Democrats opening 1990 (6.00) Garry Knapp: “Hi, I’m Gary Knapp, and this is my wife Lee (picture of woman bottle feeding baby) and my daughters Persia and Sian. I have another daughter Fiona, and a son Corey. They all mean a lot to me. In fact, they are probably what my life is about. If you’ve got kids you’ll know what I mean. Earlier this year we almost lost Sian. Open heart surgery literally saved her life. Lee and I will never forget the skill and compassion of the staff at Greenland hospital. This is Ken, a buddy of mine. We’ve caught a lot of fish together. Well he has caught them; I usually end up cleaning them. Ken is a retired policeman; he led a very active and useful life. But arthritis and the need for a hip operation changed that. He suffered seven years of pain on a hospital waiting list. The unnecessary length of that wait ruined years of his life. That makes me angry. There was a time in New Zealand when Ken and thousands like him wouldn’t have had to suffer like that. My son Corey taught me a lot about the real meaning of unemployment. He was six months out of work. I often felt he didn’t try hard enough. The truth is he brought some of that on himself. But he is young and unskilled. For people like Corey jobs are hard to come by. But it really hit me when he confided one day he was literally too frightened, after six months of knock backs, to pick up the phone and ask for a job. There are too many young people like Corey. You’ll know one or two New Zealanders whose confidence is shattered. I can’t help feeling we’ve failed them. After all, we’re the generation who is supposed to provide the jobs. There was a time in New Zealand when Corey, and thousands like him, wouldn’t have had to suffer unemployment. My mum and dad are retired now. They both worked hard all their lives. They were frugal and saved what they could. They are lucky compared to most in that they have a home of their own and savings. But like most other retired New Zealanders, they live with fear; the fear of their money running out. Every week they have to use up some of their hard-earned savings, just to make ends meet. That is not the way they planned it. That is not the way it should be when you retire. There was a time in New Zealand when my parents, and thousands like them, could have counted on reasonable comfort and security in their old age. This is Jeanette, a family friend. Sometime ago something happened to her that changed her life forever. We were telephoned very early one morning and asked to come and help her. This lovely young woman had been brutally beaten and raped. She nearly died that night. This happened on our streets. She should have been safe. They never caught the assailant; he is still out there. The police did what they could. They were compassionate, understanding and determined. But their resources were stretched, and you know the rest. There was a time in New Zealand when Jeanette and any woman would have felt safe on our streets. Not now. So, there is a little insight into the people in my life. I guess I could be talking about your life. We all have similar problems and concerns, don’t we? The harsh reality is that these problems are very real and they’ve not getting any better. Have you ever stopped to wonder why? Gary Knapp. Leader NZ Democratic Party: “Do you know what I think? I think we have to stop looking to one group or one political party, or one political leader, to solve all of our problems. We keep allowing ourselves to be held captive to live according to Roger Douglas or Ruth Richardson. How is it they can buy frigates, sell off great chunks of our heritage, sell banks, forests, airlines, Telecom; all against your will. There was nothing you could do to stop them. Your protests were ignored. You were powerless. There are politicians in New Zealand who would give you that power. Democrats, like myself, like Terry Heffernan our deputy leader. We believe that the community should participate in these big decisions. Do you know what we mean by that? Terry Heffernan. Dep. Leader Democratic Party: “We are talking about a process that allows you some real input into the big decisions. Our citizens referenda policy means just that. Citizens referenda will force the government to hold binding referendums on issues initiated by you.” Knapp: “That is as it should be. The essence of democracy is majority rule. However, minority governments have dominated our Parliament for years, and these governments have in turn been dominated by a few powerful individuals. What they want is what we get, right or wrong. The Democrats passionately believe New Zealand must have a new and fair voting system, like proportional representation, that would ensure Parliament listened to, and was truly representative of, the people. The Labour and National parties have been resisting sharing their power with you for years. But because of building pressure from the public, they are finally making promises to hold a form of referendum on this issue. They don’t really want to, and we can’t trust them. They’ve