The Green Party has announced it will not stand a candidate in Wellington's Ohariu electorate in September's general election. The move is designed to give new Labour Party candidate Greg O'Connor a better chance at beating United Future's Peter Dunne in the seat.
At the 2014 election, Dunne received 13,569 electorate votes for the seat, just ahead of Labour's Virginia Andersen with 12,859. The Green Party candidate at the time, Tane Woodley, received 2,764 votes. National's Brett Hudson received 6,120 votes.
The party vote in the electorate was a completely different story, however. National was the clear favourite with 18,810 against Labour's 8,771. Dunne's United Future only received 273 party votes in Ohariu in 2014.
Prime Minister Bill English has already said his National Party will likely try to help coalition partners ACT and United Future get into Parliament on 23 September with agreements in their leaders' respective electorates. ACT's David Seymour currently holds the Epsom seat. Both ACT and United Future have been part of the National-led coalitions since 2008, along with the Maori Party.
What is your view on electorate deals? Please comment below.
Read the Green Party statement:
The Green Party has decided to not stand a candidate in the Ōhāriu electorate for the 2017 general election.
“The Green Party’s priority is changing the Government in 2017. We have been very clear with our supporters and the public about that since we signed the Memorandum of Understanding with Labour last year,” said Green Party Co-leader James Shaw.
“I think New Zealanders will understand that, in an MMP environment, it makes perfect sense for us to not stand a candidate in Ōhāriu.
“Ōhāriu has a significant impact on the makeup of Parliament. Not standing in Ōhāriu increases the chances that we will be in a position to change the Government in September – it’s as simple as that.
“If we want to ensure our economy is working for everyone, our environment is protected, and our children grow up with every opportunity possible, then we need to change the Government.
“This decision was reached after many discussions within the Green Party. The Greens will still campaign strongly for the party vote in Ōhāriu because under MMP, the party vote determines the number of MPs each party has.“Our decision in Ōhāriu has no bearing or influence on any other electorate,” said Mr Shaw.
21 Comments
Cheers, as an ageing white male who did work for a union, don't believe I am sexist, and have always said I was a communist, but living in the capitalist phase and going for it, not sure about neo liberalism, studied economics when monetarism was the fad,(M Friedman) and whose fellow peers have had there way for quite a while.
I note that we haven't made such a good job of it.
I mean no disrespect. I would like to see some diversity in representation as the world isn't improving under my peers watch.
Labour party should be pushing diversity as the conservatives have a monopoly on the status quo, which has a bias in outcomes.
Why do you want to see more diversity? Shouldn't job placements be based on merit, capability and the best skill for the job set rather than race, gender, religion, skin colour or sexual orientation? How would O'Connor be better at his job if he was a woman, bisexual or a Muslim?
I agree about how the (Western) world isn't really improving under the white male, but England, New Zealand, Australia, Canada, the U.S.A. etc. and other countries run by the white male are doing a hell of a lot better than South America, the Middle East or Africa who don't have them.
Good points, though I don't believe that politicians win on merit, i.e in the way you define it as best skill set for the job. They are voted in based on party, popularity, and most are untested in an employment sense.
Also you may want to look closely at some of those basket case countries and look at who ruled them, who drew the boundaries etc.
I don't understand your point.
Little will be walking the plank based on the election result as a whole. This particular deal will be but a footnote whether it works or not.
It looks like a very pragmatic move to me, and none of the governing parties can criticize the move without looking hypocritical.
Unless you are meaning that Gregg O'Connor is a gamble, and the Greens later feel they could have put up someone who was much more likely to win the candidate.
It gets National 2 MPs where they would otherwise get none. It is not about getting party vote for United or Act to bring in more MPs. This can be seen in National’s message to Epsom voters to give National their party vote (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epsom_%28New_Zealand_electorate%29).
This election , I will vote on issues, not on some historical allegience or sentiment .
I just hope Labour dont bring up some new destructive taxes like CGT or more tax to fund pet projects, because then I am definitely not going to be a turkey voting for an early Christmas .
Ōhāriu and Auckland Central likely to change on deals... I think Nikki may be high enough up the list to get in anyways... on the other side of the tree Labour may lose list votes to NZ First.... got to see them gaining a few seats even JK could see that coming... Shane Jones for Foriegn Affairs and WP for Immigration
Going to be as exciting as a T20 match...
We welcome your comments below. If you are not already registered, please register to comment.
Remember we welcome robust, respectful and insightful debate. We don't welcome abusive or defamatory comments and will de-register those repeatedly making such comments. Our current comment policy is here.