Monday, July 18, 2005



United Future's list

United Future has released its party list. The big news is the demotion of sitting MPs Bernie Ogilvy and Paul Adams in favour of newcomers Paul Check and Janet Tuck. The former represents Outdoor Recreation, a small party that has linked up with United Future. Given that they captured just over 1% last election, they should theoretically bring United two new MPs - meaning a number 6 ranking is rather low. The other obvious points are the high degree of candidate turnover (resulting in some stupendous rises), and the overwhelming white-maleness of the upper echelons of the list. Oh, they have women candidates (though not enough) - but in terms of ethnic makeup their list looks like the New Zealand of fifty years ago, rather than the New Zealand of today. This list simply doesn't reflect the reality of modern New Zealand - but then again, neither does United Future in general.

As with Labour, I've done a comparison showing candidate's relative placements with last time.

2005 RankName2002 RankDifference
1Peter Dunne10
2Judy Turner7+6
3Gordon Copeland2-1
4Marc Alexander40
5Larry Baldock6+1
6Murray Smith5-1
7Paul Check----
8Janet Tuck----
9Bernie Ogilvy3-6
10Paul Adams8-2
11Graeme Reeves----
12Russell Judd16+4
13Hannah Baral----
14Joy Lietze53+29
15Neville Wilson----
16Richard Barter----
17Sharee Adams36+19
18Steve Taylor29+11
19Ian McInnes18-1
20Ross Tizard27+7
21Fiona McKenzie----
22Graeme Barr46+24
23John Walker----
24Duane Wichman - Evans----
25Ram Parkash----
26Ralph Kennard----
27Jayati Prasad----
28Vanessa Roberts----
29Gerald Telford----
30Robin Loomes----
31Robyn Jackson----
32Tony Gordon----
33Greg Graydon----
34Martyn Seddon25-9
35Bernard McClelland----
36Beth Stone----
37Robin Westley----
38Anne Drake17-21
39Noel Hinton----
40Michael Satur----
41Diane Brown----
42Steve Dromgool----
43Andrea Deeth----
44Mark Peters----
45Pauline Moffat----
46Dennis Wells60+14
47Milton Osbourne----
48Garry Pedersen----
49John Pickering----
50Adam Archer----
51Neil Linscott----
52Barry Hayes----
53Janita Stuart----

Further candidate details can be found here.

6 comments:

From what I here, Fiona McKenzie was offered number 9 but rejected it.

Posted by Phantasmagoric Political Junkie : 7/18/2005 03:43:00 PM

The right to Shoot Furry Animals For Fun is obviously the most important concern for tens of thousands of New Zealanders. OutdoorRecreation (now part of United) got around 1% of the vote last time. Which makes me wonder: are they nuts? Or am I?

They want national parks to be hunting reserves and Marine Reserves to be recreational fishing havens. Conservation (and DoC) are an anathema to them. Such quaint notions as "preservation" should not impede "recreation". It will be interesting (the way that car crashes are interesting) to see how much damage to conservation in New Zealand they achieve if United has a balance of power.

Apparently it's perfectly reasonable for public universities to charge students fees, but not reasonable to ask that hunters pay fees for hunting on public land. I am amused that their policy is that "game animals are to be classified as a resource not pest": except, it seems, when it's inconvenient to treat them like a resource by, say, making money out of them.

As for removing DoC from the process of initiating or approving Marine Reserves... and the policy that establishment of Marine Reserves must not interfere with recreational fishing... and opposition to licencing of saltwater recreational fishing... then they claim that their policy is to promote "sustainability"!

I'm sure you enjoy Blowing Up Bunnies it all makes sense.

Posted by Icehawk : 7/18/2005 09:16:00 PM

That's a very very strange take on our Outdoor policy, I'd suggest anyone who wants a less biased viewpoint go to www.unitedfuture.org.nz

So people have been hearing the rumours, which I won't comment directly on . . . but I will say that I asked, when prompted, to be put nearer the bottom of the list. This is because although this election is important to me, I'm not too concerned about actually getting into Parliament. I'd love to represent Wellington if I was given the opportunity but basically I do have some other things I'd like to do as well, so I'm happy either way.

Stoked to be #21 though, no chance of getting in on the list (well not realistically anyway) and all the enjoyment and experience of an electorate campaign without too much worry about my future. Fantastic!

Posted by Anonymous : 7/19/2005 12:19:00 AM

Re: Ethnicity

You should probably take a look at the candidate profiles of every candidate before you comment on the list and ethnicity. It is actually very diverse, although the names all look very NZ-European.

Posted by Anonymous : 7/19/2005 12:27:00 AM

Fiona,

I certainly agree that the policies I describe are strange.

That's taken from outdoor rec's website, rather than yours. See:
http://www.outdoorrecreation.org.nz/content/policies.aspx

I also note that outdoor rec (according to their web site) considered two approaches to dealing with being well below the 5% threshold. One was increasing their scope to cover a wider variety of outdoors enthusiasts: kayakers, trampers, mountaineers, etc, but they instead decided a better strategy was to amalgamate with another party.

I don't think it fair of you to blame me for pointing out that they are the "we want to kill things in the wild" party.

Posted by Icehawk : 7/19/2005 12:42:00 PM

Fiona,

I've now read your Outdoor Policy. And having done so I also strongly encourage other readers of this blog to read United's Outdoor policy: especially if you had been considering voting United.

I'll stand by my claims regards marine reserves, regards national parks, regards considering DoC an anathema, and regards not letting preservation get in the way of recreation.

I'm aware that there are those who will like a policy that emphasises hunting and fishing over conservation, and there will be Kiwis who join you in wishing to prevent DoC from having a role in creating Marine Reserves, or having a role in advocating conservation when land developers make applications.

But I think those are very much minority positions in this country. Thank God.

Posted by Icehawk : 7/19/2005 12:50:00 PM