broken so many promises. Vote Democrat in this election and we can make sure they’re kept honest to those promises. The Democratic Party has a policy agenda that will rebuild the economy and social order of our country. But for this election we are concentrating on these two main issues: proportional representation and citizens referenda. It is time you had your say.” Text: Democrats: It’s time you had your say. Statement by N.Z. Democratic party. Christian Heritage Party 1990 (6.00-10.00) Ambulance and siren. Blanket removed by policeman to reveal New Zealand flag on a stretcher. John Allen, Spokesman: “New Zealand is ill. But there is a cure. The Christian Heritage Party presents a series of coordinated policies which will bring health, safety and prosperity back to this nation.” Interviewer: “The Christian Heritage Party says that it has the answers. But aren’t you just another group of bible bashers?” Allen: “No. What you have to understand is the growth of western civilisation has been a growth which has gone hand in hand with laws and states that are founded upon biblical principles. With that has come freedom of religion, freedom of conscience, freedom of speech. These are the things that are precious to us, and which are being eroded in New Zealand today. Now what Christian Heritage is doing is putting together policies which are based on those same tried and tested principles. These will be offered to the democratic choice of the ballot box. And we offer to New Zealanders the opportunity, the unique opportunity, of seeing those values reinstalled in New Zealand society. Image of Christian Heritage Manifesto and headings Hope for your family. Hope for you. “Our manifesto is totally different from any other, because we put the family right in the centre, up front in every one of our policies. Far too many policies in politics today are totally dollar driven, without real concern about what the downstream effects are upon families. Christian Heritage is committed to putting the family first in every consideration. Because we say strong families build a strong nation. The future of New Zealand is built upon the families of New Zealand. Therefore, when we see strong, secure families, we see hope being built back into our society, because we see stability being built back into our society.” Interviewer: “In your manifesto you claim that New Zealanders respect moral values. What sort of moral values?” Allen: “Well things like honesty and integrity in government and business and personal relationships. Strong committed families, well-disciplined children, respect for elders, respect for property, and respect for one another, probably the most important of all.” Interviewer: “You are a new party and you are unlikely to be the next government. Isn’t a vote for Christian Heritage therefore a wasted vote? And do you realistically expect to get a member into Parliament this election?” Allen: “Well in politics anything can happen. And I don’t discount that possibility. But the major purpose of Christian Heritage, in this election, is to establish a base. We are not here as a flash in the pan type of party. We are here for the long-haul. And our responsibility in this election is to establish a basis of credibility with the people of this nation. So that they get to know us, they get to hear what our policies are about, they start to understand that we are presenting policies that work, policies that are not going to be changed with every shift in the wind. Policies which are going to build a secure future for New Zealand and create hope for every New Zealander. Children singing: “God of Nations at Thy feet, In the bonds of love we meet, Hear our voices, we entreat, God defend our free land. Guard Pacific's triple star From the shafts of strife and war, Make her praises heard afar, God defend New Zealand. Text: If you would like a free copy of the manifesto write to: Box 8614, Riccarton, Christchurch. “Because the family is essential to everyone of our policies it means those policies are not just dollar driven. But they have a concern for people. People are put first in every one of our polices in every area. And that can only be good for the future health and prosperity of individuals, of families, and indeed of the entire nation.” CH: Christian Heritage party of New Zealand. Social Credit New Zealand opening 1990 (10.00-15.00) Picture of tunnel from perspective of moving train. Social Credit sign Bruce Beetham. Leader Social Credit NZ: “Good evening. You know this was a beautiful country before National and Labour railroaded hundreds of thousands of people into the dark. They haven’t even glimpsed the promised light at the end of the tunnel. Never was Social Credit, which is the only remaining untried economic policy, more needed than right now. We simply don’t have to tolerate vast amounts of equipment and huge numbers of people doing nothing for want of money to get them back to work. Whatever it is possible for machines and people to do, and acceptably socially and environmentally, can