Of Christ and Politics

A very interesting home group I had tonight. Supposedly, one of our members (we have about nine in our home group) was to give a kind of "run-down" on the up and coming Election. Unfortunately, she was away at a meeting of some sort, so it was me and three others in the lounge, discussing the election. Flip, what an interesting discussion we had - for two hours - and this post outlines what really stood out from our nutting out.

What first struck me is that Dave (our home group leader) made the comment that New Zealand, and New Zealanders in general, compare ourselves with Australia too much, almost to the point where the Government is trying to be like Australia. Moreover, one of the current issues that Politicians struggle with is the fact that so many post-graduates shift to Australia, apparently for better pay packets. Interestingly, Dave outlined that economically we are better off in New Zealand. Sure, the money may be only slightly higher across the ditch, but you have to also weigh into the matter how much money is extracted as tax, of which is much higher over there than here. Also, in Australia, to change ownership of a home will cost you $35000 (to the Government), whereas New Zealand has no such cost. Labourers going over to Australia are more likely to benefit, due to the strong working unions over there, but a Labourer is hardly going to have a mammoth loan on his or her back, next to a Doctor. Most often the reason people leave to Aussie is the climate. Sure, it's warmer over there, but economically New Zealand is the place to be. OK, so the overall salaries aren't as high - if only just - but there is a heck of a lot less taxation in New Zealand. In fact, more likely those fleeing to Australia in the hope of higher income end up coming back to New Zealand anyway.
My advice? Save yourself the plane ticket - stay!

Secondly comes the next big issue - who to vote for. For me, I know two groups that I am not going to vote for. One of these groups is Labour. To the best of my understanding, I myself haven't seen the benefits of what a Labour Government under Helen Clark has had to offer New Zealand. She's scrapped our Strike Force (and the taxpayers are paying MORE to keep the Skyhawks in the hangars. Just scrap 'em!), and hasn't offered a proposal for a replacement. Perhaps - being an island nation - she should look at Naval options? My next comment is going to get a few backs up, but hear me out...scrap race-related funding. No, I am not a Racist by any means. But can you imagine the uproar if the average New Zealand European (the "whiteys") started up a particular thing just for white people? But does it not strike a chord with you that there is this race inequality? The Government - and New Zealand as a whole - needs to step up and finalise this one issue: New Zealanders are New Zealanders. End of story! Not one race or the other (isn't that what Apartheid was all about?), but one nation. New Zealand. New Zealanders.
Labour also hasn't contributed very well to social engineering. Prostitution, Brothels, Civil Unions, PC...I could go on. We don't even know what a family unit is any more!
The other group that won't get my vote are any Christian parties out there. Yes, you read correctly. I say this for this one basic reason: if they cannot work together under one Christian banner, then they aren't worth the vote. Destiny NZ has spoken out and said that they won't work with other Christian parties. Why is that? Because they, like the rest, have their own agenda. And they don't want teamwork to spoil the fun. Sound harsh? Perhaps it does, but if you want to silence this harshness, you will need to turn a blind eye to what's happening out there.