Runner urges tactical voting
Green Party candidate Jan Logie wants your vote – but only on one part of the ballot.
The Cannons Creek- based politician is standing for the Mana electorate for the third time, but is clear that she is campaigning for the Green party vote rather than to take Kris Faafoi’s place.
Logie has asked Mana voters to think about what they want for their community when they go to the polls on September 20.
‘‘Do we want a country where wonderful kids are in poverty and we can’t swim in most of our rivers, and our economy is really vulnerable to overseas markets?
‘‘Or do we want a country where everyone has the same opportunities as the person next to them and where we’re using our traditions and innovation to build a really strong economy that’s going to be able to ride those waves of change?’’
Door- knocking around Mana, Logie said she has a sense that even those on decent incomes are struggling to make ends meet.
‘‘They’re really struggling to keep up with the mortgage and keep up with increasing bills, and I do worry that some people are giving up.’’
With one in four children living in poverty, Logie said it’s clear the system isn’t working and the party want to start addressing the ‘‘root causes’’ of poverty.
Green policies on warrant of fitnesses for rental housing, rent-to-own schemes and a ‘ school hub’ model which would ensure decile one to four schools have a school nurse and a school lunch fund would all go some way to addressing the issues, Logie said.
The party is also campaigning on cleaning up waterways and making sure local government has the tools to restore waterways and keep them clean.
Logie said the party also wanted money going towards Roads of National Significance projects such as Transmission Gully to be redirected into better public transport and safer walking and cycling.
The Green Party have said in the past they do not support Transmission Gully, but if the policy had support the party would need to look at each roading project and decide whether it was too far down the track to be stopped, she said.