Bill Dalton

Regular readers will know I am a fierce opponent of MMP and yet even a bad electoral system can produce a good result.

Winston Peters is gone.
 
The man, who used to be a lightweight entertainer – who was one of the real characters of politics but became a nasty vindictive negative influence, is gone.
 
Well done.
 
Proponents of MMP claim that the party vote means we get the party we want – that the voice of the nation is heard.  How come then, the New Zealand First Party gained 4.2% of the party vote and is not represented in Parliament and ACT gained 3.7% of the vote, has 5 MP’s and is able to box well above that weight.  Great system eh!

Stuart Nash here in Napier – rejected by his own party as a candidate but may possibly, depending on special votes, just wander in to Parliament.  Great system eh!

Much is being made by a number of very silly commentators that New Zealand has changed to a “Far Right” government and that of course is unmitigated rubbish.  Labour and National are both parties of the centre – in fact if you look at their policies they both flop from side to side of each other.  Phil Goff for instance would be right of John Key on many issues.  The difference between the parties is the team they can put up. 
For those poor silly commentators that somehow have come to the conclusion that Labour was the party of the people and that National is some far right uncaring mob, let me explain what happened on Saturday.

We stopped the cart and took a tired old horse out from between the shafts.  The tired old horse had been reliable but its vision was not that good and we decided a fresh horse with better vision was required.
The horses are pulling the same cart – we are on the same journey but we decided a different horse suited the road ahead.  We made that decision to avoid problems ahead not to create them.

So despite the extremely rough economic road ahead, we should be celebrating the fact that we have a fresh horse that will hopefully pick its way through the difficult terrain.

My great hope is that, whatever your political persuasion, you will get behind this government.
Times are tough and they are going to need all the help we can offer.

Let’s get positive.

I have been keen on politics as long as I can remember and I can not recall a more boring or pathetic election.

I mean – it’s just bizarre when the most exciting question of the week – just days from polling day – is whether Rodney Hide should be displaying an authorisation on his yellow jacket or not.

Who cares!  The electoral finance act that demands such things is a nonsense and must go.

The TV 3 debate on Monday night was also pathetic.  How people watch that John Campbell I just don’t know.  After the so called debate, the panel of experts were disappointed that neither Helen Clark nor John Key had addressed the financial crisis that is affecting the world.

Of course they didn’t.  They were trying to answer the silly bloody questions put by Campbell.  If answers on specific topics were required – why weren’t questions on these topics asked?

I watched Agenda on Sunday morning – the best programme of the week on at the silliest time.  Winston Peters was simply an embarrassment apart from the fact that what he was saying was completely untrue.

Winston Peters used to be an entertaining lightweight but he has become so arrogant (God knows what he has got to be arrogant about) that he now lets every politician or aspiring politician down.  He has become a caricature of a politician.

Frankly the American election has been far more interesting and more and more New Zealanders have turned off from our boring little soap opera and tuned in to the Presidential race.

New Zealand politics seems to be lacking characters.  David Lange – Big Norm -  dare I say it Rob Muldoon.  Guys like Norman Jones from Invercargill were always fun.  Election campaigns in those days were informative and entertaining.

Now candidates are all controlled by the party machine – they all trumpet the party line and the whole process has lost its colour.

The only colour in this year’s election is Rodney Hide’s jacket and even that is under threat.

Frankly – I guess like you – I will be pleased when it’s all over.

It will come as no surprise to you that I have been involved in some pretty fiery political debates recently – mainly with the poor demented souls who still believe that MMP is good for New Zealand.

The basis of the pro MMP argument seems to be that minority views now have a voice.  That view – of course – completely ignores the fact that these groups have always had a voice within the main stream political parties.  Both Labour and National had their environmental lobbyists – their champions of all things Maori – their right or left wing rumps.  The sort of totally ridiculous nonsense we are now hearing from the Greens about New Zealand becoming totally organic would be noted but not become policy.  These views were heard within a balanced framework.

Just look at the bizarre scenarios that are being suggested as being possible after this election.

National – only able to govern with the support of the Maori Party.  The Maori Party has made it clear that they are not prepared to simply support on supply and demand – they want to be equal partners.  So a party with 7 seats or less could be an equal governing party with a party that gains say 55 or 56 seats.

The Greens have nailed their colours to Labour’s mast.  Doesn’t that prove what a nonsense MMP is?  Surely if they were really subscribing to the MMP myth, they would have left their options open so they could have environmental influence on whichever party is in power.

So the polls suggest that it is just possible that Labour might be able to stitch a government together with support from the Greens, Jim Anderton’s so called political party, perhaps the Maori Party and God forbid, Winston Peters.  The only way that could work is if they all agreed to do nothing.

Can you imagine the likes of Sue Bradford, Winston Peters, Hone Harawera – making collective decisions in New Zealand’s best interests.

I have said so often – I will vote for the party that promises a binding referendum on MMP and for that reason National will get my vote.

Many of you will know that I have had a life long interest in politics. Even as a kid I followed central politics with a keeness a little unusual in children.

I well remember our MP, Jim Edwards, who was Arnold Nordmeyer’s son-in-law coming to our school and I vividly remember the reaction to Nordy’s Black Budget in 1958 – I was 7.

In every government since there has been one or two members who were appallingly arrogant and frankly I always detested that arrogance. I always thought that if I became a central government politician – which was a dream for many years – that I would never become arrogant. Arrogance in my opinion usually covers up inadequacy.

Well we now have a government which is chock full of arrogant individuals from the top down. Labour used to have its rotweiller Trevor Mallard to do its dirty work. When an altercation in Parliament’s Foyer proved him to be more of a toy poodle, they quickly put him back in his kennel. Have you heard from Mallard lately.

