Colourful fringe falls by wayside

By DITA DE BONI

Sorry, New Zealand - our chance to vote for state castle-building, the deportation of all New Zealand First members and an immediate halt to importing and exporting has vanished with the McGillicuddy Serious Party.

The colourful McGillicuddies - who also decreed that a third of all New Zealanders should be gay - have disappeared from the political party landscape.

Also gone are the Natural Law Party, Animals First, the South Island Party, and Alamein Kopu's Mana Wahine Te Ira Tangata.

Since the 1999 general election, eight parties ranging from the small to the minute have given up the struggle.

Others, including the Libertarianz and the People's Republic of Aotearoa, have registered as parties, but are standing only electoral candidates and not bothering to seek the party tick.

What are these parties hoping to achieve by standing candidates who have no chance of success?

And more importantly, where has the yogic flying gone?

The Natural Law party, famous for those bouncing yogics, decided to throw in the towel after poor showings in three elections.

Leader Graham Lodge said the party realised it would take "a huge effort" to cross the 5 per cent threshold, let alone be able to contribute to policy.

Natural Law was still committed to policies such as a crime-free society - believing crime was the result of the failure of education - but had decided to focus its resources on "relieving suffering and bringing peace to the world through programmes of transcendental meditation".

Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party leader Michael Appleby squarely blames lack of money. Although the party has registered for Saturday's election, it is "absolutely broke".

Libertarianz deputy leader Richard McGrath agreed, saying the $1000 fee to contest the party vote this year had made it hard for the weenies.

Auckland University political scientist Raymond Miller says very small parties face an impossible task, "even under MMP".

The difficulties of getting enough members, the money and the broadcasting time, as well as competition with "minor" parties such as the Greens and New Zealand First, are formidable obstacles to success for the really small parties, he says.

Under the old first-past-the-post system, which had two big parties and very little else to choose from, parties such as McGillicuddy claimed the true protest vote.

These days, protest votes can be made to count at the ballot box if they go to "minor" parties that are more likely to form alliances with National or Labour.

"Unless you have someone incredibly charismatic or persistent over a long time, or the cause is one that those involved wholeheartedly believe in, small parties succumb to burn-out and financial pressure," Mr Miller says.

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