I think the economy matters and should be a much bigger issue in this election so I’ve put together almost a dozen graphs showing the difference between National and Labour’s record on 11 important economic indicators. These are issues that matter to families and businesses.

Food prices increased 18.6% in Labour’s last term. Food prices have increased only 1.3% in National’s last three years.

Labour left office with the current account deficit at 7.9% of GDP. It is now at 2.8%.

Power prices went up 22.9% in Labour’s last three years. The rate has halved to 12.1% in National’s last three years.

There was a net loss of 35,830 people to Australia in Labour’s last year of office. In the last 12 months only 7,150 net departures – and in recent months under 100 a month.

The overall cost of living increases or inflation totalled 9.5% in Labour’s last three years. A third of that now at 3.3% over the last three years of National.

Labour left office with an annual balance of trade deficit of $5.3 billion. In the last 12 months it has been a surplus of $1.3 billion

Remember Labour wanting to remove GST off fruit and vegetables. Under the last three years of Labour their prices went up 33.2%! Total increase in the last three years is a mere 1.4%.

The deficit in 2008/09 (on the fiscal settings left by Labour, and the impact of the GFC) was a massive $10.5 billion. Labour have opposed every piece of spending restraint since, but despite their opposition we are on track to a small $300 million surplus this year.

In June 2008 the median after tax income for a full time worker was $38,600 (in 2013 dollars). That has increased to $42,100 by June 2013, meaning the median FT worker has an extra $3,500 income to spend – and this during the worst recession the world has seen since the Great Depression.

Unemployment went up by 27,000 in Labour’s last year in office. It has declined by 17.000 in the last 12 months, and is projected to keep declining.

You are welcome to share any or all of these graphs. All data is directly from Stats NZ Infoshare except the income data where I have used the IRD website to calculate the tax impact and the Reserve Bank website to adjust them for inflation.

New Zealanders have a clear choice. Remaining on our present course which is surplus, falling unemployment, low prices, fewer Kiwis leaving, growing after tax incomes and affordable food – or a radical change of policy which would see many more taxes, less competition, a massively expanded state and an unstable alternate Government.

It is only through a healthy economy do we get to have the money to fund our health and education systems. And that brings me to my final graph.

That is economic growth for Labour’s last year in office, and National’s last 12 months.

Government do not directly control many of these economic measures. But they can and do impact them with their economic policies. The difference between where we are today and where we were in the mid to late 2000s is stark.

The Herald reports:

A top economist has labelled small political parties’ policies “mad” and a serious risk to New Zealand.

Addressing the Shareholders Association’s annual conference at the weekend, NZIER principal economist Shamubeel Eaqub said National and Labour – despite their rhetoric – were largely centrist in their policies.

“What scares me are the policies that we see in the fringes and the fringe parties and they scare me a great deal because a few of them, quite frankly, are quite mad,” he said. “So when you vote on the 20th of September, you’re not voting for National or Labour, you’re trying to keep out the influence of some of those crazy policies.”

Eaqub said he did not want to go into the parties or policies he was most concerned about.

“I don’t want to get into bad-mouthing particular political parties. Most of the small parties are not pursuing policies that are good for New Zealand – they are pursuing policies that are good for a small constituency.”

That comment prompted a round of applause from the 300-strong conference audience.

This is true. Major parties tend to look at the overall impact of their policies. The small parties are targetting small segments of the population, so have policies that benefit their core voters, at the expense of everyone else.

If there is a National-led Government, National is looking to be around 95% of the Government. Won’t be 100%, but will be 95% or so, which means the influence of the minor parties will be quite modest.

But on current polls, if Labour do stitch together a deal, they would be barely 50% of the Government. the minor parties would comprise the other 50%. Think about what that means.

Idiot/Savant at No Right Turn blogs:

Phil Goff was interviewed by the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security today, and in the process admitted on oath to unlawfully delaying an OIA request:

When I spoke to the Director of the SIS who phoned me suggesting he intended to release the documents immediately, he was coy about whether he knew of the identity of the Mr Slater who had requested the documents sought under the OIA. He then acknowledged that he did know who Cameron Slater was. The documents were to be released immediately until I challenged why the SIS was acting in the way he proposed. He at that point suggested he would delay the release for a number of days.
So, just to be clear, Goff didn’t like the identity of the requester, so he demanded a delay. And Tucker gave it to him. That is unlawful. The OIA is clear: a response must be made“as soon as reasonably practicable”. The information clearly could have been released immediately, so it should have been. Goff (and Tucker) has behaved unlawfully by having it delayed.

