It was a tough election for United Future. Peter Dunne did well to retain his Ohariu seat but the party failed to gain momentum leading into the election. I'd suggest that the two main causes of this were the lack mainstream media coverage (the teapot saga didn't help here) along with polling showing Dunne was going to struggle to retain his seat.

In 2008, United Future gained around 20,000 party votes, which was around 0.9% of the party votes cast. This slumped to around 12,000, or 0.6% in this election.

Note that the following analysis is based 2008 data and preliminary results from the 2011 election.

Biggest Party Vote by Electorate

Not surprising to see Ohariu at the top once more, and the West Coast vote rose on the back of a spirited anti-1080 campaign. Victoria Rogers and Alan Simmons did well in their electorates, helping their electorates move up 36 and 32 places respectively. More...

An abridged version of this letter was published in the Timaru Herald:

The Green Party Candidate for Rangitata, Gerrie Ligtenberg states that a moratorium on dairy expansion is the first step against the irrigation and farm lobbyists (November 15). This statement is not only out of step with the Greens published policy on agriculture and water quality but it also sets Ligtenberg up for a fight that she does not need to take on. More...

The following letter was published in the Timaru Herald:

Several readers have recently noted that if voters choose wisely, then Timaru could have two MP's in the next Parliament. I'd be bold enough to go a step further and suggest that if voters really were wise about their choices, then they could have two Timaru based MP's, not just in Parliament but in Government. More...

Peter O'Neil, editor of the Ashburton Guardian, hosted a candidate meeting for Ashburton. Held at Ashburton College, around 50 people attended. We were given the opportunity to address them for five minutes then cover a series of questions from the floor.

Here's my opening address: More...

The South Canterbury Herald is a free weekly community paper. As part of their election coverage, they decided to try and get to know the Rangitata Candidates on a more personal level by asking set of "unusual" questions.

Here's my answers to their questions: More...

Craighead Diocesan School invited the Rangitata Candidates along to speak to the girls who are looking to vote for their first time in the coming election. Around a dozen girls and a few teachers gathered in the library and I decided to run our tertiary education policy past them and to get them thinking about life after school.

Here's my opening address: More...

The Transition Timaru public candidates meeting involved an opening address and questions from the floor followed by a break-out session and a final summary. Held at the Caroline Bay Hall, the meeting was well attended with around 80 people and candidates from both the Rangitata and Waitaki electorates.

For the opening address we were asked to cover our party's position on resource depletion, climate change, the ecological system's decline, the global financial system, the end of economic growth, and well being and flourishing; with a special emphasis on making our community resilient. Here's my opening address: More...

Following David Shearer's (Labour's Tertiary Education Spokesperson) visit to Timaru, the South Canterbury Herald gave me an opportunity to answer some questions on United Future's Tertiary Policy and how it relates to the Rangitata electorate.

What is wrong with National's tertiary policy?

The problem with National’s policy is that it doesn’t do enough to address the cost of education and the country’s growing mountain of student debt.

When they were in government, Labour bought in interest free student loans. Then this term National added a 10 per cent payment incentive for any extra student loan repayments made over the minimum required.

These two changes have helped, but United Future believes that we need to do a lot more. More...

Labour weekend saw some pretty good weather in the Rangitata Electorate. I took took full advantage of it, building and erecting some hoardings for my favourite political Party. Of course, that would be the one that I'm standing for in the 2011 General Election on November 26!

Signs are now up along State Highway 1 at Tinwald, Ashburton and Rakaia. I'm still on the lookout for prominent locations in and around Timaru and Temuka.

 
Andrew (yours truly) keeping sun smart with his favourite hat in Tinwald.

More...

My first public engagement for the 2011 General Election was held at Chalmers Church in Timaru. Run by the Presbyterian Church, candidates were asked to give an opening address and prepared answers to four questions before the meeting was opened to the floor for further questions.

I'd like to extend a big thanks to Ron Paulin for organising the meeting, the Reverend Dr Susan Jones for chairing and to all those who came along.

Here's my opening address and prepared answers: More...