always be made financially possible, and so Social Credit will make it so. Our policies alone will banish the unemployment that National and Labour have brought to this country as well as remove inflation. We’ll do this by restimulating production through lowering interest rates and business taxes. And by enabling people, through giving them more purchasing power, to consume what they produce without the cost of unnecessary debt around their necks. Systems, including financial systems, should be made for people, not people for systems. So we’ll make the Reserve Bank the source of all new money required in the economy and by the people, but only, of course, to the extent of the materials and workforce available. A substantial part of this money will be used to meet the needs of producers for working capital, with overdraft interest replaced by a small service charge only. This means that goods and services will be produced more cheaply. The rest of this money will be used to bring the total incomes, received by all of the people, up to the total value of all of the goods and services produced over any given time. This will be done by paying national dividends equally to all citizens. People as a whole will then be able to afford to buy the goods and services produced. Now a little about some of our other policies. Under Social Credit people will be able to retire from age 55, if they give up full time work, on 80% of the net ordinary-time wage. They will still have the right, as a married couple, to earn up to $15,000 per year, through part-time employment to supplement their super. There won’t be any surcharge either. This policy, by releasing 60,000 jobs, will also put a huge dent very quickly in unemployment. That in turn will dramatically reduce law and order problems and ease racial tension. Health services for the elderly will also receive a very high priority under Social Credit, especially assessment and rehabilitation and those home care services which will enable people to remain in their own residences as long as possible. Social Credit started the campaigns for both proportional representation and citizens initiated referenda. These two reforms would go a very long way to overcoming the deep disillusionment so many people now fear with the whole political system. As the only long-term stayer amongst all the other third parties that come and go, Social Credit seeks your support to continue to apply the pressure which will see these two vital changes brought about. Social Creditors were also the first environmentalists in New Zealand. And we’ve continued to have a simple and clear message on the environment. Everyone has the right to clean water, fresh air, and a safe future. We remain totally opposed to nuclear power in any shape or form. And we’d establish an agency to project the nation’s development and anticipate future environmental problems so that early preventive action could be taken. Given half an opportunity, Social Credit will lower your taxes, get rid of GST, reduce your mortgage interest, stabilise your rates, and remove the internal deficit. If you doubt this ask any Social Credit candidate to show you my model budget, which sets out very clearly just how all of these things can be achieved. What this country needs is a long over-due dose of some basic common sense, and a little lateral thinking to replace the badly-failed National and Labour interventionist and free market dogmas dragged up from the past. Then, and only then, will we get out of the dark and see the light at the end of the tunnel. Social Credit, way to go. SCNZ New Labour opening 1990 (15.00-21.00) News items: “The Coal Corporation says there’ll be no more jobs for 484 of these people.” “They showed they were angry about losing their hospital. They’ve been told that come December.” “But their virtual life-line, the post office, is to be axed on September 30th.” “With the loss of five hundred jobs in the Huntly community will be devastating.” “Equiticorp’s share price was today down to seven cents. “ “If they feel angry so too does the government.” “Completely caught out by the closure, which it has labelled a public relations disaster.” Text: “It didn’t have to be like that!” Jim Anderton. Leader of the New Labour Party: “It didn’t have to be that way. The Labour government made many promises, but it didn’t deliver. It betrayed not only its own supporters but the country as well. That is why the New Labour Party was started. And in just over 12 months we have 6,000 members. We’ve got candidates in every seat in the country except the four Maori electorates. We have home and child carers, factory and office workers, lawyers, business men and women, senior citizens, students, doctors, Maori, Pakeha and Pacific Islanders. All working for the kind of New Zealand we really want. We represent fairness and balance. A real job for every New Zealander that wants one. Free health and education, affordable housing. In fact, a health social and economic New Zealand, not one which has been sold to the highest bidder. Trees