NZ election bits

In the photo above, Labour’s candidate for the Northcote Electorate, Paula Gillon, poses by one of her defaced election hoardings. She good-humouredly Tweeted: “Still trying to figure out how they discovered my alter-ego...” Defacing election signs is never okay—no matter the candidate or party—but I think that Gillon’s response has the right tone. Always best to not rise to the bait.

Irony on display

GayNZ.com reported that the candidate for the United Future Party in the North Shore Electorate, Damian Light, is openly gay, having recently come out. Gotta admit, I didn’t see that one coming. According to the article, Light told a forum that his party was “fair, open and believes in choice and removing barriers to create a more open society for all.” Uh huh. Party Leader Peter Dunne told the site, "we don't think a person's sexuality is relevant". Uh huh.

Dunne’s party brought a gaggle of religious extremists into Parliament, including the truly vile, but not terribly bright (too harsh? Okay, then, let's say not terribly astute), radical right politician Gordon Copeland. Copeland put forth an anti-gay—and totally unnecessary—bill to define marriage as only heterosexual. It was, of course, defeated, but party leader Dunne voted for it. He also voted against the Civil Unions Act, though, bizarrely, voted in favour of the Relationships (Statutory References) Act, which gave legal force to the Civil Unions Act by including them in most places where marriage is mentioned in law.

United Future is almost certain to remain a one-man party caucus in Parliament, provided that Dunne can hold his seat. If Labour’s Charles Chauvel defeats him, Dunne and United Future will be gone from Parliament, which, based on their record, sounds like it would be a good result.

Another radical right party dies

And speaking of radical religious extremists, the Kiwi Party, which Gordon Copeland helped to found and lead to defeat in the 2008 election, has folded. They’ve decided to merge with the “Conservative Party”, led by a failed Auckland Mayoral candidate best known for funding the “March for Stupidity”, as I called it, a publicity stunt by religious extremists angry that they didn’t get their way in the 2009 pro-smacking referendum. Since the first MMP election in 1996, no religious extremist party has received enough votes to enter Parliament. That’s highly unlikely to change this year, either.