Richard Dawson, 23 September 2014

I hope all of you who could, did vote on Saturday. We live in a country where democracy allows people to make some sort of choice about who governs them and therefore what those people think. If we don’t like what they think we don’t have to vote for them. I sense, however, a deep malaise in New Zealand around politics. Many feel that politicians don’t listen and don’t do what is best for the country. Politicians are labelled as heartless, calculating, self-promoting, lying, megalomaniacs. This is not true. Many have hearts… just joking!! Frankly I believe a politicians life is not easy. Charged with fulfilling the dreams of most voters politicians must, at the same time as managing the country responsibly also deliver everybody’s dream of what New Zealand should be like. So they have to balance the job of helping the country perform to its best economically whilst protecting the environment; delivering health, education, police and transport solutions for all comers and doing a myriad of other things all of which have built-in conflicts with other portfolios. Put this together with their 3 yearly accountability cycle (the elections) and you get a difficult job. Yes there may be some perks but the pay rates are not great and the sacrifices their families make to have them all in Wellington for long periods of time are considerable. And, frankly, how often do we pray for our government and for our leaders? Once a year? Once every three years? By all means, vote for who you think will do the best job but don’t just vote and forget. Remember these people are human. They need us to think well of them.