Four more weeks till the 2017 general elections!

If you haven't made up your mind yet, or if you made up your mind a long time ago but willing to be surprised, we have a new website for you to help make an informed decision.

Vote for Policies

The team of Vote for Policies New Zealand is proud to announce our new voter advice application:

http://voteforpolicies.org.nz/

Vote for Policies helps you make an informed, unbiased decision about who to vote for. Compare policies on a range of key issues (such as Education, Environment or Economy) without knowing which party they belong to. It's the best way to get a clear, informed and unbiased view of what each party is promising to do.

But be ready - the results can be surprising!

What are we announcing?

Today the team of Vote for Policies New Zealand launched our web application:
http://voteforpolicies.org.nz/
Vote for Policies started in the United Kingdom in 2010. For the first time, it is available for New Zealand voters to help make an informed decision at the general elections.

What is Vote for Policies?

Vote for Policies is a Voter Advice Application (VAA) that helps voters find out which parties' policies that agree with most. Users complete a quick anonymous survey where they are asked to choose from policy summaries in any of 5 main categories, without knowing which party
each summary belongs to. After choosing a summary in each selected category the user finds out which party the chosen summaries belong to. National and electorate charts show what other people around you think.

Who is behind Vote for Policies?

Vote for Policies New Zealand was created by a group of volunteers. You can find out more about the team at http://voteforpolicies.org.nz/team We are not linked to any political party or commercial entity, our aim is to increase voter turnout by helping people make an informed decision.

What issues are included in Vote for Policies?

Our aim was to cover the topics most important for voters in the 2017 elections, and that most parties cover in their published policies.
We chose 5 main categories:

Economy: includes jobs, housing, tourism, infrastructure, crown debt
Education
Environment: includes water, climate change, energy
Foreign Affairs: includes immigration, trade, defence
Welfare and Social Issues: includes tax, benefits, healthcare, inequality/poverty, Maori affairs

Which parties are included in Vote for Policies?

We aim to be as inclusive as possible and give the smaller parties equal voice. Our 2017 survey includes 10 parties: National Party, Labour Party, New Zealand First Party, Green Party, ACT, Maori Party, United Future, Mana, The Opportunities Party, Conservative Party

Where did you get the policy summaries from?

The policies come from the documents published on the websites of each political party. We take up to eight policies based on the priority in which they appear in the policy documents. We attempt to retain the original wording as much as possible, while reducing the word count to make them suitable for the web application and adjust them to follow a uniform style. Then the summaries are sent to the parties for review and comments.

What is different about Vote for Policies?

Yes, there are several voter advice applications out there and it's great, we recommend that you try them all. You can find a list in our FAQ. What's different about Vote for Policies is that it allows you to focus on the merits of the policies of each party. You can compare actual policies without knowing which party they belong to, so you can put aside your preconceptions.

Vote for Policies presents policies as complete packages, because when you cast your vote, you are voting for all of those items, not just the ones you like.

Where can I find out more?

Go to our web page: http://voteforpolicies.org.nz/
See the FAQ section at http://voteforpolicies.org.nz/faq
or get in touch using the contact details at http://voteforpolicies.org.nz/contact

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