[Heatseeker]

This is the first time I've tried starting this sort of thread, so Mods please fix any booboos I've made, and also if possible add in other news sources as suggested by NZ-based FReepers. Thanks.

[Heatseeker]

Ping.

[Lonely Bull]

Thanks for starting the thread!

I have the TV One stream on right now; it's working fairly well.

For updated numbers on a webpage, refresh
http://www.electionresults.govt.nz/partystatus.html

[Uriah_lost]

Can you point those of us not terribly familiar with NZ politics/parties to one or more web pages that can serve as a primer?
Thanks bunches

[Uriah_lost]

More analysis and commentary please, I'm really enjoying this....kinda like watching an "aha moment" happen!

[alessandrofiaschi]

WELLINGTON (Reuters) - Former central bank governor Don Brash appeared on course to upset New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark's Labor-led government on Saturday after a hard-fought election campaign.
The promise of personal income tax cuts appeared to have swayed New Zealand's 2.9 million voters despite Clark's track record of strong economic growth during her two terms in power stretching back to 1999.
With 20 percent of the vote counted, official election figures showed conservative National ahead with 45 percent compared with 36 percent for Labor.
Those figures would translate into 57 seats for National in an expanded 122-seat parliament, short of an overall majority but with sufficient center-right minor party partners to form a coalition. Labor was on course for 46 seats.
Party officials from both sides said it was still too early to call a definitive result.
"It will be a nose-to-nose, head-to-head result between the two major parties," Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Michael Cullen told National Radio. Volatile opinion polls in the final week of campaigning had pointed to a race that was too close to call. A victory would mark a stunning turnaround for 64-year-old Brash, a political novice who had trailed Clark by as much as 10 percentage points in opinion polls before the budget in May. Clark had warned voters the election was a choice between stable government and the economic gains of the past six years, and the likelihood of increased debt and cuts in social spending under National. But she looked set to lose power even though New Zealand has averaged 4 percent growth over the past five years -- the longest period of economic growth in half a century -- and unemployment at a near 19-year low. Clark disappointed many voters after the May budget with her promise for only small tax cuts to begin in three years. Brash in contrast campaigned strongly on the promise of tax cuts worth more than NZ$9 billion over three years. OVER-TAXED "I think probably how people felt they were being over-taxed and there was a lot of waste in the system, I think that's probably the biggest issue," National campaign manager Steven Joyce told TV One. Some voters said they had not made up their mind until they entered polling booths and went with their gut instincts. Early counting suggested the promise of tax cuts won out. "There's definitely a philosophical split between what's in it for me and what's in it for the country," said one voter in the suburb of Porirua in the capital Wellington. The promise of a close race in the closing days had suggested that some of the 17 minor parties contesting the election were shaping up as potential kingmakers. Under New Zealand's German-style proportional representation system, parties must win either a local district seat or 5 percent of the nationwide vote to get a seat in the single-chamber parliament. Although the last parliament had 120 seats, minor parties were winning more seats than expected under the system, which could result in the chamber being expanded by two seats. Of the leading minor parties, nationalist New Zealand First and the Green Party, a natural Labor ally, had both attracted about 6 percent of the vote. New Zealand First has vowed not to form a formal coalition with either of the major parties but has promised to support whichever party wins a majority on issues of supply and confidence.

[naturalman1975]

A plane was stolen from a New Zealand airport this evening. There have been reports that the pilot threatened to crash the plane into the Sky Tower, and other unconfirmed reports that he planned to crash the plane into National Party leader Don Brash's house. Plane has now crashed into water, apparently near Brash's home. Information apparently from TVNZ site. I can't access it.

[alessandrofiaschi]

National + First + United Future + ACT = majority? They could for a centre-right Coalition.

[maquiladora]

I vote for....Peter Jackson!

[Heartofsong83]

IIRC, these would be the US equivalents:

National = Republican
Labor = Democratic

ACT = Libertarian
United Future = Constitution
Green = Green
Progressives = socialist
NZ First = independent Pat Buchanan/Reform
Maori = special interest

[montag813]

When Helen goes down, will she blame the JOOOOOS?

[Archie Bunker on steroids]

Whoever wins better pass an immediate law to ensure that the Steinlager recipe is to remain unchanged forever.

[NZerFromHK]

In fact I need to stress that it is not necessarily New Zealand's right will support the US on WOT. There are some people who are schipozerpic: pro-free trade, pro-welfare reform, and perhaps even pro-family, but squarely anti-American on WOT and wimpy on defence. One ACT supporter (now living in America) says something like this:

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http://www.rodneyhide.com/index.php/weblog/comments/sunday_papers/

(read the comments section)

"#

good job maurice, sara, michael and everyone else so involved in rodney’s epsom push. i was a little nervous looking it up today.

i’m in america now though, and the war on iraq is looking more and more stupid every day. can we quit it please, at least don’t support it.

ps. do we really need nuclear? i don’t think so. i’m not a scientist but our population demands arent’ that big and I’d rather protect our remote island virginity from the ghoully glow of nuclear waste.

bring on the efficient, creative economy which will flourish in NZ with a leaner, less bureaucratic government.

GO ACT
Posted by charlotte on 09/18 at 03:00 PM"

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So my advice is that: remember the three-legged stool of American conservatism is not necessarily present in New Zealand. Particularly on the foreign/defence policy wise.