Still, Goff’s frankness is illuminating: he believes, contrary to law, that not liking the identity of the requester is a reason for delaying a response. Which shows perfectly why he is unfit to hold office and should never be allowed to control an OIA process ever again.

Goff stated he had not been briefed on the Israeli tourists, when he clearly had been. He then tried to suppress the evidence he had been briefed. And now he claims it was wrong for the Government to release information which contradicts him. And this is the man who got up in Parliament and read out extracts from a highly confidential note take by an MFAT staffer at a meeting with National MPs and US Senators. Goff is many things, but consistent is not one of them.

Stuff reports:

Israel is refusing to accept New Zealand’s ambassador because he will also have contact with Palestinian officials.

While Israel insists it is upholding a long-established protocol, diplomats in Wellington say New Zealand’s ambassador to Israel has had contact with Palestine since 2008 with no issue being raised.

Foreign Minister Murray McCully has confirmed that Israeli officials had advised in recent days that they would “not accept as ambassador a person who was also a representative to the Palestinian Authority”.

Prime Minister John Key said he had received a “10-second” briefing on the matter, but he confirmed that it was his understanding that ambassador to Israel has historically handled relations with Palestine.

“My understanding of the position is the Israeli’s are saying whoever is accredited to Israel. They won’t accept if they are also accredited to Palestine.

“Historically the case has been whoever we accredited for Israel we also accredited for Palestine.”

I’m pro-Israel in many areas, but they are over-reaching on this one. It is not for them to dictate who our Ambassador can also be accredited to. If they keep their stance up, then we should simply not accredit anyone to Israel.

Stuff reports:

An Internet-Mana plan to promote the decriminalisation of cannabis has been stopped after vehement opposition by Mana leader Hone Harawira.

An email from Harawira to Mana members last week has surfaced, showing Harawira’s anger at Internet-Mana resources being put into the cannabis campaign instead of promoting his flagship Feed the Kids policy.

A Mana source shared the email with Fairfax.

“Why am I seeing all this shit about weed and so… f***** little about feed [Feed the Kids]… just because the Internet Party is keen on weed … and got all the money to spend on all this flash advertising shit is no reason why… the same people who are also supposed to be working for Internet-Mana aren’t doing the same kind of package for Feed the Kids,” the email says.

In the email, Harawira said he would not be backing the online decriminalisation campaign, saying it should be pulled, and if it had already gone out he would be putting a statement out pointing out his frustration.

And it was only Sunday when Laila and Hone appeared together saying there was no rift at all between them.

It is very obvious there are huge tensions within the Internet Mana Party. And that is them in Opposition. Can you imagine a Government propped up by them. Labour has enough factions of their own to be unstable by themselves. Add Hone and Laila in, and kaboom!

Danyl McLauchlan has done a very detailed and accurate blog of the Aro Valley Meet the Candidates meeting. I was there, and it was great fun (as always). Go read the full blog, but some of the many funny extracts:

Community co-convenor Roland Sapsforth opened the event, welcoming us to the ‘Supermoon edition of the Aro Meet the Candidates evening’ but reassuring us that none of the candidates would come into direct contact with moonlight ‘for your own protection.’ He attempted to discuss fire safety but was drowned out by laughter from the audience, as it was obvious to everyone present that every exit was blockaded and in the event of an actual fire, death was certain.

A fire in that hall that night would have had a death toll that would have made CNN! Roland did ask the crowd not to set any fires, and if anyone did, could someone else put it out.

Next Crump introduced Internet/Mana candidate Callum Valentine. ‘He’s number eighteen on the party list, so if his party gets about thirty percent he’ll be in.’ ‘At least I’ve got a seat tonight,’ Valentine replied, standing to take the microphone and gesturing back at his chair just as Grant Robertson stole it.

That was hilarious.

