On September 17, I emailed all the parties I could find from the Elections Website to ask what their policies were regarding the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. I looked at their websites first – nothing at all
[UPDATE: as xurizaemon points out in the comments, the Greens at least have a tech policy statement that covers the general area that ACTA covers, which does make them ahead of the pack there].
I selected those individuals who were listed as spokesmen on trade matters. If there wasn’t one specified, I sent it to the party leader or to the general contact address, if that’s all they had.
I think 3 weeks is long enough to wait for a response, so I have amended my ACTA wiki with the results
(You did know I have an ACTA wiki, didn’t you? It’s over there >>> in the blogroll)
Only 4 parties actually bothered to respond: ACT, Progressive, Greens and Democrats for Social Credit.
I put a Return Receipt on the email to see when people read it – in 4 cases that was all I got: National, Republicans, United Future and Labour (Goff’s was an automated “thank you for your enquiry, so I count that as a receipt).
No response at all was received from:
Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party
Libertarianz
Maori Party (apologies for the lack of macron – will investigate)
New Zealand First Party
New Zealand Pacific Party
The Alliance
The Family Party
The Kiwi Party
Workers Party of New Zealand
The email I sent to the Direct Democracy party bounced (Kelvyn Alp doesn’t want to be found, evidently)
I don’t recall seeing the Residents Action Movement on the website when I was sending the email, so they didn’t get one (register says they were registered on 29 July, so they should have been there. I won’t hold it against them)
I couldn’t find a website or email address for the New World Order – if they don’t want to talk to me, so be it.
And I couldn’t find an address for the political wing of the Bill and Ben party, so I put the email in a flowerpot.
Best answer? Metiria Turei for the Greens. She went and looked at my wiki, which I didn’t include in the email, so she did the research. Her answer is based on Greens policy. I was also impressed with her performance in the Internet Debate, alongside Cunliffe, Williamson and Hide.
Next best? Democrats for Social Credit. Not an official answer, because they don’t have a policy and they haven’t discussed it yet, but they do have general principles and they thought about the response.
Worst answer – Anderton – following the party line of supporting the government’s activities.
So, now you know. Go bother your local candidates and see what they have to say for themselves and their party.
3 Comments
Thanks for doing the research, Mark.
FWIW, the Greens IT policy appears to have gone up on their website about a month before you emailed them – if this is true you might want to reconsider your second sentence above.
http://www.greens.org.nz/policy/informationtechnology is dated 18th August, and while it doesn’t make specific reference to the ACTA agreement (it’s a policy position so it speaks in general terms), it does make clear their stance on the topics ACTA covers.
Nice theme, btw – spent last night trying to make a nice liquid background for my partner at her request; I’m impressed with your work!
I’d love to take the credit but it’s a theme I downloaded from WordPress called Darkwater 1.0 ;-) http://antbag.com/darkwater-theme-for-wordpress/ but you have to host your own WP installation, as it doesn’t grok with wordpress.com’s setup
Oh, yes, I did know about their policy statement (they’ve always had good tech policy – thanks, Nandor!) but, as it didn’t mention ACTA, I thought I’d ask directly. Good point about the sentence – will do.
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