Yeah this is my first and probably last political post on this blog! Yeah I don’t mean the politics of A-List and Z-List bloggers I mean genuine NZ politics. Yeah NZ is having an election and from middnight to 7pm on 26 November 2011 – I am supposed not to:
to publish any statement intended or likely to influence any elector’s candidate, party or referendum vote.
So WTF you might say? Yeah me too. This is a particularly stupid piece of legislation which was last updated in 1993 which was put in place to stop candidates and parties trying to influence voters on the day of voting. All very reasonable you might say. But now they’ve extended it to social media. And it covers everyone – well all NZers anyways – like who the else would care about NZ politics after all! According to The Aucklander–
The current New Zealand Electoral Act (which prohibits any form of campaigning on polling day) means that if you type, text, televise or tweet your support for a party or person, on any public online platform (be it a blog, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or any of the other thousands of social media platforms available), before 7pm on Saturday 26th November, you could face a fine of up to $20,000.
Yeah well this is up there with the stupid law of the year award as far as I can see. In fact I think its just about as dumb as the Australian law that says as an Australian citizen I am REQUIRED to vote in every local, state and Federal election – of course I’ve never got around to registering so still waiting for the summons on that one too!
So here for the record is my views on current NZ politicians:
my local clown MP is one Peter Dunne who has fallen out with both Labour and National and had to form his own party – he takes the electrate for granted – and on hearing he’d won, by a 1000 odd votes last time said, said words to the effect of, “of course”. He’s been in parliament for 24 years – time to get a real job mate – bye-bye!
I’ll be voting for the Labour guy Charles Chauvel – who came a very close second, seems to be able to string coherent sentences together and is a gay. On the other hand, for the first time in my life, I’m not voting Labour party vote – they don’t seem to be able to figure out an economic policy that doesn’t involve more debt, and really lack any concept about how to make this country more productive, which is hardly surprising because most of their leadership are ex-teachers, or public servants who have never really worked for a day in their lives.
So yeah I am going to vote for National – sorry mum! Most of the policies make at least some sense.
So feel free to leave a comment about the NZ elections – just be aware that you are breaking NZ law if you do it before 7pm 26 November NZDT!
Oh yeah the referendum – might as well cover all illegalities in one post – we are voting on whether to keep the current system -the mainly proportional MMP system. The people behind this read like a bunch of old fogies from the 1980’s e.g. Ruth Richardson – they obvously want first-past-the-post again. But those of us who lived through the “excitement” of radical shifts of policy from one parliament to the next aren’t quite dead or all suffering from alzheimers yet – so I don’t think MMP will be going anywhere!
9 replies on “NZ Electoral Law is an Ass – I Will Comment Today!”
Seems I am having the privilege of being the first commentator! What a mess! I don’t know much about NZ politics, nothing really to be honest, but this is so wrong! I mean, what happened to freedom of speech, does that get ‘paused’ during elections? I am sure you are not against it if I tweet this post, correct? SY
Its a cock up because the law makers don’t understand social media. Its always been no politicking on election day – all the hoardings have to be done by middnight.
The issue is that they have extended the blanket ban on comments to EVERYONE not just media and politicians – which is plain wrong
Haha love it. Tell it like it is!
Wasn’t freedom of speech something our grandparents/great grandparents fought and died for? Down there it would have been the ANZACs – gave their lives so we could be free.
Except now, it seems arrogant, self centred, pocket lining politicians think they have the god-given right to shit on that sacrifice made by so many. I hope those insensitive bastards are reading this!
What a crock!
How dare politicians try and tell people what they can and cannot say!
They are only where they are because they duped, I mean smooth talked voters into voting for them into well paid, easy jobs. You’re right most of them don’t know what an honest day’s work is even like.
I don’t care what side of the political fence they sit, they’re all out for one person only and that’s themselves. Personally, I’ve never seen any sense in socialism – its just a “tax and spend” mentality while they fool people into believing they’re all equal. They line their own pockets while bankrupting the country they’re supposed to be running. Conservatives at least try and create a system where the country they’re running can get into profit… while making nice nest eggs for themselves along the way.
The real winners are of course the politicians themselves, not the people that voted for them!
There you go. My pre-election political roundup of “the way it is people” and whatever else they tell you is bullshite! 🙂
Have a good one!
So you’ll not a huge fan of politics then Terry, reading between the lines LOL ! Actually the day was so nice here – I took it off the computer and went out in the sun instead!
Actually one of the nice things about NZ is that we regularly top the world in “least corrupt country” in the world – we threw a polly in goal a few years ago for using over-stayers for cheap layer doing up his house – something that would probaby have gone uninvestigated in many countries.
Yeah I agree – I like living in a country where education and health are basically free – but the Labour side of politics wouldn’t understand business if they fell over it – they don’t get the concept that you have to make money to spend money!
Mmm nope, not a great lover of politicians.
In politics, a politician is voted into office to do a job. That of (some aspect of) running a country. Most do a really bad job of it, while making sure they take every penny they can get their hands on for themselves. But doesn’t matter how bad they are, even if they bankrupt a country, they keep their job (at least until the next election)
In industry, a person goes to work to do a job. If they do a bad job, they get fired right away!
When you compare the two like that, it just shows what an easy ride it is to be a bad politician rather than a bad employee.
Believe it or not, education and healthcare are free in most European countries. Problem is everyone still pays for it though taxation in one form or another.
I wouldn’t mind so much if politicians spend more of that money on education and it got used properly and not wasted. Too much of our tax money is just pissed away on stupid things. Doesn’t matter if its the UK, Spain or the US or Oz. The money politicians waste is appalling.
Of course, politicians are very good at disagreeing with anything that exposes them for what they really are. The best politicians are also the best liars!
So yeah, I don’t much like politics 🙁
If you are tinkering with election systems down there, check out Range Voting. Unlike any kind of ranked choice system, Range Voting works pretty well even if you have 15 political parties. If you want all parties represented proportionally, use Reweighted Range Voting. If you want to keep out the fringe groups, use Range Voting with district based elections. The latter still allows multiple parties, but they have to stay near enough to center to be the favorite somewhere. (see rangevoting.org)
i am not from a-z, but z-a
Nice to meet another kiwi online. Came here via another blog that links to you and enjoyed my visit. Studied a bit of law at uni and learned that “the law is an ass”; also studied social policy so know that the only way to know when a politician is lying is if his/her lips are moving. Basically the only difference between politicians and 8year old boys in the school playground is that one group wears short pants. As for the latest election the result was pretty much a foregone conclusion anyway. Labour was internally disintegrating leaving National looking better than they really are. I spent most of election day on the golf course which was far more rewarding and a much healthier activity.
Jon, I had to dig your comment out of Askimet! Yeah there are not too many of us around! Yeah it was one of the most boring elections I’ve ever been thru here!