West Coast-Tasman electorate 2008
Steve Richards - The McGillicuddy Serious Party
I've been living in Tasman since 1991 when Judy and I moved here to start the Jester House Café. We have two adult children both now living in Wellington. Harriette is studying politics and international relations and our son Pip is a Freegan activist.
Central to my platform this year is the 500-year plan implemented via the "Great Leap Backwards", a chance to fix everything at once. This involves setting our sights on a post-technological society, then leaping backwards (with hindsight of course) to a clan-based society.
The McGillicuddy Serious Party has always proposed to replace capitalism (the personal accumulation of capital) with "funism" (the greatest amount of fun for the greatest amount of people), and in the current economic climate this is more pressing than ever. No amount of tinkering will fix the situation; it needs bold measures and that is what I am prepared to take.
First, to fix Government forever, implement 100% tax cuts across the board. No more tax! Just think of the savings in administration and we'd get all the Government we paid for.
Second, to fix the economy forever, implement the "Declining Lunar Sand Standard" whereby the value of the dollar is pegged to the weight of the Monarch at full moon. The value then halves every day till no moon, when it starts to rise again. These regular and predictable fluctuations will add much-needed stability to the market. It also means you can choose to pay a little or a lot depending on the time of the month and whether you feel benevolent or belligerent towards the seller.
By implementing these brave policies we end the tyranny of democracy and get on with the fun.
Reg Turner - NZ Representative Party
As we face the coming election we are witnessing the loss of genuine representation for the majority of our voting population. The party political elite is now deciding how the country should be governed. Political party membership represents only .07 per cent of the population! Who represents the 99.03 of us who do not belong to a political party?
We believe we have a democracy, but do we have true democratic representation? The party-political dogma for membership and selection of candidates has destroyed genuine representation for us, the so-called "silent majority", or Middle New Zealand.
MMP was designed to break the oligarchy of the Westminster System inherited from Britain. However, the candidates selected by the party list owe their loyalty and service to the party board, and not the electorate, and we have lost representation.
The minor parties offer many and popular innovative solutions to national issues, but are denied input under the power of the Left or Right, powerful National or Labour dictate.
The adversarial attitude of party debate is as fervent as religious divisions. The term "my political enemy", often used in Parliament, is appalling.
The Government is the largest business in this country. We the taxpayers are the shareholders. How do we ever have real input to selection of our board of directors (our MPs)?
I have created the concept of a movement where one can give the party vote to a Left or Right political party to represent your philosophy, but the electorate vote goes to the local candidate, devoid of party dogma, who will represent the electorate majority, allowing us to choose the best policies from the established major and minor parties who win seats in Parliament.
Jocelyn Smith - UnitedFuture
I'm Jocelyn Smith, standing for UnitedFuture in West Coast Tasman.
I hold an MA in French and have a wide range of teaching experience. I enjoyed a variety of voluntary work while raising our five wonderful children, and have worked in the not-for-profit sector for seven years. I am involved in leadership in my local church.
What is in store for us after this election? Will Helen Clark patch together an unwieldy group of parties? Or will National get enough votes to govern alone, and ignore the plight of those who struggle?
A lot of New Zealanders are very worried about both of these scenarios. Having agreed to support a National-led government, UnitedFuture is in a strong position to provide a much-needed social conscience to National.
UnitedFuture has proved its commitment to supporting those who support others by successfully negotiating the removal of the cap on donations that qualify for tax rebates. This will release a lot of money to organisations that struggle to get sufficient funding from Government.
With the prospect of increasing unemployment, minimal wage increases and less money for public spending, New Zealand families will be hit hard. Families will need our help. We believe that income splitting is a way to provide further support for parents with dependent children. UnitedFuture recognises the value of raising children. Under our income splitting policy, parents will pay a lower rate of tax.
UnitedFuture has a wide range of policies; take a look at our website, <www.unitedfuture.org.nz> (acknowledged as the best of all the political party websites).
By casting your party vote for UnitedFuture, you will be voting strategically for a party that will represent the concerns of New Zealanders who care about their communities.
Damien O'Connor - Labour Party
Golden Bay continues to flourish due to the hard work of local people and the support of Labour-led Government investment and sustained economic growth.
Recently I opened the Golden Bay Kindergarten, to which the Government contributed $530,000. The centre offers 20 hours' free early childhood education, a Labour Government initiative with ongoing benefits for our children and our community. I also opened Heartlands, a one-stop shop to access needed Government information or assistance. It's important to improve the links between Government and community services.
Other initiatives have assisted community groups: the Heritage Trust received $17,500 for the Aorere Centre, and $59,000 funding to protect biodiversity in the Bay. The housing initiative fund committed $212,400 to Golden Bay's Abbeyfield House, and the Government committed $53,000 towards the Golden Bay Housing Trust, to begin work on low cost housing for those in need.
