Greens on 9 percent
Roy, you sweet talker! I really want to believe you. But you do look a little like a roguish statistical outlier. Nonetheless the upward trend for the Greens in the polls continues, which is good.
9 percent is youth activist Gareth Hughes, and not that much further to also get food and agriculture campaigner Steffan Browning and water conservationist Mojo Mathers.
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October 10th, 2008 at 9:11 pm
Imagine if you get enough votes to form the government and all your policies come out of the wood work
October 10th, 2008 at 9:28 pm
I would love to see gareth get a seat. would be very interesting, wouldint he be the youngist ever MP in NZ?
Ive worked with him quite alot and I think he would do well as a MP, at the very least he would do better than Clarkson, lol.
Go Gareth!
Be interesting to have Mojo in also, I wonder just how the dynamics of that would work?
October 10th, 2008 at 9:40 pm
Any chance of getting an environmentalist into the house?
October 10th, 2008 at 9:47 pm
big bro - psst… there are several in there already. Keep it quite, it’ll only make the others nervous!
October 11th, 2008 at 8:04 am
I think Debra Morris will still be the youngest at 24.
October 11th, 2008 at 10:35 am
kiore,
oh, ok then, shows how much i know about individual MP’s then i guess, lol.
October 11th, 2008 at 11:19 am
frog…I get the feeling that such “outlier” polls are really intended to “scare” mainstream voters back into the Nat/Labour fold.
Not too sure I’d stake my life on them.
October 11th, 2008 at 1:24 pm
I am pleased that the differences between the major parties are no so small. That means the Greens can do a very tough deal with Labour. It means they can do an even tougher deal with National.
It would be great if part of that deal could be a commitment to totally ban inhumane farming practices like battery hens, fast growing broilers, mulesing etc. As parties, neither National nor Labour have shown any interest in making life better for animals. A plague on both their houses. But at an individual level, MPs from both parties have been very open. The Regulations Review Committee, which included hard nosed National Party farmers like Eric Roy unanimously agreed that battery cages have to go.
A deal involving getting rid of battery cages will fit in well with GP policy, and it is something the caucuses of both major parties would probably support, so it would not be hard to get their party hierarchies to agree.
It would also gain support from people like BB, who in other ways are not “typical” GP voters.
October 11th, 2008 at 1:28 pm
>>A deal involving getting rid of battery cages will fit in well
Yep. I’d support that.
October 11th, 2008 at 6:47 pm
“Yep. I’d support that.”
Enough to vote Green if it happens?
October 11th, 2008 at 6:53 pm
Nope. They’d need to dump the socia*ism and get a clue about economics.
October 11th, 2008 at 7:21 pm
Kiore
If you get Russ or Jeannette to post here and tell us that ANY coalition deal they do with the next government will include an end to battery hens and pigs in crates and I will hold my nose and vote Green.
The only proviso is that the it MUST be a bottom line and it must be implemented immediately, I will not accept any more wishy washy Green speak about it being open to negotiation or that it is something we will put on the table, it MUST be part of the non negotiable agreement with the next government.
October 11th, 2008 at 7:45 pm
Aww, its nice to see big bro has a soft side. But what would the cost be of this government meddling in private enterprise! This nanny state for chickens! Why not just let the market do its job!
Making this the number 1 negotiating priority is just a bit much to ask, as I’m sure you’ve carefully calculated, but it is not outlandish to think it will occur if the Greens are in a coalition arrangement. I wouldn’t even be surprised if it was part of negotiations. Certainly it won’t happen if we aren’t there to argue for it.
October 11th, 2008 at 9:24 pm
It doesn’t have to be a “number one negotiating policy”, just as long as it is a negotiating policy. I think National and Labour would both go for it, because they don’t really care either way, and their individual MPs would support it. Both Clark and Key are desperate for power and would probably agree to anything the Greens propose providing it does not destroy their hopes of getting in again, which this won’t.
The animal welfare policy came out a few days ago, but it was not reported on Frog Blog, although other policies have been so I don’t know how seriously the wider Green Party takes animal welfare.
October 11th, 2008 at 9:35 pm
I was commenting on big bro’s requirements. As the party is unlikely to have any so called bottom lines, making this one that is the same thing as making it the #1 priority. Agree with the rest of what you say.
Animal welfare is dear to most Green’s hearts. There are a lot of policy updates coming out now though and Frog will miss a few.
October 12th, 2008 at 8:04 am
Nowhere did I say that I wanted Animal welfare to be the number one issue, what I said was that I want it to be a non negotiable (I assume there will be other non negotiable issues as well) part of any coalition deal.
