The South Island Party

A new minnow flushed out.  The South Island Party’s apparent focus is self-determination for the South Island.  Convenor Richard Prosser, the only identifiable member, previously stood for the Democrats and has contributed to Investigate Magazine.

Prosser’s position is that government in Wellington isn’t “capable of providing (the South Island) with adequate recognition of our values or priorities”.     

20% of South Island votes are needed to cross the 5% threshold.  Whether that many South Islanders think their values and priorities are so different from other New Zealanders that it’s worth the trouble of secession is highly questionable (not withstanding Kyle).

Republicans do debate republicanism

Having given the Republic of New Zealand Party some stick for not debating their key cause, I thought I’d write a post when they did.   But their press release from Friday has been removed from Scoop and I’ve had to resort to Google’s cache function.  

One hopes this release has been buried as a quality control measure.  Calling Kiwis forelock jerkers and snoozers isn’t the best way to win friends and influence people.  Their proposal to have a referendum on setting up a committee to draft a new constitution seems an odd process, would people vote for a sight-unseen republic?

Politics outrages politicians

Three Wellington City councillors are upset over councillors’ differing responsibilities and remuneration.  

Their complaints are amusing for a few reasons.  First, they seem to be complaining that councillors’ responsibilities delegated for political purposes.  The elected council is a political institution (and Kerry clearly doesn’t rate them).

Second, claiming the practice is corrupt is nonsense as it’s entirely a matter of record.  

Third, this is common practice for many political appointments. Ministers and Committee Chairs get more money than backbenchers without extra responsibilities.

But funniest is that none of these three mentioned this issue when they were campaigning for Mayor.

 

Broadcast Allocation Bungles

The Electoral Commission’s publication of submissions for broadcasting funding provide a rare look into basic organisational capabilities of political parties; whether they know how to use a word processor even.  

For the minnow parties, three didn’t pass this basic test.  Most embarrassingly the Kiwi and Pacific parties, with sitting MPs, have missed out on broadcasting allocations – these people have taxpayer funded staff to run their diaries and one has an ex-MP as party secretary.  The Republic Party, which misses chances to debate republicanism, forgot to submit as well.

 The process appears to confirm Kelvyn Alp has exited national politics.