I agree with two_days_late on all points.

People only vote for Labour because they help out the avg worker more than nat does.
National has a more 'business' focus and i feel that small business run the country and any help they get helps more than we can know. I'm not so fussed with getting benefits now. I'd rather benefits later when i am richer and in the form of the tax brackets being heightened etc.

I also feel that National have a more economic focus... Good economy/Growth = Flow on effect to NZ being richer. Which is really and should be the main focus for all NZrs. NZ richer = better public services and benefits.
Labour on the other hand have a more 'people' focus, where the public get benefits now and less infrastructure for the long run = bad.

Not that I am educated and have any good/valid points.















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Edit; Timo, im with you on that. My parents make more than the income cut off and i get nothing from them nor do i get anything from the govt. So basically im poor. And soon you will be too LOL.

I also don't like the way that Labour is campaigning at the moment - on the offensive. They seem to be too caught up in finding other peoples flaws (lets try and get dirt on John from 20 years ago with taxpayer money). I'm not sure where they're going with the John or John ad (happy angry faced), they don't seem to realise that politicians can change their stance on stuff over time. They only thing I can see it doing is reassuring labour voters for why they're not voting from him, but I doubt anyone is going to change because of it. Their other last ploy seems to be telling everyone to trust them, which seems to be hoping everyone will just adopt a blind faith in Labour and just 'trust' that they'll get us through this economic downturn. Oh and also trust that she had no idea that she was travelling at 170km/h to get to a rugby match, lol.

LOL true

two_days_late Wrote:At a fundamental level I agree with the majority Nationals policies when compared with Labours.

Cutting back on Bureaucracy is a big one for me, being in Wellington I know a lot of people that work for government organizations and do very little work for jobs that only exist because its politically correct. Public sector organizations are notoriously inefficient as there is no competition. It makes no difference how hard these people work as they have no one to compete against, but they still get paid. Don't get me wrong though, I very much support the fundamental things like universal health care, but what we don't need is the government running banks.

First off, thank you for writing such a great post. You seem to be well informed, and I agree with the majority of your opinions.
Cutting back on bureaucracy is important, especially concerning positions that we don't really need. Wasteful spending happens a lot, even in local government. If National wants to do this, then I would support them, but it's difficult to know where the cutbacks are going to occur without getting too specific.

two_days_late Wrote:Toughening up on violent crime is also important, and no parole for repeat violent offenders is a great idea. You get your second chance, but after that your a threat to society. (I'm not that happy about living in a damp flat while my tax dollars pay for plasma TV's and underfloor heating in our prisons either...)

Prison is supposed to be a punishment. I say make it as boring as you can. Is the decision to free prisoners on parole currently made by some judicial authority? If this is the case, I'm not so sure it's necessary to negate parole for repeat violent offenders, as their previous offences should already be taken into consideration when a decision is made. Parole should already only be allowed for offenders who are deemed unlikely to repeat crimes. If that's not how it currently works, then I'd think serious reform is a necessity.

Concerning long-term financial stability, I'd think preventative measures are most important, but then I assume these would be difficult to implement and their effect may be questionable.

two_days_late Wrote:In times of Economic trouble I also trust a National government far more, John Key has an established financial background and has a great deal of knowledge on how economies work. Helen Clark on the other hand has little experience in this area (compared with Key, not your average NZer). After 9 years of prosperity Cullen has only just given us tax cuts, which looks like an obvious election bribe to me. After talking to Key up at TechED in Auckland earlier this year he said that due to New Zealand's size and remoteness we are an information economy, and things such as broadband are hugely important to us. I totally agree on this point, and I'm sure that many of you guys will also.

I don't much like Dr. Cullen personally, but the fact that the tax cuts are an obvious election bribe seems beside the point. If I'm getting a reasonable tax cut, I'm happy. And how is any policy proposal that New Zealanders can benefit from not an election bribe?
I don't understand what John Key means when he says we are an information economy. I always thought New Zealand's economy had a firm agricultural basis. We certainly hear about it enough when Australians mock us for these "shoip" they seem to think we posess. Though there would be a growing need for information technology in New Zealand's economy, I don't understand how it can be considered a major economic strength. Is it, perhaps, just the thing to say when you're at a TechED conference?
That said, I do agree that broadband is extremely important, especially to us. :wink:
Nationals plan to develop broadband infrastructure sounds like a good idea, and I'd like to hear about it in greater detail before I give it my full approval.

Josh Wrote:I also feel that National have a more economic focus... Good economy/Growth = Flow on effect to NZ being richer. Which is really and should be the main focus for all NZrs. NZ richer = better public services and benefits.
Labour on the other hand have a more 'people' focus, where the public get benefits now and less infrastructure for the long run = bad.

Not that I am educated and have any good/valid points.

Don't be so hard on yourself. You have a much better understanding than a lot of people I know. Politics is a complex mess combining pristine ideology with greed, corruption, childish ambition and a room full of fancy chairs that bear host to those whose intellects are, for the most part, inversely proportional to their maturity. Most people, including me, don't understand it entirely.

I dislike National after, among other things, years of witnessing the vulgar, toddleresque behaviour of their MPs in parliment. I also dislike Labour, after seeing one of their latest ads attacking Jonkey. All the minor parties tend to have policies that seem too radical to earn my favour, yet I think New Zealand as a whole is better represented by a wider range of political ideas in parliment. I don't really know what to do...

Quote:I don't understand what John Key means when he says we are an information economy. I always thought New Zealand's economy had a firm agricultural basis. We certainly hear about it enough when Australians mock us for these "shoip" they seem to think we posess. Though there would be a growing need for information technology in New Zealand's economy, I don't understand how it can be considered a major economic strength. Is it, perhaps, just the thing to say when you're at a TechED conference?

What he means by an "Information Economy" is that we're quite remote, and pretty well educated when compared with massive economies such as India and China. A good example is a company such as Xero. Their export is basically information, as opposed to a more traditional product company that has shipping costs etc. And since other countries trust New Zealand, its given them leverage to move into the UK and Aussie. It's a competitive advantage at a country level. Even more traditional service companies such as where i work are doing projects for companies based abroad, and NZ is in the perfect position to do so.

Quote:I dislike National after, among other things, years of witnessing the vulgar, toddleresque behaviour of their MPs in parliment. I also dislike Labour, after seeing one of their latest ads attacking Jonkey. All the minor parties tend to have policies that seem too radical to earn my favour, yet I think New Zealand as a whole is better represented by a wider range of political ideas in parliment. I don't really know what to do...

Labour are equally as bad, if not worse when it comes to childish behavior in parliament. Their latest campaign is testament to that, but luckily for us National supporters it's pretty much backfired on them and made them look desperate. (The worst is that latest one with the woman who's like "I don't trust you Mr Key", seriously can you get any more cliche?).

Will be interesting to see the debate tonight, as it could make up a lot of peoples minds who are still unsure. [/quote]

Haha well if 67% of people voted that Key won last time it's gonna be interesting to see the results this time! She just got destroyed.

It looks like we'll see John Key in office. I for one am voting green. Everyone seems to care more about greed than our environment. /hippy