NZ First in trouble
NZ First has three traditional areas of support. They are:
- Elderly grey power type voters
- Provincial and rural conservatives
- Maori
The Herald reports today that their support for the Electoral Finance Bill is going to lose them support from two core groups which have supported them previously – Grey Power and the Sensible Sentencing Trust.
First Grey Power:
Grey Power national vice-president Don Chapman said the organisation was apolitical but he would not be surprised if NZ First loyalists within the organisation’s 95,000 members turned away from the party too.
“I would be very, very surprised if [Mr Peters] was supported, because we are very anti that bill, and the implications that the bill would have on us as an organisation.”
Then the Sensible Sentencing Trust:
Garth McVicar – national spokesman for the Sensible Sentencing Trust … said yesterday: “Our stance will certainly be that we don’t see much point in supporting NZ First any further. I would imagine we’ve got thousands more members than [NZ First] have throughout New Zealand, so I think they’re dead in the water, realistically. I think Winston’s just totally lost the plot.”
And this was in response to Winston saying:
Mr Peters responded that [law and order spokesman] Ron Mark and he had worked closely with Mr McVicar for many years and would continue to do so.
NZ First are killed off if they do not make 5% next election, or win Tauranga back (much harder). They’ve just pissed off their two biggest supporters which will make their job all the harder.