Having a difference of opinion in politics is normal - it doesn’t have to mean tribal partisanship is detrimental. And a difference of opinion is not lying to voters - one candidate might favour spending rates money on core infrastructure over spending money on community well being for example - both are valid opinions that can be debated respectfully because both positions are valid.
But when candidates and their direct proxies straight up mislead voters, that’s a concern. Especially when they refuse to accept accountability for those actions - and we’re seeing that a lot this local body election and you will not be shocked at all by who the worst offenders are…
In Northland, over the past months, voters have been met at the letter box with Letterbox a print publication that looks like it was put together on one of those “make a newspaper” art programs from the early 2000s. It looks cheap and nasty - black and white, cheap paper, grainy images and it’s from a group called Democracy Northland - a regional astroturf group with links back to the NZCPR, a hard right think tank founded by Dr Muriel and Frank Newman, former Act MPs from the class of 2002. In this publication, which they’ve adapted depending on the district it goes out in, they straight up recommend candidates to vote for that will “continue the work” - and a number of these candidates are the worst, most racist ones you’ve come across. They also branded a range of candidates as the most awful, evil thing they could think of - woke! *queue ominous thunder and lightning here*
In Whangarei, Letterbox claimed to have run a Poll which showed, shockingly, the front runner was the Voices for Freedom member that editor Frank Newman sat by and supported as she launched her campaign with VFF Whangarei group C.R.O.W. and that other candidates were clearly being hurt by their far leftist policies - one of whom is a confessed paid up member of the National Party - so yeah, far leftist if you’re to the right of Act.
In the Waikato, running for the Regional Council is the Rates Control Team - a fiscally conservative team of people who all seem to make claims in their candidate statements that incorrectly claims the Waikato Regional Council spent $16 million on consultants - deliberately taking advantage of an accounting shortcut the organisation uses to define outside expertise. The actual consultant spend is around $750’000 - the rest are for contractors who do the physical mahi - like rebuilding stop banks, weeding, that kind of stuff. And the Chief Executive has told them this AND the sitting Councillors amongst them have access to line by line accounts of expenditure. But big number scary - so let’s scare the population with it.
In Hamilton, Better Hamilton Candidate Mesh McDonald started the campaign telling people she’s a lawyer as part of her sales pitch to voters. To claim you’re a lawyer without a practice certification is against the law and she doesn’t have one currently - so after being called out on it, she put up a post defending herself and said she was going to refer to herself as a former lawyer from now on to shut up other candidates who raised it as a concern - but not apologising for anyone she may have mislead in the process.
In Waipa, the Better Waipa team member Hope Spooner was approached by email (because this is the preferred method of ensuring questions can’t be misconstrued and it’s what VFF members were coached on asking for) by reporter Andrea Vance for a story in last weekend’s Sunday Star Times. She and Andrew Bydder, according to Bydder’s own Facebook update, used an AI to come up with a deliberately incorrect bio that links a bunch of conspiracies - like how George Soros controls the world, and sent that back as part of their response - along with blaming me for the beat up (I’ve never spoken to Andrea or the co-writer Charlie Mitchell). Bydder gloated on his social media how reporters fell for it - yet the article doesn’t mention the made up conspiracy or Bydder at all or his claims that there was a link between NZ First and Labour. They want to be trusted and still go out of their way to mislead - to own the media.
In Wellington there’s the Independent Together Ticket - well what’s left of it. When Better Wellington - the astroturf group behind the formation of Independent Together, tweeted nasty comments about a candidate, using the R word amongst other things, IT candidate Paula Muollo decried it as unfair considering her co-candidates no longer had anything to do with Better Wellington - while Better Wellington continues to promote them as “our candidates” and as been snapped forgetting to switch social media accounts.
There are examples of individual candidates up and down the country doing this - like the 12 Voices for Freedom Co-odinators running for positions. There’s a deliberate distance they put between them and their public profile - people like Jackie Wheeler in Palmerston North and Dean Harris in Kapiti. There’s outright lies from candidates like Elizabeth Mundt in Selwyn and her involvement with disinformation ecosystems. There’s trojan horse issues - taken over by disinformation networks to push their agenda that deny any link but suddenly they’re being platformed by Reality Check Radio and The Platform.
And hidden amongst them are candidates who claim they’re independent but are members of a political party they don’t want to admit. Most of these are those voices for freedom linked candidates and their connection is to NZ First. Candidates like Rangiteiki’s Dave Christison is part of the local NZ First chapter after drifting from NZ Loyal, he was at the recent NZ First conference, so to was New Plymouth Councillor Murray Chong, Selwyn’s Elizabeth Mundt - in fact Mundt is taking credit for the push from the party to allow Councils to make decisions on fluoride in their water supplies - an option that was removed from most of them because they became embroiled in arguments and disinformation campaigns at the cost of public health.
So how can you tell if the candidates are bullshitting and misleading people?
Well, it’s not always easy - because they’re not being honest and often go out of their way to hide these controversial connections. There are some correlations though. A large number of candidates who signed the unworkable Tax Payers Union Pledges fall into far right ecosystems - most Act branded candidates for example signed it. There’s a correlation between those who signed that document and those who filled out and agreed with the survey Voices for Freedom sent out that was full of loaded questions like “Would you vote for your council to leave LGNZ” and “Should your council prioritise building more separated cycle ways” - rage bait hot button issues a lot of the hard right and disinformation ecosystem dwelling candidates are using to try and win votes. And unsurprisingly, those who agree to the loaded questions tend to also say they’ll vote against Maori wards. They’re not nuanced conversations, they’re red flags saying “these candidates align with us”.
There’s language that gets used as well - “Common sense decision making” is a big one - a nebulous claim that’s different from person to person, but it shows up a lot in candidates with hard right leanings and even more in candidates with direct links to disinformation networks. There’s also “ending race based…” which is a clear dog whistle to fellow racists that they think somehow they’re losing out when Maori are prioritised in any way to help ensure equitable outcomes for Maori. There’s downplaying of climate change, pushing lines about division and debt and seldom a mention of links to disinformation but they are “open minded”.
You can see if they’re pushing cosmetic issues like potholes, and speed bumps but vilifying local water done well changes ignoring or unaware that Council’s have to sort this or face commissioners, then that should be a problem - in one Hamilton Meeting a Better Hamilton Candidate told audiences he had no clue the Government mandated these processes and he’d prefer to vote for the commissioners.
Ultimately - time is running out to vote really quickly - votes need to be in by midday on October 11 to be counted. Postal ballot sucks - it’s slow and inconvenient but not as inconvenient as discovering after the election that the people who did vote put in charge people there who will cause harm to the communities we all call home because they want to own the libs, have “common sense thinking” that makes no sense or straight up lied to voters who where happy to believe them or knew and voted for them anyway.
Thanks for all your hard work Paul. The BW/IT Wellington lot are such a toxic pack of liars. Some have genuinely distanced themselves from that umbrella while some others "claim" they have but are still on the billboard and accepting their support.
And one who claims 'independence' in Hamilton is former National MP and Minister! Tim McIndoe 🙄