Minor parties outraged at debate shut-out

hometoad · Posted: Mon Sep 29, 2008 4:34 pm

The refusal of the leaders of the two major parties to share debate has outraged leaders of the minor parties

29 September 2008

The majority of the minor parties are angry over moves by Labour and National to have them excluded from a leaders debate.

TV3 has decided to cancel its planned political debate, after National leader John Key and Labour leader Helen Clark refused to appear with any minor parties. However TVNZ will host a 90 minute debate between just Miss Clark and Mr Key on October 14.

Mr Key is making no apologies for the move. He says it is going to be an election where people are going to want to compare his leadership directly with that of Labour's leader. He says such a head on head debate gives New Zealanders more clarity than would be possible if all eight party leaders were present.

The minor party leaders are infuriated with the two major parties. Maori Party co-leader Tariana Turia says TV3's decision to can the debate is principled. She says the decision by the two old parties not to join in shows extreme arrogance and is taking away the level playing field where all parties can debate the issues.

Green Party co-Leader Jeanette Fitzsimons says it is an affront to democracy given it will be the minor parties that determine the outcome of the election. She says the National and Labour leaders have clearly colluded, describing it as bully boy tactics and an affront to democracy.

ACT leader Rodney Hide is accusing Miss Clark of trying to have an election with no political debate. He says it is shocking Mr Key has gone along with the plan. Mr Hide says the National leader has to accept some responsibility for shutting out dissenting voices and not allowing New Zealanders an informed vote.

United Future leader Peter Dunne, who has always scored well in debates, is going so far as to compare it Zimbabwe. He says there Mugabe stole and election, now Miss Clark and Mr Key are trying the same here. He says the minor parties will dictate which of them is the Prime Minister after November 8.

The firebrand Winston Peters is not getting into debating debates, but says he is willing to debate the real issues of the campaign, any place any time. He says it might surprise the media that the election is about real people and not reality TV nonsense.

http://home.nzcity.co.nz/news/article.aspx?id=90816&fm=psp,tst

I couldn't help but think this was kinda rich coming from some of the minor parties considering how they (the minor parties) tend to treat parties like the ALCP.

South_side_of_the_sky · Posted: Tue Oct 21, 2008 3:17 pm

New world order much

?
_________________
Drink! Sex! Cigarettes!
Ford Cortina! household pets!
Bombs? War? Famine? Death?
An apathetic public couldn't care less!

churchoftree · Regular Joined: Oct 09, 2008 Posts: 30 Location: USA

Sadly, it looks like they took one straight from America's playbook of dirty "democracy". Way back when, oh what about a year ago, there were 8 Democratic candidates vying for nomination. But the networks only held debates with the 8 of them for a very short time, before getting the decree to nudge out the 'little guys' like Dennis Kucinich (the peace and pot candidate, hooray for him!). It was just the big guys playing bully and it worked a charm for them. The American people didn't get real debates at all, there was no Kucinich to push important issues. Instead, Hillary and Obama and Edwards parroted vanilla rhetoric about iraq and healthcare.
Really sad to see real debate stifled here.
Not surprised though I guess


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