Unbiased info on who to vote for?

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#1077601 1-Jul-2014 09:26

i am now going to unbiasedly suggest voting for the conservative party. reason: you don't want national to have too many seats. is that unbiased or biased?

deadlyllama

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#1077602 1-Jul-2014 09:29

Unbiased advice is hard to come by. I suggest working out what you feel the priorities for the country should be, and then looking at the parties, their stated policies, and their history (last 30 years) to see what actually happens when they end up in power -- not just what they say when they're in opposition. If you've got friends who know a bit about this, ask them to explain their views and why they hold them. Like an annoying two-year-old who says "why?" every time they make a statement.

Don't rely on stuff from the internet -- everyone has a barrow to push.

Remember you get an electorate and a party vote. I suggest actually looking at the local candidates and thinking about which best represents your region. For instance, I live in Whanganui. Our current electorate MP doesn't live in Whanganui. So why would I trust him to represent the region's views at a national level?

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#1077605 1-Jul-2014 09:32

jnimmo: Hi Sam,

Good question and thoughts. This will be my third election.
Couple of resources I find useful:

http://cutyourhair.wordpress.com/ - Follow/subscribe to this blog, few recent posts about the election and that will pick up. He had some great stuff around the local body elections last year.
http://thedailyblog.co.nz/ - Obviously this site is left biased, but I've read a few interesting posts that have popped up in my newsfeed. Their recent post on 'Why fighting for a Labour-Green-Internet MANA majority is worth it' is interesting, whether you agree with it or not :)
Radio New Zealand - I listen to the Mediawatch podcast & morning report, and I've just seen that they have a 'Focus on politics' podcast which I must have a listen to.

Speaking of morning report, just heard a very sarcastic/bitter sounding David Cunliffe being interviewed.. not a good interview technique David!

I thoroughly endorse cutyourhair because Caleb is a friend of mine. And Radio New Zealand is great. They seem to be the only people in this country doing proper journalism these days.

networkn

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#1077606 1-Jul-2014 09:32

My policies around voting is what is best for the COUNTRY not what is necessarily best for me alone.

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#1077617 1-Jul-2014 09:49

+1 for http://www.onthefence.co.nz/

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#1077625 1-Jul-2014 10:04

I like watching those leaders debates on TV1/TV3 closer to the time. Helps me make up my mind and can be quite funny.

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DaveDog

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#1077631 1-Jul-2014 10:15

tardtasticx: Hi everyone,

As the title suggests, I'm trying to find out how to get some info on who to vote for this election. I'm 20 now and it's going to be the first time I can vote since I narrowly missed out the last time (worked there on the day and handed everyone their papers tho lol).

My dad has been constantly ranting on "Vote National, Vote National, you'll get screwed over otherwise blah blah blah". So I can't really listen to him because he's not helpful. Mum doesn't like talking about it too much either, bores her to bits.

I try googling things, but all I seem to find is scandals and things like that, might as well be spending my time watching Scandal the show.

So where do you all get your info about who to vote for? I don't want my vote to be a waste because I didn't bother researching.

Cheers in advance. :D

-Sam

What I do is look at what they have to offer and I try to think about what would be best for my children. I think then I get a more holistic view and I'm not voting to feather my own nest - I'm voting to do what's best for the nation as a whole...

Sounds naff... But hey, it's what I do...

6FIEND

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#1077695 1-Jul-2014 11:11

NZtechfreak: My suggestion is to actually read the parties policies. Do not get bogged down in the cult of personality BS that informs so much voting in this country.

When I consider how to vote, this (Policy) is only half of the story.

I consider the behaviour of the party MPs (i.e. the way that they conduct themselves) to be of equal importance. They are, afterall, elected to represent us as a nation.

For example, I may be in favour of almost all of NZ First's policies, but I might not vote for them because of Winston's behaviour around the Owen Glenn donations, or the way that Ron Mark gave the fingers to someone during a debate in the house, or even because of the way that Asenati Lole-Taylor engages with voters on Twitter.

I might be a thoroughly conservative voter, desperate for a party to stand and campaign on conservative policies - but not want to give my vote to the Conservative Party because my perception of Colin Craig is that of a slightly kooky political amateur who is more likely to damage the Conservative brand than advance it.

I could be a union member and strong working-class advocate, but be turned off voting for Labour because every time David Cunliffe announces a policy, I am no longer sure that what he tells me today will still be the case tomorrow. Or perhaps i am put-off by the way that Trevor Mallard uses parliamentary privelege to smear and defame people? Or even just because it's still the same old faces who lost the last two elections still trying to convinve the country that they repeatedly made the wrong choice rather than offering a new alternative.

Of course - no party is perfect. (either in terms of policy, or conduct) ...so inevitably, I end up voting for the team that i dislike the least ;-)

Zeon

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#1077699 1-Jul-2014 11:15

My suggestion would be to vote for a minority party.

Most people seem to vote for politicians based on their personality, not policies.

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#1077732 1-Jul-2014 11:55

You get 2 votes. One for a local candidate and one for a party vote.

My recommendation would be to focus your time on the local candidate. See what they have done for your local area to improve it for the better.

