My EasyVote pack has arrived and early voting is about to start, so it must be a good time to examine the list of parties on the menu this election, in the order they are presented in the voting pack.
Act - produces lots of fine talk about freedom and personal responsibility, but Act’s support for covid tyranny suggested this party may now be all talk and no action. Time will tell whether they do any real good in a new government, unfortunately we do know they will do significant harm, with opposition to family values revealed by: strong support for abortion, sponsorship of the current euthanasia law and further proposed liberalisation, support for the extremist new “conversion therapy” and “gender identity” laws, etc.
Animal Justice Party - I think perhaps we should sort out justice for the humans first.
ALCP - ever-present protest vote for druggies
DemocracyNZ - a worthy attempt to replace National and Act with a new liberal party after those parties wholeheartedly supported covid tyranny and the violent suppression of the Wellington protest. Fronted by policeman/farmer/ex National MP Matt King, who comes across a fairly good bloke. Unfortunately not a viable option for social conservatives - Matt supports both abortion and euthanasia, and has stated that the "right to choose" is a fundamental party policy. Strategy to enter Parliament is for Matt to win the seat of Northland, but polls have shown there is no chance of this.
Freedoms NZ - Covid protest party. Yet another attempt by Brian Tamaki to replace existing conservative parties with a new one of his own. This time it is an “umbrella party” which others were invited to join - the catch being that Brian controls it all. It is surprising FNZ hasn’t been polling better, given the popularity and success of the anti-lockdown protests Brian’s people got involved with, and the credibility he earned by being imprisoned for his involvement. Brian’s co-leader is Sue Grey, similarly notorious for covid related activism and litigation. Sue is socially liberal and leads the Outdoors Party, the only significant component of Freedoms NZ not directly affiliated with the Tamakis. If you want to bring into parliament a 1:1 pairing of hippy leftists and Destiny Church people, then vote for Freedoms NZ.
Green - wokest of the woke. Vote for the Greens if Labour doesn’t do a bad enough job for your liking.
Labour - vote for Labour if you believe in promoting corruption and failure; that criminals should not be imprisoned because they are really victims; poverty, misogyny and institutional racism are the cause of all problems; and the most important “rights” are for women to be able to murder their children and men to be able to pretend to be women and invade their toilets, sports teams, prisons, etc.
Leighton Baker Party - a protest vote for the rural South Island. Former New Conservative leader. Only three candidates on the list - is this a clever new strategy to reduce the number of MPs by causing an “underhang”?
National - vote for National if you want slightly better economic management and a party that promises (as usual) not to change any of Labours’ damaging anti-family policies. Leader Chris Luxon claims to be a pro-life Christian, but also promises not to change the abortion laws, showing that he simply cannot be taken seriously. National now routinely silences its few remaining “conservative” MPs, and notably supported the extremist new “conversion therapy” and “gender identity” laws. National has engaged with Labour in a game of one-upmanship to see who can make life the hardest for families while pretending to give them a "boost". Make no mistake - National is controlled by the “woke” left and will do nothing to support family values.
New Conservatives - yes, although lacking the huge billboard campaign this year, NC is still alive and kicking, now led by primary teacher Helen Houghton, who has spent several years campaigning against the radical sexuality and gender “education” being foisted on the nation’s children. The New Conservatives are the only party with anything resembling a plan to promote conservative values and build a more family friendly society. Check out our innovative FamilyBuilder tax proposals. Having moved on from the emphasis on binding citizen’s initiated referenda, the New Conservatives are a modern package for traditional conservative values - standing for the sanctity of life, marriage and the family, free speech, democracy, rule of law, personal responsibility, smaller government, and common sense economic management. Do you believe in these things? Of course you do - vote New Conservatives!
New Nation Party - an attempt to create a new “common sense” rural populist party. Initially joined Freedoms NZ but that arrangement did not last long. NNP’s platform resembles a grab-bag of current and former New Conservative policies, carefully avoiding “culture wars” and the importance of family. If you believe we need a strong voice in government for family values, and want to see the evils of abortion and gender ideology opposed, then NNP apparently has nothing to offer you.
NewZeal - seemingly an attempt to create a new version of National which is less antagonistic towards Christians. Set up less than two months before the election by three-term National MP Alfred Ngaro, his strategy to enter Parliament is simply to hope for a miracle. Alfred finally gave up on National after it supported the extremist new “conversion therapy” and “gender identity” laws. As a purportedly conservative party NewZeal has adopted some obvious common sense policies along with plenty of nice sounding buzzwords. The education policy comically prioritises the traditional 3 Rs together with “social emotional learning” - in other words indoctrination in wokeness.
New Zealand First - Winston Peters says all the right things and is promoted by the media because of his stellar track record of betraying his voters (most recently by installing Jacinda in 2017 and Helen Clarke in 2005) and failing to actually do anything to promote conservative values. Sadly many people have been sucked in again - don’t let yourself be one of them. Winston will do little if anything to turn this country around. He has been at the heart of government off and on for decades and has achieved nothing of value. He is a career politician, in it for “the baubles of office”, and very much part of the problem rather than the solution.
