Josie Pagani: Look past trickery and deals and go with gut feeling

A voting booth in Auckland during the 2008 New Zealand election. Photo / Chris Skelton

On Saturday just vote for what you believe in. Forget the possible coalition deals, the coat-tailing, the sideshows, the dirt and the spies.

Vote for what's important to you. That's how we'll get a result that truly reflects all of us.

National voters in Epsom have been pressured to vote for Act even though they don't want to support a party that will give a gun to every dairy owner and remove all building regulations. As David Parker said, if Act wants to get rid of any planning restrictions it should trial the policy first in Epsom where voters can decide if they want their neighbours building whatever they want anywhere they want.

Voters in electorates such as Te Tai Tokerau should vote for their own values and interests, not the convenience of Kim Dotcom. For all the coverage Hone Harawira's party has had this year, virtually none was about feeding the kids. His party is busy with internet scandals.

Labour's candidate, Kelvin Davis, wants the best education for Maori. He wants jobs and development in the north, and he thinks men should own domestic violence as a male problem. If you believe in that, you should vote for it.

Labour and the Greens have presented voters with a "left bloc" option.

The combined numbers of parties on the left (if you include NZ First) is only a few percentage points behind a National-led Government. Early voting shows that turnout is likely to be high in the election, and that's good for the left.

But parties have done best when they are true to their own core values.

The Greens' promise to make every river swimmable showed up National's dirty compromise to settle for rivers you can wade through without getting sick. David Cunliffe has delivered in the debates.

Voters should choose the party that they trust to be on their side, that has a plan for the future, not the past. New Zealand is drifting. We are being offered trickery and deals. We can choose to vote on principle.

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