However from what I have read here it seems that it will simply be used as another throw away negotiation issue, I had hoped that the Greens were the one party that might make a difference but it seems that is not the case.
I guess you chaps are more interested in pushing the climate change con and giving more of my money to bludgers than you are about Animal welfare.
October 12th, 2008 at 8:28 am
Valis
“Making this the number 1 negotiating priority is just a bit much to ask, as I’m sure you’ve carefully calculated”
There is not a lot that people say here that I take as a personal insult, my skin is about as tough as leather however you can ask any of the long term contributors here about my passionate support of Animal Welfare.
For the last three years I have been consistent in my promise that I would hold my nose and vote Green if they did something about the one issue that I really care about, for you to suggest that my statement is “carefully calculated” just shows that you are one of those mindless idealists who believes in the vast right wing conspiracy.
I might be wrong but I doubt that there is one single issue that would ever make you go against every natural instinct in your body and vote for ACT or the Nat’s.
Yes it would make me physically ill to vote Green, yes I do despise with a passion Bradford and Locke to say nothing of Dr Norman but I am willing to set that aside in the cause of what I am truly passionate about.
I wonder if you could ever do the same thing?
October 12th, 2008 at 10:05 am
big bro - I have a genuine question if you would care to look at it;
the party that you do support (whatever that party might be) doesn’t support or promote the kind of animal welfare you want to see (I’m suppposing this, I don’t know for sure).
Why not? What is is about their philosophy that has them ignoring the welfare of animals? If they can do that, then aren’t you anxious about the other policies they hold? The Greens must surely be easily the best of the bunch as far as that issue is concerned. Does it give you pause for thought and make you wonder at other green policies in light of their view on animals and the broader planetary welfare issues they promote? Do you think, as I do, that the manner in which a party/community/individual regards the wellbeing of animals reflects the way they are likely to treat humans as well?
It’s a hell of a convoluted question big bro. I’d appreciate it if you were to have a go at it.
greenfly
October 12th, 2008 at 10:24 am
big bro,
“Nowhere did I say that I wanted Animal welfare to be the number one issue, what I said was that I want it to be a non negotiable (I assume there will be other non negotiable issues as well) part of any coalition deal.”
The small parties don’t generally like going into election campaigns with non-negotiable bottom lines any more, as it gives the other side a reason to trash you before the election. The Greens experienced this to their great detriment in 2002 and will not do it again. So as there will not be a set of bottom lines in other policy areas, your’s would be the only one, making it look very much like the main goal.
“However from what I have read here it seems that it will simply be used as another throw away negotiation issue, I had hoped that the Greens were the one party that might make a difference but it seems that is not the case.”
You have no objective reason to believe this is a throw away issue for the Greens, even if it isn’t top priority. The Greens have campaigned on this issue for years and will continue to do so.
“There is not a lot that people say here that I take as a personal insult, my skin is about as tough as leather however you can ask any of the long term contributors here about my passionate support of Animal Welfare.
For the last three years I have been consistent in my promise that I would hold my nose and vote Green if they did something about the one issue that I really care about”
My apologies for suggesting otherwise. I’d not seen you make such a statement until yesterday.
” for you to suggest that my statement is “carefully calculated” just shows that you are one of those mindless idealists who believes in the vast right wing conspiracy.”
There’s the big bro I know, and much more typical of your normal engagement style, which I mistakenly applied to this issue too and came to the conclusion I did.
“I might be wrong but I doubt that there is one single issue that would ever make you go against every natural instinct in your body and vote for ACT or the Nat’s.”
Can’t think of one.
“Yes it would make me physically ill to vote Green, yes I do despise with a passion Bradford and Locke to say nothing of Dr Norman but I am willing to set that aside in the cause of what I am truly passionate about.
I wonder if you could ever do the same thing?”
I’ve never had to consider it. I find it unlikely that something I cared so deeply about could only be satisfied by a party I disagreed with on everything else.
October 12th, 2008 at 9:28 pm
In answer to BB’s challenge I would hold my nose and vote ACT or National if they made any concrete commitment to an immediate ban on battery hens and sow crates.
It does not need to be a number one non-negotiable stand, but if the GP is really serious about animal welfare then it should at least be one of the policy points listed. It is not. But as i said it is more likely to get buy in from one of the major parties than many of the policies that are listed. So why is it not one of the policies?
October 12th, 2008 at 9:40 pm
The policy areas naturally has to be a limited list and I expect other desired points are missing too. But you’ll notice it is not a negotiating list, which will be much more specific and also longer.