are being sold to overseas interests. Logs will be sent out of New Zealand. And when you export logs you export jobs. And you give control of your own resources to people who live in other countries. New Labour’s policy is to stop the sale of state assets. New Zealand’s resources should be used for the benefit of all New Zealanders. In that way we will get both employment and growth. It makes sense. I suppose you’ve heard as often as I have that our country is sick. Well it is not just our country, it is the whole of our health system. And it doesn’t have to be that way. Here is our health spokesperson Maire Leadbeater. Maire Leadbeater, New Labour Health Spokesperson (Candidate for New Lynn). “Health should be the first priority of any caring community. That is why New Labour is prepared to spend money to restore our damaged health services. We’d make visits to the doctor free, and we’d abolish all prescription charges. We’d reopen closed hospitals like this one and upgrade their services. New Zealand is currently spending less on health than most other developed countries. And yet, for just the cost, the annual cost of buying and running two Australian built frigates, we could have the best health system in the world. Anderton: “We also believe we need a major lift in home building. Here is New Labour’s housing spokesman Len Richards to explain why.” Len Richards. New Labour Housing Spokesperson. (Candidate for Mangere): “New Labour believes that good quality affordable housing is a basic human right. Ten thousand people in this country today are without adequate housing (background: caravan park). People are being forced to live in caravans at $175 a week; other people are living two and three families to a house in totally unacceptable conditions. New Labour would spend $250 million a year for five years. This will house another two thousand families every year, plus it will create 15,000 jobs.” Anderton: “And to meet the challenges of the twenty-first century young New Zealanders need the best education opportunity we can offer them. And yet many have had the door locked and bolted on them because of extra charges for higher education. Ella Henry, President of the Auckland University Students Association, and New Labour’s education spokesperson, talks about it. Ella Henry. New Labour Education Spokesperson (Candidate for Roskill): “More and more New Zealanders are having to make greater and greater sacrifices to receive the education they need to meet the challenges of the twenty-first century. New Labour believes education should be free, a fundamental right not a privilege. As a first step in the upgrading of the whole education system, pre-school education will be made entirely free. Increases in student fees will be abolished. Graffiti: The children are the future. “We should be encouraging higher education, not making it harder. If we have a fair and progressive tax system we could provide equal educational opportunity for all New Zealanders. That makes sense to us.” Anderton: “And another issue our future depends on is our environment. Joce Jesson, New Labour’s environmental spokesperson.” Joce Jesson: New Labour Environment Spokesperson (Candidate for Panmure). “What must we do to stop the social and environmental destruction that faces us. Free market policies cannot save the environment. They mean doing nothing at all. New Labour will bring back the glass milk bottle, we will fund sewerage and waste disposal systems, and we will foster recycling. We believe that New Zealand must stay totally nuclear free. The central aim of our policies is the care of all our resources for this and following generations. New Labour believes in people and the environment.” Anderton: “Well it makes a lot of sense doesn’t it. And here is something else that makes sense. If we invest in employment instead of unemployment, we’ll soon have this country back working again. By upgrading our schools and hospitals, by starting new housing programmes, by providing better roading, by processing our own timber, as well as by investing in high quality manufacturing and agricultural development, we could gain over 60,000 jobs in just one year. And the tax from those jobs, and the unemployment benefits saved, would make that investment self-funding. Text: NLP. New Labour Party. “These and other sensible policies are what New Labour is all about. In other words, hope for a new future as we move into the new age. So if you value honesty, vote for New Labour. If you value a caring society, vote for New Labour. If you value employment over unemployment vote for New Labour. And if you value the future vote for New Labour. And it won’t be a wasted vote. Voting for the things you really want is never wasted. It is the most sensible and democratic thing you can do. Text: NLP. New Labour Party. The Greens Party opening broadcast 1990 (21.00-26.00) Stephen Rainbow. Greens Candidate Wellington Central. “The first policy of the Green Party is survival. Your survival, the survival of your children and grandchildren, the