Speaking at the conclusion of the Kiwi Party’s weekend strategy meeting in Auckland today, Party Leader Larry Baldock said the attendees reaffirmed their strong support for the continuation of the party.

The weekend meetings were attended by the party’s Board of Management and some of the 2008 candidates and other party representatives, who will be taking positions of responsibility at electorate and regional levels in the coming months. The meeting, which brought together attendees from as far south as Dunedin and far north as Kaikohe, worked together on Strategic and Business Plans to take the Party forward to the 2011 elections.

In the short term the Party will focus on a national campaign to ensure the success of the referendum on the “anti-smacking”law. The meeting endorsed an initiative to investigate forming a “referendum alliance” of the smaller political parties who have policies to repeal the criminalising of good parents in NZ along with other concerned community groups.

Having recently completed the party’s election returns and annual accounts for 2008 that revealed $300,000 spent in total for the year, the leadership team acknowledged the wide support the Party had received from Kiwis across the country.

Considering these funds did not come from just a few wealthy donors but rather from a broader grass roots support base, Larry Baldock said “it made us all the more determined to continue the political struggle to build a great nation based on timeless values”.

ENDS

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