New Zealand Loyal - another fringe party which somehow only managed to submit three candidates on its list, although it has many electorate candidates. Founded by mainstream journalist turned conspiracy theorist, Liz Gunn. Vote for NZL if you can’t get enough talk about the world being run by satanists at the UN and the WEF. Interestingly, while the party seems to be targeting the most radical Christian voters, its Whangaparaoa candidate is the well known medium/psychic Jeanette Wilson. Liz Gunn’s own beliefs are unclear, but there does not appear to be any evidence she is a bible believing Christian.
Te Pati Maori - no longer the party of the venerable Pita Sharples and Tariana Turia, TPM is now radically racist, with the goal of taking total control for a tribal elite - creating a new mediaeval aristocracy. Vote for TPM if the Greens won’t do enough damage for your liking.
The Opportunities Party - left-wing party claiming to be centrist. Favoured by mainstream media, but no chance of success since it has been long abandoned by founder Gareth Morgan. Strategy to enter parliament is to win the seat of Ilam (not going to happen).
Women’s Rights Party - radical feminists coming to their senses over the issue of gender identity - they are just in time to have their brains bashed in by the latest generation of “progressive” activists.
As a candidate in 2020 I invested a huge amount of time and money (although not as much as some, as I had a family to support, and a full time job) in promoting the New Conservatives. I stuck with the party when many left angry about the way Leighton Baker was removed from leadership, and I am now on the Board as well as standing again as a candidate. Did I make the right choice? I believe the answer is clearly yes.
I am happy to admit that I am a single issue voter, and that issue is abortion. Of course I have strong opinions about just about every other issue, but in most cases a party or candidate’s position on abortion tells me everything I need to know about them.
As our policy says, “Human rights begin in the womb, and the first duty of the government is to protect the right to life of its people. Any government that fails to do this has failed at the most basic level.”
There is no excuse for supporting a party that supports the murder of defenceless children. Some will say “but the most important thing is to get rid of Labour”. NO. There is nothing good about getting rid of Labour by installing an equally evil alternative. Any politician who supports abortion (including by pretending they oppose it, but promising not to outlaw it - Mr Luxon!) has revealed an extreme lack of moral fibre. If they can’t get this most basic of issues right, then you have no reason to expect them to make the right decision on anything else.
If you are considering voting for any party that doesn’t take a strong stand against abortion, perhaps comparing this to a similar life and death issue would help you think clearly. Imagine that party advocated slavery for all dark-skinned people - would you still be comfortable supporting it? What if it said those dark-skinned people are really just animals and can be shot as pests? Regardless of how good its other policies might be, a party that supports an issue like this can only be described as evil, and should not even be considered for our vote.
This election we have a choice of:
Pro abortion parties: Labour, National, Greens, Act, Democracy NZ, Womens’ Rights, etc.
Purported anti abortion parties: New Conservative, NewZeal, NZ Loyal.
Undeclared or mixed: NNP, Freedoms NZ (as mentioned, a coalition of pro life Vision with pro abortion Outdoors), New Zealand First (mostly voted against the current abortion law, but is not offering to actively work to abolish abortion and has never done so in its long history).
Let’s examine the purported pro-life options:
NZ Loyal’s website has a long statement with repeated claims of believing in the sanctity of life, but the focus is only on repealing the current law, with mention of replacing it with something “more in favour of the unborn child”. This is much too vague and non-committal for me to take it seriously. In reality, the current law is not the problem - for decades tens of thousands of innocent babies were murdered every year under the previous law (which only imposed minimal red tape - and sadly all establishment parties were happy to preside over that regime). It is also worth noting that NZ Loyal takes the issue into the realm of unnecessary conspiracy theory, with comments about “some women being used as organ and tissue factories and tools of depopulation”.
NewZeal’s website includes the following statement:
NewZeal values the sanctity of life. We will oppose any further liberalisation of abortion and will seek to restore the recognition and the right to life for the unborn child. We will start by providing comprehensive support to pregnant women who feel overwhelmed and will advocate for making the adoption process more accessible and efficient.
Perhaps this is an acceptable position - if NewZeal ever makes it to parliament we will see what seeking to restore the recognition and the right to life for the unborn child really means, and how much of a priority it is. Perhaps the bigger question is why the party would be taken seriously at all, starting up as it has 5 minutes before an election, and simply hoping its leader is famous enough not only to eclipse long established minor parties but to break the 5% threshold.
In my view the New Conservatives are the only party with a sufficiently robust approach to abortion. We appear to be the only party intending to use every possible angle to fight on this issue, and are certainly the only party that identifies abortion as the fundamental policy issue that it is. This is recognised by pro-life organisation Right to Life which has taken the unusual step of funding third-party election advertising promoting a vote for New Conservative as “the longest established and highest polling pro-life party”.
I think it’s clear that continuing to support the New Conservatives is the right choice, and I think Right to Life should be commended for moving on from the New Zealand overemphasis on political neutrality. If conservatives are to make any progress in this country we need to begin taking politics as seriously as the woke left, who regard it as total war, and have weaponised every institution of society. We need to start all working together toward the same goal - commentators and organisations like the venerable Family First need to get with the program and work out how they can best contribute towards change, instead of putting out material that undermines it and presents liberal parties as viable alternatives to conservatives.
Let’s take our democratic responsibilities seriously, and seek together to promote truth and justice in our government.
“Learn to do good; Seek justice, Rebuke the oppressor, Obtain justice for the orphan, Plead for the widow’s case.”