- Wellington High School students, from Left: Merinda Jackson(16) Imogen Holmstead-Scott(17) Hana Rochfort Barber(17) and Frankie Ancillotti (18).
A POLL of 90 senior students at Wellington High School shows a two thirds majority favours voting Green.
The Green party took 66% of the student vote, with pupils citing the Greens’ penchant for looking after the environment and sustainable forms of energy as major selling points.
Frankie Ancillotti (18) says she is disenfranchised with the direction National in particular is headed and expects the Greens to provide a better future for the country.
“I feel so uncomfortable about how close they [National] are with America…how much they look up to them.
“Because it is not a society or political system we should ever be looking up to,” she says.
According to New Zealand’s two most respected polls, Colmar Brunton and Fairfax Media-Research International, the Green party has been polling at around 10%, its highest rating since the since 2002 general election.
Suggestions have been made that Phil Goff and Labour’s low poll ratings have led voters to switch allegiance to the Greens, but the students say the party is not yet politically savvy enough to gain a majority vote.
“Any constructive criticism to the Greens is that you can’t be completely about the environment,” says Frankie. “There is an element where money is really important.
“Labour has a bit more of a balance, but Green has these really good policies.
“If they had more of a balance between their national and economic policies I think they would be really strong.”
Despite doubts surrounding the party’s economic policy, Imogen Holmstead-Scott (17) is willing to see past what she sees as a flaw.
She says their focus on promoting New Zealand as a self-sufficient, environmentally friendly nation overrides any negatives.
“I just think we need to be more focused on jobs here in New Zealand, just be self sufficient and not being reliant, because you can’t control those other countries.”
She says the bigger parties are “inconsistent and too economically based. It’s like everything is built on money.” Whereas the Greens “seem very honest. They stick to their values.”
Merinda Jackson (16) says Wellington is an amazing location for all these sustainable energies, hydro, wind: “We’ve got some incredible sustainable resources.”
The four students unanimously predict National will be re-elected. But on the basis of how some friends have decided, they are unsure whether the public is making an educated decision.
Frankie: “The reason I think National will get back in is because New Zealanders, in general, we don’t have a political culture.
“Most New Zealanders are too ignorant to really know what the difference is, so they just vote.”
One of the students quoted a friend as saying: “I don’t know. I guess I’ve always liked John Key. He just seems like a nice guy.”
Or as Hana Rochford- Barber (17), says: “They just vote for who their boyfriend did.”