Editorial: Dirty politics ruining election

Dirty politics. Photo / Michael Cunningham

Elections, love them or hate them, they get everyone talking.

It seems a current hot topic is the Dirty Politics saga, which I know many people are bored of hearing about.

We are seeing a lot of politicians coming out of the woodwork inserting their five cents worth but quite frankly, it's all getting a bit much to keep up with who is saying what.

It's getting to the point where people don't really care or they simply can't keep up with what is going on.

Some people spoken to by this paper say the Dirty Politics saga has either prompted them to vote when they wouldn't usually or they have now decided not to vote for anyone.

Whatever the reasoning, I hope people use their vote wisely.

Then there are all the promises.

If you vote for me, I'll do this, or we'll pay for that. Most of these things we never hear about until it's election time. And once the election is over these people will go back into obscurity and we won't hear from them for another three years.

Aside from the promises, there is the campaign trail. Politicians coming to Tauranga to try to persuade you to vote for them. They shake a few hands, kiss a few babies, try to garner as much support as possible and then disappear again.

In the newsroom we get sent several emails every day from various candidates and parties, all spouting off about one thing or another. Readers get a taste of these emails every Saturday when we publish the Spin Files.

I think Tauranga is lucky that it has representatives from most of the political parties in this election. People do have a variety of choice and many of our local candidates are quite different.

However, I worry that this election is focusing too much on name calling and talking down other party's policies.

People are more interested to hear about the real issues going on in Tauranga. The cost of living, rising house prices, the environment. What are you going to do about that?

With only weeks to go until the election, it would be nice to see our local candidates putting all the Dirty Politics aside and start talking about what they will do for our city.