Where are you on this Political test?

[Costa Fierro]

There was that "Pakeha Party" that received some attention earlier in the year, although I can't remember whether or not it was a massive piss-take or a serious party.

[Costa Fierro]

I'm not from New Zealand.

ACT was highest for me with 85%, the runaway winner!

I had no idea what the ACT party is. When I went to Wikipedia just after taking the test, I liked what I saw.

Did you miss the part about it's only MP being arrested and convicted of electoral fraud?

[AiliailiA]

How can I have over 58% support for NZF!? I wouldn't piss on them if they were on fire.

What did you say with regards to the sale of farms to foreign buyers?

"Somewhat disagree" to banning it. But I also put a very light weighting (2/10) on that section.

I'm not for no restrictions at all. I think all sales over a certain amount (say, a typical house price) should be approved or rejected individually, by a statutory authority preferably but the Minister's office would be acceptable too. It's not that foreign buyers are worse than domestic agribusinesses. What concerns me is the possibility of an entire industry like dairy being monopolized and it's harder to see that coming if the buyers are from somewhere like China where the money trail is murky at best.

By the way, how much money IS the government spending to rebuild Christchurch? That's a question I had to answer Don't Know to.

[Meridiani Planum]

Did you miss the part about it's only MP being arrested and convicted of electoral fraud?

That does suck, yeah. Fraud should only be handled by the professionals in the larger parties!

I would hope that they would learn from their mistake and run more honest candidates in the future.

[Dumb Ideologies]

The bar graph gave me near identical percentages for Lab, UF and NP. The weighted results put me next to New Zealand First.

I don't know anything about your politics, but it's probably because I support the continued repression of the sheep and Hobbitses.

You also apparently feel comfortable around decomposing bodies and hate Chinese people/foreigners in general.

Gosh darn it they've captured me perfectly. I'm like a bear in a trap

[Costa Fierro]

"Somewhat disagree" to banning it. But I also put a very light weighting (2/10) on that section.

Mhm. That's probably why. NZ First are opposed to the sale of pretty much any land in NZ to foreigners, especially those from Asia.

I'm not for no restrictions at all. I think all sales over a certain amount (say, a typical house price) should be approved or rejected individually, by a statutory authority preferably but the Minister's office would be acceptable too.

The land in question was owned by the Government after the people and the company that owned it went into receivership. It was government-owned land until it was sold to a Chinese company no one had ever heard of.

It's not that foreign buyers are worse than domestic agribusinesses. What concerns me is the possibility of an entire industry like dairy being monopolized and it's harder to see that coming if the buyers are from somewhere like China where the money trail is murky at best.

The domestic dairying business is already semi-monopolized. Fonterra pretty much runs the show. However, Fonterra is a co-operative owned by 10,500 dairy farmers. So the monopoly isn't much of an issue if thousands of people benefit from its activities.

By the way, how much money IS the government spending to rebuild Christchurch? That's a question I had to answer Don't Know to.

$15 billion. The total rebuild cost is predicted to be $40 billion.

[Patistan]

I do know Kiwi stuff so i could answer the questions easily. Here are my results

UF-67
NP-61
NZF-54
LAB-52
MRI-51
MNA-45
ACT-44
GRN-41

These are somewhat surprising cause i thought i was leaning towards GRN more then LAB

[Tsaraine]

What did you say with regards to the sale of farms to foreign buyers?

"Somewhat disagree" to banning it. But I also put a very light weighting (2/10) on that section.

I'm not for no restrictions at all. I think all sales over a certain amount (say, a typical house price) should be approved or rejected individually, by a statutory authority preferably but the Minister's office would be acceptable too. It's not that foreign buyers are worse than domestic agribusinesses. What concerns me is the possibility of an entire industry like dairy being monopolized and it's harder to see that coming if the buyers are from somewhere like China where the money trail is murky at best.

By the way, how much money IS the government spending to rebuild Christchurch? That's a question I had to answer Don't Know to.

As someone who lives in Christchurch ... the answer is either "not enough" or "enough, but local political bullshit is fucking things over". The local political situation is basically a dog repeatedly vomiting and eating its own vomit. Progress rebuilding is very slow.

As for dairy being monopolized ... it pretty much is - the dairy farmers' cartel, Fonterra, controls enough of the dairy supply to basically set its own prices. This is why the National party proposed the (utterly stupid) idea of re-introducing free milk for primary school children - because prices on dairy are now high enough to make it not a guaranteed thing for poor families. The rise in dairy prices has also caused a dramatic expansion in dairy farming on the Canterbury plains in the past decade, which - due to its more water-intensive requirements than sheep or beef farming - is causing water issues across the plains.