The crowd greeted Valentine with jeers of ‘Lil Kim!’ Lil Kim explained that Internet/Mana stood for unions, the poor and people who liked Game of Thrones. ‘Log off!’ Yelled a heckler. Valentine’s speech was interrupted by cries of ‘Tell us about Kim.’ When he finally sat down Crump observed, ‘He didn’t say ‘Fuck John Key’ once!’

The heckling was equal opportunity!

When Foster-Bell spoke at this event last election he was totally drowned out by the crowd, and he’d crafted a clever plan to prevent this, opening his speech in fluent te reo. The crowd fell silent again, confused, torn between its hatred of National and instinctive respect for the Maori language. Foster-Bell continued to speak for about thirty-seconds, grinning, until he uttered the words ‘Ko John Key te rangatira,’ and the crowd gasped with sudden comprehension. He was using te reo to say secret right-wing National stuff!

Paul cunning stunt was brilliant. As he kept speaking in superb te reo, the National hating crowd was deathly silent as in Aro Valley heckling a candidate speaking in te reo is even ruder than not eating organic food. He had total silence until indeed the words Ko John Key te rangatira and then the yelling burst out like a tidal wave.

The rest of the speech was drowned out by heckling and hissing and boos, although the tide of hatred ebbed every minute or so admitting fragments of Foster-Bell’s speech. ‘Healthcare targets . . . roads . . . hard-working kiwis.’ Eventually he finished and sat down, having endured what must be the most hostile audience of any candidate in the country .

Indeed.

Bryan Crump took a pause to acknowledge the hard-working party activists running around the electorate knocking down all the billboards and the other hard-working activists putting them all back up again. He questioned Grant Robertson on the mysterious lack of vandalised Labour Party billboards when everyone else’s was knocked down every night. ‘It’s a conundrum,’ Robertson replied.

Grant looked rather pleased!

The next speaker was the most mysterious. Peter Franklin Robinson was an independent candidate. A soft-voiced, gaunt, hunched man in a tan anorak, Robertson announced he was standing to fix the economy of New Zealand which was ‘dictated to by earthquake fault-lines.’ ‘All government departments as of the 31st of March 1975 will be reinstated,’ he mumbled. ‘And there will be an inquiry into substandard medical apparatus. And the Local Bodies Act 31st of March 1984 will be revisited.

Several people heckled that he needed a tardis!

The final speaker, Conservative Party candidate Dr Brian Hooper was a tiny, friendly man with a child-like face beneath a shock of white hair. He was eighty years old, he announced, with twenty-seven grandchildren. ‘I dreaded coming here tonight,’ he confessed, ‘And my wife offered to come as my substitute.’

‘At least we’d have had one woman candidate,’ called a heckler from the crowd, and Hooper rounded on her, beaming with delight. ‘You’ve stolen my joke,’ he marveled. Hooper then flicked through a Conservative Party pamphlet while the crowd called out questions and insults, which Hooper parried and threw back at them. Then he tucked the pamphlet under his arm and announced, ‘I’m not going to talk about the Conservatives. I’ll tell you about myself.’ He was trying to say something about water when he was soaked with the water-pistols.

He was quite lovely, if a bit bizarre.

Why aren’t there any female candidates standing? ‘Why don’t you stand?’ Asked a heckler. ‘I’d bloody love to,’ replied the questioner. Second part to that question: ‘What will your party do about domestic violence?’ Grant Robertson urged an end to violence and was spontaneously sprayed with the water-pistol.

Heh.

Asked by a red-faced man in a suit with a Yorkshire accent: ‘On the west coast does your party support workers or slugs and snails? ‘The Greens support ALL the residents of the west coast.’

But not equally!

It was a great entertaining night that is now an iconic event. Was great to see so many people there.

I think Greenpeace has hired the former Iraqi Minister of Information.

Their release claims:

I got a huge amount of feedback to my blog post last week saying not even Len Brown deserves a Skoda. Many people I respect told me they have a Skoda and love it. I freely admit I based my post on the 1980s caricature of Social credit supporters by Bob Jones as Skoda drivers.

A Skoda dealer e-mailed me this, which I’m happy to reproduce:

Saw your blog in response to Len Brown purchasing a Holden.

 After thirteen years selling predominantly mainstream cars, an opportunity arose with the growing yet unique European brand – ŠKODA, and I embraced it…

Yes, ŠKODA is a stylish European marque, from the makers of Audi and VW. But it has a unique value proposition, offering extraordinary bang for the buck – something that a lot of people overlook.  These vehicles are, as they say, Simply Clever.

