The Main Report Group's "Sacred Cows" Survey

The Main Report Group's "Sacred Cows" Survey Reveals The Retirement Age Must Rise, No Support For MMP And Too Many Parliamentary Seats

As the general election looms, The Main Report Group has carried out a survey of its readership to gauge support and reaction on a set of issues it is calling "Sacred Cows" - issues about which there is great concern, but not much debate.

The survey was completed by over 500 people, and covered 10 key issues - • Raising the retirement age • MMP • The level of representation in Parliament • NZ becoming a Republic • Foreign purchase of rural land and assets • Retaining the Maori seats • Immigration • Partial asset sales • The capital gains tax • Whether the Government should take a more interventionist role in the economy.

Max Bowden, Editor In Chief of The Main Report Group says the issues which gained the strongest reaction were raising the retirement age, MMP and Parliament having too many seats.

54.7% of respondents were either strongly or moderately in favour of boosting the retirement age, with 19% neutral. Among the comments: "The quid pro quo for having a first world medical system that enables us to enjoy good health is that we only become eligible for super at 67 or 68. Enlightened employers are looking to employ and retain older workers."..."Successive Govt's continue to ignore this politically untouchable issue. We need leadership, not government's bowing to populist pressures."

57.1% of respondents were not at all or somewhat unlikely to support MMP, despite there being good support for retaining MMP among the wider public. In the survey just 6.6% were neutral. Among the comments: "It has produced more diversity in Parliament, but equally concerned that it delivers sub-optimal policy results - vanilla politics that tries to please all of the people all of the time"..."Good to have other voices in Parliament, but I despise the idea of the tail wagging the dog, The Greens annoy me greatly - they would do better to call themselves the NZ Socialist Party"..."Think it would be better to go back to 1st past the post and get rid of the fringe radicals."

Bowden says themes which come from cross referencing the responses showed interesting differences between supporters of MMP and opponents of MMP. MMP supporters tend to favour a Capital Gains Tax (68% in favour) while opponents are opposed (67% against). Likewise 60% of MMP supporters are against partial asset sales, while amongst MMP opponents the same number (60%) are in favour. Some issues resonate regardless of the views on MMP. Strong support for raising the retirement age, supporting more immigration from MMP supporters and opponents, plus strong opposition to selling land and rural assets to foreigners.

Bowden notes another question which generated strong feeling asked to what extent respondents supported the claim Parliament has too many seats. Most agreed. 54.7% either strongly or moderately agreed with the statement, with 15.1% neutral. Comments included: "There are two many free-loaders and loonies who have made politics a career and add no value whatsoever"... "The real problem is that we don’t have an upper house. There needs to be some mechanism to stop parliament ramming everything through under urgency."

Senior Trans Tasman writer Ian Templeton says "after 12 years on the front line in politics Simon Power concluded Parliament is too often afraid to tackle the "tough issues" for fear of losing votes. He's right. In his valedictory Power said MPs waste their time attacking each other, trying to out-maneuvre each other, "and just plain loathing each other. It's an incredible waste of energy." Now, at a critical point in NZ's history, it's vital for our democracy politicians confront, and debate, the issues they relegate to the "too hard" basket."

The full headline results of the survey and some analysis are included in the attached PDF.

The Main Report Group's flagship publications - Trans Tasman Political Week, NZ Energy & Environment Business Week, NZ Transport Intelligence Business Week, The Main Report Business Week and The Main Report's Agri-Business Week will be carrying more extensive analysis of the results in the weeks leading up to the election.

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