Compare that to Australia, where you are fined if you do not vote, and the US... which I don't think I need to go into details about. =/

But to sum up my feeling on this election: I dearly hope New Zealand doesn't somehow screw the heck up. I don't think we are able to, but I don't want to screw the heck up and have us join the political thriller that has been 2016-17. =P

Very interesting. I always enjoy your in-depth analyses.

So this election seems to be particularly important since there's actually the possibility for significant change if Labour/whomever they create a coalition with wins and upset the current National domination of the government. Plus all of the new party leaders.

What happens if both Labour and National get the same number? Just whomever can curry enough favor with the third parties to get over 61 quicker?

What happens if both Labour and National get the same number? Just whomever can curry enough favor with the third parties to get over 61 quicker?

yay for coalition politics

Anyway, found this on Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confidence_and_supply#New_Zealand

Edit: Looks like this is actually happening in the current session of Parliament.
Edit 2: wait no I misread, you're talking about ties specifically, oops
Edit 3: though ties shouldn't change anything about how the process works

Very interesting. I always enjoy your in-depth analyses.

So this election seems to be particularly important since there's actually the possibility for significant change if Labour/whomever they create a coalition with wins and upset the current National domination of the government. Plus all of the new party leaders.

What happens if both Labour and National get the same number? Just whomever can curry enough favor with the third parties to get over 61 quicker?

Thanks. =D

I mean, our parties are mostly run by reasonable people so there shouldn't be a terrible catastrophe. It's the musical chairs that are shaking things up and making them interesting!

Pretty much. That's why NZ First tends to be kingmaker -- they get a small number of votes, but they are the tipping point. Usually. So it becomes a race of "Can National persuade X seats to help them, or will Labour persuade X?" The more votes the big two get, the less they need to compromise with smaller parties. That's what really runs our elections: compromise. That kinda explains why all our parties have central leanings.

What happens if both Labour and National get the same number? Just whomever can curry enough favor with the third parties to get over 61 quicker?

yay for coalition politics

Anyway, found this on Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confidence_and_supply#New_Zealand

Looks like this is actually happening in the current session of Parliament.

And it usually happens, at least it's what I remember happening.

i am deeply sorry but the only thing i got out of my first look at that was FLEG

the second look though:
Sure, this Opportunities Party is brand new, but then again so was Macron's En Marche!, and they managed to capture an absolute majority in France, so I wouldn't necessarily write them off on the grounds of inexperience. In fairness, that could well be mostly because it seems increasingly like there are two professions where the 'customer' wants the 'professional' to have as little experience as possible: prostitute and politician.

i am deeply sorry but the only thing i got out of my first look at that was FLEG

Speaking of flag polandballs

A flag debate

technically it's true, seeing as how they did the tricolor first
super original at the time

i am deeply sorry but the only thing i got out of my first look at that was FLEG[/url

Fleg!

the second look though:
Sure, this Opportunities Party is brand new, but then again so was Macron's En Marche!, and they managed to capture an absolute majority in France, so I wouldn't necessarily write them off on the grounds of inexperience. In fairness, that could well be mostly because it seems increasingly like there are two professions where the 'customer' wants the 'professional' to have as little experience as possible: prostitute and politician.

That is true, but this is my first time voting. I kinda want to see how they do before tossing my hat to them. Plus, their attitude rubs me the wrong way. I can't put my finger on it.

Speaking of flag polandballs

A flag debate

Accurate. Frigging sports logos, the lot of them. Should've had the little kiwis going "meh" and it would be even more accurate!

The results in case anyone's interested. New Zealand First will indeed act as kingmaker as they form a government with either National or Labour/Greens.

Whoo. Also, there are now only five parties in government, unless the special votes dramatically change that. Whoop de doo.

On the bright side, voter turnout was quite high this year! I have no frame of reference, but sunny day + ease of early voting = what look like high numbers. =D

Well, basically everywhere has high voter turnout compared to America.

Winston Peters finally made up his mind last night. Surprisingly, he went for Labour, netting them with Green 63 seats. Now we get to see if they're going to live up to expectations... or barrel roll into a dumpster fire and out the other side!

A Rainbow Coalition between Nationalistic Populists, Social Democrats and Environmental Crusaders? I have a sneaking suspicion that this wont end well.

At least the latter two usually hang out together.