Ted Johnston

The Unity party that I lead is seeking to work with the Democratic Alliance to bring a group of small parties into parliament, and change the current paradigm of politics by returning real freedom of speech, democracy and representation back into parliament.

We are seeking to ally several major small parties together to pool their otherwise wasted votes. The Democratic Alliance is set up solely as a vehicle to take these parties into parliament. It is a neutral new party created to be a vehicle for the various parties to combine their party vote together. It will not run electorate candidates.

We seek to have New Zealander’s vote for parties and policies they want, not merely vote against the self-serving parties of Labour and National with their unrepresentative party-line career politicians.

All the polls are completely clear that no small party which has not previously been in parliament will break 5% in 2023. Therefore all their votes will be wasted.

27 years of MMP where not a single new party has broken the 5% threshold prove that campaigning harder, no matter how many millions are spent, will not work. Only campaigning smarter.

I have devised a roadmap for the Democratic Alliance to allow it to navigate the loopholes in the Electoral Act and bring these parties into parliament. All they need to do is get on the bus. It is actually very simple and quick, requiring no legal or party changes to achieve, and can be processed after agreement in a few hours. This is campaigning smart, not small parties banging their heads against a brick wall for 27 years and expecting a different result.

A ‘shared party list’ of all the allied small party leaders or representatives, will allow these parties to recommend to all their voters and supporters to pool their votes in the Democratic Alliance. It will allow a ‘dream team’ of the most well-known and competent party leaders and their parties to represent NZ in parliament. They will also keep their independance, and not be absorbed.

Previously, personalities, egos, brands, and hopeless beliefs in winning alone, have kept them apart. However democratic politics is a numbers game. The question is are they serious about wanting to change and restore NZ? If so they must be in parliament. They need to work with others who do not agree with them on everything. Ideological purity has no place in an open democracy, as it just creates an empty room. You either work together and have a good chance of success, or all fail alone.

We of the Unity party and the Democratic Alliance are calling out to these smaller parties, Democracy NZ, New Conservative, NZeal, the Leighton Baker Party, NZ Loyal and others to come and board our vehicle. There is no other way.

Also to all their supporters and members, we say push your leadership to join, don’t let them just waste your votes for a another 3, 6 or more years in the political wilderness achieving nothing. If they won’t come, and won’t work together for your benefit, then come out of them, and join us with those who care for NZ. We will work together in unity to help restore New Zealand and create a new vital and representative parliament with new ideas and parties in it.

Push your parties and if they won’t join, then leave them as they have abandoned their duty to work for your best interests, to get into parliament and make real change. You have less than a week, but it is more than time enough t achieve this.

It is a hard struggle, but if we succeed we will likely have the balance of power, as so many people don’t want to vote for the current status quo of old existing parties They are desperately wanting help, or are voting for bad or worse. They want hope.

The Democratic Alliance is that hope. Come make it a reality.

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