Electorates

Tauranga electorate and the Bay of Plenty electorate

Red - Tauranga

Outside red - BOP

I live in the Tauranga Electorate

The Tauranga Electorate candidates are:

SIMON BRIDGES - NATIONAL

CLAYTON MITCHELL - NEW ZEALAND FIRST

RACHEL JONES - LABOUR

IAN MCLEAN - GREEN PARTY

STUART PEDERSEN - ACT

NATHANIEL HESLOP - CONSERVATIVE PARTY

MICHAEL O'NEILL - INDEPENDENT COALITION 

VERNA OHIA-GATE - MAORI PARTY

RUSTY KANE - INDEPENDENT CANDIDATE

YVETTE LAMARE - INDEPENDENT CANDIDATE

The BOP Electorate candidates are:

ClAIRE WILSON

TODD MULLER

I would have to research a bit more about each candidate to be able to make my choice.

The electorate system has been going for 139 years.

The Tauranga MP has been mainly National

The last election was in 2011.

Winston Peters was the Tauranga MP from 1993

MMP Voting System

The MMP is the system used to elect our parliament. (Mixed Member Proportional System)

Each voter (person over the age of 18) gets 2 votes.

The first vote is for the political party. However many votes a party gets will reflect on how many seats that party get in parliament. A party has to get over 5% of votes to get any seats in parliament.

The second vote is for your local MP. The MP is the person that will represent your electorate (region). NZ has 71 regions, therefore there will will 71 MP's. Many people will run for MP and the person with the most votes wins.

NZ parliament has 120 seats so if a party were to get 30% of party votes they will get about 36 seats in parliament (being 30% of 120) If that party wins 20 electorate seats it will have 16 List MPs in addition to its 20 Electorate MPs.

You need over half the votes to call yourself "government". So some parties do whats called a coalition. For example: National may join with Act which will then get them over half of the votes. 

Political Parties

The Civilian Party policies

- Close the pay gap between men and women by working to reduce men’s wages.
- End discrimination against social majorities. No more special services just for Maori; no more car parks just for disabled people; no more hip operations just for people who need hip operations.
- Make Wellington airport safer by moving it to Christchurch.
- Ice cream.

How to set up your own political party

There are certain requirements that all political parties must adhere to in order to apply for and maintain their party registrations. They are:

1. An acceptable party name (and any abbreviation).
2. Satisfactory evidence of at least 500 eligible members.
3. Statutory declarations from its party secretary concerning membership, intention to contest general elections and advising of any component parties.
4. Party membership rules showing what is required for current financial membership, and candidate selection rules which provide for the democratic involvement of members in the process.
5. An auditor (or person who has agreed to be auditor when the party is registered).
6. A party secretary with a postal address and contact details.
7. Either the secretary, or a sitting MP who is a current financial member of the party, to make the application.
8. $500 application fee.

My party - The infinity and beyond party

HEALTH - All children get free doctors appointments up to the age of 15.

EDUCATION - All classes should have no more than 25 students.

DEFENCE - If a criminal hurts a policeman/woman in any way the criminal has to pay for any doctor fees needed.

BUSINESS - All new businesses get a $5000 kickstart from the bank.

ELDERLY - All elderly people over the age of 65 get a higher pension rate.

ENVIRONMENT - Any tree that gets cut down has to be replaced by a new tree.

ANIMALS - It is illegal to abuse and use animals in any hurtful way such as dog fighting.

FOOD - Fast food restaurants should raise their prices to make NZ a healthier and less obese country.

SPORT - People are expected to take part in at least one sport every 2 years.

Voting System

Animal Dialogue

Hippo - Gloria
Goat - Billy











"What do you think you're doing in my enclosure?" yells Gloria.
"Excuse me!" screams Billy. "This is not your enclosure, this is my territory!"
"Well, it looks like we have a problem," exclaims Gloria.
"Okay," Billy huffs. "Let's settle this once and for all!"
"A call off," states Gloria.
"What's a call off?" asks Billy confused.
"It's when you see who can call the loudest."
"Fine, let's do this!"
Gloria sit's down and says "You first!"
Billy raises his neck and lets out a large bleat. "MAAAAAAAAAAA!"
Gloria is taken aback, Billy is pretty loud.
"My turn now," says Gloria with a smirk on her face.
Gloria raises her neck and lets out a humongous grunt. Gloria's grunt is louder than a daycare full of crying babies. Billy seems surprised, both the calls were tremendously loud. The two animals decide that they are equally matched when it comes to call offs and decide to live in piece and harmony in the same enclosure together.

I have been in Afghanistan for over 3 years now and the memory of my family keeps me going.

I am fighting for my country, my land, my home. I have the determination of a magnet. Nothing will stop me. I am here with my friends, Jim and Tom. They have helped me through this. We all know that we need to go back to our families, no matter what it takes. Jim and Tom have helped me through all sorts of things. I remember the one time when I lost my passport just as we were boarding our flight. Us veterans carry so many things I think that my passport just got lost amongst it all.

Jim and Tom got me onto the plane by using sweet talk and I can not even describe how grateful I am. The repercussion of losing my passport wasn't very important. There are so many other things to worry about in my world and a passport just doesn't cut it. I looked everywhere for my passport. I even ended up taking everything out of my bag! The terminal became a mess and trying to fit everything back into my bag was hectic. While I was packing my bag I kept seeing a man with a rustic wiry beard out of the corner of my eye. He had jet black glasses on so his facial features were hard to be seen. He was quite a tall and lean man whose head was only 2 metres below the roof! His clothes were quite old and casual but I wondered what was underneath all that. Suddenly he started coming for me, I start running but then trip and go soaring through the air. I looked back and I had just tripped on my passport.

Punctuation Quiz!