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October 12, 2011 4:00pm by David Farrar

Wiggs reviews party websites

Lance Wiggs reviews the party websites for the five main parties. Lots of constructive criticisms for them to consider.

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NZ Politics
Lance Wiggs

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Comments (21)

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RightNow

Hat tip to Whaleoil again?
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October 12, 2011 4:07pm
Pete George

Wiggs reviews “the five main parties” websites, one of which is on shakier ground than some left out.

It may not be the case here but there seems to be selective exclusion at times.

Wiggs says “So a decent website is pretty much the only way for me to find out about the parties – and overall I am really left in the dark.”

I’ll turn on a couple of lights here: http://mana.net.nz/ http://www.unitedfuture.org.nz/
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October 12, 2011 4:25pm
dog_eat_dog

…and has nothing to say about the masses of white space on the Labour site? K.
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October 12, 2011 4:33pm
Martin Gibson

Is Peter Dunne New Zealand’s Ron Paul?
If only common sense were as exciting as non-sense, we would be hearing less of the Greens and Mana and more of United Future, although I note that both National and Labour have latched on the word “Future” even if they have not embraced it in the same way United Future have. The greens have latched on to the UF idea of environmentalism without feminism or communism, but most thinking folks know they don’t mean it.
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October 12, 2011 4:42pm
leftyliberal

Who is Lance Wiggs, and why does he not care enough to eliminate bleeding obvious typos in his assessments?
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October 12, 2011 5:14pm
Courage Wolf

Martin Gibson (26) Says:
October 12th, 2011 at 4:42 pm

Is Peter Dunne New Zealand’s Ron Paul?
If only common sense were as exciting as non-sense, we would be hearing less of the Greens and Mana and more of United Future, although I note that both National and Labour have latched on the word “Future” even if they have not embraced it in the same way United Future have. The greens have latched on to the UF idea of environmentalism without feminism or communism, but most thinking folks know they don’t mean it.

Are you fucking kidding. Paul knows where he stands, has consistent Libertarian principles, knows his economic arguments and has a clear vision for government (or its elimination, thereof). Dunne is a fucking fence sitter who doesn’t mind which party he goes into government with (despite the clear economic policy differences between Labour and National, at least in 2005), so long as he gets a Ministerial post. Common sense my ass. One of the many politicians who treats being an MP as a 9-5 dayjob where he can collect his pay at the end of the day rather than someone with vision wanting to go into it to make a difference to the country.
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October 12, 2011 5:28pm
davidp

I have reviewed Lance Wiggs’ web site and have found it to be extremely cluttered on the right hand site. What is sitemeter and why should I care he added it on 13 January 2009? The About Lance link takes me to a badly formatted listing of his achievements and interests but there is no photo of Lance. I presume that the guy on the motorbike in the header image is Lance and he is wearing a helmet to disguise his extreme ugliness. I’m not inclined to vote for a man who is evasive about his looks, and I won’t click on his sitemeter or his Flower Power either.
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October 12, 2011 5:42pm
ross

I agree with CW. Dunne stands for nothing. How many votes did his party get at the last election? Bugger all. One of the failings of MMP, which DPF didn’t mention the other day, is that parties like Dunne’s can get bugger all votes and still make it into Parliament while parties with more support don’t get a single seat.
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October 12, 2011 5:50pm
Martin Gibson

I’ll grant you it is an imperfect comparison Mr Wolf, but surely fence-sitting is just another way of saying centrist? NZ politics are a Venn diagram with a pretty broad centre. Like Ron Paul he has been consistent in his position, but the comparison I was making was about his invisibility in the media relative to people who are far less sensible. If UF’s policies were put into practice (and many of them have been and will be) New Zealand would be a better place for it — not bankrupt, or embroiled in class or race wars.
The idea that Peter Dunne is a 9-5 politician does not bear close scrutiny either; he is one of New Zealand’s hardest-working politicians, and well-respected in parliament and in his electorate.
I’m standing for United Future on the East Coast because I think it’s time we had representation of the district in Wellington, instead of a party representative in the district. I’ve found Peter Dunne a good straight up guy to work with, and I think he adds as much to New Zealand politics as one bloke can as a minister, minor party leader and electorate MP.
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October 12, 2011 5:53pm
swan

Courage Wolf – agreed.