So they have wheeled out the smart tongues. The deliverers of the sharp one liners like Clark, Cullen, and Parliament’s most arrogant individual Cunliffe.

Frankly the current approach to New Zealand’s problems by Helen Clark’s government is not only arrogant, but is also inept.

Clearly they see John Key as an individual, being a real threat.

Why else would they spend so much time attacking him personally. And when Key asked Labour’s front bench when they were going to get on with the real business of government and cut out the personal attacks, the best the super arrogant Teflon Tyrant could muster, in the house, was diddums.

The Prime Minister of this country and all she could come up with in response to a reasonable question was diddums.

You and I the humble taxpayer should expect better than that.

Telling the leader of the opposition he is an empty space is equally pathetic.

Being the boring person I am, I watch a lot of channel 94, Parliament. Last night Cunliffe was so glib and arrogant I had to turn it off – my blood pressure wouldn’t stand it.

It is time that these disappointing examples of the human race were given a very clear message that we expect better.

Mind you – that might have to wait until November.

There is no doubt that democracy as we know it is under serious threat here in New Zealand.

Over recent years we have been given the choice to vote on three significant matters – all of which have a direct affect on our lives.

We could vote for members of our District Health Board so that provision of health services had some local flavour. And what’s happened? A corrupt government sacked our locally and democratically elected members and has replaced them with a commissioner. Everyone knows, that commissioner has that many other jobs – some government appointed – that he will be a figurehead in Hawkes Bay only. Despite his undoubted talents he will be a puppet whose strings are pulled in Wellington.

We could vote for up to 12 people to represent us on our local Napier City Council. Some boof-headed bureaucrats in Wellington forced a ridiculous partial ward system on us and we can now only vote for 7 or 8. This half-baked system is already causing tension in council and it simply has to go. As I have said so often – you can drive from one side of Napier to the other in 10 minutes, we are one big ward. Wards, or even worse, a partial ward system is simply devisive in such a compact electorate.

We could vote for the political party we wanted to run the country and have some idea what sort of government we could get.

Under MMP we could end up with one of the major parties getting more than 50 per cent of the party vote and yet have a government that doesn’t include that party and is controlled by the Maori Party. In fact that is what the polls are suggesting right now.

I wonder if the poor misguided sods who voted for MMP ever thought they would end up with a government which is controlled by a party whose candidates are selected on a racial basis.

I bet they did not.

Peter Dunne of the United Future Party is calling for a referendum in 2010 to determine our future voting system.

I for one will be supporting that call and continuing to show how stupid the MMP system is in such a tiny country.

I am sure – if my kids were asked to name one word that came to mind, when discussing their upbringing – it would be the word consequence

If there was one thing I drummed into their little brains it was that their actions would have consequences. If they behaved well, there would be positive and good consequences, and if they were naughty there would be negative or bad consequences. And I make no excuses for the fact that sometimes that meant a smack on the bum.

So I was delighted when John Key announced the National Party’s policy on troubled youth yesterday. Delighted, because for too long these young yobbos have been able to roam our streets, tagging and terrorising, stabbing and stealing, and society seemed powerless to stop them.

For those dregs of society, unsociable and unlawful behaviour had no consequences.

So I applaud John Key’s announcement – the policy may need a little modification but at least he has recognised the problem and decided to do something about it.

Contrast this policy with Labour’s track record in the area of youth crime. In eight years Labour has totally failed to recognise and address the growing problem.

And in response to John Key’s address, Annette King came out with a statement that epitomises Labour’s whole approach to governance.

She said that National’s policy was short sighted because it concentrated on the minority who are trouble makers and ignored the vast majority who were good citizens.

How bloody silly is that? The policy announced, was specifically developed to deal with the trouble makers – that is the whole point of the exercise – a point clear to you and I, but obviously lost on Annette King.

Labour and its army of law drafters, has inflicted so many unnecessary laws and regulations on us over the last eight years, and now it would appear they want us to ignore the huge and growing problem of delinquent youngsters whilst we concentrate on those who are productive members of society.

Talk about putting your head in the sand.

Anyway, at least it’s election year.

In my last piece before the local body elections, I said I would be back today, either as a councillor who comments on local issues or as a local who comments on council issues.I am delighted that the former rather than the latter is the case and I thank you all for your support.

The results of the Napier City Council election were extremely interesting. Those who bothered to vote sent a very clear message that they were very satisfied with Barbara Arnott as Mayor and with the council in general.

There were 10 sitting councillors seeking re-election – 9 were returned and most of those polled extremely well – a clear message of approval.

I feel privileged to join such a successful and popular team and I will certainly give my council work my best shot.

I would like to congratulate all those who had the guts to put their names forward for public office. It does take guts to have a go and it is certainly a healthy sign when there are keen candidates vying for the various positions available.

So why is the turnout so poor for local body elections. Certainly in Napier’s case, there were no particularly contentious issues. There were no councillors publicly scrapping with each other – there were no controversial projects. But I think it is more than that.

The whole process is boring. The public meetings are ridiculously boring – for the very few who turn out to them and the candidates alike. They need to be jazzed up. Put on some entertainment – break the question and answer stuff up in to short sharp bursts. What could be more boring than 26 candidates in a row standing up and basically offering the same answer to some patsy question.

I would like to see a nominated election day, when you go down to the booth to vote. The postal voting system does not inspire anyone to vote – the papers are often just seen as more junk mail. Three weeks to respond usually means voting is left until the last moment and then forgotten.

So that’s it for another 3 years – for better or for worse – you the humble ratepayers have had your say.

Now it is up to the councillors to justify the faith placed in them.