A few facts about ŠKODA you may not know: 

• ŠKODA is one of the five oldest automobile companies, producing cars since the early 1900s and now selling close to 1 million cars worldwide each year.

• ŠKODA has become the most successful brand in the history of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge (IRC). ŠKODA won its third consecutive titles in both the Drivers and Manufacturers categories in 2012, and set a new championship record by winning 27 IRC events in total.

• ŠKODA has just finished sponsoring for the 11^th time the Tour De France and the 250 cars clocked up close to 2.8 million km. In fact since 2004, the ŠKODA shuttle fleet has covered almost 28 million kilometres – without breaking down once.

• ŠKODA Yeti triumphed in a survey “Auto Express Driver Power 2013” and is again the “most satisfying car to own in the UK”. Three ŠKODA cars were in the top six: in addition to the Yeti, also the Superb and Octavia were Driver favourites. 46,000 readers of “Auto Express” evaluated 100 models in ten categories.

• ŠKODA Superb was voted ‘2012 Large Car of the Year’ by the AA and NZ Motoring Writers’ Guild.

• Recently a ŠKODA Fabia 1.9 l TDI 74 kW (101 PS), which was built in the year 2000, reached one million kilometers, and it’s still going strong!  A testimony to the reliability and endurance of this brand.

It’s no secret that ŠKODA, like many European brands, has risen to the challenge to produce vehicles at a cost very similar to their mainstream and Japanese counterparts without compromising quality.

 It is also worth mentioning that ŠKODA New Zealand has an involvement with some inspiring organisations; check them all out at http://www.skoda.co.nz/about-us

 Here is what Peter Bromhead had to say recently http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11287139

 As I’m sure you are aware by now after reading some of the responses the Skoda has come a long way and we are accustomed to still being the butt of jokes but next time you are in Auckland I would gladly arrange for you to have Skoda to drive for a few days.

I stand corrected.

For those wondering my car is a Honda Civic!

Satirist Ben Uffindell writes:

If you’ve ever lived in a household, chances are you’ve played a game called Monopoly, a faux contest where families set out to ruin the free market by establishing unfair wealth distribution and enacting strange laws that force people to sleep at the nearest hotel and pay rent for a bizarre number of houses against their will. In real life, we call this “Auckland.”

I’ve played enough games of Monopoly to know that, at some point, someone gets so far ahead that everyone gets extremely bored.

It’s then common practice for the winner to do something outrageously stupid to make the game more competitive and keep everyone else interested.

Prime Minister: if the Government is truly a household, then it’s time for you to be that guy.

Because I often wonder, John, can this really be any fun for you? Are you the kind of person who enjoys beating your children at complex games of strategy? Surely not.

Clearly gifting the campaign of their dreams to your opponents, while having allegations drip-fed against your Government, and a senior minister resigning, simply wasn’t enough.

If you’re going to make this a fair contest, you’re going to have to step your game up and do the equivalent of mortgaging all your properties to buy back the electric company.

Hell, why don’t you literally buy back the electric company? Punch a kid live on television? Film a series of ads in which you endorse David Cunliffe? Take up smoking? Not tobacco; meth.

Just something. Please. Anything.

The only problem with Ben’s plea is that MMP is different to monopoly. In monopoly the person with the most money (votes) wins. In MMP the five players who came 2nd to 6th can team up, pool their votes (money) and be declared the winner.

It is still a close race. Not between National and Labour, but between National and Labour, Greens, NZ First, Mana and Internet.

Bail Judgment

I love this bail decision by Judge Roy Wade. He has included in the court note, the comments of the defendant as he refused bail!

In the past, you needed to e-mail me to report comments that may fall outside the Kiwiblog’s Comments Policy. Now there is a plugin which means you can just click on a link to report a comment.

If 5 people report a comment, it will go into moderation to be reviewed.

Note that this feature should not be used on comments just because you disagree with them. If you continually report comments that are not abusive or trolling, then I’ll suspend your account. The up and down vote buttons are what you use for agreeing or disagreeing with a comment. This feature is for comments that are highly abusive.