survival of our world. You won’t find that policy in anyone else’s manifesto. Yet, without it all other policies are meaningless. We’re an endangered species you and I, with a whole new vocabulary of menace. Global warming, greenhouse effect, hole in the ozone layer, Chernobyl. Sure, it all seems remote from the clear blue skies and azure waters of New Zealand. But in London, Tokyo and New York the air can be so thick with filth you can barely see the sun or breathe. We are poisoning our air, polluting our water, despoiling our land, and in the process we are risking our lives. You will find policies on some of these issues in other parties’ manifestos, but those policies are an afterthought, a token gesture. We call it clip on environmentalism. Under pressure the cracks begin to show. What we are saying is you can’t fool around with these issues any longer. We are running out of time and we are running out of resources. So if something saves, protects or enhances life on earth, we’ll do it. If it exploits or damages life on earth we won’t. That is Green Party policy. That is what makes us the most sensible, down to earth, hard-headed, realistic option on your ballot paper. That is what makes us different.” Ruth Norman. Greens Candidate, Glenfield (in front of Rangitoto): “The second policy of the Green Party is care for the earth. You can think of it as idealistic if you like, but it is really a policy of self-interest. What science is telling us these days is that everything in our world is inter-connected. If you destroy one part of the system you start off a chain reaction that may destroy other parts, including you. Cutting down trees is a good example. If you clear enough rainforest to make way for agriculture, or to build roads, or cities, or just to make profits, you end up changing the climate. And a change in the climate will affect you, probably for the worst. Remember Cyclone Bola? It is not just a question of survival, it is a question of quality of life as well. We used to speak of New Zealand as a good country to bring up children. To me that means clean air, pure water, unpolluted beaches, food that isn’t contaminated with chemicals, and a value system that puts people before profits, conservation before consumption, that is Green Party policy. Martin Williams. Greens Candidate, Manawatu (wearing jacket and tie). The third policy of the Green Party is care for people. Care for people means no government should do anything that creates suffering and injustice. Take unemployment. If your starting point is Rogernomics you say our goal is two percent inflation. To achieve that goal 200,000 New Zealanders will have to be out of work; the end justifies the means. If your starting point is care for people you say a policy that keeps 200,000 people out of work is an unacceptable policy. Find a better policy, or change the goals. When dogma starts to make people suffer, that dogma has to go. And that is as true of Green dogma as any other dogma. So we aren’t about to start closing things down and putting even more people out of work. Instead, we’ll be creating new job opportunities in labour intensive areas compatible with our ideals. In energy conservation, forestry, farming, tourism, and manufacturing. It is time we stopped exporting jobs and got back to doing what we are good at. Doing it ourselves, that is Green Party policy. Dianne Gatward. Greens Candidate, East Coast Bays. All our other policies are based on these three. Survival, care for the earth, care for people. We haven’t got space to deal with them here. The government has said we’re allowed only one sixth of the air-time it has given itself. You may think that it unfair. You may think that it is unfair that even if hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders voted Green we might still not win a single seat in Parliament. You can change all of that by voting for us, by treating the election as a referendum on proportional representation the government refused to give you. A vote for the Green Party is a vote for PR. Proportional representation is Green Party policy. You’ll be told that a vote for the Greens is a wasted vote. I’ll tell you what a wasted vote is. A wasted vote is a vote you don’t cast. A wasted vote is a vote for party you don’t really like. A wasted vote is throwing in the towel because you think the party you do like doesn’t have a winning chance. The Green Party is deadly serious about this election, and is in with a winning chance. We are already the third party in New Zealand; we intent to be the government in ten years. The mistake is to confuse not winning with losing. If we pick up 15% this year we’ll have put the next government on notice that we’re a force to be reckoned with. Our voice will be listened to. More people will join the party. We’ll be on track for the year 2000. That is a victory. Now it is over to you. The Green Party offers you an idea whose time has come. If I was you I’d vote Green as if my life depended on it. It does. Text: Vote Green. Your vote can force change.