NZ Centre for Political Research

This week's poll asks:

If the election was held today, which party would you give your Party vote to?

*No politician in this country today has the balls to confront Winston. Pat

*National - It's a no-brainer! Edward

*Best of a pack of clowns that we have to choose from. The fact that 11% of Kiwis will vote for the goofy greens is frightening. Sam

*I have returned to National. Brash's stand on cannabis will cost Act this Election. Barry

*Both sides of my family have always voted National and thus ones children usually fiollow. However this time I cannot and will not vote national, Our P.M. has told far too many lies, e.g. NO increase to GST, One Country one People only wed white mugs did not ask who or what and he has for the past three years given to q15% of the population who are now crying we have no food, no clothes, now homes etc What happened to all the Treaty money they got given. Our P.M. also seems to have a hidden money tree as he hands out millions at the drop of any hard up cry. We are in for a very tough time next year and here we have him telling us he is going to sell off the family silver without giving anough though to. Ordinary Kiwi's will not get a look in whilst Businesses will grab it up then gloat about how they can charge us more. I had plans to vote ACT but do not like the way on Brash treats people. Seriously considering eliminating all as a protest vote. MARYLIN

*We cannot afford to take a defeatist attitude and say that the Conservative Party will not get 5% of the votes. Why should it not?
Having read the party's website and associated questionnaire,I understand that this party is in favour of restoring the foreshore and seabed to Crown ownership. Beverley

*All the established parties have followed the path of self-interest and need to be thrown out. Owen Glennn is right when he states that we need leaders but they must be honest and of integrity. All of the current heads of parties lie all the time. No wonder the public dont watch the debates. Simon

*We need a voice loud enough for the maori to hear "We are one people". Frank

*Key has broken his promise to end special powers for Maori. David

*Mr. Goff's policies and attitudes are truly Prime Ministerial - Greek Prime Ministerial. Peter

*Only the two major parties can lead a government; the nats by a country mile! Bruce

*I am really an ACT supporter but I think Act has lost its way so I will have to give my party vote to National. Peggy

*Was going to be ACT but now I am unsure that it wouldn't just be a wasted vote. Ian

*New Zealand will rue the day it re-elects National with only Maori as partner, Banks must win Epsom. Jan

*Will probably give one to ACT and one to Conservatives - Key has to go as he is there for the photo opportunity and has not got the backbone to stand up to the greedy demands of the Maori Party who he should never have gone into coalition with. Carolyn

*As Bob "the Builder" Clarkson said, "It isn't so much that I have left National, but rather National has moved away from me". Far, far too much wags tailing the dog! Dave

*Somebody has to try and keep key and his pitiful attorney general honest. Ronmac

*Why is none of the above missing? What about a voter revolt as the comment I hear most is, there is no-one to vote for! Monica

*Selling state assets is a major no as Labour will buy them back when they get a chance. I will decide on who has the best carrot on the day. Bob

*The most pressing need is businesses that create jobs for our people not state or the art schools. Judith

*National has demonstrated it does not understand the gravity of our current financial situation, OR it is not prepared to address it, regardless of the dangers escalating so rapidly, possibly already beyond any hope of managing a softish landing. David

*Conservative - I like their outlook on many of the problems that are part of our life at present. Jane

*It is not that I support a lot of labours policies but that I am totally opposed to selling state assets. Brian

This week's poll asks:

If the election was held today, which party would you give your Party vote to?

