Who Will Survive Election 2008?

Who Will Survive Election 2008?

For those closer to the electorate, will Peter Dunn & United Future survive in Wellington?
Is Winston a spent force in Tauranga?
Will Labour dump the Fat Controller (Cullen)before the election?
Who will replace Auntie Helen after the elections.
Will the Greens reach 5% now that that the Nats have made green mainstream ?
Where will NZ First votes go to?

I really dont know who to vote for this time round. Nats, no as they'll sell everything, the current encumbants? Not my choice, the greens? They're just a bunch of flakes that no one has really voted in personally, NZ first? what policies? lots of talk and little substance, just like the nats. Lonegunmen2008-05-25 16:26:09

National have turned green mainstream?  Yes backing out of climate change policies is really green.

Just be glad that we have 5+ choices unlike some other countries

doesn't amtter whgo you vote for - both National and Labour have similar policies and I personally have doubts that the smakller parties will feature much at all, except the greens.

Mind you with Helen being such a big and life long fan of China, why don't we just become another province and be done with it! Lonegunmen2008-05-26 14:36:28

Is it the parties or the voters we should be worried about? Read something the other day (Chris Trotski?) that said 20% of voters make their mind up in the polling booth HarryHotspur2008-05-26 23:35:36

I preffer the Australian option, the invitation is supposedly still open. Biggest upside is the Nix get to be in the ACL.
Critical_Lemon2008-05-27 16:16:29

Out of interest, why do you want the government to own so much? It really puzzles me that everyone buys into the idea that what happened in the 80's and 90's was so bad for the country; yes the way they organised sections of the public service didn't work in some cases (Health in particular) but the fact is the economic growth of the recent past has more to do with Douglas et al than Cullen.

If it wasnt for the 80's reforms we'd be in a huge mess.

I think most people want them to own key infrastucture.  Areas where there is a natural monpoly.  i.e. telephone network, postal service, train lines, electricity lines.  Otheriwse if it is owned privtely there is under investment.  Hence why trains are always breaking down, and why broadband is so sh*te etc. 2ndBest2008-05-27 16:41:45

The situation until the rail buy-back was actually quite profitable, with the gvmt  owning the inftrastructure. The danger of what they want to do atm is if they put the debt from development on the books of the operating company, the debt will be so huge the company will never catch up which is exactly what happened with the old NZR.

We actually have some of the cheapest and fastest broadband in the world, OECD statistics put NZ in the top 5 or top 10 on almost all aspects of our interent services. NZ was one of the world leaders in utilisation of new technology until regulation earlier this decade. I cant point you to academic papers on the subject if you wish.

Also, the telephone network was greatly underfunded when it was gvmt owned.
Critical_Lemon2008-05-27 17:21:10

Of course Toll was making a profit, they had a monpoly.  Yes the govt owned and upgraded the tracks but there was no incentve for toll to invest in new trains.  Hence why they are so old and crowded all the time.  If it is so profitable why let an overseas company rip us off? I'd much rather have it owned locally.

well it looks like our power profits will be going to China. If Cullen had bought it instead of Railways, the pricing could have been controlled, probably cheaper to users and all profits would have gone back into the govt coffers. There's certain areas that should not be sold, power being one.