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Hey to all the New Zealanders out there. I was just wondering if you'd mind giving me an idea on what political party you guys support. ACT, NZ First, National or something else??? I voted for Winston last time but I'm thinking of giving mine to Prebble. Cheerz.

Hey to all the New Zealanders out there.

LOL, I'm a Texan!! There are plenty of New Zealanders on this thread, shaggyeel has given me a lot of information.

,,, a good time to talk about voting. Winston Peters was an option last election for me but on weighing everything up, Prebble's crowd won thru. Winston Peters made the right noises on immigration and law and order, enchanting the blue rinse set but for those like me who aren't thinking about retirement yet and still long to pay tax for everyone else's bills, ACT was the Party of choice.

Some will say that Prebble has a lot of baggage from the 1980s economic reform days. He has. Let's try moving on now. It was his Party that consistently mentioned the economy, the positive side of immigration and New Zealand's obscene excesses in a state of the art $NZ13b per annum welfare escapade.

The present nanny state wipes our arses for us in exchange for us giving them the power to sneak legislation thru late at night from social engineers like Margaret Wilson and all the other grey nurses with "mother knows best" attitudes. This is sweeping stuff... the abolition of our rights of appeal thru the Privy Council, sly pay rises for MPs and trying to muzzle the media thru legislation. The stuff that made Albania what it is.

Thinking back, I guess the last real statesman New Zealand had in the hotseat was Keith Holyoake. New Zealanders have really sold themselves short on the calibre of individuals representing them. That says it all for the intelligence and expectations of voters. Voting involves common sense - much the same as shopping. You go for the best deal you can at the time. As long as TV carries rugby and lotto, the New Zealand public is generally happy. Under government ownership, TV channels rarely have any political commentary and public apathy is easily capitalised on by this government. As soon as thinking people start making it clear that they want and expect better representation and less of the vote buying politically correct dykes running our show, the sooner we can hope for better. Look at the Minister of Finance - a Phd in history. The good "doctor" should be able to call on his knowledge of how the Soviet Union could turn 37% of their male workforce into alcoholics and make women stand in line for bread - Socialism's main claim to fame in the USSR. He's hardly able to contain himself in Parliamentary broadcasts when someone who gives a view other than that of a socialist's. Spitting venom and rationing mock laughter will never pass for ability.

On the other hand, whilst Prebble won't ever collect an orator's award, his cleverly crafted questions have really deemed him worthy of being the de facto opposition while the National Party have been busy with their disintegration process.

For a bit of wholesome reading, hit this and do the sums on it.

Act.

It'll get you some funny looks when the political debates spark-up around election time; but that's OK.

And that's the downside. Like shags says, we're far too apolitical. For the most part, if it's on the news, then that's about as deep as the debate gets.

Go to the main party websites and sign up for their e-mail newsletters. I think you'll find that despite a few shortcomings, Act are about the only part doing any real thinking, and sticking to a consistent plot.