*Act has some good policies & National needs reigning in- eg foreshore & seabed. Desmond

*National needs more 'natural' coalition partners than currently available. Rob

*I hope that ACT can take a bigger role in government. Jim

*They are the only party with mature thinking to handle all the local issues and unexpected (unplanned) local happenings, and a mature knowledge of governing us through all the external (worldwide) factors that affect us as a nation. Labour just grinds away with the same old tired stuff that gets us no where. Labour is always stuck in the moment of giving gifts (benefits) to people and convincing them that the 'kitty' will always look after them without reminding them that it all has to come from somewhere, namely the tax payer and there is only so much available to go around. And so we become a handout society instead of a society where everyone is encourage to reach their potential as is the vision of this National government. John

*National has invited the racist party into bed, so does not deserve the party vote. Certainly they need to govern, but principles are more important than power. Chris

*They would stop the indescriminate use of 1080 and help regain public access to public lands. Kerry

*I like Colin Craig. He has a fresh perspective. Trish

*Conservative - Has the best combination of family-friendly policies. Keith

*Possibly a wasted vote, but ACT is NZ's best chance of getting ahead. Geoffrey

*I believe all income should be taxed under a fair umbrella and that our countries equities stay under nz ownership. Darryl

*National - No brainer. Robert

*I would need to see more evidence of Banks taking Epsom before voting ACT. Ian

*National lost my vote with the Foreshore and Seabed bill. Steve

*Lets be positive not negative - nothing else needs to be said! Jim

*Act or National. Mike

*Goff - never in a million years.
Key - like the Cheshire cat - a grin with nothing behind it.
Melonheads - thhrrp!
WP - ditto.
Brash - sadly cannot see him progressing.
UF - silly little man.
Conservative - the great unknown - could be a breath of fresh air and the way to go - we'll see ... watch this space. Ron

*I voted National last time, only to be totally let down. Terry

*Because we need to keep National on track. Ian

*To quote Einstein "The definition of insanity is to keep doing the same thing and expecting a different out come". Therefore I would Vote Libertarianz" again. Michael

*Conservative tick all my boxes, the others don't. Neil

*Conservative - Fresh sensible ideas. The rest want to control our lives & aspirations. Ian

*Although I am not happy with the way the changes in Leadership and Parliamentary members has occured, I still believe the party is necessary to keep NZ on a path that will lead to a better brighter future for my grandchildren. Sandra

*I could still change my mind to National closer to the election if it looks like Act will not win Epsom and won't win 5%. No point in wasting my vote. Graham

*The only politician who can see both sides of the important issues is Winston Peters. Way back he was the only MP to refuse a wage rise when the country could not afford it, he wants a stop to repeated Treaty "final claims" and has the courage to say what needs to be said. He persevered to bring justice in the Winebox affair. I will vote LABOUR in my electorate to ensure assets do not get sold. Already foreign vultures are circling waiting to pounce. None of us are so gullible as to believe shares will remain in NZ'ers ownership. We are being set up for a takeover. Cecelia

*Conservative - Back to basics from a new, less politically driven perspective. Barrie

*Need to keep their voice in Parliament, though current politicians are self-destructing. Mo

*Only a strong Act can ensure our freedoms and our economy are secured. David

*Winston is the only MP with the guts to try & keep the rest honest!!!! The more the rest denigrate him the more it shows how he's "getting" to them. If only NZ First held the balance of power instead of Sharpie Sharples we'd ALL be better off. Dave

This week's poll asks:

If the election was held today, which party would you give your Party vote to?

*Too much party bashing from Labour. They were in govt for nine years...some of their policies focus too much on making it cushier for beneficiaries instead of providing incentives to do better. Agatha

*Message to Don, PLEASE confer with your collegues before making statements such as the decriminalise drugs one. John

*I am fed up with one government blaming the past government all the time. Valerie

*If they can repeal the Carbon Tax and the Seabed an Foreshore Acts, which nobody else seem to mention, I guess that that will be a good start to saving money that is being unneccessarily bein spent. Also the "claims" by the various Iwi are out of hand and are not in the best interests of New Zealanders over all. So far, this nonsense has already cost the taxpayer billions of Dollars for what reason? Bruce