UPDATE: It is working well. Only one comment has had five reports against it, moving it to moderation. The comment is or was:

Lurcher:

Just watched REAL NZs with their insurance problems in ChCh on TV3 campbell live then i thought of the crap like IGM and the other wankers on HATE KIWIBLOG saying LEECHER lefties.If i was Mr Farra i will say you are attached with the rightwing fuckers who hate real NZs Dipshit posters are still dipshit posters, but they are still your blog base you and slater, ME i dont give a fuck IM RETIRED YOU CUNTS SUPPORT ME WEEEEEEEEEEEEEE, work hard im RELAXED like key

A perfect example of what the plugin is designed for.

Stuff reports:

Opposition leader David Cunliffe says National is behind ACT’s policy that would see the abolition of the Overseas Investment Office and deregulation of foreign investment.

Oh dear we have reached that stage of the campaign, when you’re so desperate you start making things up. He’s unable to win campaigning against National’s policies, he’s now inventing things.

Anyone who is not a moron knows National is not going to abolish the OIO. I guess he is going for the moron vote.

Cunliffe today  said National wanted the same thing but they needed a “cover brand” like ACT to put their name to the policy.

Must be fun just making shit up!

Cunliffe said he was not worried about Key’s campaigning efforts in South Auckland this morning.
“I’ll be campaigning in Remuera,” Cunliffe said.

Labour’s initial polls showed Labour support was “stronger than ever”, he said.

Wow reality is draining away.

Speaking on All Black Richie McCaw’s photo with John Key and National support tweeted by Dan Carter, Cunliffe said the All Blacks could take photos with whoever he wanted but he hoped the team was not endorsing National.

Good on him for saying rugby players are allowed to endorse parties other than Labour. Very gracious.

Cunliffe was speaking at the annual Chinese  Mooncake festival in west Auckland.

He tentatively greeted the Chinese community in their own language then converted back to English.
Cunliffe stressed the idea that all New Zealanders were equal.

He said the Chinese community had added to “the colour, the flavour and the success of modern New Zealand.”

Cunliffe said he looked forward to working with the Chinese community in the future. 

Except for the ones Labour blame on driving house prices up!

John Key and Bill English have announced the parameters for tax cuts:

Allow around $1 billion a year for new spending, including between $600 million and $700 million a year more for health and education. This total new spending is consistent with the level of new spending in our last two Budgets and it’s well below the $2 billion to $3 billion spending increases under the last Labour government, which had little to show for them.

Reserve the remaining $500 million per Budget for modest tax reductions and further debt repayment, as economic and fiscal conditions permit. This portion of the allowance will be moved between Budgets and accumulated as necessary. Therefore, by the third year there will be around $1.5 billion available for tax cuts and debt repayment.

So if the economy grows as projected, then tax cuts of around $1.5 billion a year will be possible by year 3. The PM confirmed they will be targeted at low to middle income earners.

“It means that over the next four years, National will spend around $10 billion more in total, and most of that on health and education,” Mr English says.

if you are in surplus, you can increase spending and reduce taxes.

This is absolutely the right thing to do, and a normal thing to do. As the books move into surplus, a moderate Government will “spend” the surplus on a mixture of extra spending and tax reductions (plus of course maintaining a large enough surplus so that debt reduces). I expect all parties to do a mixture of extra spending and tax cuts. Sure left wing parties might do 80% spending and 20% tax cuts and right wing parties say 50% spending and 50% tax cuts. But Labour not only won’t give tax cuts, David Cunliffe has said their Capital gains Tax will see families and businesses eventually paying an extra $4 to $5 billion a year in taxes – and the Greens want to have the top tax rate of 40% – the highest we have had since Muldoon!

So what sort of tax cuts could you do in April 2017 with $1.5 billion?

• The bottom rate could drop from 10.5% to 6% on your first $14,000 of income
• The second bottom rate could drop from 17.5% to 14.5% on your income from $14,000 to $48,000.

$48,000 is close to the average wage. A 3% reduction in the second bottom rate would be almost $1,000 a year more cash in the hand for a worker.

A clear choice in this election – parties that would reduce taxes vs parties that want to tax New Zealanders more.

