As you may have already noticed in the appendage to my earlier blog about the Maxim Institute’s nzvotes website, it’s baa-acck. However, it also seems to have altered format considerably.

Nzvotes 2.0 shows no signs of a questionnaire or survey directed at individual candidates. One suspects that this is because the organisation is still trying to pull off its double-act, balancing its social conservative veneer with its actual New Right political orientation. Moreover, it also has to negotiate the Electoral Finance Act, so it’s playing it safe through providing linkages to all the registered New Zealand political parties that are currently authorised by the Electoral Commission.

And anyway, what would a current Maxim Institute survey or questionnaire be focused on? Granted, the New Right and Christian Right both have shared interests in axeing the Electoral Finance Act, but surely that’s a foregone conclusion. We all know which way that National and ACT will answer on one hand, while the opinions of Labour, the Greens, Progressives and New Zealand First are similarly easy to guess.

What else? To satisfy its New Right constituency, one guesses that the next few questions would focus on tax cuts, reduced government spending, increased funding for private schools and privatisation of social welfare services. Otherwise, one would encounter a situation where Rodney Hide and Heather Roy would be their usual centre-right social liberal selves, which would predispose Christian Right website readers to vote against them.

 Problem is, while there is an overlap when it comes to fundamentalist private schools, and probably privatisation of welfare services as well, that would be weak milk to the Christian Right website readers, who probably want some mention of their pet issues- for example, continued criminalisation of voluntary euthanasia, continued refusal to completely decriminalise abortion and refusal to introduce same sex marriage or inclusive adoption reform would all be on the list. However, again, National’s centre-right social liberals and ACT would score poorly on that, while Labour social conservatives like Harry Duynhoven would do quite well.

Yet, given its recent fiscal conservatism, the Maxim Institute would be seen to be trying to undermine ACT through such a focus, angering its current New Right partners like the Business Roundtable and Centre for Independent Studies. Given that the latter offers them more opportunities for organisational survival and career mobility than the weaker Christian Right, I suspect that it will therefore focus predominantly on fiscal conservatism rather than social conservatism during this general election.

And finally, we come to the curious question of the chosen venues for their visitations. These are Pukekohe, Helensville, Whangerai, Rotorua, Central Auckland and Christchurch, and the only finalised one is Central Auckland, where Labour’s Phil Goff will make mincemeat out of National’s Richard Worth, United Future’s Judy Turner and the Family Party (???) leader, Richard Lewis.

If I had to comment about the choice of venues, I’d note that there are a lot of small town stops, which raises interesting questions about the Institute’s current financial health. For one thing, small town venues presumably cost less to rent. For another thing, all but one of the candidate meetings are set in the North Island, and almost none of them venture south of the Bombay Hills, therefore raising some additional questions about fuel saving and again, possible financial restraints.

Will there be other significant developments? Keep your eye on the links below…

Recommended:

Maxim Institute: http://www.maxim.org.nz

Nzvotes (Maxim Institute): http://www.nzvotes.org