Voting rights

What is it with America’s current obsession with restricting voter eligibility as well as making the actual act of voting more difficult? To me and most Kiwi’s that is the antithesis of what democracy is all about. And might I add that their obsession with non-citizens voting seems to be little short of xenophobia. For a nation built by immigrants this seems highly hypocritical. Admittedly most nations restrict voting rights to citizens, but the US seems to have taken it more to heart than almost anywhere else.

New Zealand is one of a few nations in the world that grants voting rights to non-citizens in national elections and referendums. I can find only four countries (New Zealand, Malawi, Uruguay, and Chile) that allow permanent residents to vote in national elections without any restrictions. New Zealand is the most inclusive of these four, as it requires only one year of residence for permanent residents to be eligible to vote. In contrast, Malawi requires seven years, Uruguay requires five years, and Chile requires five years and a special oath.

New Zealand’s liberal approach to voting rights for non-citizens reflects its history of immigration and its commitment to democratic values. New Zealand has been granting voting rights to non-citizens since 1853, when it allowed British subjects to vote without any residence requirement. Over time, the eligibility criteria have changed to include non-British subjects and to introduce a minimum residence requirement, but the principle of extending voting rights to non-citizens has remained. New Zealand’s electoral laws also recognised the impact of the pandemic on international travel, and temporarily extended the overseas voting eligibility for New Zealand citizens and permanent residents for the 2023 General Election.

Consider this: 14% of American residents were born overseas, and a little over 6% of American residents are non-citizens. The same figures for New Zealand are 28% and 11% respectively. If extending voting rights to non-citizens had a negative impact on the well being of a nation, doesn’t it seem probable that any harm it might cause would have become apparent in this country before now?

New Zealand’s experience with non-citizen voting has been largely positive, as it has contributed to the integration and participation of immigrants in the political community. Non-citizen voters tend to have similar preferences and behaviours as citizen voters, and do not pose a threat to the national identity or interests of New Zealand. Non-citizen voting also enhances the representation and diversity of the electorate, and encourages the responsiveness and accountability of the government to the needs and concerns of all residents. Shouldn’t that be at the heart of good government everywhere?

Bird of the century

New Zealand is a country known for its stunning natural beauty, its friendly people, and its love of birds. The nation has more than 200 native bird species, 90% of which are found nowhere else in the world. Some of these birds are so iconic that they appear on the country’s currency, such as the kiwi, the tui, and the kōkako.

But not all birds are created equal, and every year, New Zealanders get to vote for their favourite feathered friend in the Bird of the Year competition, organised by Forest & Bird, a conservation organisation. The competition aims to raise awareness of the threats facing New Zealand’s wildlife and to celebrate the diversity and uniqueness of its avian inhabitants.

However, the competition is not as innocent as it sounds. It is rife with drama, scandal, and controversy, as different birds vie for the coveted title and the public attention that comes with it. Over the years, the competition has seen cases of voter fraud, disqualifications, and even foreign interference.

One of the most notorious incidents occurred in 2017, when the kea, the world’s only alpine parrot, won the competition after a massive surge of votes from overseas. The kea is a playful and intelligent bird, but also a notorious troublemaker, known for stealing food, damaging cars, and attacking sheep. Some suspected that the kea’s victory was influenced by a campaign by the comedian Stephen Fry, who had featured the kea in his documentary series Last Chance to See. Fry had praised the kea as “the most wonderful, playful, mischievous, intelligent, cheeky, curious, extraordinary bird” and urged his followers to vote for it.

Another controversial winner was the pekapeka-tou-roa, or the long-tailed bat, which won the competition in 2021. The bat is not technically a bird, but it is one of New Zealand’s only two native land mammals (the other also being a bat), and it is critically endangered. The bat’s inclusion in the competition was meant to highlight its plight and its connection to the bird family, as the word for bird in Māori, one of the official languages of New Zealand, is ‘manu’, which means ‘flying creature’. However, some people were outraged by the bat’s victory, calling it a “total farce” and saying that the country had gone “batty”.