Personally, I'm less concerned with foreign ownership of land than I am with Keys' increasingly cozy relationship with foreign industry (I'd also be concerned about his cozy relationship with domestic industry). And I think the privatization of infrastructure is a bad, bad idea - particularly in the case of NZ Rail, where privatization in the 1980s has essentially led to the stagnation and decay of the rail network, and the demise of passenger rail almost entirely.

[Risottia]

I'd vote Labour because ethnical/regional parties suck (Lega Nord, anyone?), and because Greens are too connected to Greenpeace for my tastes.

The Greens are actually very much a mainstream party these days. Their economic policies are very much driven towards investment and funding of information technology R&D as well as a number of other things, including a state run for profit investment bank and huge investments in NZ's shitty transport system. All of the hippies that the party used to be associated with are now dead, retired or moved to other parties.

That's better.

[Costa Fierro]

:hug:

Did you miss the part about it's only MP being arrested and convicted of electoral fraud?

That does suck, yeah. Fraud should only be handled by the professionals in the larger parties!

I would hope that they would learn from their mistake and run more honest candidates in the future.

You know what they say about pigs and their flight abilities. ACT is pretty much a minority party anyway that leeches onto the National Party for voting support in Parliament.

As for dairy being monopolized ... it pretty much is - the dairy farmers' cartel, Fonterra, controls enough of the dairy supply to basically set its own prices.

That "cartel" is owned by over ten thousand farmers. They are the ones who sell the milk and they are the ones that largely determine pricing.

And I think the privatization of infrastructure is a bad, bad idea - particularly in the case of NZ Rail, where privatization in the 1980s has essentially led to the stagnation and decay of the rail network, and the demise of passenger rail almost entirely.

And nationalization of Kiwirail hasn't exactly turned out for the better. The problem is not the way the company is run but the lack of investment in rail altogether. For what it is, NZ's rail system is shit, something which hasn't been fixed since it was privatized.

[The Huskar Social Union]

I got the MANA party as my top, with 73%, followed by the Green party at 71% with Labour coming up in third with 67%. Probably the best political test ive done if i am honest (even if i never heard of half of these parties and their leaders, and had to google them first hehe).

(From Ireland)

[Tatooene]

ACT 72%
NP 62%
UF 58%
MRI 53%
Lab 51%
NZF 40%
MNA 31%
GRN 26%

Not much clue what any of this means, but based on the graph, it looks about right.

[Meridiani Planum]

ACT is pretty much a minority party anyway that leeches onto the National Party for voting support in Parliament.

Would you prefer the sort of system that America has where only two parties are in the legislature?

I love the idea of minor parties. They give principled people a chance to vote for principle and have that be noticed. I don't see a problem with minor parties cooperating with major parties where they have some basis for an alliance.

[Costa Fierro]

Would you prefer the sort of system that America has where only two parties are in the legislature?

No.

I love the idea of minor parties. They give principled people a chance to vote for principle and have that be noticed. I don't see a problem with minor parties cooperating with major parties where they have some basis for an alliance.

It's not like they get anything out of it. The only real viable third party in NZ is the Greens.

[Forsher]

ACT is pretty much a minority party anyway that leeches onto the National Party for voting support in Parliament.

Would you prefer the sort of system that America has where only two parties are in the legislature?

I love the idea of minor parties. They give principled people a chance to vote for principle and have that be noticed. I don't see a problem with minor parties cooperating with major parties where they have some basis for an alliance.

This should be done through good electoral practice. Which is to say, reduce the threshold (2% sounds good) and remove the piggy back/coat tail system that the cup of tea represents. Epsom is, for all intents and purposes, a rotten borough at this point.

It should be mentioned that the piggy back thing means an MP that wins an electoral seat doesn't face the 5% threshold that tripped the Conservative's up last time. John Banks' being gifted a seat in Epsom was meant to bring, at the very least, Don Brash in. It's a rort.

Minor parties are great, they're a good idea. Coalitions and systems that actually encourage coalitions are brill. Bad electoral practice is rotten.

Naturally the reason why there is actual opposition to the idea is xenophobia or, in many/most cases, plain old racism.

Hit the nail on the head. It's pretty much the same kneejerk racism that permeates NZ society when it comes to these sorts of things and it's absolute bullshit. It's the same thing with Labour's proposal to limit immigration and prevent foreigners from buying houses. Kneejerk racism. No logic. No foundation. Just desperate kneejerk populism.

