as the campaign nears it’s swift death and voters choose which colour to sell their soul to for the next three years, imnofox returns to his neck of the woods to go doorknocking in eastern Porirua

“Kia ora, my name’s imnofox, and I’m the co-leader of the Green Party. How’s it going today?”

“Yeah mate, great to see you. Uh, I was wondering: what’s your ideas around wages? I’m on minimum wage at the moment, but after the recent cuts it’s just not enough to sustain my family. I really don’t want to end up on the benefit- been there before, it was degrading.”

“I can definitely sympathise with your situation, and it’s a situation so many kiwis are facing under this government. We recognise the dire need to increase wages. We're slipping down the economic rankings as Kiwis work some of the longest hours, for some of the lowest wages, and we still face some of the highest costs of living in the developed world. We have a 20% productivity gap with the OECD average. That’s why a Green government will progressively increase the minimum wage to an indexed living wage, so that every worker, like yourself, has enough to live on. And I definitely recognise the pain of being on the benefit, and this government has only made it worse. In the case that you, or I, or any New Zealander has to rely on the benefit to survive, we’re restoring the increases we made last term to benefit levels to ensure that everyone can live on them, and lead a healthy wholesome life.”

“Oh great, that really alleviates some of my concerns about my economic security. I’m on the Māori roll, and i’m not quite sure who’s standing.”

“Fair enough, so there’s two candidates. One of these is the National Party leader, who’s responsible for many of the deprivational reforms of this last term, who’s being challenged by my colleague /u/AnswerMeNow1, who supports raising the minimum wage, fixing the welfare system, and cleaning up our environment. It’s a pretty clear choice, haha!”

“Thanks man, I think I know who i’ll be voting for!”

imnofox thanked the man and walked to the next house

“Kia ora, I’m imnofox, co-leader of t-”

“I know who you are, ya shit! You’re the Prime Minister who cut my benefit a couple years ago, and i’ve been living in this cold damp shithole since.”

“I’m sorry to hear that, but I can assure you that those cuts were not under my government. As soon as the Liberal-National government was elected, they slashed benefits across the board, dropping them to these low levels that nobody can live on. The Green Party, on the other hand- my party- will restore benefits to that liveable level you had before the Liberal government and their National social development minister cut them. It’s pretty bad to hear about your cold damp house- is it a rental?”

“Oh, sorry for calling you that. Yeah, it’s a rental.”

“So we’ve got a pretty comprehensive plan to secure rental tenancies, and quite importantly, we’re planning to introduce some solid standards for rental housing to ensure every home in New Zealand is warm, healthy, and dry. How does that sound?”

“Well, that’d do me a lot of good in this place! Thanks for talking to me about this, it’s really clarified a few things!”

imnofox thanked the lady and crossed the street

“Kia ora, I’m imnofox, co-leader of the Green Party, and I’d love to get your vote this election. Can I ask who you plan on voting for?”

“Uh, hi, yeah. Um, I’m probably going to vote for Reform- I really like some of their foreign investment policies.”

“Well, the fact is that Reform and the Greens have a lot of common ground when it comes to foreign investment, but the Liberal coalition strongly opposes such reforms. So the only way to get those kinds of foreign investment policies across the line is with a Green-led government. The other fact is that with a vote for Reform, you just don’t know whether you’ll get a Green government or a Liberal government- it’s a bit of a coin flip. So, if those foreign investment policies are important to you, I’d definitely encourage you to vote for the Greens. Only with a Green government can those foreign investment policies be enacted.”

“Oh that’s interesting. I hadn’t thought about that- I’ll definitely consider that! Thanks for chatting.”

“No problem!”

imnofox continued doorknocking for the next few hours, eliciting mostly positive responses