This year’s of the competition, is even more contentious, as it has been renamed the Bird of the Century, to mark the 100th anniversary of Forest & Bird. The stakes are higher than ever, as the winner would not only be the Bird of the Year, but also the Bird of the Century, representing the best of New Zealand’s birds from the last 100 years.

The competition has attracted the attention of John Oliver, a British-American comedian and talk show host, who has a history of poking fun at New Zealand’s politics and culture. Oliver decided to launch an “alarmingly aggressive” global campaign to support his chosen candidate, the pūteketeke, or the Australasian crested grebe. The grebe is a rare and elegant waterbird, with a distinctive black and white crest and a red eye. Oliver described it as “a bird that looks like Pauly D fucked a swan”, referring to a reality TV star known for his spiky hair.

Oliver’s campaign included billboards, neon signs, posters, and banners in various cities around the world, such as Paris, Tokyo, London, Mumbai, and Rio de Janeiro, urging people to vote for the grebe. He also commissioned a giant mechanized grebe that could move its head and wings, and placed it outside the New Zealand embassy in Washington, D.C. Oliver encouraged his viewers to flood the Forest & Bird website with votes for the grebe, saying that “this is what democracy is all about – America interfering in foreign elections”.

Oliver’s intervention caused a surge of votes for the grebe, but also a backlash from some New Zealanders, who accused him of meddling in their affairs and disrespecting their birds. Some even suggested that Oliver should be banned from entering the country, or that he should be forced to apologize to the former prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, who is a well-known bird lover and a former campaign manager for the hihi, or stitchbird, in the 2017 competition.

The final result of the Bird of the Century competition is yet to be announced, but it is expected to be a close race between the grebe and some of the other popular contenders, such as the kākāpō, the world’s fattest parrot; the tītipounamu, New Zealand’s smallest bird; and the kōkako, a blue-grey songbird with a haunting call. Whoever wins, the competition has once again shown that New Zealanders are passionate about their birds, and that their birds are worthy of global attention and admiration.

So, if you are an American who loves birds, or who just likes to mess with other countries’ elections, why not join John Oliver’s campaign and cast your vote for the pūteketeke, the Bird of the Century? You only need a valid email address, and you can vote as many times as you want. After all, it’s not like you have anything better to do, right? And who knows, maybe you will help make history, or at least make a lot of New Zealanders very angry. Either way, it’s a win-win situation. So go ahead, vote for the grebe, and let the world hear your voice. Or rather, your squawk.

Voted!

Election Day is on 14 October 2023 but votes were able to be cast as from yesterday, 2 October. As the Wife and I had some errands and shopping to do today, we kept an eye out for a voting place and as we neared the Civic Centre building, We spotted the bright orange “VOTE HERE / PŌTI I KONEI” signs, so I found a parking space nearby and we walked in. From the time we saw the signs to the time we drove off was less than five minutes. I joined a queue of one other person, the Wife another queue of one person to collect a voting paper, and after stating my name and address, was handed my voting paper. No voter ID and no proof of identity required.

With voting paper in hand, it was just a matter of going behind one of the screens and placing a tick beside one of the 5 candidates standing for the Rangitikei electorate and a tick beside one of the 19 political parties eligible for seats in the next Parliament and then placing the folded paper into the ballot box. It’s so quick and easy, that I don’t understand why we don’t have higher voter turnout. In the 2020 general election it was 82.2% of enrolled voters, which just isn’t high enough.

No ID needed to vote – or enrol – in New Zealand

As a number of my American blogging friends have concerns about how some US states are making it difficult to register and vote, I thought it timely to look at the situation in another developed nation, where post election inquiry after post election inquiry have concluded the risks of voter personation (voter fraud) are far outweighed by the advantages of voter participation when enrolling and voting are made as easy and unrestricted as is humanly possible.

So here in Aotearoa, the Electoral Commission trusts our word when we enrol and when we vote, and it seems they have good reason to as fewer than 200 cases of voter personation have been detected following a general election. While the police have issued warnings to offenders, no prosecutions were brought following the 2014, 2017 and 2020 elections.