The party vote is a hard one (for me anyway) as there is so much infomation out there and lots of differing views. Each party has policies I like, but have policies I dont like. So its voting for the lesser evil in the end.

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#1077740 1-Jul-2014 12:14

Remember the weighting of your vote as equal to someone who has no idea what they are doing. So it is imperative that every vote that based on careful consideration is accounted for.
Don't really have any advice in persuading you who to vote for but please consider voting strategically - Why? Because if you don't then others will have no hesitation to do so.

Swing seats such as Christchurch Central of recent will never see a Green representative on the electorate (not in my lifetime anyway). And in 2011, there were approximately 2k votes wasted on a Green electorate vote when it could have made a difference in the region. Probably happens more often towards left wing voters based on observation.

Reference numbers (from Wikipedia)

2011 Christchurch Central
National: 12,064
Labour: 12,017
Greens: 2,321

(Remainder insignificant for discussion)

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#1077815 1-Jul-2014 13:09

tardtasticx

First step for tactical electorate voting is finding your electorate:http://www.elections.org.nz/voters/find-my-electorate

A large number of electorates boundaries have changed for 2014. The strategic voting calculation will be harder for these cases. But at least knowing your electorate, you will then be able to find out the likely candidates.

Lias

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#1077994 1-Jul-2014 15:38

Short version:

* denotes currently in power/allied with current government

Major parties:
*National = Pro business, pro rich white/asian people, very pro USA, doesn't like poor people. Vote for if you earn over $60-70,000 dollars
Labour = Anti big business, pro poor people, anti rich people, still fairly pro USA. Vote for if your on the dole

Minor Parties:
Greens = Pro environment, anti business, anti USA, vote for if you suffer from white guilt or smoke weed.
Conservative = Rich white Christian people party. Wants to outlaw gays, abortion, that sort of thing. Think US republicans
*ACT = Likely to become extinct this election, ultra pro business/USA party, sort of more moderate version of the conservatives
*United = One man band party for Peter Dunne.. pretty much irrelevant unless you live in his electorate
*Maori Party = One of the two "pro-maori" parties currently in existence, possibly about to become extinct this election
Mana Party = Mixed bag of pro-maori and leftist politics, somewhat confrontational leader
Internet Party = Derided as "A joke" or "the kim dotcom party", this party is for pretty much anyone under 30 or who lives in the digital world
InternetMana = Somewhat unlikely (some would say unholy) alliance between the Internet Party and the Mana Party, running a joint list in the election

Disclaimer: I'm a member of the internet party (this post should be in no way be construed as anything to do with them, it's my opinion, nothing else)

I'm a geek, a gamer, a dad, a Quic user, and an IT Professional. I have a full rack home lab, size 15 feet, an epic beard and Asperger's. I'm a bit of a Cypherpunk, who believes information wants to be free and the Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it. If you use my Quic signup you can also use the code R570394EKGIZ8 for free setup. Opinions are my own and not the views of my employer.

Hammerer

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#1078018 1-Jul-2014 15:57

In the context of your question, there are two faces to bias. I can be inclined against a politician or party but my assessments can be fair and even-handed which is considered to be good. But if I prejudge a person, organisation or situation without looking at what happened then that prejudice is generally considered to be bad.

I would not rule out biased sources nor would I rely upon unbiased sources alone. First, it is very hard to find any impartial assessments of politicians and political parties. Second, if we cut out prejudiced sources we often cut out the most incisive analyses. Heavily biased publishers, commentators and bloggers seem more likely to pursue an issue beyond the point that most of us would think sufficient. Third, those with extreme views often work hard to make their views simple and easy to understand. It is much harder for an unbiased assessment to be so clear-cut.

DaveDog

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#1078036 1-Jul-2014 16:05

Lias: Short version:

* denotes currently in power/allied with current government

Major parties:
*National = Pro business, pro rich white/asian people, very pro USA, doesn't like poor people. Vote for if you earn over $60-70,000 dollars
Labour = Anti big business, pro poor people, anti rich people, still fairly pro USA. Vote for if your on the dole

Minor Parties:
Greens = Pro environment, anti business, anti USA, vote for if you suffer from white guilt or smoke weed.
Conservative = Rich white Christian people party. Wants to outlaw gays, abortion, that sort of thing. Think US republicans
*ACT = Likely to become extinct this election, ultra pro business/USA party, sort of more moderate version of the conservatives
*United = One man band party for Peter Dunne.. pretty much irrelevant unless you live in his electorate
*Maori Party = One of the two "pro-maori" parties currently in existence, possibly about to become extinct this election
Mana Party = Mixed bag of pro-maori and leftist politics, somewhat confrontational leader
Internet Party = Derided as "A joke" or "the kim dotcom party", this party is for pretty much anyone under 30 or who lives in the digital world
InternetMana = Somewhat unlikely (some would say unholy) alliance between the Internet Party and the Mana Party, running a joint list in the election

Disclaimer: I'm a member of the internet party (this post should be in no way be construed as anything to do with them, it's my opinion, nothing else)

I'm not the member of or loyal to any party - and I'd disagree with most of your descriptions above of all parties...

I think it would be more prudent in this thread to allow the OP to find and make up his own mind about the parties without slanted views being portrayed...

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