A Smorgasbord of Election Choice

Al Blenney - 25^th September 2023

The more observant of you may have noticed that a national election is looming in NZ.

Democracy relies on a well-informed electorate and the minor parties may not have the funds to bring their policies to your attention, particularly since a number were only registered in August. So I have taken it upon myself to summarise or quote, as best I can, the salient policies of some of the minnows in this election. In case I have misrepresented some parties’ positions, which is entirely possible and for which I apologise, I’ve included their web sites so my efforts can be corrected.

First a few general points: there is much emphasis on improving the resourcing of health and education (in my opinion desperately needed) but not much in the way of suggestions as to where the money is coming from; secondly the use of the word “freedom” frequently boils down to freedom to spread disease. Finally there are many parties who recognise that increased affordable housing should be a priority, although where the numerous resources to achieve can be found tends to be skipped over.

Animal Justice Party Aotearoa New Zealand; registered 16 August 2023

Wishes to promote a kinder, more compassionate society for all animals. This includes

• Establishing a Commissioner for Animals

• Ending experimentation on animals

• Extend the live export ban

• Gradually phase out animal farming

• Ban fireworks

Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party:30 May 1996

Wishes to legalise cannabis for recreational, spiritual, medicinal and industrial purposes. Claims that

• Prohibition undermines all proper authority, costs our society hundreds of millions of dollars and criminalises a vast number of individuals

• Would redirect hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars from maintaining unworkable and discriminatory laws.

DemocracyNZ: 12 October 2022

In support of farming as the backbone of the NZ economy, proposes to

• veto any new taxes on farming

• improve environmental outcomes through locally targeted actions rather than regulation

• repeal and replace the Climate Change Response Act 2002, noting that methane is a short-lived gas.

• stop carbon credits for forestry

• Promote Law and Order. Uphold the Bill of Rights, including making it illegal for employers to mandate vaccinations

• End race-based discriminatory policies

• Therapeutic Products Bill will limit access Kiwis have to natural health remedies, and give more control to big pharma.

• Remove ideology of gender identity from education. Not be controlled by overseas influence (e.g. the United Nations, World Health Organisation, and the World Economic Forum).

Democratic Alliance: 28 August 2023

This appears to be an umbrella party, without any parties joining, so far.

Apparently many minor party leaders spoken to by the Alliance said that they wouldn’t join with Freedoms NZ because they would not work with Brian Tamaki.

However, in order to attract parties with similar views, the Alliance has listed examples of Government overreach which they seem to object to. Some of these are:

• Mandates during pandemics

• Alignment with the UN, WHO and WEF

• Pharmaceuticals versus natural therapies - how many more natural products will be regulated under the Therapeutics Bill legislation?

• School curriculua - what are they teaching our children and grandchildren? E.g. critical race theory (!) and the sexualisation of our kids at school

• Chlorination and fluoridation impacts on health

• Liberal abortion laws

• Excessive gun laws

• 15 minute cities

Freedoms New Zealand: 5 February 2023

Component parties:

NZ Outdoors & Freedom Party

Rock the Vote NZ (not a registered party)

Vision New Zealand

Over-arching policy platforms:

Law and Order

Better Families; e.g.

• No more Nanny State behaviour

• No more school indoctrination with the Transgender Agenda

• Health and Education

• Reduce GST

Gut the bloated belly of bureaucracy and reduce the spend on contractors, consultants and public servants (“drain the swamp”?)

Better freedoms; e.g.

• Free from Global Control (UN, WHO, WEF + more). Removes the UN driven campaigns to control our country and drive the Climate Change fraud, food production and Health Control

• Enshrine the NZ Bill of Rights so it has supreme law status

• Protect Freedom of Speech

• Provide compensation for those who are vaccine injured

• Provide restoration and remuneration for mandated workers

Extensive policies on farming.

Revision of gun laws.

Leighton Baker Party: 16 August 2023

The policies of this party are delivered via YouTube videos, which I can’t be bothered wading through. The headings are:

• Restore education

• Preserve free speech

• Fund mental health

• Reduce inflation

• Cut restrictive legislation

• Invest in practical environmental solutions.

New Conservatives: 6 October 2011

“Stop the woke agenda, turn back the culture of death, and restore sanity.”

• Ensure that the definition of a woman is legally restricted to those born biologically female.

• Education

• Reject co-governance

• Maintaining public peace and order through equal justice for all.

