Posts by Paul Campbell
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I'm not sure, a strong NC party would run candidates who voted down everthing untill there was a loss of confidence and a new election. (unless they got a majority of course)
I bet if a NC party became a regular part of NZ politics the major parties would start competing NC parties to split the vote
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The whole issue is muddied by common local story, and in fact the DCC's recent claim that there's still a bylaw on the books (no one can actually find it, it's on a dusty scroll somewhere) that allows camping in the Octagon provided one is on one's way to the goldfields (which could be proved by hiking a block vaguely in the direction of Central Otago once one decamps)
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(the 'news' ticker crawling across the bottom is, um, interesting)
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David Clark is running in Dunedin North (not South - that's Claire Curran's seat)
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Talking about special investigative newflashes ......
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And if you're in a Maori electorate and want more Maori representation vote MP for the electorate seat and Mana for the party vote (except for Hone's seat of course)
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Legal Beagle: Referendum Fact Check #5:…, in reply to linger,
Not clear what you mean by “this”.crossing the floor? Yes – e.g. Marilyn Waring under Muldoon.(As National had only a 1-seat majority, this was enough of a threat to provoke Muldoon into calling the 1984 snap election.)going independent/ forming new parties? Not as far as I remember.
To be fair I think that this was an excuse - at the time Muldoon already knew that his stewardship of the economy had been a disaster and the overseas borrowing he was doing to keep it all swept under the carpet was no sustainable - Waring provided the the excuse he needed to have a snap election before the shit hit the fan (it did anyway)
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Since we're talking about electoral nonsense: local politics in Dunedin used to have parties (back in the 60s/70s/80s and I'm sure earlier) - there was Labout, Social Credit,and "Citizens" - "Citizens" in Dunedin, like in a lot of other cities, was really a thinly veiled front for National who officially "didn't do local body elections" - at one point in the late 70s someone did an investigation of the local Citizens Party, they were an organisation that had one meeting every 3 years - to be a candidate you had to join at one meeting (meetings tended to be held stealthily) and be nominated at the next .... more importantly they were not incorporated.
A local group promptly incorporated a "citizens party, claimed the name, and ran a slate for council - hilarity ensued, the incumbent mob cried "foul" - in the end both groups ran slates as "Citizens Party" and "Citizens Party Inc"
This was an age when a public servant who happened to run for parliament got 3-4 weeks off with pay - and the deposit was only 100 - what a deal! - change your name to "Rob Muldoon" and move to Tamaki for a month ....
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Islander: Contact is looking an new parts of the Clutha to dam, old plans are being dusted off, etc etc - if we sell Contact to the highest bidder who's going to protect our valleys for the next generations
(besides it's time some of those North Island rivers were dammed for a change - how about the Whanaganui, a nice high dam would go down well, and you wouldn't lose a third of the energy getting it across Cook Straight)
If you want more electricity Comalco's up for sale - buy that and shut it down it might be cheaper than building new dams, or the Clyde dam fit generators to those incomplete penstocks and only run them when the wind isn't blowing
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speaking of parties having democratic processes for choosing party lists I assume the greens voted something like "it's getting late, this has taken ages and we're only up to number 30, all those in favour of throwing those last 31 names on the party list in alphabetical order ...."