Three weeks into my new role seems a good time to blog. Today we will reveal the Internet Party’s candidates for the Internet MANA Party list. You’ll see that we are bringing a fresh leadership into national politics.
Our team embodies a new political constituency. Smart, young and non-tribal.
This team has done things outside politics that will invigorate progressive representation. They have worked in real jobs, often on the digital frontier or helping others catch up to it. Many are deeply rooted in provincial communities. All have an ethic of service that is reflected in their contribution as volunteers at home and abroad and now their commitment to changing the government by winning Internet MANA Party votes.
I am stoked with the strength of our Auckland candidates. Auckland matters very much, and yet it has for a long time trailed the capital in fostering and promoting new progressive leadership. Perhaps it’s our size and diversity, our mental distance from the political centre, but it’s always been hard to connect Aucklanders to national politics. You see the result when almost every civic leader wants the City Rail Link and all we get is more roads. When 2km from the CBD my internet speed is crap and the only reason it was faster in Te Atatu was because our neighbourhood couldn’t afford broadband. When voter turnout in the South Auckland electorates falls at a similar rate to the growth in inequality.
We are serious about Auckland, serious about the potential of the Internet to turn around regional decline and serious about bridging the digital divide.
On that note in just a few weeks since the Internet MANA agreement was reached, it is taking on its own identity within our planning and thinking.
Yes, the agreement was sparked by a shared interest in ensuring Internet Party votes would not be wasted – a situation that would have undermined our mission to change the government. But such an agreement would not have been possible without a strong values base shared by its advocates in both parties. I firmly believe that the substance of this agreement lies in its linking of two important constituencies through these common values. Among those values is a spirit of entrepreneurialism that is disrupting business, culture and now politics, and the Internet is a tool and a catalyst for that.
As I said to our candidates last weekend, imagine if we had embraced the opportunity 180 years ago to forge a society based on the universal human values we espouse. How different Aotearoa would look now, for Maori, Pakeha and newcomers. There is a Chinese proverb that says the best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago, the second best time is today.
In three months we can change the government. To do that we must jolt the disengaged into a conversation about politics. We have started.
UPDATE: Party List is out
Well Laila..what I am interested in primarily is this: I , and others are just as keen to see this Govt toppled ,..indeed , any political party that follows Mont Pelerin neo liberalism.
But there must be a viable political and economic plan to replace it, in fact eradicate it from becoming so pervasive after defeat.
A working social democratic model exists today in both the Scandinavian countries and West Germany… where they continue to hold per capita the most affluence globally.
I do hope the left can be cohesive enough to present such a plan to capture the public thinking , it is in the area of poverty -unnecessary poverty – that is causing the social divide .
It is here …that is the single biggest issue of this generation.
Peripheral issues can be implemented following in the wake of addressing this one , this is the weeping sore being deliberately ignored ,excused ,pontificated over , debated …with no real effectual progress being made on it.
For thirty long years as you well know we have seen the real time living standards of not only the unemployed, working poor but also the middle classes being eroded due to this pernicious economic ideology…it would be in vain if the Left toppled this Govt only to have no real alternative economic policy to replace it.
A detailed ,comprehensive alternative is sorely needed to shake New Zealanders out of their collective sleep and realize this current state of affairs is not viable for future generations.
I think you will get the Greens and of course Mana in here, with a cohesive political and economic plan. Labour, they are all so out for themselves and bloody arrogant as the other ‘main’ party, all those ABC’s need to go right now, they are prepared to remain backbenchers and dam things.
Show me a Labour party MP who has ever been an activist! Therein lies the problem.
Most of them aren’t even backbenchers, which is one of the biggest problems.
Labour actually has quite a few good backbench MPs, and I’m sure Labour would be a lot better off if they replace many of the ones who are currently on the front bench…
Laila Harré: “Our team embodies a new political constituency. Smart, young and non-tribal.”
What on earth is that supposed to mean?
‘Tribal’ is mainstream speak for people who are overly invested in ‘party’ politics. I’d say that most of the younger people I’ve tried talking politics with recently definitely have a strong sense of cynicism about political parties.
Cemetary Jones – nailed it.
Based on the photo above, I would say IMP is going for the “urban chic” vote.
Most probably Cuba Street, Raglan possibly and with some smart play could nibble at North Shore.
http://www.8tribes.co.nz/tribe-summary.php
Good stuff great to see Miriam up there. All so young and so ably led by this mastertroke of genius the appointment of Laila Harre to the head of the party.
excellent stuff Laila, will keep watching, reading and listening.
Looking at the image at the top, my thought was; this is a Party for the 21st century.
Let’s hope their phasers are firmly set at Kick Tory Arse!
Damn, that’s a styley crew!
I was checking out the discussions on their website the other day and was amazed at just how constructive and well-reasoned they were too. No one was indulging in flame wars, just focused on the goal of developing policy. I was very impressed – in fact I was quite stunned, it’s the first time I’ve ever seen 100% constructive political debate on the internet.
So just saying, it’s good to know there’s some substance to go with the sizzle.
When do we get to see where you stand with regard to growth/climate change, ETC ?
Klingons !
[…] Internet Party today released their candidates list. Definitely a cosmopolitan, 21st Century-looking […]
The owners of New Zealand, and I’m talking about the real owners -the international corporations and global money-lenders who run everything from behind the scenes- will not allow any major disturbance to arrangements they have carefully fostered over hundreds of years.
Hence, every political movement -Social Credit, Values Party, Direct Democracy etc.= gets surreptitiously sabotaged. This one will too.
Expect more of the same until energy depletion overtakes desperation measures to maintain supply and environmental collapse bring the system down. In the meantime expect the covert fascism that characterises most western ‘democracies’ to rapidly morph into overt fascism…. along the lines of ‘If you disagree you get annihilated’.
Water cannons and military-style vehicles are being issued to ‘security forces’ throughout the world whatever the political system, but especially in ‘democracies’.
Aye Matey , but then , …that’s what makes the contest even more interesting…better to vote for the better than the worse. Better to vote for those that are not afraid of changes for the good than for those who want to uphold their outdated fiefdoms..
And there’s never any good to be had from gloomily looking at the miserable keepers of the staus quo and resigning ourselves to that way of thinking.
Otherwise we end up like whipped dogs that cower at the advance of their owners. I do not wish to be ‘owned’ by anyone..as Im sure you dont as well.
Yep – that’s the dose of reality and the magnitude of what we’re up against – and I like the nod to George Carlin.
We could be cynical and resigned and just give up or we could create a new possibility. We might still get screwed in the end, but I’m pretty sure we’ll feel better about ourselves for having given it our best shot – and what if, despite the odds, we are successful.
Well…a hail from the 19th century ”Good Lord!! don’t they look DASHING ! …by Joves !! …Spiffy , even !!
Well done, chaps and chapess’es – out with the old and in with the new I always say!!
And despite my questioning post above…my mind is firmly made up and has been for a long time 🙂
Beam me up Scottie. Set course for Quadrant 431!
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