Jo Booth

It should be said that I used to have a lot of time for Jo Booth, he has been in the Internet Party from the start as far as I am aware, going to meetups, helping with the first election and then becoming Party Secretary in 2017.

His candidate bio would in my view be true.

Jo Booth, 37, from Wellington, like many others, latched onto the the promise of a open, free, fair, connected and innovative society in 2014, and holds onto that hope still. To the Internet Party he brings a strong background in problem analysis, technical leadership, system diagnostics and a comprehensive technical knowledge that has brought the tech back for the 2017 campaign. He listens to the #InternetPartyPeople and brings a passion to see them represented more and more. With years of experience in public safety and compliance, he’s ready to tackle the Transport portfolio and as hacker and founding CIO of a NZ health startup he’s ready to bring innovation to Health too. Politics urgently needs an Update, and Jo is always up for the challenging tasks.

Internet Party Candidates 2017

Jo has two flaws in my eyes, some very dubious readings of the Constitution and his backing of Suzie Dawson to the exclusion of all else.

It was Jo who made the decision that she could come back onto the Executive as President after having to step down as Party Leader due to being out of New Zealand to long. His reasoning was that as she was a full member when bought onto the Executive so she was fine to be Party Leader.

Unfortunately for that line of reasoning, you are required to be a qualified elector under the Electoral Act 1993 to be a full member. An elector is a person qualified to vote and Suzie doesn’t meet that definition as she has not been in New Zealand within the last three years. Following Jo’s line of reasoning it would be fine for Suzie to remain Party Leader as she was able to vote when she became Party Leader. It clearly isn’t.

Essentially we have a person banned by the Constitution of the Party in charge of the Party with the backing of the Secretary. Why this is important is that the Secretary is in charge of Disciplinary processes in the Party.

On receipt of a complaint the Party Secretary will decide in their absolute discretion whether to refer the complaint to the Executive Committee for investigation and resolution. If they do not refer the complaint, it will be deemed to have been dismissed.

Internet Party Constitution

So there is no way to remove an unconstitutional president without the consent of the Secretary.

As an example of Jo’s bias toward Suzette, when I filed a formal request for her to be removed from the Party there was no reply for a month. In fact there was no replay for so long that I wrote Who is Suzie Dawson? Exile or Fraud to try and bring the problems to light.

Finally I received a reply but it failed to address all my concerns and dismissed my complaint on the grounds that he did not think the interests of the Party would be served by engaging in personal attacks on Suzie Dawson and because I had already published it online. And that, folks, is bias.