Bay families are benefiting from Government initiatives like Working for Families, Kiwisaver, cheaper doctor's visits and prescription charges and 20 hours' free early childhood education. All initiatives the National Party voted against and no doubt will change if they ever get the opportunity.
We've done great things for rural communities but there is still much to be done. Proactive assistance and intervention where necessary is the way to support communities rather than a reliance on market policies of competition rather than collaboration.
We need to work together with the assistance of local and central government policies, not think naively that privatising government services, introducing competition into our health and education systems, and reducing tax for the wealthy will lead New Zealand to a better future.
Chris Auchinvole - National
After three years as a Member of Parliament from this region, I work vigorously for it, and achieve results important to the interests of the West Coast Tasman people. I have the contacts, the networks and the know-how to promote our region effectively. People are confident that I am always accessible and available, not just during the election. I will continue to listen, to care, and to take action in proper perspective.
My second term in Parliament will continue to support the major economic drivers of agriculture, horticulture and tourism. I am personally delighted that the proposal of the tourism industry that the tourism portfolio be lifted to a front bench responsibility has been met by John Key saying he will personally take the role as Tourism Minister in a National-led Government. This will be very good for Golden Bay.
In addition, I will concentrate on the regional issues of improving health services, affordable housing and generally growing the economy in keeping with the very special lifestyle.
A little about me: Ten years of community involvement while living at Moana on Lake Brunner has kept me well grounded and in touch with people's ambitions, aspirations, and hopes for the future. Present voluntary activities include Volunteer Fire Brigade, trustee of Paparoa Wildlife Trust and Justice of the Peace. My wife Elspeth is a career teacher. Our two adult children are back in New Zealand after training overseas, and both are married with their own children embarking on school starts. Thirty years' experience in exporting New Zealand-made goods internationally gives me the skills to deal with complex business and legislative issues. If elected as the electorate MP I will be a voice for the region within a new Government.
Kevin Hague - Green Party
Please give your electorate vote to whoever you believe will best represent Golden Bay in Parliament, but your party vote to the Green Party. That's what determines how much influence we can have in the next Parliament. For other parties, thinking about the future means just the next three years, and they are appealing to your immediate self-interest in the form of a contest to see who can give the biggest tax cuts while making the least possible change. Only the Green Party is asking you to think about the kind of world and the kind of society that we want our children and our grandchildren to be able to live in.
The truth is that the way we live now, and particularly the relationship we have with the environment we live in, has set us on a path that spells disaster for future generations. We owe it to them to reject the "business as usual" policies offered by other political parties and instead embark on a new course towards true sustainability for New Zealand as a nation and a leadership role on the international stage.
Positive starts have already been made in Golden Bay, with initiatives like those for local food and electricity production, HANDS and "buy local", cycling and shared transport, for example. A stronger voice for Green Party policies in Government would see more support for these initiatives, much stronger protection for the environment, and other policies to properly resource citizenship rights to services like education, good health services, public transport, sustainable energy and safe, healthy, locally produced food, and enable stronger rural communities to develop their own solutions to manage the transition to a sustainable future.
Don't vote for me. Vote for the planet. Vote for your grandchildren. Party Vote Green!
Steven Wilkinson - ALCP
If elected as West Coast-Tasman's representative, my two focuses for this electorate will be to actively push for the Coast to obtain a shipping port, or at the very least allow the Coast to process its own logs. It is time to cut Lyttelton's umbilical cord to the source of the wealth.
I also promise to actively pursue the Government to legislate into law a bill that forces power suppliers to pay market rate for power bought off individual suppliers. We have the technology that allows domestic power customers to produce power for the grid with solar-voltaic panels and inverters. This generates power directly into the grid on fine days, and on cloudy days and at nighttime draw back from it, helping both the issues of finding renewable power and supplying an affordable product. It would also give elderly and low-income households the power to control their power bill; maybe even get a payment from their power supplier.
I firmly believe that the current laws on cannabis are not allowing proper drug education in schools. They allow people at risk to be harmed by their abuse of cannabis, while guaranteeing gangs' profits. We spend close to $150 million to achieve this. Prohibition bans any other uses and benefits of the plant. It's time to deal with cannabis in our society in an intelligent, mature and compassionate way.
If the Labour, National, and Green candidates received no votes they all would get into parliament on the party list. If I got in on the candidacy vote, then the West Coast-Tasman electorate would have four representatives, unheard of but not impossible.
This is the third election I have contested and believe that I am the right person for the job and could work with anyone for the betterment of the area.
