Making an informed choice

People generally give two reasons for not voting: they either don’t care, or they don’t know. So far, 185,000 young New Zealanders are not enrolled to vote days out from this year’s general election – or a fifth of people under 30. We can’t help if you don’t care, but we can if you don’t know.

When Elle Hunt and I were making a documentary for Radio New Zealand Insight (which you can listen to below) about the reasons young people don’t vote, we were struck by how many people said they didn’t feel there was enough information available to help them make a decision.

There are now dozens of different ways to find information, not to mention directly contact political parties and candidates. For all but a few of us, researching and assessing political views is easier than it has ever been before. 

This election has been crazy – selfies and dirty politics and big butts and hairdressers from Foxton. In the midst of all that, it can be easy to forget that the campaign isn’t a game, and that the choice you're making – if you’re making one – is serious.

Even if you choose your preferred prime minister on the basis of which has the nicest hair or the best duckface, that decision is going to stick around for the next three years. Saying you don’t have enough information is a pretty lousy excuse. 

With that in mind, here’s a roundup of online resources and side-by-side comparisons 

The Wireless election coverage – we’ve covered some major issues; looked at voting; been on the campaign trail; profiled young candidates and explained our electoral system and parliament. You might also like to look at Radio New Zealand’s election section, where they put all the news from the campaign; interview the leaders; explain the big issues and have columns from political reporters. They’ve also been fact-checking claims made by politicians, and Colin James has been analysing the trends of the major polls. And if you’re still confused by what all this means: A beginner’s guide to elections.

The Wireless and Radio New Zealand has teamed up with Massey University to bring you Ask Away. Ask Away is a platform where you can put your questions directly to the politicians – and they’re answering. For this final week party leaders will be asking at least one question each day, so get your questions in.

Also from Massey is On The Fence, a tool to help you see which party most aligns with your values. On the Fence has been slightly controversial – when its algorithms matched people with political parties they weren’t expecting mostly – but it might get you thinking about the issues you care about.

Then there’s Candidate, a web-based app similar to Tinder. You can “swipe” left or right based on policies you agree with, and it will give you a political party “match”. TVNZ has a similar tool, called Vote Compass. It’ll tell you where you fit in the political landscape, and how much you agree with different parties’ policies.  

On policy, over at Ours, they’ve put together a handy cheat sheet of every party’s policy on everything from ACC to welfare. You can do a side by side comparison of each party’s policy – though as they point out, you’ll get more in depth of the parties’ websites. The New Zealand Herald has a similar interactive, with policies grouped into things like “tax and the economy” and “welfare and social housing”. And Stuff.co.nz has a similar policy-themed interactive, split into 12 sections. They’ve also got a handy map, where you can find profiles of your local candidates.

For more from individual candidates and activists, you can check out Vote Chat from Otago University’s election project. At interest.co.nz, they’ve compiled all the policies of the parties currently in parliament. 

For more specific policies, check out the Tertiary Women’s guide to voting. NZ Rise, a group of business leaders from NZ-owned IT firms put ICT policy questions to the parties. BusinessNZ and Deloitte have teamed up to survey the views of the business community and compare them with the policies of all main political parties [PDF]. Tick for Kids and documentary-maker Bryan Bruce look at issues around child poverty.

The NZ University Students Association has a “students’ guide to voting”, which summarises the parties’ policies on tertiary education issues. Family First’s “Value Your Vote” chart has a summary of views on marriage, prostitution, abortion, drinking and smacking. And Animal Agenda Aotearoa has written to 10 major political parties calling for animal-friendly policies?

Have we missed anything? Leave a note in the comments, or contact us by email, twitter or Facebook.