liberation

The minor parties are killing MMP

The minor parliamentary parties are killing support for MMP - that’s the impression I came away with after watching the TVNZ minor party leaders debate on Monday night. They’re killing us with boredom, consensus and sameness. Yet this should be the general election whereby the minor parties in Parliament get to shine by showing how different they are to the incredibly centrist and ‘me-too’ Labour and National parties. Surely there are millions of disaffected and unimpressed voters that are turned off the claustrophobic centrist new political consensus set up by Labour and National? But the tragedy is that all the minor parliamentary parties are infected by the same disease – they are falling over themselves to agree with one another and show how cooperative and clean they are. This isn’t useful in an election where the New Zealand public need a real choice between different political programmes rather than mere tinkering with the status quo. Part of the problem is that the current minor parties are atrophied leftovers from the 1990s.  We therefore need a shake up of the New Zealand party system and the introduction of some parties that offer real change. [Read more below]

[political finance] The finances of the Green Party

Recently disclosed donations to the Greens totaling $180,000 illustrate that the party now has some significant financial backers. In fact although the Green Party had rather humble early years, it is increasingly well-funded and has even received some surprisingly large donations – including some in the past from controversial British millionaire and conservative environmentalist Edward Goldsmith. Not only is the party becoming more respectable, trimming many of its remaining leftish policies, it’s also becoming more professionalised and generally more representative of its wealthier voters. Yet, more than anything, the party is still totally reliant on its backdoor parliamentary funding to stay afloat. [Read more below]

Solidarity forever? Low-paid workers' unions to remain apart

It seems that the mega-union amalgamation of Unite, the National Distribution Union, and the Service and Food Workers Union is now officially scraped. Although this has been the informal word for some time, it's finally news today in the NZ Herald - see NZ mega-union plan scrapped. You can also finally now read online David Fisher's Listener cover story on the State of the unions (but not the background piece on the history of Labour and the unions). In this, Unite leader Matt McCarten states that the mega-union merger broke down over issues of political affiliations: 'According to McCarten, the SFWU “wanted one choice and that was Labour – and that wasn’t going to wash with us”.' Interestingly, in a reply-letter to the Listener, the SFWU's John Ryall disputes this, saying that it 'was caused by other issues' but doesn't refer to these, but instead makes an argument for his union's continued support for Labour.

Issues in New Zealand politics in 2007

It might seem a bit odd to have a blog post about issues in NZ politics in 2007. But every year the European Journal of Political Research publishes a yearbook looking at what’s happened in the previous year in politics of 20+ western democracies. For the past decade or so, this has been written by Jack Vowles, but this year I’ve given it a go because Prof Vowles is no longer in the country. And the latest Political Data Yearbook (Volume 47, Issue 7-8, 2008) has just been published. You can read this in university libraries, and some universities will have online access to it here. But for those that can’t, below is the text that I submitted to the yearbook.  Although it pertains to last year, hopefully what I’ve written is actually a useful context for understanding the current election campaign. The extensive analysis includes discussion of all the major issues from an action-packed policy year involving the ‘anti-smacking’ law, the Electoral Finance Act, extensions and enhancements to KiwiSaver and Working for Families, the terrorism raids, scandals about Air NZ in the middle east, employment and politicisation in the public service, and the charging of Labour MP Phillip Field with corruption and bribery. There was also the rise of John Key and the attempted revitalization of Labour. I argue that although it appears contradictory, political consensus and conflict increased in tandem during 2007. [Read more below]

Green Party celebrity politics

New Zealand doesn’t have a tradition of celebrity involvement in parliamentary politics, but this is changing. Perhaps surprisingly, the party at the forefront of this ‘Americanisation of New Zealand politics’ is the Greens. Recently the party has made an effort to sell itself on the basis of celebrity endorsements, by including cultural and sports stars on its billboards, using an actor to launch its 2008 election campaign, and even having an actor running for Parliament. Such a shift, according to some political scientists, is part of ‘a despicable trend that epitomizes the banal and the mindless in public life, empowering image over substance and producing pseudo-charismatic leadership’. [Read more below]

[political finance] The inequitable allocation of TV advertising

The television election advertising for the political parties have just started screening. Once again, the inequality of the system is made obvious, with those parties that least need the exposure being given the vast bulk of public money to advertise what the public already knows, and those parties that are struggling to get their message heard are marginalised by the Electoral Commission. By choosing to reward Labour and National with a million dollars each and plenty of broadcast time, but only giving a few crumbs to the parties outside Parliament, the Electoral Commission has once again shown why they are part of the problem rather than the solution to issues of political finance and today’s uneven electoral playing field. A truly democratic and fair system would have seen the advertising monies and broadcast time divided up evenly, as it happens in many other countries. Instead our election campaign continues to operate under a cartel model of political finance designed by Labour and National. [Read more below]

The Greens and their leftwing friends

An increasing array of socialists, anarchists and anti-capitalists are turning to the Green Party as the choice in the coming general election. Guest blogger John Moore argues that these leftists are either being naive or acting to deceive. He suggests that the old New Left ‘tripod’ approach of trying to combine the issues of class, race and gender have now been extended to a ‘quadpod’ approach that includes environmentalism as also having equal status in the broader leftwing struggle. [Read more below]

Labour’s foreign professional campaign links

The campaigns of New Zealand’s political parties are increasing run by PR and consultancy companies, and this reflects their increasingly similarities and electoral-professional nature. Related to this, David Fisher asks in the latest Listener: ‘Which New Zealand political party has undeclared links to a foreign-based political strategy firm that has been accused of underhand tactics?’ The answer isn’t National and Crosby Textor, but Labour and the ‘Washington-based strategy and technology experts Blue State Digital’. [Read more below]

Andrew Geddis: Courts will decide 'where the lines fall' on current electoral rules

Another electoral law expert has confirmed that election activity is being thwarted by the uncertainty created by the Electoral Finance Act. Associate Professor Andrew Geddis has recently been appointed by the Government's Expert Panel on electoral law, and already he is declaring the EFA problematic for the current election campaign. In the latest Otago Bulletin (which is the 'fortnightly newsletter for university staff') he is quoted as stating: 'People want to get their election campaigns going, but it is difficult to know where the lines fall and there is no way to know until courts rule on issues which arise from it'. This is yet another significant public statement from a leading authority that signals that the EFA is having a chilling effect on political competition. In this statement, Geddis now seems to be agreeing with those that objected to the EFA on the basis that political outcomes will increasingly be decided by the judicial process rather than the electoral process.

State servants and democracy

There is increasing awareness that the Electoral Finance Act is anti-democratic. However, many other elements of New Zealand’s electoral law are also problematic and need to be addressed. The Electoral Act 1993 and Broadcasting Act 1989 have all sorts of very important rules that decrease electoral participation, democracy, and generally infringe civil liberties. The barriers placed on state servants standing in elections is finally getting some attention. Today’s NZ Herald opinion piece by Pat Baskett entitled Election-time rules for state servants mildly threatening provides a decent flag in the air. Baskett argues that the directions given to state servants (ie teachers, defence personnel, government department workers, police, etc) about standing in elections, joining political parties, expounding a party line, or having a political bumper sticker on your car are rather draconian. [Read more below]