Here’s the thing: voter personation is so rare that even if it increased by two orders of magnitude it’s unlikely to have any effect on election results. So why not make enrolment and voting very easy, even if a very few do abuse the privilege? Participation in the democratic process, including by the disadvantaged, or perhaps especially for and by the disadvantaged, is vital if a nation is to maintain or expand the freedoms and wellbeing of its citizens. More than one Kiwi politician has stated they entered politics on behalf of the marginalised, discriminated against, oppressed and forgotten because the privileged and advantaged can take care of themselves.

Even in moments of my least trust in American democracy, I cannot imagine American voters being so untrustworthy that voter fraud can have any meaningful effect on the outcome of presidential and congressional elections – even if fraud occurred at 100 times the rate of personation here. The only conclusion I can draw, is, that unlike New Zealand where the politicians want everyone to participate in the democratic process, the politicians in many US states want only those who are their supporters to participate. How close to reality is my conclusion?

No ID needed to vote – or enrol – in New Zealand

Vote NZ 2023 (PSA #2) How to vote

We Kiwis are perhaps fortunate in that being able to enrol and vote in elections and referendums is easy as. In fact there’s no need to prove identification to do either! (I’ll cover that in an upcoming blog post.)

When it comes to enrolling, then if you’re eligible (NZ citizen or permanent resident and are over 18 and have lived in NZ continuously for 12 months at some time), then by law you are required to enrol. See my previous post on how to do that. However, you can choose whether or not to vote. You can enrol right up to the day before election day. And if you aren’t enrolled and still wish to vote, you still can by casting a special vote.

I want to remind you that it isn’t necessary to cast your vote at a voting place in your electorate. You can vote at any voting place anywhere in Aotearoa either on election day or in the two weeks preceding election day. As I said, easy as!

How to vote

Vote NZ 2023 (PSA #1) How to enrol

Barry’s Public Service Announcement #1.

To use the Kiwi vernacular, enrolling to vote is easy as! So, if you’re a New Zealand citizen or a permanent resident of New Zealand, make sure you are enrolled.

How to enrol to vote (Turn on Closed Captions if you the the Kiwi Accent difficult to understand)

The 2023 New Zealand general election to determine the composition of the 54th Parliament of Aotearoa will be held on Saturday, 14 October 2023. The Electoral Commission has confirmed the timetable for the election following the Prime Minister’s announcement of the election date. The key dates for the election are as follows:

• Friday 14 July: Regulated period for election advertising expenses begins
• Friday 8 September: Dissolution of Parliament
• Sunday 10 September: Writ Day – the Governor General issues formal direction to the Electoral Commission to hold the election
• Noon, Friday 15 September: Nominations close for candidates
• Wednesday 27 September: Overseas voting starts
• Monday 2 October: Advance voting starts
• Friday 13 October: Advance voting ends. Regulated period ends. All election advertising must end. Signs must be taken down by midnight.
• Saturday 14 October: Election day. Voting places open from 9.00am to 7.00pm. Election night. Preliminary election results released progressively from 7.00pm as counting at each voting place is completed.
• Friday 3 November: Official results for the 2023 General Election declared
• Thursday 9 November: Last day for the return of the writ
• At the election, you’ll get to vote for the parties and candidates you want to represent you in Parliament. You need to be enrolled to vote in the election. To enrol and vote, you must:
  • be 18 years or older
  • be a New Zealand citizen or permanent resident, and
  • have lived in New Zealand for 12 months or more continuously at some time in your life.
• If you enrol by Sunday 10 September, the Electoral Commission will send you information about the election in the mail. This will include an EasyVote card which makes voting easier

My get up and go…

…has got up and gone.