I’ve had a look at the average of the four main polls (those that are members of the NZ Political Polling Code) today, and compared them to the polls two weeks before the last election. The relative positions are:

• National polling 2.2% below 2011
• Labour polling 3.1% below 2011
• Greens polling 0.9% higher than 2011
• NZ First polling 2.7% higher than 2011

Were the difference between the election result and the polls two weeks out to be the same this time, as in 2011, then the results would be:

• National 45.2%
• Labour 24.4%
• Greens 12.0%
• NZ First 9.3%

I don’t expect this to be the result. Each election and campaign is different. For example the publicity around the teapot recording gave Winston a late boost last time, while this time he is polling higher earlier on.

Also this only looks at the four larger parties. Two weeks out from 2011 the Conservatives were polling only around 1% and they got 2.7%. They’re currently averaging 3.2%, and an extra 1.7% would have them on 4.9%.

Photo (c) Audrey Young, NZ Herald

Captions in the comments please.  As always funny not nasty.

There are 21 third parties registered for this election, which means they plan to spend over (off memory) $12,000 advocating who people should vote for or against.

I’ve categorised them.

Unions -12

CTU, Nurses, Unite, NZEI, EPMU, First, PSA, Maritime, SFWU, NZUSA, DWU, PPTA

Business Lobby Groups – 0

Left Lobby Groups – 4

Living Wage, Pitt Street Church, Federated Mountain Clubs, Action Station, Jill Whitmore (G-Force)

Spend more money on us groups – 2

Financial Services Council, NZ Aged Care Assn

Right Lobby Groups – 3

Family First, Campaign 4 Change, The Opinion Partnership

So in total 16 left groups, 3 right groups, and a couple of industry groups. I’ve consistently said the big third party money in politics is always on the left.

It will be interesting to see how much they each spend. The unions could well spent over $500,000.

Stuff reports:

The Maori Party would have no seat around the Cabinet table in a Labour government, Labour leader David Cunliffe says.

Cunliffe told Newstalk ZB this morning that there would be a maximum of three parties in any government he led – Labour, the Greens and NZ First.

If he means he would be unwilling to have any Maori Party Ministers, then effectively he has ruled them out. I’ve always thought there is a pretty decent chance the Maori Party would choose Labour over National if they held the balance of power because they have much more policy agreements with Labour. They have never actually been in a position to choose. Their position is that if they held the balance of power, they would hold some huis with their supporters to decide who to go with, and most supporters would probably say Labour.

But now the Maori Party would almost certainly go with National, as Labour won’t offer Ministerial roles.

The move is a desperate attempt to get Winston Peters on side. Winston has said he doesn’t want to work with Maori or Mana parties. But he has also said he doesn’t want Green Ministers. Will Cunliffe next rule out the Greens to try and lure Winston over?

This graph was provided by Colmar Brunton on Twitter in response to a tweet.

Doesn’t it show a remarkable 10 year trend.

Stuff reports:

Reviving the scrapped light rail system, introducing new electric buses and retaining a fleet of trolley buses are part of the Green Party’s $500 million vision for Wellington’s transport system.

The policy, released today, calls for money earmarked by the current National Government for upgrading and expanding the capital’s roading network to be spent on public transport, Green Party transport spokeswoman Julie Anne Genter said.

Wellingtonians could be taking light rail from the railway station out to Kilbirnie by 2020, and the airport and Miramar by 2025 under the plan, she said.

I can understand the Greens supporting light rail as a possibility before it was fully explored as an option. But the two Wellington Councils and NZTA commissioned a study of light rail and even Mayor Celia now agrees it is unaffordable and ineffective.

So why are the Greens still backing it? Because it is about a near religious belief in rail. It is nothing to do with enhancing transport.

Light rail was costed at $940 million, and providing benefits of just $30 million. The business to cost ratio is close to zero – 0.05. The Greens are proposing to waste around $3,000 per Wellington household. If you live in Wellington think about what you could do with $3,000 instead!

The Greens would also retain the city’s ageing trolley buses, at a cost of $70m for their upgrade.

That’s $70 million which won’t reduce congestion by one passenger. In fact it will make congestion worse. The new non trolley buses will make a commute five to ten minutes  faster. The Greens are against this!

I’d love us to have light rail and trolley buses if they were even marginally cost effective. But they’re not. The Greens are unable to accept reality, and are flogging dead horses. Except that if they are in Government we’ll be paying for those dead horses.

