Crazy Policies from the New Zealand General Election

Voting in a general election can be difficult. You could vote for a political party for any number of reasons.

It could be because it’s a generational thing; your grandparents and parents voted for them, so you vote for them.
You could be a swing voter and only vote for parties that keep their promises.
You could have researched each party and studied them until you found the party that best aligns with your values.
Maybe your favourite celebrity or influencer told you to do it.
It could be because that party has the best logo or the most attractive candidates.

The reasons are like Destiny, Death, and Dream; endless.

But voting can be a double-edged sword. The party you support may have an amazing education policy, like every primary school child will have all of their stationery and uniforms paid for by the government. However, that same party could have a crazy immigration policy by demanding every immigrant, regardless of age, needs three PhDs, with $5 million to support them.

If you choose to vote for that party, you’re choosing to help and support the nation’s children, but at the same time, you’re supporting an inhumane immigration policy. Like I said, it’s a double-edged sword.

Credit: New Zealand Electoral Commission

This brings us to the New Zealand General Election. Our general election is being held on 14th October 2023, though advanced voting started on the 2nd October.

Before I go on, you could be thinking, “Well, I’m not a New Zealander, Scott, so why should I care about it?” That’s a fair question, so here’s a fair answer: you don’t have to care, it’s just nice to know things. Like going to a party and knowing the capital city of Brazil is not Rio de Janeiro, but Brasília; or the fact George Lucas did not direct The Empire Strikes Back, it was Irvin Kershner. It’s nice to drink and know things.

We have 17 parties to choose from, along with their candidates in this election. I’ll admit that I’m biased, but we have some good parties, some average parties, some bad parties, and some truly awful ones as well. We have parties ranging from left-wing, centre-left, centre, centre-right, right-wing, and the insane.

They have a range of policies that are truly amazing to the downright batshit crazy, and it’s these batshit policies I’d like to highlight. We have some conspiracy political parties now, which is equally terrifying and hilarious; so it’s not a surprise that I’ll discuss these. Also, I’m not mentioning all of the 17 parties, just the policies that are batshit crazy, in my humble opinion.

I’m apologising in advance if you think any of the below policies are…well, good.

All of these policies are linked through Policy NZ and through the websites of the political parties.

ACT Party

To abolish the New Zealand Human Rights Commission, the Ministry for Women, the Ministry for Pacific Peoples, and the Ministry for Ethnic Communities.
To restrict access to permanent sickness benefits, if the person can work.
To increase the retirement age to 67.
To halt contributions to the New Zealand Super Fund, which is the sovereign wealth fund that supports the cost of superannuation.
To oppose laws against hate speech.
To ignore the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
To remove a public holiday.
Require annual leave to be calculated on a pro-rata basis.
To abolish the Fees Free tertiary education programme.
To repeal the Zero Carbon Act.
To abolish the Climate Change Commission, the Climate Emergency Response Fund, the Progressive Home Ownership Scheme, and the First Home Grant.
To sell public hospitals to private investors under leaseback arrangements.
To reduce government Kiwisaver contributions.
To hold a referendum on the interpretation of the Treaty of Waitangi.

New Conservatives

Our long-term problem of fatherlessness is not helped by telling men and boys that their masculinity is toxic and unwelcome. New Conservatives will be a voice for men and the value of masculinity.
To ban medical abortions and withdraw public funding for abortion services.
To ban gender reassignment surgery and hormone therapies for young people.
We affirm the biological reality that there are only two sexes, and oppose the lie that a person can be ‘born in the wrong body’, or can ‘change their gender’.
To remove left-wing ideologies from the curriculum, including critical race theory, gender theory, decolonisation, and extremist “climate science” and sex “education”.
We believe that current climate policies are a distraction from real opportunities to protect and improve the environment. There is no climate emergency. We will end all climate-focused taxes, subsidies, and regulations.
Reducing New Zealand’s greenhouse gas emissions does not actually benefit the environment in any way – if anything only shifting high-emitting activities overseas.
New Conservatives believe that is an inappropriate use of technology¹ – we should not be playing God, altering the natural makeup of organisms for no real environmental benefit – and this shows there is no real case for change.
Fossil fuels are here to stay, and should be harnessed for the good of the country. We will restore orderly licensing for oil and gas exploration, and make sure that the players in this industry know they are welcome in New Zealand for the long term.

New Zealand First

Withdraw from the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) as it removes the rights of New Zealand citizens to write their own laws.
To stop using Te Reo Māori names for government departments.
To amend the Sport and Recreation New Zealand Act to remove public funding from bodies that allow non-biological women to be selected unequally against biological women.
Require a national interest test to stop us being dictated to by the United Nations and agencies like the W.H.O.
To remove gender ideology from the curriculum, and review the New Zealand curriculum to remove critical race theory and de-colonialism.
We will abolish the Māori Health Authority.
To create a Royal Commission of Inquiry into media independence in New Zealand.
To restore 90-day job trials to provide employer certainty.
We will prepare a bid to hold the 2026 Commonwealth Games in Christchurch.

Leighton Baker Party

To drop the carbon net-goals as they do not work and impoverish our nation.
There must be a full review of the harm caused by the COVID-19 vaccine, as well as the effectiveness of the vaccine.

New Zealand Loyal

To end New Zealandʼs participation in the United Nations, World Economic Forum, and World Health Organisation.
To investigate the Reserve Bank of New Zealand and its past practices.
To investigate who has benefited by selling this country out to the “Green Agenda.”

Freedoms NZ

To remove UN driven campaigns to control our country and drive the Climate Change fraud, food production, and Health Control.
We believe we are already carbon negative.
To scrap the Resource Management Act.
To ensure there is no more school indoctrination with the Transgender Agenda + more.
To scrap all changes to New Zealand’s firearms legislation made since March 2019.²

New Nation Party

No state funding for media.
To leave the United Nations.
To launch a Commission of Inquiry into our country’s COVID-19 response.
Limit Significant Natural Areas (SNA) to public areas.
To reduce the number of Members of Parliament to 100.³

NewZeal Party

We stand on the side of biological and scientific reality when it comes to gender, and reject attempts to deny or erase the biological evidence of gender.
We will oppose proposed significant content regulations and limitations for media and online platforms.
We will ensure that our media platforms and press can be independent and reliable, free from censorship and unnecessary restrictions.

Have I been too harsh on these parties, or not harsh enough? Have I missed out on any batshit crazy policies? Do you agree or disagree with any of them? As always, please let me know.

Hopefully this time next week, we will have a clear election result, but who knows, the Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party may surprise us all!

This was my 149th blog post, so next week I’ll reach the milestone of 150, and I have no idea what to do about it.

Thanks once again for reading, following, and subscribing to Some Geek Told Me. Please don’t forget to walk your dog, read a banned book, play Lego with some children, watch some Rugby World Cup games, and I’ll see you next week.

¹The technology stated is Genetic Engineering.

²This refers to the Christchurch mosque shootings, where 51 people were killed and 40 people injured. Two AR-15-style rifles, one semi-automatic shotgun, one pump-action shotgun, and two other rifles were used in the massacre.

³Currently, the number is 120.

Share this:

Related