The New Zealand Catholic Bishops have published their Election Statement for the 2023 General Election being held on 14 October. The statement is in the process of being distributed around the county’s 470,000 Catholics in six dioceses and 194 parishes.

A statement outlining the Election Statement is attached, as are Word and A4 PDF copies of the Election Statement, and a slide of the cover of the A5 version that Is being distributed to parishes in paper format.

In their Election Statement, the bishops urge politicians to focus on issues that matter, instead of the trivia and scandals that dominate public debate. They say more and more people are becoming disillusioned and feel disenfranchised because of how serious issues are treated.

“We are concerned with the growing trivialisation of politics, with the focus of politicians and media being on mistakes, misdemeanours or scandals of individual parliamentarians instead of being on the scandals of poverty, mental health, and the diminishment of the sanctity and dignity of life. We are concerned that so many of the issues affecting all of us are treated as political footballs. Successive election-season promises and the changing of policies in line with the agenda of each new government are not working.

The outlining statement with links to the Election Statement is online here: www.catholic.org.nz/news/media-releases/election23/

A web page version of the Election Statement is here: www.catholic.org.nz/about-us/bishops-statements/election-statement-2023/

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