The campaign thus far

It's been an exciting campaign this election for the Greens, especially to see us climb up and up in the polls! Now we're well into the final two weeks, and we'll be pushing really hard to make sure that translates to many more new Green MPs on polling day.

Today I helped launch the Wellington transport policy, with a press conference on a trolley bus. Then I did some doorknocking in the afternoon.

As the Green Party's list candidate stationed at Victoria University, that was the main focus of my campaign - though with exams over, and everyone dispersing, the campaign has all but wrapped up there. Of course I want all students to remember to vote, and know that they can vote early too!

At Vic we handed out lots of fliers, and spoke to heaps of people; participated in We Are the University demonstrations to ensure education is made a priority at Vic; put on a successful gig; signed up lots of volunteers (I'd like to say it's the most successful year for Greens@Vic ever!); had a sausage sizzle.

And of course we ran the Wellington's Crappiest Flat competition. I recently did an energy audit on the winner's place, and found the unsealed, damp ground the flat was built on was making the floorboards rot, and everything in the house mouldy. As shown in their photos, their drawers needed to be cleaned of mould every month or two, and so their clothes constantly smelt of mould (one of the flatmates saying their friends at uni pointed this out to them one day).

With the subsidy of 60 percent for insulation for landlords with low income tenants (students!) that the Greens got National to fund through our Memorandum of Understanding (and the further 200 000 homes we'd like to see insulated in the next term of Government), I hope landlords like this one see the light and insulate! The mould issues were damaging the landlord's investment, as well as the students' health (with issues like eczema flaring up). Of course, if landlords don't insulate, the Green Party will be introducing minimum standards for rental housing if we get the chance, as no one should be able to rent out unsafe, substandard housing. At least many landlords are convinced by the subsidy, but not all are for some strange reason.

Last week end, before kicking off the final two weeks at a lovely BBQ at Wellington Central Candidate James Shaw's place, we had the Young Greens' online launch which saw us using a Google+ hangout, which was lots of fun. And we also got the many young candidates videoed, talking about why we are standing for such an awesome Party.

My campaign opening speech!

Here it is.

It was a few months ago now, but it feels like the campaign really is heating up now, so I thought it was still a good time to post it. Enjoy!

Kia ora koutou,

It’s great to see so many of you come in support of the Greens@Vic campaign launch party for election 2011! I’m Zachary Dorner, the Greens@Vic Candidate, and I’m excited to be sharing the stage with the awesome James Shaw, our Wellington Central Candidate, and one of our hard working Green MPs, Dave Clendon.

Thanks to the awesome Greens@Vic organising team for helping make this night a success. And thanks heaps to Sophie and the Realistic Expectations for coming to entertain us, and Martin Wilson for providing sound and lighting gear.

The theme of this campaign launch, and of the opening campaign around the country is “What are you looking forward to?” Today at Vic we’ve been asking many fellow students that question, and you can get your photo taken too tonight by our roaming photographer Simon.

We’re asking this question to help us all think about what the future might hold. JS/DC has already outlined what an important year this is for New Zealand, and the question is doubly important for young students like us to ask.

John Key seems like a nice guy and all, and I’d certainly want to have him at my place for a beer and a BBQ. I do, however, have a number of bones to pick with him at this hypothetical BBQ that will never happen.

First question for John – Why did you cut taxes for your rich mates, then cut Working for Families, Kiwisaver and Tertiary Education funding on the grounds of not having enough tax revenue? (You got free tertiary education John, the least you could do is invest in my generation’s education, and our future prosperity.)

Second question – Why do you hate young people? OK, that might be a little bit unfair, but someone looking in from the outside at your policies might conclude that you do. For students like us, if we are looking for a job, we face an uphill battle. (Youth unemployment is at 19%, and even well qualified people are struggling to find work, like you and I should be, come the end of our degrees. That’s a problem with your poor economic management John – not very good for a Party that prides itself on economic management.)

Third question – Why do you hate young people? This time the question is a little fairer. When you grew up, you could swim safely in our lakes and rivers, now you’re allowing this to become all but impossible for us. And when you were young you would have thought the weather came and went, but the overall climate would stay the same. But in the last nine months you subsidised big polluters by $800 million to ensure there will be more floods, more freak weather events, and no stability or certainty left in the climate for people in my generation.

Now, John – I would say – if that is your real name, there are really great ways you could change all this. You could join the Green Party or adopt our policies. The Green Party will create a future we can all look forward to.