I believe Peter Dunne is so institutionalised he is incapable of thinking about policy outside of the context of what the median voter might think. E.g. when it came out that there was GHB in wine, and despite Dunne’s hard line anti-drug nonsense – “But there would be outrage if we banned wine”. Thanks Dunne, insightful as ever.
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October 12, 2011 5:57pm
Courage Wolf

Martin – UF has had many opportunities to put its policies into practice, and at the end of the day those policies do nothing. Families Commission? Established, more bureaucrats created – achievements zero. What else has he done? Name a single significant thing UF has achieved in its eight years in government so far other than Peter Dunne releasing his ‘naughty’ list each year.

What else does he stand for? What do you mean NZ wouldn’t be bankrupt if UF’s policies were put in place – as a ‘centrist’ he doesn’t care whether National won in 2005 and got tax cuts or Labour won and money was to be spent on interest free loans and WFF then centrist just means someone who will either spend more in government or spend less doesn’t matter so long as he gets to be Minister of Revenue. FYI to get the country out of bankruptcy you either have tax cuts or increased government spending, you can’t just say ohh I’ll go with whichever one wins the most votes as if both are viable solutions to public debt.
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October 12, 2011 6:13pm
Rodders

There is no review of http://www.nzfirst.org.nz

Never mind, that website probably only gets updated when the web designer’s grandson visits at weekends.
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October 12, 2011 6:31pm
gazzmaniac

Who the fuck is Lance Wiggs?
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October 12, 2011 6:37pm
Martin Gibson

CW: For a small party UnitedFuture punches well above its weight in terms of policy wins like the Game Council, reduced company tax rates etc.
That said, their most important contribution is probably just in moderating whichever party is in power, and speaking for middle New Zealand. Middle New Zealand people don’t tend to be radicalised enough to get into junior political parties, or politics in general, so they are often under-represented despite being large in number.
It might appear that the Families Commission did not do much, but given the passion of the last Labour government for feminist social engineering, it was a useful counter to have it there from 2002.
My interest is in finding an efficient alternative to managing provincial New Zealand (like the East Coast) on puppet strings from Wellington. There is nothing to be gained by dividing them up into rich and poor brown and white etc, and you need a centrist philosophy to build that consensus.
United Future is happy to be a home for those aspirations, with Pete George in the South, and me in the East of the North. It’s also good to have the environmentalism without the Marxism!
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October 12, 2011 6:45pm
Pete George

ross, Peter Dunne got elected in Ohariu, he has earned his right to be in parliament with a lot more votes than many list MPs. You surely don’t think he doesn’t deserve to be there. Because you may not like him doesn’t negate the democratic process.
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October 12, 2011 7:04pm
davidp

Rodders>Never mind, that website probably only gets updated when the web designer’s grandson visits at weekends.

Peters sends a telegram to each supporter whenever he has a message to deliver… +++TOO MANY ASIANS STOP NEW POLICY SEND THEM HOME STOP VOTE NZ FIRST FOR GOFF PETERS NORMAN HARAWIRA GOV STOP+++
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October 12, 2011 7:42pm
somewhatthoughtful

For those who don’t know Lance Wiggs is one of NZ’s premiere internet business people. You guys wouldn’t like that though, because he actually does real business….
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October 12, 2011 8:07pm
iMP

Peter Dunne only got into Parl. repeatedly, cos for many elections National handed it to him on a plate by not standing. De facto Nat MP., one of the weaknesses of MMP.
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October 12, 2011 11:11pm
Falafulu Fisi

Davidp said…
I presume that the guy on the motorbike in the header image is Lance and he is wearing a helmet to disguise his extreme ugliness.

Yep, that’s him on the motorbike and Nope you’re definitely Wrong about his looks. Lance is a good bloke.
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October 12, 2011 11:20pm
berend

The interesting thing for me about his review is that policies are out this election. Anyone any clue on what policies National has this election? And I’m supposed to be in the 5% informed cap.

Yes, they’re building that brighter future. That just got credit downgraded.
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October 13, 2011 7:16am
Lee01

I had to laugh, partly in sadness, partly in hysterics at their lying arrogance, at the Labour Parties web site claiming that “Labour will get overseas aid back on track to eliminate poverty.”

Anyone who thinks NZ’s contribution to overseas aid is going to eliminate poverty is either lying or stupid.
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October 13, 2011 9:02am

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