Internet Party New Zealand – Where to from here?
The 2017 election is over and if you look at the results it has been a dismal election for Internet Party New Zealand with only 499 votes.
The causes of this are manifold. But they can basically be boiled down to,
- Not enough time for the new leadership.
- Lack of money.
- No media coverage.
The last two could [almost be considered the same thing](https://tane.harre.nz/the-internet-party-and-the-curious-case-of-the-missing-media target=) in New Zealand elections.
On the brighter side of things some of their policies were adopted by other parties. A couple of examples are,
So, where to from here?
There are a number of things that didn’t happen in time for the last election. Having time to complete them should serve the Party well in the run up to the next election.
Leadership
Party leadership appears to have stabilised with Suzie Dawson at the helm. Ms Dawson has been advocating and explaining the Parties policy positions on the Internet with a series of live interviews with activists called the #AntiSpyBill events. These are expected to continue over the coming years.
She has also been promoting the Internet Party overseas. This has caused a number of fledgling Internet Party’s to have sprung up with IPNZ’s help.
An alliance has been formed with Pirate Parties International. This should give the Internet Party access to this political organisations experience and support.
Most importantly, a core team has been formed around which the Party can be expanded and rebuilt.
Technology
Technology has been at the heart of the Party. Now long time member Jo Booth has picked up the reins as Technology Director.
From managing servers to live production he has bought his skills to bear, sometimes having to learn on the job, but always looking at problems from a hackers angle.
Over the next three years Jo can be expected to keep coming up with technological solutions and building his team.
Policy
Finally policy has a stable leader with Daymond Goulder-Horobin. If you look at the Party’s policies there are quite a few ‘Coming soon’. This is due to Daymond having a very high standard before release.
Party policy is raised and ratified by the membership before being released in it’s full form. Unfortunately, this meant not all the member ratified policy could be finalised before the last election. This will now be able to happen.
Candidates
The Party now has candidates to stand for and advocate for it. Some of whom have never been involved in the political sphere before. It is expected they will gain experience over the next few years and stand for the Party in the 2020 election.
2020 Election
A lot can happen in three years but if anything the causes that the Internet Party stands for will become more important as time goes on and the public become more informed as to the dangers of mass surveillance and the purposes it is being used for.
I expect the Party will stand again in the 2020 election and I think we can safely say they will get more than 499 votes when they do.
So where do they go from here? They carry on informing, explaining and improving.