The whole reason the property market has exploded was not because of a lack of housing (a lie essentially invented by the media and turned into a circus by the politicians) but because people did not have any faith in the finance companies and so turned to property as a safe investment. That meant that more and more people were buying houses which increased housing prices. If the government introduced a capital gains tax and sorted out the regulations of the finance company market rather than building more houses, faith would be restored and the property market would return to those actually investing in a house to own or rental properties.

There aren't enough houses but the issue is grossly inflated by the absence of a capital gains tax encouraging people to make investments which a) pay less in the long term for themselves and b) don't help anyone else out either.

There was that "Pakeha Party" that received some attention earlier in the year, although I can't remember whether or not it was a massive piss-take or a serious party.

It started off as a hissy fit, then the creator wanted to make it a real thing and then it crashed and burnt due to scandals.

Personally, I'm less concerned with foreign ownership of land than I am with Keys' increasingly cozy relationship with foreign industry (I'd also be concerned about his cozy relationship with domestic industry). And I think the privatization of infrastructure is a bad, bad idea - particularly in the case of NZ Rail, where privatization in the 1980s has essentially led to the stagnation and decay of the rail network, and the demise of passenger rail almost entirely.

Yet another reason, to my mind, not to vote National. Its opposition to the City Rail Loop (particularly with regards to setting usage targets that its policies mean will not be met) and love of motorways (esp. pointless ones) are indicative of a mindset that is, well, entirely fixated on the present.

To my mind, the only good thing National has going for it is that it is willing to treat most of the issues relating to "foreigners" exactly how they are: daft and xenophobic. Any by foreigners I think we can all tell that what they (the Labours etc.) mean is Chinese.

[Stormaen]

I'm surprised United Future is second...

[Constantinopolis]

Green 88%
Mana Movement 86%
New Zealand First 74%
Labour 71%

I guess this is what happens when there are no socialist or communist parties on the list for me to match with.

Also, at the end I said I care very strongly about wealth distribution, employment, housing, education and health care, and I care moderately about the environment, but the rest doesn't matter very much to me at all.

[Costa Fierro]

Green 82%
Māori Party 78%
New Zealand First 72%
Labour 72%

I guess this is what happens when there are no socialist or communist parties on the list for me to match with.

Mana is about as far left on the political spectrum as you can get with political representation. New Zealand does have communist parties but they are very, very small.

[Magna Libero]

I got ACT as my first result and UT as second. I'm afraid ACT is much similar to the Republican Party of the US, so I'm not sure if I would vote for them.

I feel like the ACT doesn't respect the Maori people as much as they should. However, I'm not from New Zealand, so I'm not sure if they support segregation against them, similar to the style in South Africa.

[Constantinopolis]

Mana is about as far left on the political spectrum as you can get with political representation. New Zealand does have communist parties but they are very, very small.

I edited my results after you quoted them, because I had initially mistaken Māori with Mana (it was Mana that came second on my results, not Māori), and I had initially posted the numbers for the unweighted results. With the weighted results, my results show the same parties in the same order, but the percentage matches are a little different.

Anyway, that doesn't change anything. If Mana is indeed the furthest left party with political representation, it's strange that it was only my second match. Especially in the weighted results, which should have taken account of the fact that I care about left-wing economic issues far more than about the environment.

[Lenciland]

Green's both ways.

[Costa Fierro]

Mana is about as far left on the political spectrum as you can get with political representation. New Zealand does have communist parties but they are very, very small.

I edited my results after you quoted them, because I had initially mistaken Māori with Mana (it was Mana that came second on my results, not Māori), and I had initially posted the numbers for the unweighted results. With the weighted results, my results show the same parties in the same order, but the percentage matches are a little different.

Anyway, that doesn't change anything. If Mana is indeed the furthest left party with political representation, it's strange that it was only my second match. Especially in the weighted results, which should have taken account of the fact that I care about left-wing economic issues far more than about the environment.

The Green Party is broadly left wing when it comes to economics although it is very much left wing with social policy.

[Southern Babylonia]

I got Green 75%, Mana 73%, and Labour 65%. On the chart, I seemed closest to Mana.

[Socialist Tera]

I got Green but I would most likely vote for a Marxist-Leninist party.

[Costa Fierro]

I got Green but I would most likely vote for a Marxist-Leninist party.

They do exist. They just get virtually no votes whatsoever.