Whale Oil has blogged:

Sometime last year, a little birdy told me that Martyn Bradbury of The Daily Blog, funded by unions and the MANA Party, as well as being paid to be Kim Dotcom’s Internet party strategist, was on the electoral roll twice.

Mistakes happen.  So I decided to wait.   Because closer to the election, you get sent the nice enrollment pack by the Electoral Commission to confirm your details.

After this phase, I waited for the new rolls to come out.  And what would you know?  Martyn didn’t take the opportunity to correct the fact he is on the roll as two different people.  (Unless he has a twin brother called Martin we have never seen or hear of living with him at the exact same address?)

The original double enrolment may just be a mistake, but as every person on the roll knows, you get sent a letter from the Electoral Commission asking you to check your details. Bradbury would have received two letters (probably on the same day), yet has done nothing as he is still on there twice.

Also people may note that despite it being public info, Cameron has redacted Bradbury’s address.

I’m sure Martyn/Martin will explain it all away as a mistake, but the question remains – why didn’t he correct it when he got two letters from the Electoral Commission?

I thought readers (and candidates) would be interested in who will be List MPs based on the current average of the public polls.

First you need to look at electorate seats. While I don’t think their electorate predictions are entirely accurate, I’ll use iPredict (as it is the only public source of info) which predicts Labour will pick up four electorate seats – two off National, and two off Maori Party. So here’s how the parties which will have List MPs would look.

National – 61 MPs, 40 electorate and 21 list

1. Bill English
2. David Carter
3. Steven Joyce
4. Hekia Parata
5. Chris Finlayson
6. Tim Groser
7. Michael Woodhouse
8. Nicky Wagner
9. Paul Goldsmith
10. Melissa Lee
11. Kanwal Bakshi
12. Jian Yang
13. Alfred Ngaro
14. Brett Hudson
15. Paul Foster-Bell
16. Jo Hayes
17. Paramjit Parmar
18. Chris Bishop
19. Nuk Korako
20. Jono Naylor
21. Maurren Pugh
22. Fia Turner

Labour – 32 MPs, 27 electorate and 5 list

1. David Parker
2. Jacinda Ardern
3. Sue Moroney
4. Andrew Little
5. Maryan Street

Greens – 15 MPs

1. Metiria Turei
2. Russel Norman
3. Kevin Hague
4. Eugenie Sage
5. Gareth Hughes
6. Catherine Delahunty
7. Kennedy Graham
8. Julie Anne Genter
9. Mojo Mathers
10. Jan Logie
11. David Clendon
12. James Shaw
13. Denise Roche
14. Steffan Browning
15. Marama Davidson

NZ First – 7 MPs

1. Winston Peters
2. Tracey Martin
3. Richard Prosser
4. Fletcher Tabuteau
5. Barbara Stewart
6. Clayton Mitchell
7. Denis O’Rourke

Internet Mana – 3 MPs, 2 List MPs

1. Laila Harre
2. Annette Sykes

National has announced:

Conservation Spokesman Dr Nick Smith and Primary Industries Spokesman Nathan Guy today announced a re-elected National Government will introduce two recreational fishing parks covering areas of the inner Hauraki Gulf and the Marlborough Sounds as part of a wider reform of marine protection legislation.

“This is a first for New Zealand. We are going to create a new concept of recreational fishing parks in a new Marine Protected Areas Act. These areas will be reserved predominantly for recreational fishing and will enhance the opportunity for Kiwi families to catch fish in areas like the inner Hauraki Gulf and the Marlborough Sounds,” Dr Smith says.

This will be hugely popular with recreational fishers!

“On a typical summer’s day on the Hauraki Gulf, there can be up to 6,900 recreational vessels on the water – that equals around 21,000 fishers. National wants to preserve the inner Hauraki Gulf exclusively for these fishers, so families in Auckland and across the wider region can continue to enjoy one of the country’s best-loved pastimes,” Mr Guy says.

The proposed Hauraki Recreational Fishing Park would extend across the inner Hauraki Gulf, incorporating Statistical Area 7 in Fisheries Management Area 1 and Omaha Bay, and would exclude all commercial activity.

Many happy Aucklanders.