Candidates seen as job applicants

Press, 20 October 1981, Page 12

Candidates seen as job applicants

Political candidates should be seen as applicants for a job, says the secretary of the recently formed Voters Association of Njew Zealand, Mr R. H. Miskia The Tauranga-based organisation, wjhich was formed in May this year, has sent a set of eight questions to 300 sitting members of Parliament anti’ candidates in this year’s General Election. The questions include: @ Whether the candidate’s first loyalty wuld be to the electors or to a party. © Whether the candidate would oppose any international agreements undermining New x Zealand’s independence. © Whether there should be a limit on the percentage of income taken in taxation and what the limit should be. 0 Whether the candidate agrees that a nation cannot borrow its way out of debt. @ Whether the candidate agrees not, to vote for any legislation he or she has not read or understood. Candidates were also asked if they supported the setting up of a legislative council to act as a check on Parliament. Mr Miskin said a third to .

half of those approached had replied to the questions. It was a pleasing result, since the association was relatively unknown. The group, which had between 60 and 80 members, planned to release the results to the news < media. People would be left to make up their own minds and there would be.no recommendation on hbw people should vote. Mr Miskin said he had not collated the results and had no idea which parties had given the best responses to the questions. Some replies were “snooty” and indicated a contempt for the ' voters. 7 He said tie was aware that’ some' party branches tiad a policy of not answering circular letters such as the one sent out by the Voters Association. “This is the very thing we are talking about,” he said. “Candidates are ' being directed by the/party hierarchy telling them how to act. But the. voters are the* employers of members of Parliament. We pay theif huge salaries and fringe benefits.” / Members, of Parliament had to be the most suitable representative for an electorate. The electors should

come first and party allegiances isecond. True democracy came only when voters asserted their authority and made their feelings known to their representatives.

The association had received a “wonderful” response from voters in Tauranga, he said, Its members included people of all party affiliations, although most were National or Social Credit supporters. The group had no link with other organisations, he said. Although the League of Rights had “latched on to the i3ea’ ! and other groups were conducting similar "surveys, there was no connection between them.

There had-been no other group Tike the Voters Association in New Zealand. The>-’Tauranga branch was encouraging the setting up of other autonomous branches, although there had been no interest from Christchurch yet. It would be a powerful force" by the 1984 General Election, he said.

It had cost about $250 to set up the association and run its campaign. The money had been raised from members. ./ r r i