The Unions have launched their ‘Get out the Vote’ campaign for the election…
One million Kiwis didn’t vote last election. The Get Out The Vote campaign – an independent, non-partisan project of the NZ union movement – aims to change that!
Help more people have a say in 2014 by asking them to enrol now and vote in September. Just volunteer a few hours of your time to the campaign, and we’ll connect you together with hundreds of volunteers across the country to make a difference – one conversation at a time.
Research shows that many non-voters have simply never been approached with a good reason to vote. Whether you volunteer to talk to people in your workplace, your community, face to face, by phone or via social media, we’ll provide you with training, support and feedback about how your efforts make a difference.
…the doubling of the Labour Party membership over the leadership contest combined with a realisation on the part of the Unions that a third term National Government will do all it can to kill off organised labour, will give everyone the incentive to embrace this.
Their social media campaign to promote this will need to be sharp as will the way they target their message. Based on research as to why people didn’t bother to vote in the last election, 43% didn’t engage in 2011 because they weren’t interested and didn’t believe their vote would do much.
Social media can carry these values and messages perfectly, if the Unions can include that within their media vision, they will capture the very disengaged youth vote that will be needed to win this election.
Cunliffe is not putting on a convincing front at the moment.
His comments about Key milking the royal tour were spot on only to ruin it by whinging he wasn’t getting enough face time with the Prince himself. He came across as a snotty little cousin who was pissed rich Uncle William wasn’t giving him as many souvenirs from his latest overseas jaunt.
He would have been better saying “and by the way, Will, the Mrs and the kid are a nice lot but our head of state will be a Kiwi if I have my way. It would have made Key look like the out of date sycophant he is and at least a common sense alternative to the current dross.
Cunliffe again missed an opportunity and scored an own goal.
‘Unions Auckland’ are meeting in Grey Lynn Auckland tonight 7pm-9pm the old Trades Hall Gt Nth Rd regarding the “Get out the vote” strategy.
An exciting part of the plan I hear is that early voting, once the province of civic buildings like libraries, has been extended. So it seems organisations (such as Unions) with Electoral commission approval will be able to help set up mobile voting stations in areas where their members and other working class people are.
According to the stats, 70,000 people didn’t vote cause they thought their vote wouldn’t make a difference. And National won by 19,000 votes.
Yes, because their ain’t no difference between National and Labour. Labour is a capitalist and neo-liberal party responsible for the confiscation of the foreshore and seabed, the raids on Tuhoe etc etc. Different party, same old shit.
and asset sales…
yep. I completely agree with you on that one.
but Greens and Mana are different
I only hope that a vote for Green or Mana would mean a vote for a left leaning government.
why oh why cannot Labour + Green + Mana come out and repeatedly publicly state this? if they did… they’d probably bloody win!!
Which is why, Pete. that voting for Mana or the Greens will give Labour the impetus to rebuild a strong social democracy in this country.
That’s the you-beaut thing about MMP – it gives us real political choices.
I’d be interested to see what strategies the unions come up with. Who doesn’t vote? As a teacher I was amazed at the students who didn’t understand what voting was, let alone how to vote, when one voted and how to cope with the voting papers and more importantly who they should vote for. So some ground work needs to be done first to engage people to understand the relevance of an election and how to fill in those god damn forms. It can be quite daunting for those of us with high literacy skills let alone those who struggle to read forms, instructions and who have to turn up at some ‘ball-head’ place, be on their own in the voting booth. Shame. Or whatever the equivalent is now-a-days.
I taught year 9 and 10 social studies during our last election and I recall very clearly teaching exactly how MMP works, how our last system FPP worked, how to vote, how the select committee process works… in short, how our democracy works.
it’s taught. and I think it’s taught well. the resources are fabulous. resources and activities included having elections in the classroom with mock voting papers and boxes.. the whole shebang.
and I’m guessing most social studies classes at junior level in high school will be doing the same thing this year. elections.org have some great resources making teachers lives easier
Yaaah!. Yes I think it was when I came to teach that unit and not many if any knew about our electoral system prior to this unit. Not sure how well I taught it though.
“Based on research as to why people didn’t bother to vote in the last election, 43% didn’t engage in 2011 because they weren’t interested and didn’t believe their vote would do much.”
The MSM are working in overdrive to nurture and reinforce the same perceptions, observations, impressions and sentiments in the many former non voters, and also those that traditionally support Labour and the left of centre.
I really hope that the campaign by the unions will counteract this.
But as unions are only having so many members and supporters, even this drive will only contribute a bit. Much more will be needed, and the parties must use social media and their own support networks and finance, to spread their messages as effectively as possible, also hold as many public meetings and events as possible, as otherwise the MSM will determine this election outcome again.
Surely part of it was that the population were told, via the media, it was a foregone conclusion National would win, so why bother voting. It worked a treat and they want a repeat of the same conditions, plus the odd smear and misinformation campaign.
Slightly off topic but I would really like to see compulsory union membership for anyone under a certain hourly rate e.g. $20 per hour. Exploitation of low paid workers with the help of our “business friendly government” (not been paid properly, no breaks, unsafe working conditions) especially the young is an issue and it’s not helped by the 90 day – sack them if you feel like it legislation either.
National actually got about 39,000 less votes (both party and constituency) in 2011 than in 2008 but the percentage of total votes went up slightly. Labour got about 229,000 votes less in 2011 and its percentage rate dropped by about 6%, mainly in the party vote. My take on this is that most ex-Labour supporters did not switch to National, they either switched to others such as the Greens or NZ First or just stayed at home. Either way, it appears that Labour must work like fury to get ALL their supporters to the poll on September 20. The way to do that it to convince them that their votes are vital and the future of their nation is in their hands the way the Nats have convinced their supporters to do the same. This campaign is a good start but more must follow.
Not everyone who belongs to a union is a ‘lefty’ or votes in that direction.
There is a considerable chunk of the population who are not eligible for union membership yet may have a tendency to vote toward the left, if sufficiently convinced it may prosper them in the fairly near-future. But no one engages with them…
There are seniors, no longer in the workforce – and no union will ever connect with them.
So far this campaign looks like a half a pair of laddered fishnet stockings. Any minnow could slip through the mesh. ‘No sprat left behind’, had better be the catch cry, Labour, if you want to create a government this year.
And the same goes for the other left-leaning parties. They’re ignoring a large number of voter niches in favour of the Very Important Blocs. Slow learners?
National’s next targetted social group with be State house tenants. They are the ones we need to focus on (as well as the missing 800,000), so that they know that a third term of National may see them turfed out of their homes.
170,000 State house tenants voting Labour or Green or Mana will deliver us a new government.
But more importantly than that (yes, there is something more important) it will give the poor and dispossessed an idea that their vote does count, and that they can choose the future of our nation, and society.
That is real empowerment!
This year, if every Labour, Green, Mana, and Internet Party supporter finds just one person who didn’t vote in 2011, and supports them to go to the ballot booth on 20 September – we will have a new government as our Christmas present.
Folks, it doesn’t get much better than that!
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