• Free speech

• Oppose abortion and euthanasia

• Responsibility to protect natural resources, now and for future generations.

• National sovereignty

• Stand against medical coercion (Covid-19)

New Nation Party: 12 April 2023

Support a written constitution. But acknowledges that in certain extreme circumstances, some liberties may need to be checked,

• Unjustified over-reaction of Labour government to Covid-19. No mandates, no vax certificates, no vax passports

• Jury is still out on the efficacy of vaccines.

Leave the UN

• Commitment to the Climate Change Accords and international demands to reduce carbon emissions will be immediately suspended and defunded.

• Re-commence oil and gas exploration and extraction

• Utilise NZ coal resources – stop importing cheap coal

• Keep refining oil – save Marsden assets

• Reduce fuel taxes

Repeal Three Waters.

Law and Order

New Zealand Loyal: 28 August 2023

Exit the WEF, the WHO and the UN

End any UN-forced climate accords based on faulty science and media-driven hysteria

Repeal the Therapeutic Products Bill

Remove fluoride from public water supplies

Void any restrictive regulations on farming and industry

Move away from the fiat money system

Investigate the Reserve Bank

Criminally investigate all who have acted against the people of NZ, including historic events

Scrap all race-based policies

Written constitution.

Eradication of propaganda and media spin doctors

Protect children from corrupt sex and gender propaganda.

Current abortion law is pure evil. Abortion up to nine months presently allowed. Anything over three months is infanticide, with exceptions.

Gun controls to be relaxed.

The policy is well worth a read. I’ll just quote some bits:

“Do you recall the seemingly knee-jerk reaction less than a week after the March 15, 2019 Christchurch incident, which has been referred to and made popular by a government and media narrative known as the Christchurch massacre. Just after that, we all witnessed a blatant and very rushed law change. … Such huge legislative change taken from start to full completion in just three months. Does that sound at all questionable to you? … But over time, as with so many other Labour-rapid actions, Kiwis have repeatedly asked me, sometimes in lowered voices or encrypted emails, “Was it random or was it planned?”

“Look up and understand the Hegelian dialectic recipe of problem- reaction-solution. This is a broad cabal tactic used across widely disparate issues. And here’s how it works. You see, they secretly create problems such as a financial crisis, a terrorist group like ISIS, even false flags like 9/11 or climate change, a hoax. Then they get their puppets in the media to engineer the necessary fear response.”

The context for this policy is apparently that the UN aspires to see all nations removing the people’s right to possess and own firearms of the type that could, if need be, be used to mount a resistance to an invading army or a rogue government or even criminals on a crime spree.

The policy on finance is well worth a read.

• Nationalise those assets which are of vital strategic importance to our national security, reindustrialise and on-shore many off-shored processes.

• Extensive policy documents on the monetary system and taxation.

• Education to be less university-oriented.

• An extensive discussion on the forces apparently influencing our health system.

NewZeal: NewZeal Party

Values the sanctity of life

• Oppose any further liberalisation of abortion and will seek to restore the recognition and the right to life for the unborn child. We will start by providing comprehensive support to pregnant women who feel overwhelmed

Stands on the side of “biological and scientific reality” when it comes to gender.

• Our policy rejects attempts to deny or erase the biological evidence of gender.

Ensures Financial Responsibility for Growth

Empowers Innovation in Education

Stands with our Farming Communities

• Supporting our farmers, advocating for fair taxation policies that do not inhibit their ability to thrive

• Work towards creating an environment that fosters growth, innovation, and resilience in the agricultural sector

• Actively engage with rural communities to develop policies that safeguard the land, water, and other natural resources

• dedicated to wise stewardship of our nation’s natural beauty and resources

Upholds the freedom to have an opinion, express a view and to hold a belief.

• Opposes proposed significant content regulations and limitations for media and online platforms.

• Prioritises freedom of choice and conscience, as essential to the health and well-being of our society. Consequently, we propose eliminating all remaining Covid-19 mandates and any public health response legislation that impinges on our individual freedoms.

NZ Outdoors & Freedom Party: 11 August 2017

Oppose fluoridation of our drinking water.

Health: envision a world class system that is based on a regenerative and holistic approach to health that combines conventional and complementary approaches. There is an extensive list of details supporting this policy including.

• advocate for at least one ward in every hospital to be run as an “Allied Health Ward”, supporting those patients requesting alternative therapies. This ensures patients who desire it are still able to use treatments that align with their physical, emotional, mental and/or spiritual needs but have access to allopathic emergency services.

