WAATEA NEWS COLUMN: Privatisation of the electoral process harms Māori and our democracy
Blunder after blunder after blunder has maimed this years Local Election process from 27 missing candidate profiles in Hastings, to Māori ward candidate profiles missing in Whanganui, Ōpōtiki, South Wairarapa and Manawatū alongside low voter turn out.
Groups like Te Maruata (LGNZ Māori elected members), ActionStation, and others are calling for overhauls of how local elections are run but I believe we need something far more drastic, we need to actually take these elections back and run them for by the public.
What many Kiwis are unaware of is that the local council elections ARE NOT run by the Electoral Commission who run our National Elections. They are actually subcontracted out to two private companies!
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Election Services – an Auckland-based company that runs elections for Auckland Council and several other North Island councils.
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electionz.com – a Christchurch-based company that provides election services (including postal voting and online voting systems) for many South Island and some North Island councils.
These two companies are running these elections for a set contract fee and their incentive is to do the most minimal job to gain the highest amount of value from those contracts.
We are so cheap in this country, we’ve subcontracted our democracy out to these 2 private companies and it has come at the cost of our local democratic participation.
Since the mid-1990s, (Election Services in Auckland, Electionz.com in Christchurch) began to be appointed by councils as returning officers. Over time, most councils opted to outsource because of the scale and compliance requirements.
Look at the impact of privatising local elections over that time on participation rates:
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1992–1998: turnout in the 50–55% range.
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2001 (Local Electoral Act introduced, outsourcing becoming the norm): turnout dropped to ~47%.
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2004–2010: around 43–49%.
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2013–2019: fell further to 39–42%.
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2022: hit a modern low of ~36% nationwide.
Ever since we privatised our local elections, turn out has crashed, and that’s because these two private companies don’t care about the participation rate, they care about making money on their contracts!
And how much are those contracts worth?
It’s difficult to get a clear number, but the estimates are between $12million and $15million dollars.
I think it is outrageous that we have privatised our local elections process and are paying millions for a service that produces worse and worse participation rates.
In Auckland last Mayoralty election there were only 13 special booths for a City of over a million to cast votes if you weren’t enrolled. That’s the sort of voter suppression tactics that would make Alabama blush!
It is not acceptable that we have allowed these two private companies make the mint they are while our actual representation declines.
Now is the time to take back these elections and run them directly through the Electoral Commission and run them properly with the same amount of booths we would see for a national election and the same amount of advertising and promotion.
Why allow the free market to determine our democratic participation?
One more example of how the market is an utter failure. One more example of private enterprise is not better than the state. One more example of ideological purity of neo-Liberalism being utterly and completely bankrupt.
Time to stop this mad experiment.
One more example of how the market is an utter failure. One more example of private enterprise is not better than the state. One more example of the ideological purity of neo-Liberalism being utterly and completely bankrupt.
Time to stop this mad experiment.
I think we have such a poorly supported political system because there are too many like KH who don’t give a shit, and throw it round at anyone who happens to come into view (probably would leave little parcels on doorsteps if they could be bothered.).
People have had services and respect withdrawn from them ever since Labour committed treason on us, and rolled David Lange. Councils are majestic with important meetings where they deliberate on what they propose to impose on people and ratepayers, and find meretricious ways of quieting peoples annoyance and disgust and concern over cost. And so it goes Kurt Vonnegut RIP.
Even on this blog people’s concerns and despair are not properly understood, and so we vent on anti-vaxxers and covid deniers and so on. So many people have felt the invisible boot on the backside which doesn’t show up (vicious people know how to hurt without bruises). So when the system makes things even harder – to fight covid – and tells people it’s for their own good, they crack; there is a personal level of pressure and irritation that turns to anger or sadness, or both. The covid response was the sick result of an ailing body politic.
Note that and with hindsight, stop venting at ordinary Kiwis on the poorer side, and also note that the wealthier side don’t do much intellectual work in their spare time and comfort. Can’t think or Won’t think – that’s NZ summed up. What to do? Try and form a new grouping that’s pan iwi and pakeha and includes all these hopeful immigrant workers and students and the only requisite is to be kindly and practical and remain concerned about society and others welfare as well as one’s own.
There must be proper concern for families, assisting them to be good strong positive people in themselves, and in turn, making a society aware of both taking and giving throughout their life in this country (or where they live in the world), practising inclusion and resilience for all. Start now – you are ~~ALIVE~~ aren’t you! Do start looking for similarly positive and practical people and begin small groups (like committing to an extended family) which then coalesce with others who must be practical thinkers like yours; there is no time left to collaborate or seriously hobnob with dreamers, sneerers, shrinkers, grifters, drifters and uncertains; individualism is needed but not the purely self-centred.
Note for individualism in Oxford languages – first it gives self-reliant then it gives an example of its possible use in a sentence: “encouragement has been given to individualism, free enterprise, and the pursuit of profit”
But an individual can decide not to use their self-expression of life in these two outcomes!
That is the point of individualism!
Also on hobnob – that goes back to 1550 use. Think , will you have helped nurture a society that will still be prideful in 450 years’ time?
Hobnob – Etymology, Origin & Meaning
Online Etymology Dictionary https://www.etymonline.com › word › hobnob
Hobnob originates from 1763, meaning “to drink or toast together,” derived from hab nab (1550), from Old English habban/nabban “have or not have,” …
Song to finish from My Fair Lady – Show Me (Words, words I’m so sick of words.)
Audrey Hepburn is a beautiful will-o-the-wisp.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWAdTYl3Kh0
Firms running the local election process – councils too lazy to apply themselves to one of their basic tasks! I looked up google to see if I know a local man man standing in the local election or if someone with the same name and went to the images under the search of his name which had lots of information about the election. There were many images of various hopefuls, but all under the one name – his. Provided by PolicyNZ – so helpful.
There are some different images with different names on the next page. But the modern systems that we encounter, they promise to be better and cheaper – it’s all jam tomorrow though. Seems that every system that we worked and paid to set up as part of our democracy in the 20th century is being remaindered by the poliorcs that cluster like flies in places where they can feed off taxes or rates.
Policy.nz – Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Policy.nz
Policy.nz is an interactive, online voting advice application run during election campaigns. It simplifies and categorises the election policies of political parties and candidates and allows users to compare policies within .. etc etc