Been feeling somewhat under the weather of late. Don’t know if it’s due to the rise in the frequency of low-level migraines (pain wise) hampering cognitive and executive functions, the miserable winter weather we’ve been experiencing, or a realisation that with a general election just 66 days away, the conspiracy theorists, illiberals, and conservative reactionaries are finding their way out of the woodwork. Probably the latter. I like to think that the influence of such people is less here than in other affluent nations, but with a few populist politicians beginning to pander to their fears, perhaps there are more of them than I believe. Otherwise, why bother? Thankfully few, if any, are pushing religious barrows.

I have alexithymia so I’m not sure what it is I’m feeling, but after a brief “conversation”, Bing Chat AI tells me I am suffering from melancholy. I’m still around and reading the blogs I follow, even if somewhat irregularly and hope that with spring fast approaching, the outlook will become brighter.

Empathy

Like many, perhaps most autistic people, I am suspicious of a lot of the work and research that Simon Baron Cohen is involved with, however sometimes he hits the nail right on the head. I recently watched a 2012 TEDx presentation by Cohen and he made some comments regarding empathy and democracy that are surely relevant today. Let me quote starting from 10:35:

10:35 “Empathy is vital for a healthy democracy; it ensures that when we listen to different perspectives, we hear other people’s emotions and we also feel them. Indeed without empathy, democracy would not be possible.”

11:46 “Empathy is our most valuable natural resource for conflict resolution. We could wait for our political leaders to use empathy – and that would be refreshing – but actually we could all use our empathy.”

If I was asked for one word to describe what is lacking in American society and politics at this time, I think I would choose the word empathy.

If you wish to watch Simon Baron Cohen’s presentation in its entirety you can find it on YouTube: The erosion of empathy | Simon Baron Cohen | TEDxHousesofParliament.

A Parliamentary milestone

For the first time in our history, women Members of Parliament outnumber men. With one vacancy in Parliament (a by-election is due soon) the swearing in of Soraya Peke-Mason yesterday means that there are currently 60 women MPs (Members of Parliament) and 59 men MPs.

Grant Robertson (an openly gay MP) who is Acting Prime Minister while Jacinda Ardern is in Antarctica, stated that It is a significant moment in the democratic representation of New Zealand. “At a time when we have a female prime minister, Governor General and Chief Justice, it is further evidence of the strides that we’re making in gender equality.” Notice that he said strides we are making – in other words there’s still progress to be made.

Aotearoa New Zealand made history in 1893 by becoming the nation to grant universal suffrage regardless of ethnicity, gender or property ownership. Then we progressed at a snail’s pace, with women not being able to be elected to parliament until 1919, and the first woman being successfully elected fourteen years later in 1933. As Ms Peke-Mason said, “Good things take time. No doubt it’s a special day for me but it’s also a historic occasion for Aotearoa New Zealand.”

What is significant is that it’s the left of centre parties where women are better represented. Of the 64 Labour MPs, 37 are women, while 7 of the 10 Green MPs are women. In contrast, the right of centre National party has only 10 women amongst its 33 MPs, and the ACT party does slightly better with 4 of its 10 MPs being women. It’s interesting to note that in the first 23 years of this century, we’ve had a woman Prime Minister for 14 of those years.

As a footnote Aotearoa New Zealand became the first nation to elect an openly trans woman to Parliament in 2005. Following the 2020 general elections, our Parliament became the “queerest” in the world with 12 openly LGBTQI representatives elected – 10% of all MPs sitting in Parliament.

Legislative diversity

I started this post way back in November 2020 shortly after the General Election, but never quite got round to completing it. I wanted to make the point that some sections of society are still excluded from decision making processes that affect them, but as often happens for me, it morphed into something no quite as I intended. So it’s been sitting on the shelf until I decided what to do with it. I’m still not sure if it’s worth publishing, but it’s either that or bin it. I’ve chosen the former.

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It’s a fact of life that most legislatures around the world are scarcely representative of the population they represent. For example, in most western democracies, wealthy males with sometimes tenuous connections to Christianity are over represented, while women, minority groups of all types and youth are underrepresented.