• advocate and recommend the reinstatement of long term residential care homes for the safety and well-being of psychiatric patients. This will be a safe place that patients can receive a full diagnostic assessment, quality nutritional support, rest, therapy, as well as long term care for those who are no longer able to care for themselves out in society.

• Abortion available up till 12 weeks as a choice basis, after that date, there must be careful case by case consideration. i.e. if the mother is in danger or the fetus suffers a severe deformity or disorder that means they will be in life-long pain or suffering.

Education should provide a holistic, inclusive and empowering system where every person will thrive and learn how to make conscious, responsible and informed choices about their future. A few extracts:

• No wifi in schools

• Create an education system that teaches learners about their own unique community and outdoor environment

• A return to phonics based teaching and learning in reading and writing.

• Revising old time proven methods of teaching and incorporating them into the modern classroom

• A return to using and utilising natural spaces within already established schools and minimising the use of computer screens to ensure the eye and mental health of students is protected.

• A renewal and return to using text books, paper and pencils/pens in schools, from primary to high school to promote age appropriate learning outcomes and better social emotional development.

• Development of technical high schools that support students from year 11 -13 and provide more real world experience

“Read our candidate Tricha Cheel’s webpage CONQUERING COVID which offers an extensive list of advice to deal with Covid-19.“ A few are:

• Integrate natural and traditional medicine and health advice into the Public Health System so that the Ministry of Health will be able to issue reliable and practical information on measures people may employ to enhance their resistance to infection.

• Place extra GST on sugar and junk food

• Remove the GST on all organic food and remedies.

• Moratorium on 5G, masks

• Ivermectin promoted ~ unreservedly

Agriculture: supports a return to farming with nature, using principles similar to permaculture, “agro-ecology” and “regenerative agriculture”.

Cannabis Policy. support home grown cannabis for medicinal use.

5G Policy - seeks a moratorium on the allocation, auction and rollout of 5G spectrum licences until there has been a full public inquiry into the costs and benefits of 5G

There is much much more in this party’s policies.

The Opportunities Party (TOP): 6 March 2017

The TOP policies are very humanistic, and well worth a look. A few brief examples:

• Fully-funded healthcare for young people

• Fully-funded public transport for young people

• A tax-free threshold of $15,000

• Rebalance the tax system so everyone pays their fair share

• Ensuring Kiwis doing toughest are supported fairly

• Empowering farmers to be biodiversity champions

• Strengthing our Emissions Trading Scheme

• Raising incomes via a $5.8b income tax cut

• A Land Value Tax to reduce property speculation and incentivise productive land use

Vision New Zealand: 4 December 2019

From the constitution and rules:

The principles governing the direction of the Party members are that they:

• “Believe there is only one God, who is undivided and inseparable in essence, and within this one essence there are three eternal distinctions, the Father, the Son (Jesus Christ), and the Holy Spirit. They recognize the Holy Bible to be the Word of God, which is infallible and the supreme authority in all matters of faith and morals, upon which governing mandates should be founded and measured.”

Some specifics from the constitution:

• Honour the ‘Treaty of Waitangi’ (Te Tiriti o Waitangi) as a significant foundational document.

• Strive for liberty and opportunity for every New Zealander regardless of race, gender, or status, promoting social harmony and national unity.

• pursue economic excellence in an open market economy

• Regard first-class quality services pertaining to health, welfare, and education to be an inherent right of every New Zealander.

• Will uphold the rule of Law, Order and Justice, protect the sanctity of life and the freedom of every New Zealander.

Women’s Rights Party: 28 August 2023

“We are a voice for women whose interests are being ignored – we have lost our right to speak; we have been cancelled in academia and the mainstream media. We cannot rely on the Police to treat us as citizens worthy of protecting our right to assemble and to speak. We are the only political party in New Zealand that puts women first.”

Some policy extracts:

• Women’s and girls’ sex-based rights as biological females need to be protected in policy and law, and this should be given precedence over any proposed provisions based on concepts of gender.

• The rights of women and children to reject gender stereotypes without discrimination, labelling, or medical intervention to ‘fix’ them is paramount.

• Minimum wages and benefits need to be increased so that all people have living incomes. In particular, women need increased incomes to promote full participation in society and dignity as we age.

• More support for new families, including wrap-around services for vulnerable mothers and their babies.

• Single-sex spaces preserve women’s and girls’ safety and dignity.