ZB ZB
Live now
Start time
Playing for
End time
Listen live
Listen to NAME OF STATION
Up next
Listen live on
ZB

Conservatives uninvited from first election year debate

Author
Daniel Walker,
Publish Date
Mon, 6 Mar 2017, 5:18AM
(Getty Images).
(Getty Images).

Conservatives uninvited from first election year debate

Author
Daniel Walker,
Publish Date
Mon, 6 Mar 2017, 5:18AM

The Conservative Party's been uninvited from the first political debate of election year.

This Thursday's Auckland University debate will see representatives from the major parties in Parliament.

But it also includes the Mana Movement, which has no representatives in the House.

The Conservatives got nearly 4 per cent of the vote last election - making it the highest polling party to not enter parliament.

The debating society's president Callum Lo said it's because the lineup had become "quite bloated" and the right-wing party's been polling low recently.

But Conservative leader Leighton Baker said that wasn't the case last election.

"Yeah we've taken a hit recently but I guess that's a dip down when we haven't been in the news and the public eye for a while and I'm sure that's going to climb back up as we present policies and present our face back out again."

Baker said the exclusion is "unfair" and the debate's ignoring a chunk of the population.

"We're saying, 'Hey look, there's a whole group of people who would like conservative voices heard and they shouldn't be ignored in the debate'."

Mana remains in the debate, despite coming in more than 60,000 votes short of the Conservatives last election.

Mr Lo said Mana's still in because their leader promised to front for the debate.

He said Hone Harawira is a big name, and more people would be interested in seeing him than the Conservative party representative, Leighton Baker.

The Conservatives received 3.97 per cent of the vote in 2014 but failed to get into Parliament because they fell below the 5 per cent party vote threshold and won no electorate seats.

The party has since been torn apart by the departure of founder, leader, and main funder Colin Craig amid allegations of "inappropriate conduct" in relation to his former press secretary in 2015.

It did not register in a TVNZ 1 News Colmar-Brunton poll last month.

 

 

Take your Radio, Podcasts and Music with you