Voting is a Waste of Time in Aotearoa: Yeah Right

You know your country’s broken when … voting seems a waste of time. You know your country’s is failing its people when … voting is seen as something separate to youth development.

If you think that voting is a waste of time because both the so-called ‘left’ and the so-called ‘right’ have the same policies at the end of the day, then you are right. But you are wrong to use this as an excuse not to vote. Somewhere along the line, we have got ourselves into the trap of thinking it has to be one party or another in coalition with smaller parties. We have failed to realise that even the big parties started once as small. They had to prove themselves in order to be the players in the political game that they are now.

One thing that age has taught me is that policies of advantage and disadvantage simply advantage those who vote and disadvantage those who don’t. It is simple math, really. Hence why, in our nation, Maori and women fought so hard to vote. So why have we stopped seeing the power in the ballot? And what does this mean for youth development?

If you want to see when voters were disadvantaged you have to journey back to the 1980s and the welfare reforms that took place under the Lange Government (Labour). The Labour party has traditional left-leaning roots back to the mining communities of the West Coast. The Savage Government of the 1930s heralded in massive reforms to enable those of us at the bottom rung of the ladder the support to get through the hard times. Full employment was the aim and the policies of this Government and by the 1960s, we were just that, a nation fully employed (we have to remember though that we are talking about our menfolk).

With global and local economic crashes in the 1980s, something had to change and it did. Under the Labour Government, we switched our thinking from social outcomes to economic outcomes. This meant that unemployment became needed in order to enable the free market to flourish. Labour promised a change when it was apparent that workers were hurting. They were voted in again. And, they under the policies of Roger Douglas, they were lied to. When the 1990s hit, a National Party was elected, with the finance minister Ruth Richardson thanking Labour for starting the job. The welfare reforms that followed simply crushed our poorest.  For those of us of the 1990s high school generation we watched as tertiary education became user-pays. That election we were too young to vote. Not having a voice meant a pathway for those in advantage, setting policy, allowed them to disadvantage those of us without that pathway.

So, yes, if you were voting in the 1980s, you would be right. Your vote wouldn’t count. But we live in different times now. MMP allows us to keep the big players in Government in check. It allows us to vote for the independents and smaller parties. But, only some of us vote, those of us who benefit from a free market Government. Many other people aren’t voting. The reality is, you will get what you always got (and maybe lose some), if you don’t vote.

Over the years, I have watched less and less young people being empowered to vote because the adults in their lives don’t emphasise the importance. It is true, young people are engaging more and more in political actions. The one that we need to emphasise more and more is the power to vote. Imagine the difference that we can make, that you can make, to the mistakes of the economic policies of the last 30 years if everyone that has experienced disadvantage due to these policies voted.

I am not calling for a Donald Trump to be elected but what we are seeing in America is the disadvantaged working class speaking up. They are tired of seeing policy driven by corporate agendas and a perception that other minorities matter more than them and their families. Let us not get to the extreme point of the United States, but let us make a stand for those who are disadvantaged in our communities. Let us create a world for tomorrow where our children enter in with their gifts and talents not with a huge debt and no hope for the dreams of the baby boomer generation.

As we journey towards another voting cycle. My challenge to us all is not to vote for yourself and what you need. Vote for your neighbour. Think of the most disadvantaged person in society, the homeless youth on the street, the abused kid, the prisoner that always wanted a life outside of the bars but doesn’t know the way. Vote for the policies that will support and enable them. Let us reshape the image we have of ourselves as a nation. Let us be a society first, an economy second. Most of all let us encourage a new generation of voters to sign up and have their say.