For some, this is the “natural order” and they see nothing wrong or untoward with this situation. Others keenly feel that in order to have all voices heard, it is necessary that diversity in the makeup of the legislature should approximate that of the community from which it is drawn. I lean towards the latter. But it would seem that most people here have no opinion one way or the other in this matter. Perhaps in this nation it might be understandable, but is it desirable?.

Disability

Aotearoa New Zealand does better than many other nations when it comes to diversity within its legislature, although we still have a long way to go. One example would be that approximately one on four or one in five Kiwis (depending on the measurements chosen) have some form of disability but no MPs (Members of Parliament) have publicly admitted to having a disability.

Neurodiversity

Of special interest to me is that although somewhere between 5% and 12% of the population is neurodiverse (depending on how you define neurodiversity), as far as I can discover, no MP is neurodiverse.

Ethnicity

People of asian ancestry, most of whom are of Chinese or Indian descent are also underrepresented. They make up 12% of the population but only 7% of the Parliament.

In the October Elections, fewer Māori were returned to the Parliament than in the previous two general elections. In the Previous Parliament, 23% of MPs were Māori. This has now dropped to 21%, but remains higher than the 17% of the general population who identify as Māori. Pasifika people (those from Pacific island nations) too, while making up 7% of the general population, make up 9% of MPs.

Gender

Women have almost reached parity with men. In this country females slightly outnumber males (100:97), and now make up 48% of all MPs. When compared to our neighbours (Australia 31%, Pacific nations averaging 6%) we are doing very well. When we look at gender representation by political party, we see that the parties of the left have more female representation than male, while for parties on the right, the opposite is true.

LGBTQI+

Approximately 4% of Kiwis are openly LGBTQI+ although the real number is most likely higher. Parliamentarians are more forthcoming in this regard as 11% of MPs are openly LGBTQI+. This lead to one British tabloid headlining an article with “NZ Parliament Gayest in World”. Although this nation was the first where an openly transgender person was elected to the national legislature, there are currently no openly trans MPs.

Religion and spirituality

I’m not going to attempt to define what religion or spirituality are as even academics in these fields cannot agree. In fact some definitions are mutually exclusive. In the NZ context it can be confusing. Around a third of the population claim a Christian affiliation, and only 45% of the population claim any religious affiliation according to the 2018 census.

Other surveys indicate that 25% have a firm belief in a deity or higher power and a further 45% believe in some form of higher power to some extent for at least some of the time. Within the Christian community the concept of God ranges from an omniscient omnipotent being to metaphor/personification/symbol representing our highest ideals, and the trend is towards greater polarisation of these opposing concepts.

The consensus among both the religious and non-religious alike is that New Zealand is one of the most secular nations on this planet. Whether one is religious or not, or is affiliated to a religious or spiritual group is usually a private matter, and that applies to politicians as much as it does to the general population.

This makes comparing the religion of the legislature and general population somewhat difficult as the religious beliefs of most MPs is not on public record. However, anecdotally it does appear that parties on the right have a slightly higher proportion of “religious” however that might be defined, than parties on the left. Based on the limited amount of information available, it appears that religion and spirituality amongst MPs is not significantly different from the general population.

Youth

While we do have some MPs in their twenties, and in the past a few have been in their late teens, I suspect this is one form of diversity where the “nature of the job” will means that the young and the old will always be underrepresented. There is a small movement calling for the voting age to be lowered from 18 to 16, and if it ever came to a referendum I’d support it, but for the time being only the Greens consider it a topic even worthwhile discussing.

Quotas

I’m not in favour of quotas to ensure all forms of diversity are proportionally represented, and yet our electoral system (MMP) is based on the premise that political parties should be represented in parliament proportionally based on their support in the voting population. Isn’t this a form of quota based on political affiliation? If we demand proportional representation across the political spectrum, why not across other spectrums of society?

I believe that legislatures should reflect the diversity of those who elect them, although not necessarily in exact proportion to the population. For society to be truly inclusive, everyone should feel that their voice can be heard. For those with a disability and for the neurodiverse, there’s clearly a long way to go. We should be proud of our success in achieving the diversity we have in the Parliament, but let’s not rest on our laurels just yet.