Already we have seen a multitude of political dramas; Hone Harawira and the Mana Party, Don Brash and the ACT Party to name a few, all in preparation for the political crescendo that reaches a climax on November 26th, Election day, writes Georgina O'Reilly, of Logan Park High School.
Yet for many of my peers, all the political scandal and jostling for power that is inevitable this year, will go virtually unnoticed.
For an alarming amount of us seventeen turning eighteen year olds, whose voting debut will come later this year, politics holds no interest whatsoever and automatically comes with an unwarranted ‘boring' label attached.
Am I exaggerating this teenage apathy towards New Zealand politics? Unfortunately I think not.
In order to gauge feeling towards politics amongst teenagers I recently conducted a survey of 27 of my peers, with interesting results.
What became abundantly obvious is the need for political education in order to reach the full potential of a democratic governing system.
It's not enough to know vaguely what the main political parties are and who are their leaders, we should have a sound knowledge of their values, history, and desires for the New Zealand population in order to make an informed choice come November 26th.
The survey reinforces this need for political education, as 37% of participants were unable to match the two main political leaders, John Key and Phil Goff, to their parties, and only 7% were able to match the leaders of the eight main political leaders to their parties.
These appalling statistics continued throughout the survey as it became clear that even the most basic of political divisions, namely that of right-wing and left-wing, was being blurred to these indifferent young adults.
Unfortunately voting on who's going to lead our country isn't going to be the only decision needing to be made on November 26th, there's also The Referendum.
Once again, background is needed to ensure a fair vote at the end of the year.
For us seventeen/eighteen year olds, we've been brought up with the MMP voting system, yet 67% of the survey participants said they were ‘not really' or ‘not at all' familiar with the MMP system.
If this is the case, how likely is it that these teenagers will have any knowledge of ‘First Past the Post,' or ‘Preferential Voting,' or ‘Single Transferable Vote,' or ‘Supplementary Member'? It is improbable that a lot of them will actively seek information, particularly when I overhear a comment in class the other day saying "I got another voting thing in the mail yesterday and I just chucked it in the fire without even opening it," followed by a chorus of "same."
So what's to be done to ensure these apathetic teenagers will go into the election with enough political knowledge to make a sound decision regarding the running of our country? Ideally, political studies and voting systems would be a compulsory aspect of the High School curriculum, if not standing on its own then through Social Studies or History.
I believe all voters should go into the election with the basic knowledge of what the political parties stand for.
That, in very general terms, Labour has a background in representing the working class in society, the lower earners, and is the largest ‘left-wing' political party, whereas National represents the more upper-middle class, rural, higher wage-earners, and is the largest ‘right-wing' political party.
Preferably all voters would have a deeper knowledge.
For example I believe an importance should be placed on learning from the 1980's, when the Labour Government so drastically strayed from its roots and began the economic disaster that was ‘Rogernomics.' Throughout this period there were wide ranging free market reforms, public services were privatised, unemployment rose, welfare benefits dropped, wages dropped, and there were large cuts to public health and education.
These were hugely unpopular, and significantly increased New Zealanders' lack of faith in the governing system.
Another voting system was sought for, with an advertisement for MMP in 1993 reading ‘I'd rather live in a democracy with 120 seats than a dictatorship with 99.' Therefore, in a very similar referendum to the one being put forward on November 26th, 70% of New Zealanders who voted in the referendum voted for the introduction of the MMP system in 1993.
Why is it important for us, the youngest generation of voters to know this? Because we haven't lived through it, therefore we haven't learned from it.
If my peers knew that their vote could bring about the return of a significantly less democratic governing system, would they put more thought into their vote for the referendum? I believe so.
By learning from the past we can also compare our present and improve our future.
We can ask questions such as, are we gradually slipping back into the bleak days of the 1980s, with the recent announcement of the privatisation of ACC, the introduction of the 90 day employment trial, and the steady reduction to welfare benefits, or are these changes necessary for New Zealand?
And simply who do we want to lead us into our future? With a sound political education we can examine these questions and form our political opinion accordingly.
Teenagers need to know that we can make a difference on November 26th, that our decision impacts on our future.
- Georgina O'Reilly is a Year 13 student at Logan Park High School.
