DEMOCATISED VOTING - GOD FORBID

Dropkicks don’t deserve to be disenfranchised. That’s what I say (at least today)

The current Government has proposed various changes to New Zealand’s voting and electoral laws. The changes will likely be implemented in their current proposed form.

In order to be entitled to vote in a general election, New Zealanders must be registered on the electoral roll. The proposed changes include preventing enrolment on election day, as is currently permitted. Under the proposals, New Zealanders (to be able to vote) will need to be registered on the electoral roll at least 13 days before ballot day.

In defence of the electoral roll timing reform, ACT Party leader David Seymour announced:

"Frankly, I'm a bit sick of dropkicks that can't get themselves organised to follow the law. It's actually made so easy to do... And if you're too disorganised to do that over a thousand days between two elections, then maybe you don't care that much."

The Government’s proposed changes also include banning all prisoners from voting.

In researching this topic, I stumbled upon an interview that Radio New Zealand’s Kathryn Ryan graciously gave to a certain Kassie Hartendorp.

Kathryn Ryan has worked at Red Radio New Zealand since 1998. During her time as RNZ’s political editor (2000-2006), Kathryn led the vanguard of RNZ’s metamorphosis from impartial public service broadcaster to partisan propaganda machine for the chardonnay political Left, and more recently for the cultural deformity that is WokeCultearoa.

Kathryn’s predecessors as RNZ political editor include Linda Clark.

Leftie Lackey Linda is nowadays a conflicted lawyer and TVNZ director who is currently representing former Deputy Police Commissioner Jevon McSkimming in relation to allegations he watched child pornography and bestiality on his work computer.

Jittery Jevon was an absolute darling of the most recent Labour Party, elevated by then Prime Minister Chris Hipkins from relative obscurity in the Police to Deputy Commissioner (the second-ranking Police officer in New Zealand) in 2023, serving under ex-chief Police Commissioner, Andrew “Imposter” Coster.

Superficially, the other K – Kassie Hartendorp – is cut from the same cloth as her interviewer, Kathryn Ryan. Each Special K is unquestionably WoKe. But that’s where the similarity ends.

Unlike Kathryn Ryan, Kassie H has done it tough. She was adopted out to an English/Dutch couple and met her biological parents when she was 14 years old. Her biological mother is from Ngāti Raukawa, an intriguing Māori tribe with which Kassie affiliates. Ngāti Raukawa is best characterised as New Zealand’s Gypsy Tribe. Starting out in southern Waikato/northern Taupō, Ngāti Raukawa were displaced by other Māori tribes in the inter-tribal Musket Wars (c. 1807-1845) and spread into south-western parts of the North Island. After WWII, many Ngāti Raukawa migrated to the cities.

Kassie Hartendorp heads up ActionStation Aotearoa, an unashamedly radical grassroots activist organisation that predictably promotes all the post-modernist Aotearoan axioms: Te Tiriti Transcendence, Climate Justice, unfettered Immigration into New Zealand, blah, blah. Kassie herself is donkey deep into the LQBTQI+ Rainbow Religion, publicly stating:

We can respect the essence of another person in their wholeness, or dehumanise them. One path leads to a strong, vibrant, enriched manifestation of whakapapa, one results in rigid roles that do not reflect our lived realities, causing stigma and isolation.

Naturally, Sassy Kassie opposes the restrictions on voting that will result from the proposals to bring forward the deadline for voting enrollment and to ban prisoners from voting.

Unlikely allies of Kassie in her opposition to the proposed voting restrictions include Government Minister Judith Collins.

“Crusher”, as Attorney General, has warned that the proposals will disenfranchise (prevent from voting) over 100,000 New Zealanders - disproportionately young people and Māori, Asians and Polynesians – and will thereby breach the electoral right enshrined in the Bill of Rights Act 1990 that “Every New Zealand citizen who is of or over the age of 18 years has the right to vote in genuine periodic elections of members of the House of Representatives”.

And Kassie has another unlikely ally, at least today - Me. I equate enfranchisement with free speech. If someone says, “I’m all in favour of democracy/free speech except…”, you’re not looking at a genuine Democrat/Free Speecher. In my ephemeral view, an unfettered right to vote is too integral to democracy to be timed out a fortnight before election day.

And why should prisoners be disenfranchised? They’re still citizens. There but for the grace of God/Providence go all of us. It’s surprisingly easy to end up in the Slammer. A good friend of mine has been imprisoned multiple times, for nothing remotely justifying jail time.

Government and democratic participation should be more for the shambolic, incarcerated and otherwise useless and down-and-out. Society’s fortunate, orderly citizens can look after themselves, without Government help.

But the strengths of my convictions should not be overestimated. I might just change my views on the proposed voting restrictions. The optimal extent of enfranchisement is a tricky topic. One thing I’m adamant about, however – everyone voting must first have their identity verified i.e., everyone voting must be required to prove that they are who they say they are. Bizarrely, that’s not currently a requirement.

While Kathryn Ryan and Kassie Hartendorp are related species, they’re far from birds of a feather. There’s a profound difference between them. On the hand-out hand, Ryan is a ravenous breast feeder from Radio New Zealand’s bodacious taxpayer-funded bosom.

Conversely, Hartendorp is a self-reliant self-starter. Kassie’s ActionStation is a company (Action Station Aotearoa Limited) that is wholly owned by an incorporated society, ActionStation Aotearoa Incorporated. ActionStation is almost entirely funded by private donations. Intriguingly, ActionStation has not sought charitable status. According to ActionStation’s website:

We are not a charity because around the world organisations like ours risk being deregistered by governments who disagree with their kaupapa. We want to safeguard ourselves for the future by not relying on charitable status for donations. It is our political independence that enables us to stand for the many different causes that we do, whether or not the powers-that-be are happy about it!

Let’s compare and contrast ActionStation with an organisation that has happily claimed charitable status and gleefully grabs taxpayer (our) money - Fight Against Conspiracy Theories (FACT) Aotearoa:

FACT Aotearoa’s spokesperson since 2022 has been Stephen Judd. Judd also happens to be the chairperson of InternetNZ, having been on InternetNZ’s board since 2023. That’s the very same year (2023) that FACT Aotearoa received $10,000 from InternetNZ, on top of $50,000 grifted from the “Countering and Preventing Violent Extremism Fund” of the opaque Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. FACT Aotearoa is a cretinous creation of New Zealand’s cockeyed COVID response.

A book could and should be written about InternetNZ. An incorporated society that ought to confine itself to allocating and administering .nz domain names has gone Race Bonkers. Take this content from InternetNZ’s website:

I recently exchanged views with a woman named Elizabeth Allen, who appears associated with FACT Aotearoa and writes on her own Substack, Fact Check New Zealand. We recently crossed swords in the comments section of one of Elizabeth’s published Substacks. Her Substack, entitled The Politics of Contempt, maligns ACT Party leader and Government Minister David Seymour. Elizabeth accused me of playing the “Ad hominem” in my Substacks, which to be fair I’m occasionally guilty of. But her own ad hominem hypocrisy is entirely lost on her, with her own personal Substack tagline as follows:

I’ve obviously talked less about the proposed restrictions on voting in New Zealand than the weird world of Wokery, grift and occasional integrity that can be discovered while investigating the current political and cultural landscape. More than anything, it’s the people encountered on the trail who fascinate me. Would Kassie Hartendorp be willing to meet, I wonder?