By supporting the Green Party, you are supporting tertiary education.

By supporting the Green Party, you are supporting Green jobs for all, and a prosperous economy.

By supporting the Green Party you are supporting affordable, warm and healthy housing – and that includes the Wellington student flat.

And at this point John Key would be like “OMG, that lyk totes makes sense now. After today, which is Friday, I will get straight to work on that Green economic vision that is so much better than my current one, which is non-existant.”

Yes, my friends, that is the type of advocacy I am capable of. And that is why I am your candidate, for Victoria University, and the Green Party, this election year.

I come from a place of social and environmental advocacy that started while listening to Bomber on Channel Z – an awesome radio station, for those of you not old enough to remember. I built up a Green group at school, Onslow College out in J-ville. Now I am studying economics and environmental studies at Vic, I spent last year as VUWSA’s Environmental Officer, and this year I am campaigning for the Green Party through Greens@Vic.

Through my experiences I have worked out a magical formula, which I shall reveal to you tonight. Ready? You can change the world, learn heaps of cool shit in the process, and have an awesome time all at once.

And I can see that you all agree, which is why you are here tonight to have a good time, and start changing New Zealand for the better. So make sure you are signed up, to help the Greens@Vic out, and to help out the Wellington Greens this election year.

You will be able to join us in such projects as: votes and vino – heading out to the Wairarapa to get their votes, and to sample some of their delicious wine. The warm healthy rentals competition, where we try and find the crappest flat in Wellington, to make the point that we should set minimum standards on rental housing. We’ll be enrolling young people to vote, and we are planning on creating a student army in the two weeks after exams finish and before the election on November 26, to paint the town Green.

You can also help us with great election moments such as dressing up in costumes, secret late night missions, putting up and taking down billboards in the rain, and so many other fun fun times.

And at the end of it all, on election night when we get more Green MPs elected than ever before and have a great party, you can think “I was a part of making that happen”. So make sure you give your details to one of the people roaming around with clipboards so we can keep in touch.

We also need money, and lots of it if we are to cement ourselves firmly as New Zealand’s third political Party. We don’t have large corporate backers, so we need everything we can get. So even if you, the poor student, put the $2 you have in your pocket into one of our koha buckets tonight, you are still helping make a difference.

So what I am looking forward to? I’m looking forward to a great year. We will have good times, meet new people, and most importantly, increase the Green Party vote. Then we can get to work on creating a New Zealand we can all look forward to.

Hey John. And Roger.

On the eve of my second week of University ever, I believe it's time to reflect on my first week of University ever.

It was a week of excitement, a week of administration, a week of disappointingly little partying, a week of heaps of free time compared to what I'm used to (meaning I could focus on the more important things in life, such as cleaning my inbox, my room, and constructing a composter) and finally, of course, a week of meeting new people and getting stuck in with the Greens@Vic.

And, just so you know, I am doing a BA, but in really useful stuff - environmental studies and economics. It's going to be a packed three years of geekily exciting learning.

As I start my life of debt, of borrowing to live, I say hey John, I think it's about freakin' time you give students a better start to life. Especially given the ecological debt you're burdening us with by your disregard for the environment on which we depend.

I also start with contemplations of a $100 minimum wage... Come on Roger, use your influence in the new Government!
Disclaimer: For the record, I don't know why ACT on Campus thought the $100 minimum wage speech bubble (plus their other mildly sarcastic signs) was so clever. A $100 minimum wage is just as ridiculous as their desired no minimum wage let the market take it's course. That's not sarcasm, that's irony!

The only Party you can live with

On Friday the Greens on Campus were at it again, setting up a lounge suite (from my flat) so that visiting Green MP Metiria Turei could make herself comfortable, and students comfortable too, with our tertiary policy.

We want to make sure that education is free, like it should be, and that students don't have to be the only section of society forced to borrow to live. That is why we want a Universal Student Living Allowance. Why do I have to currently wait until I'm 24 until my eligibility for a Student Allowance is no longer income tested on my parents income? How condescending and wrong. It's crazy that at a time when we have more money than ever before (minus the current financial crisis and minor recession) education is more expensive than ever before. It should be paid for by the Government. That, plus a better quality of life, is what's needed to keep so many kiwis from flying away from this beautiful country. It is also needed to stop the declining rates of people on low incomes taking up tertiary education, which makes it so much harder for them to break out of the poverty or near poverty trap.

That is why the Green Party is the only Party you can live with.