Editorial: No to cash for joke parties

Ben Uffindell is the editor of The Civilian. Photo/Martin Hunter

Joke political parties are nothing new - I still remember the McGillicuddy Serious Party, which was anything but. John Key often refers to the Bill and Ben Party from six years ago - they obviously left an impression. Thankfully we don't have a Jono and Ben Party this time around (though I think that would be fun).

But we do have another "Ben" party - the Civilian Party - the brainchild of satirist Ben Uffindell.

They've been in the news this week because there's dissatisfaction at the fact they've received $33,000 of taxpayers' money from the Electoral Commission.

Fair enough, you might think. There are more than enough jokes among the serious contenders.

Uffindell says the Civilian Party is "not a joke" and has every right to the funding as it meets all the legal criteria for a legitimate political party.

Well, if $33,000 is what it takes to help them bring in policies like "ice cream", llamas for every poor kid, moving Wellington's airport to Christchurch to make it safer, and declaring New Zealand's independence from Hamilton, why not?

They do have some funny policies (in every sense of the word funny) - my favourite is establishing a space programme to send a man to the moon. Not to explore it, just sending away "someone we don't like".

Maybe if more people see politics as fun they'll engage with the electoral process and get out and vote. But let's draw the line at actually giving money and votes to a joke party.

At some point we need to recognise the seriousness of the issues this country faces.

We need the best people in Parliament to deal with these issues.

We're lucky and privileged to live in a democracy where we get to choose those people and wasting votes is irresponsible.

The funny thing is, Uffindell, who appears in interviews and on his website and Twitter to be very insightful and clever and engaged in the issues, is exactly the sort of person there should be more of in Parliament.