*The editorial downer on the Labour policy in this column astounds me. These are the comments of those who don't have to live in the difficult financial situation which very many NZers find themselves in. I know from my own experiences that hard work can improve one's lot in life but life's unknown twists and turns can't insulate us all from continuing low financial income. circumstances.
Now on superannuation I do not complain about low income because I am well used to making do and supplementing our income with an extensive veg garden and great financial money management skills learned over 50 years of life in the low bracket of income. I get maximum mileage from every dollar and wish that others could re-arrange their priorities to be able to manage better. There should not be the "perceived poverty" in NZ where we have such alot more than many countries and their people.
Mr Key and others from so called "poorer backgrounds" who have done well in life should not believe that everyone "can do what they've done", for some the trap of low income is a hurdle they cannot get out of. Be compassionate for these people, do not patronise them but the real opportunities of education and training not bound up in too much red tape is a better way to go. It's not the people who make government policy but the parliamentarians and the party "IN" at the time and it's the people who have to comply with this overabundance of control.
I agree with Owen Glenn that these people who have made wonderful achievement probably didn't have to comply with the "red tape" attitude we have now. A smile and a wave isn't the way to be brave in these times, some tough measures have to be thought about now to ensure we can compete in the "new world". Susannah

*The time for revolution has arrived. Its time to kick both the "main parties" out and put in real people who arent indentured career politicians. Better yet, we should scrap the whole system and start again, making a clean break from the past and our UN overlords. And I agree with Owen:"Without vision, the people perish". NZ is vision-less and rudderless. The Rena is in better shape than we are as a country... Peter

*I am suspicious of the National Party they have made no reference to the Maori privileges. What about Sovereignty .,Water in the rivers and lakes , How many iwi are queued up to claim the foreshore and seabed. No elector should forget the furtiveness of Key in respect to the foreshore and seabed where stealth and half truths played a prominent part in the National campaign to rob us of our foreshore and seabed. From being an ardent National supporter I would place them last in my list. Colin

*National - The best of a bad bunch. Barbara

*A right wing party but none stand out as deserving my vote. Bernie

*Voting ACT will signal to National that they need to deliver on their promises eg. no Marine & Coastal Act. John

*National - But not the candidate. Ken

*I live in Epsom so John Banks will get my constituent vote to help National. Bill

*What about the Maori and Mana party. Grant

*For the first time in my life ... I may not vote!!!!!!!Nobody represents what I want and I'm tired of voting just to keep some party out! Andy

*Can't be any worse than what we have had up to date. Rick

*Because of Labours politics of envy I cannot risk giving my vote to ACT this time round. National must be re elected or we will probably become a basket case country. If the majority of New Zealander's and dumb enough to elect a Labour Green Mana party coalition I will not want to stay here. Albyn

*Anything to keep the Lunatic Labour party out. This election is the most serious ever in my opinion and everyvotemust count. I was going to vote Act but feel I must use my vote in the best way possible to stop Labour and the Greens. Also, when Key said he is looking to cut back on Welfare that is another plus for me to vote National. But not my Electorate vote, I wouldn't dream of voting for the National candidate In my area, I will probably give that vote a miss. Chris

*There are too many political parties. Time to dump those with more than three terms in parliament. They are time expired. All of what we are hearing has been trotted out before. Clive

*I pick the best man in my district - not a party. Mary

*Goff is hopeless, Key is following a UN agenda. David

*New Party - pledges to have BINDING referendums, and no asset sales. Peter

*Only one way to go. Time for dialogue when election is over. Labour takes us back to the 1950's. Neil

This week's poll asks:

If the election was held today, which party would you give your Party vote to?

