TOP Party one to watch in this election

[whatsup]

Or pumped hydro which labour is most supportive of (which is a nationwide battery).. though costs do need to be kept under control.

In Aust pumped hydro has risen approx 18 x and the concept isnt fully built yet, just imagine what will happen in N Z with the usual out of control building practises !!!

[BlackPeter]

TOP are polling at 1% according to tonights One News poll. They are not even close.

(Most of the electricity in China comes from coal, which accounted for 62% of the electricity generation mix in 2021).

TOP's plan is to win Ilam - and take whatever party votes they get with them into parliament. While I still think they have an uphill battle to face, its in my view not hopeless. Raf Manji used to be Lianne Dalziels financial hand in the Christchurch City Council, and he is well known in the area.

https://www.top.org.nz/raf-manji

[Logen Ninefingers]

TOP's plan is to win Ilam - and take whatever party votes they get with them into parliament. While I still think they have an uphill battle to face, its in my view not hopeless. Raf Manji used to be Lianne Dalziels financial hand in the Christchurch City Council, and he is well known in the area.

https://www.top.org.nz/raf-manji

I think Brownlee was a problem in Ilam last time around, for the electorate vote to go to Labour. Ilam is usually about as safe a National seat as you can get. Labour currently hold the seat and will be desperate to retain it, and I foresee that National voters will vote for the new National candidate who has no baggage.
I just can’t see where Manji’s votes will come from in the above scenario, I can really only see him coming a distant third….unless left wing voters abandon Pallett en masse for Manji, in which case he may come second.

[BlackPeter]

I think Brownlee was a problem in Ilam last time around, for the electorate vote to go to Labour. Ilam is usually about as safe a National seat as you can get. Labour currently hold the seat and will be desperate to retain it, and I foresee that National voters will vote for the new National candidate who has no baggage.
I just can’t see where Manji’s votes will come from in the above scenario, I can really only see him coming a distant third….unless left wing voters abandon Pallett en masse for Manji, in which case he may come second.

... which is a forcast not more or less worth than any opinion from any professional analyst (which we know, are always wrong); Remember, how many people predicted 6 weeks prior to the 2017 elections that Cindy will make it?

But independent from the value of any forecast with an agenda .... this says absolutely nothing about which party has the best program. And lets face it, always just going for the party we think creates the lesser damage is not really uplifting, isn't it?

Given that National and Labour did work over the last 3 decades or so hand in hand to run the country down (no matter whether we talk health services. education, public safety, infrastructure or even defence) would I wish somebody with fresh ideas all the luck they can get.

We can't just continue with National underfunding essential services (like education and health) when its their turn and Labour (when its their turn, like the last 6 years) just throwing money at them instead of fixing them, because they have no clue how to run projects.

National tried for decades to starve the essential services we have, and Labour did not know how to cure them when it was their turn.

Somehow it feels we need to change the approach.

Early days for my journey of discovery, but so far I like what I've seen from TOP:

https://www.top.org.nz/policy

Their main problem might be that they don't rattle the cage strong enough. Lets help them, shall we ?

[BlackPeter]

... and they do have a health policy which even makes sense :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHzseyYs3cI

Only NZ party I heard of looking into the causes for deteriorating public health.

[justakiwi]

Given that National and Labour did work over the last 3 decades or so hand in hand to run the country down (no matter whether we talk health services. education, public safety, infrastructure or even defence) would I wish somebody with fresh ideas all the luck they can get.

Exactly. People have very short memories, and while I fully agree that Labour has let us down, they did not create the current situation all by themselves. National contributed to it during their stints in government, and are also responsible for the mess we now find ourselves in.

Somehow it feels we need to change the approach.

Early days for my journey of discovery, but so far I like what I've seen from TOP:

https://www.top.org.nz/policy

Their main problem might be that they don't rattle the cage strong enough. Let's help them, shall we ?

They have my attention.

[Logen Ninefingers]

Exactly. People have very short memories, and while I fully agree that Labour has let us down, they did not create the current situation all by themselves. National contributed to it during their stints in government, and are also responsible for the mess we now find ourselves in.




They have my attention.

At the end of the day, TOP are not going to get over 5%.

[iceman]

At the end of the day, TOP are not going to get over 5%.

Therefore are a wasted vote, whatever you think of their policies.

[BlackPeter]

... and actually - they are not a one trick pony. I think their housing policy makes a lot of sense:

https://www.top.org.nz/affordable-housing

I know, taxes are always unwelcome, but its hard to build a future if you don't invest.

What they propose is to put a (low) tax on the land value of urban properties (and reduce the income tax instead - i.e. for most people it will end up tax neutral or even positive). The outcome would be a better use of land, because several units on a certain piece of land would attract less tax per unit.

On top of that they want to enable councils to allow more land development by returning some of the collected taxes to them and at the same time require them to have a sufficient landbank to keep housing affordble.

Better use of the limited resources we have ...

[justakiwi]

I realise that, but you know what? Maybe it doesn't matter. I think there is a lot of truth in Black Peter's post and comments. We can't keep on doing the same thing we have always been doing. Maybe we need to start thinking outside the square. Maybe we need to move away from this thought process that we can't vote for a party unless they stand a chance of getting at least 5%. Maybe we should go ahead and vote for them - and if we all did that - maybe they would get over the threshold.

At the end of the day, TOP are not going to get over 5%.