NZ Vote Compass 2020: See how your views match with the parties

Where I'm supposed to stand.

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TVNZ has launched Vote Compass – the interactive survey tool which allows voters to see how their views match up with party policies.  Users can rate the issues most important to them, identify where they stand on the big policy discussions, and rate how they feel about the parties and their leaders.

They are then presented with a grid which shows where they sit in relation to each party. (I was most surprised with my own results, and how close Labour and National are. See illustration.)

There’s also the option for users to weight responses according to the subjects which are most important to them.

Vote Compass is a collaboration with leading New Zealand academics and independent company Vox Pop Labs. The voter engagement initiative, which was used by more than 400,000 people during the 2017 election, is presented in partnership with the Electoral Commission, Auckland University and Victoria University of Wellington.

Associate Professor at Auckland University Jennifer Lees-Marshment, one of the academics involved in the project, says the Covid-19 pandemic has had a big impact on the buildup to this year’s election and the tool can help focus attention back on the issues.

She says: “Vote Compass can play a role in helping people to get the chance to reflect on what policies are on offer and also giving insight into what people as a whole think.

“One of the advantages of Vote Compass is it brings together everybody’s responses and then we get a really in-depth insight into what people in New Zealand are thinking, which we haven’t had much of because of the focus on the crisis, and because of the election delay and before that all the changes in the National Party leadership.

“So Vote Compass is a way to get the agenda back onto the voters and actually that is what elections should always be about.”

Survey results will help inform 1 NEWS coverage of the election issues, including the cannabis and end of life referendums, in the run up to election day on October 17.

To complete the survey, which is confidential and anonymous, go to tvnz.co.nz/VoteCompass


The issues covered include:
Conscience issues (cannabis, terminal illness, abortions)
COVID-19 (how much debt; admission international students)
Diversity and Inclusion (sex change on birth certicates without medical treatment)
Education (funding to charter schools, free ,lunches to state schools)
Employment (dismissal of new employees, how much minimum wage)
Environment (oil and gas exploration, greenhouse gas emissions)
Foreign Affairs (dependence on foreign goods and services)
Healthcare (spending on drug abuse, free dental care for low-income adults)
Housing (foreign ownership, restrictions on property developers)
Immigration (much many people)
Law and Order (young violent offenders treated as adults, deport criminal foreigners)
Maori (Treaty of Waitangi, amends for past wrongs)
Tax (corporate and wealthy people, how much)
Transport  (more spending on railways)
Welfare (minimum income for all, whether or not employed), ease of access to welfare. 

-- ACW