*We need ACT to keep National honest. Murray

*Conservative, this party is well overdue I hope it gets a few seats in parliament. Good luck. Truus

*None Im voting against mmp and not giving my party vote to anyone. Lizette

*Commonsense policies that most NZers agree with. Arna

*I will vote ACT if this party has managed to get its own political act together; otherwise I may vote Conservative because it appears to stand for many of my own values. I want Act in government mainly because my own party of choice [National] has prostituted and thereby compromised many of its traditional values. e.g.by going into coalition with the Maori Party it has had to betray many nats voters and the New Zealand nation. Some of the excesses of this were to change the legislation around the Crown owned Foreshore & Seabed, granting Maori the right to fly their 'protest' flag. In other words National has not dealt firmly with Maori greed or acted to extinguish its ultimate aim of setting up a Maori Separatist State in NZ.National has also failed to reverse the worst excesses of antifamily social legislation driven by nine years of Clark's Helingrad, anti-family legislation. e.g. National failed to reverse the anti-family Bradford/Clark disaterous anti-smacking law, when over 80% of the population indicated they should in a referendum.
An Act presence in the next Key Government I assume would put some backbone back into National. Frank

*Only because of the No asset sales policy, Nothing else. Catherine

*Labour is too devisive and way too socialist. Greens want to take us back to the dark ages. NZ First is just trying to hang on for another term. Mana and Maori Party are blatantly racist and have only a Maori agenda and Harawira is rabidly so. Martin

*I don't agree with selling our country's resources but Key have more common sense than the others. Heather

*Their basic policies are the nearest to what ACT used to represent, but which have been muddled by side issues and poorly handled leadership. Vic

*ACT is the only non-socialist party. Peter

*The party which has the fortitude to put in place one law for all and ceases "teaty payments" immediately. Bruce

*Despite recent upheavals I still believe that ACT best represents those who value freedom, equality of opportunity, hard work and self reliance. Martin

*What would be the lessor of two evils? asking Labour to support a return to their version of the Foreshore and Seabed act or voting for National to get a majority government? It's a close call and deserves consideration and I'm a true blue National voter!! Gavin

*I will vote any way I can to remove John Key. Second time in my life I will vote "negatively". The first time was to get rid of Muldoon. Lee

*Giving your party vote to one of the minor parties, whichever you choose, is making best use of our horrible MMP system. Rob

*My reason for voting ACT is primarily two-fold; firstly, despite their negative media publicity based upon presumed infighting? I still believe in their core values and policies. Secondly, I'm giving them my party vote because I believe it's critical that National has a reasonable right-wing coalition partner rather than the one-eyed, self-serving, racially- motivated, biased, extremist Maori Party. Tony

*I'm still swinging. Malcolm

*In the hope they can govern alone without the need to consider the'high cost'wish lists of the smaller parties. James

*The Maori iwi aristocacy ("whanau")needs to be recognised before it gains more racist power in Parliament. The new leader of Act has this point in his favour, the abolition of the Maori seats. James

This week's poll asks:

If the election was held today, which party would you give your Party vote to?

*The foreshore and seabed is the main concern that we have and only Winston wants to go back to a law that worked. Mel

*Tough choice. Don should be more concerned about colour blindness and not about National who are almost as creepy as Labour. Yuk! Peter

*I am giving the Conservative Party my Party Vote because I am hopeful that it will bring a fresh and more representative dimension into New Zealand politics.
The two major Parties seem more interested in doing political deals which extend their power base than in truly representing the conservative and middle of the road voters.

While detailed policy is still to come I agree with their stated positions on ETS, single voter roll, anti smacking law, no sale of State assets and their position that governments should bring in changes with the consent of the people. I would liked the Party to have taken a stronger position on Direct Democracy but let's give the Conservative team a chance to get established.

