Opinion Piece
14th April 2022
Contributor: Brian Tamaki
Are you tired of political clap-trap? It’s time to break free from the two abusive partners our nation swings back and forth between, National and Labour.
Surely we should be way past voting left or right, Blue or Red. Rather, we should vote for truth over lies, transparency over deception and compassion over bullying tactics. If you are unable to see that this is how Labour has conducted themselves, well you deserve all you get. Step back and take a good hard look at what they’ve really done, an honest look.
Labour favours handouts and benefit increases and loves the population’s dependency on their purse strings and pulpit of truth.
National favours their wealthy mates, they are out of touch and genuinely don’t care about middle NZ, those hard-working Kiwis forgotten in the middle of the warring red and blue, who are suffering under the weight of high living costs, a housing crisis, and social carnage.
The good news is, there’s a lot more options than just Labour and National.
Many would say voting for minor parties is a wasted vote. I’d challenge that and say the real wasted vote has been all those who voted National or Labour in the last 20 years. This wasted vote for red or blue, has wasted away our nation.
Interesting to note too, every party that has been elected to Parliament under MMP, bar Greens, is a direct descendant of either Labour or National. New Zealanders, how stupid of us over all these years. Running from one abusive partner to another. When will we truly send Blue or Red packing down the road?
The introduction of MMP in 1993, almost 30 years ago, presented the perfect opportunity for minor parties, who have not descended from blue or red, to finally have a greater voice in our Parliament, but the voting public have failed to adjust their voting ways and capitalise on the opportunities the people could have under MMP.
This is greatly due to one major flaw of MMP…the 5% threshold for the party vote. Every vote should be valued. Votes, under the 5% party vote threshold, should not be tossed aside.
I believe the 5% party vote threshold should be removed entirely, not just lowered to 4% as many currently call for.
The major political parties would absolutely hate the removal of this threshold and would attempt to block this every step of the way, as they don’t want every New Zealander to have a voice, only the ones they approve of. Our high 5% party vote threshold is bad for true democracy. It feeds a power-hungry culture in Parliament currently giving enormous power to the incumbent MPs and parties. This threshold also protects the self-serving interests of these major parties in case they experience a backlash from their core supporters and helps to deter voters from voting elsewhere. Their great fear is that radical or extreme minor parties could gain a voice in parliament if the threshold goes. But who determines what is extreme or radical? Who determines that these votes should be ignored and these voters silenced?
Just because an opinion differs from yours, it shouldn’t be considered extreme or radical. This woke culture seems to be the master of labels and trying to dictate the narrative…what’s acceptable and what’s not. They seem to love to call everything “extreme-right” these days.
In recent times, those with strong Christian convictions have been labelled ‘extreme right’. Seriously? Around 50% of this nation identifies as Christian, but you couldn’t say 50% of our politicians represent this portion of the population. There are barely any current politicians who dare publicly profess their faith.
Even more recently, hundreds of thousands of freedom fighters have marched across this nation, and even protested at Parliament. Yet not one of the current sitting MPs bothered to come out and talk with the protestors. Instead, they just called them names and threw around more labels. Call them whatever childish names you like, but this is a sizeable representation of our country that deserves a voice. Every voice should matter, whether you agree with it or not. The freedom community should have representation in Parliament.
An upside of the 5% party vote threshold being removed would be politicians having to spend more time listening to the people at the grassroots level, not just relying on their Red or Blue juggernaut parties.
The current 5% party vote threshold needs to be removed so no vote can be considered ‘wasted’. It needs to be removed to address the growing anxiety in this country that Kiwi’s voices are not being heard.
We’d love to know what you think. Have your say through The Freedoms & Rights Coalition's newly formed 'The People’s Political Movement'. Get involved with one of our Freedom Connect Groups to give voice to your vote today. Text SUPPORT to 5477.
Also, join me this Sunday, 3pm at the Auckland Domain for the Faith, Family & Freedoms rally where I’ll publicly speak about these issues and more.
The People’s Voice Matters!
The Power belongs to the People, not Politicians!
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