Kate Hawkesby: Be careful not who you vote for, but what you vote for

I know I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again, I’m so over this election. Please let it be over already.  Now that Winston’s crept back into the fray, we've got the old gameplaying of not just the politicians - but the voters now too who seem to believe they can rig MMP in their favour.  They want to design their own bespoke government. After all these years, we still don’t seem to get it. Essentially NZ voters are their own worst enemies.   Nearly two thirds of New Zealand voters think the country is heading in the wrong direction – but the smorgasbord of wasted votes plays to those who indulge themselves in delusions of grandeur that MMP provides them an ability to vote tactically.   They truly believe they can change the direction New Zealand is going with a sprinkling of some self serving bias - but it sadly doesn’t work like that.   Believing you can ‘send a message’, or ‘take out some insurance’ or ‘punish’ a party, is deluded.   To vote ‘tactically’ against a party you traditionally support or to counter the perceived threat of another minor party, means you’re at the same time ignoring a raft of potentially crazy economic and social policies, to tick a box which you mistakenly believe will ‘hold the new government to account.’   John Key once famously said if you want steak, order steak. And yet still, when we say we want steak, there are some who order mince instead, and with a side of veges, ‘just to keep the chef on his toes.’   It makes no sense.   Countless polls have shown the two core issues at stake in New Zealand right now are the cost of living and rampant crime. That’s before you get to our broken health or failing education systems.   Yet a large chunk of New Zealand voters, who are desperate to see a change in direction of this country, somehow think they can afford to split their vote and yet still expect to see a change in direction.   They are not doing the maths, they are not reading the room.   Based on latest polling, a coalition of Labour, Greens and Te Pati Maori  gets 45 percent of the seats in Parliament, even though 66 percent of voters think the country is going in the wrong direction.   Head scratch.   A coalition of National and Act, which would arguably change the direction of this country which two thirds of voters think is heading in the wrong direction, on latest polling has only 50.8 percent of the seats.   This makes no sense.   Don’t even get me started on Winston.   Any government involving NZ First will go in no direction, it will stall as Winston looks to negotiate, grandstand and play games – hauling on the handbrake of progress in any and all directions.    Yet in latest polling, with a backdrop of two thirds of New Zealanders thinking the country is heading in the wrong direction, NZ First is on the precipice of holding progress to ransom as kingmaker.    This will inevitably put New Zealand into a sleeper hold – right at a point in history where it needs to be taking some deep breaths and big bold steps.   Be careful not who you vote for, but WHAT you vote for.   Rhis is before we get to the woeful tail of tiny parties like TOPP, Vision NZ, Liz Gunn, Hannah Tamaki and co, the waste of time territory. We either want change or we don’t.   The stakes for New Zealand have never been higher, we are at a cross-road – and we cannot afford to stall now in the middle of the intersection.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.