I genuinely hope that all those who complained about the arrogance political deafness of Labour and National will at least consider giving the Conservative Party their support. If we want real change in our political system then we have to vote for it. Do people reading this post really want things to continue as they are? Denis

*The Foreshore and Seabed and abolishing everything to do with race, separatism and division is very important to us and Winston has never deviated from saying NZ First would treat us all equally and they would have the Foreshore and Seabed placed back into Crown ownership so they will get our vote. We are basing these issues as our sole criteria for where our vote goes in this election such is the importance with which we view them. B+H

*National are standing firm on their vision to get NZ back into a positive financial position in the future. Something we have not seen from a governing party for a long time. Laraine

*National are the best of a very poor set of options, hopefully they will be elected with the power to govern on their own and tell all the other self serving, interfering, racist bunch to get lost. Robert

*Only ACT is promising to reduced government, cut government spending and debt and give individuals more freedom to live their lives as they see fit. Sam

*We need to retain leaders who have succeeded in life. Goff is a professional politician with no real Qualifications. Don

*I have chosen, "Other" because I am not going to check the party option. I am going to select the candidate that is standing in my electorate by determining who will do the best for this electorate.
I don't like or trust ANY of the partys that currently seek power and my vote. The people that make up Electoral Partys seem to quickly forget that they were elected to represent the voting public, not Big Business or Special Interest Groups etc. Once they get into power they forget promises, forget everything except their own belief in their devine right and power.
It doesn't matter which candidate you vote for you get a slimy politican that forgets that past generations fought and died so they could stand freely and be voted into power to lead and represent this country, instead they continuely abuse the priviledge of democracy with their self serving actions. Wendy

*Wish I knew. I like Act's economic policy but the Conservative Party's stance on moral issues but I would hate to see a Labour/Green Government. Catherine

*I wrote to all National MPs stating that if the seabed nonsense went through I would never vote National again. I'm still looking for a suitable alternative. Tim

*IF it looks like winning Epsom. Charles

*Its early days yet and if Brash continued with his policy of decriminalizing drugs then NO I would not vote for that party...I need to get more information on each of the party's policies before finally making up my mind. I have always voted National but in the light of the path that Key insists on taking with favouring Maori with the foreshore issue then I will definitely not be voting National..I am hoping that ACT will come up with some worthwhile policies ...I do believe that Banks would be a good minister and would be prepared to vote for him..however, if there is nothing concrete put on the table that I am willing to go with, even though these policies usually do not come to fruition, I will probably not vote at all. I did like National's policy declared tonight of dealing with the DPB issue...good one..we need more concrete policies like that..but I will still not vote National whilst they continue down the road of give Maori with special treatment..causing I believe separatism in NZ which is definitely not be good for our future. Audrey

*This is a protest against National's middle-of-the -road, namby-pamby, let's keep everyone happy, lack of real leadership approach to Government. Gary

*They seem well-led, the least complicated and have views that are similar to mine. I used to support ACT, but they seem to have lost their way. Glenn

*Any other alternative is not attractive for me. EJ

*Used to vote ACT but they lost their way. Would not vote Brash. Ron

*Conservative perhaps. Norm

*I think I will be voting Conservative this election. Katrina.

This week's poll asks:

If the election was held today, which party would you give your Party vote to?

*Sorry fellow Kiwi's - I am still undecided. I know Labour will NOT be getting my vote. National who are talking more in line with what I would like to happen eg: cutting red tape (which is a biggy for me), reducing government spending blah blah blah are being considered yet I have a nagging trust issue with their 'buttery sweet double talk'. It is looking more likely that one of the smaller parties will be getting my vote. Definitely NOT the Greens or Maori Party. I'm going to have to revise them all . . . sigh, dunno what good it is going to do. Trina

*I don't want Labour in there so I'm voting for National - it's the only sure-fire way of keeping the socialists out! Brian

*Winston Peters is the only one committed to the 2004 Foreshore and Seabed Act. That is a big issue for our family so we will all be voting for NZF. Ken

*Conservatives are the best of a bad bunch, but not likely to get over 5%. Francis

*Key isn't the best Prime Minister we have ever had, but he's far better than Goff so we'll be voting for the Nats. Bruce

*ACT is toast. Brash did the dirty on Hide. Hide supporters now likely to go to National or Conservative. Bob

*The ACT party appears to be in the final stages of self destruction and will probably be replaced by the Conservative party which seems to hold similar beliefs. John