Entrenched Maori seats and water royalty

The policies of Labour’s new leader Jacinda Ardern on Maori seats and a water tax should send a chill through Hobson’s Pledge supporters.

Ardern would entrench the Maori seats because they “need to be treated the same way we treat all the other laws around elections and that means you should have at least 75 percent of Parliament agree what you are going to do with them”. See http://www.waateanews.com/Waatea+News.html?story_id=MTY5ODQ%3D&v=792

New Zealand First leader Winston Peters had promised a referendum on the Maori seats.

If seats were entrenched we could end up with most Maori-ancestry voters on the general roll and redundant Maori seats remaining because politicians think they should stay.

Ardern also proposed royalties for bottled water, irrigation schemes and other commercial uses, with most of the money used to settle the Maori claim for ownership of fresh water and some going to regional councils. See https://www.nbr.co.nz/article/labour-confirms-royalties-bottled-water-and-irrigation-schemes-b-206260#.WYup-p4KNU4.facebook

Of course, all details would be revealed later. However, if nobody owns the water there would be no royalties. If everyone owns the water, then royalties should be shared with everyone and not limited to citizens with a particular ancestry.

Who votes for which party

Of interest in the lead-up to the election is some interesting data on who votes for which party revealed by think tank Right Minds NZ.

In 2014, National gained a higher share of the working class vote than Labour (38% to 35%).

If you are religious, you are more likely to vote for Labour than any other party.

Apparently the Labour Party has religious roots with Michael Joseph Savage saying the welfare state was "applied Christianity", an extremely religious Walter Nash was supporting the temperance movement through his infamous "black budget" taxing alcohol, and the devout Catholic Norman Kirk introducing the DPB to discourage abortion.

New Zealand First has the largest share of voters in the "working class" income band of $10K to $35K, and second youngest core voter demographic of any political party, with many young Maori who don't go to university.

Green voters are almost as rich as National voters, appear to have more carbon miles per MP than almost any other political party, and are undoubtedly the party of the "urban rich".

ACT, who are stereotyped as a party of the ultra-wealthy, actually have a surprisingly middle class, student voter base, being not nearly as wealthy as National or Green voters

See http://www.rightminds.nz/articles/election-2017-three-myths-about-nz-voting-habits

Put up Hobson’s Pledge signs in your area

Our campaign has gathered a substantial group of volunteers throughout New Zealand, some of whom put up a large number of signs in Hamilton. We can supply 1200mm x 900mm corflute signs if you can supply the fence or building to display them. If you wish to put up a sign or 10, please contact us at [email protected]