DUE TO THE theLIVE NATURE OF Q+A, WE APOLOGISE FOR THE LACK OF CAPTIONS FOR SOME ITEMS. GOOD MORNING AND WELCOME TO Q+A. I'M SUSAN WOOD. ON THE PROGRAMME THIS SUNDAY, A DEBATE ON A KEY ELECTION ISSUE ` NATIONAL AND LABOUR HEAD TO HEAD ON HOUSING. HOW CAN MORE KIWIS OWN THEIR OWN HOMES? IS IT TIME FOR CAPITAL GAINS TAX? ALSO ON THE PROGRAMME, NZ FIRST LEADER WINSTON PETERS. NEW IMMIGRATION STATS SHOW THE NUMBER OF PEOPLE MOVING HERE HAS HIT ANOTHER HIGH. WOULD NZ FIRST DO ANYTHING TO CHANGE THAT? WE'LL LOOK AT THE LATEST DEVELOPMENTS IN THE DIRTY POLITICS SAGA WITH POLITICAL EDITOR CORIN DANN AND ANALYSE ALL THE ISSUES WITH OUR PANEL, POLITICAL SCIENTIST DR MARIA BARGH, KIWIBLOG EDITOR DAVID FARRAR AND FORMER LABOUR PARTY PRESIDENT MIKE WILLIAMS. GOOD TO HAVE YOU WITH US. TO THE WEEK IN POLITICS. AND CORIN, THERE'S BEEN ONLY ONE STORY THIS WEEK ` THE CLAIMS AND COUNTER CLAIMS AROUND 'DIRTY POLITICS'. WHY DOES THIS STORY MATTER? It is about leadership. It's about John Key and his moral leadership. This week he was stumbling, struggling. Today it is his chance to get back on track. Huge pressure on him. HERE'S HOW JOHN KEY DEALT WITH QUESTIONING THIS WEEK. FROM TIME TO TIME I HAVE DISCUSSIONS WITH MR TUCKER ABOUT OIAS. BUT PRIOR TO THE RELEASE OF THIS ONE I DIDN'T HAVE ANY DISCUSSIONS AT ALL. IN THIS CASE, I WASN'T PERSONALLY INFORMED. MY OFFICE WAS INFORMED ABOUT THE TIMING, AND IT SAYS QUITE CLEARLY THAT SO WAS MR GOFF'S. BUT I WASN'T PERSONALLY INVOLVED. WHAT YOU'VE SEEN IS THE LEFT WANTING TO, IN AN ISOLATED BASIS, GIVE A SMALL, SELECT GROUP OF THINGS TO BUILD AN ARGUMENT WHICH, AS WE ALL KNOW, OVER THE COURSE OF THE LAST FIVE OR SIX DAYS HAS BEEN DISSOLVING. SO THAT'S PROBABLY ENOUGH FOR TODAY. THANKS VERY MUCH. < ARE YOU NOT ASKING FOR THE PROOF, PRIME MINISTER? BOTH PRIME MINISTER JOHN KEY AND JUDITH COLLINS TOLD US THEY WEREN'T AVAILABLE FOR THE PROGRAMME TODAY, BUT WE'RE GOING TO LOOK AT ALL THE ISSUES WITH OUR PANEL SHORTLY. BUT FIRST ` IMMIGRATION IS AT AN 11-YEAR HIGH. IN THE YEAR TO JULY, NZ GAINED A NET 41,000 MIGRANTS. NOT ONLY ARE WE ATTRACTING NEW PEOPLE, BUT FEWER NZERS ARE NOW LEAVING FOR AUSTRALIA. NZ FIRST LEADER WINSTON PETERS JOINS ME NOW. Immigration in a moment. Dirty politics first. Is it business as usual, or something different now? It is a new low. It's hijacking the campaign itself and that is sad. Compared to the past, this is a new low. What does it say of Mr Key's moral leadership? The Prime Minister has got a few things he has to admit. As the head of the SIS and the GCSB, you cannot delegate your responsibility to an official. He has to admit he was either derelict in his duty or he is not telling the truth. He cannot have it both ways. Either is bad for him. Internationally, the countries we have a close relationship, they will wonder what is going on. Surely briefing his office is enough? You brief the Minister. The Minister cannot assign his responsibilities. Mister Tucker's statement does not wash with me. I've heard it before from Mister Tucker in the past. I felt in the past Mister Tucker let me down, and I told him so. Judith Collins. Is the damage repairable? I think it's all over for her. Will she be gone if national wins? She should have gone with the Oravida scandal. Where does this leave you? You have hit the 5% mark. Your own research shows it is a little lower. Where does that leave you in terms of the you support? We are in a difficult situation here now. This underhand activity is not the best. Across the divide, you have people tossing money around. People think higher taxation on businesses is the answer. We have to grow our economy, triple the wealth we used to enjoy, and focus on that. That will bring us full employment. We can do both if business is profitable. I am concerned about what I'm hearing in this campaign. As past treasurer, I feel some people have been irresponsible in what they are promising the public. And I think the public are being naive about what they are hearing. Do they think money grows on trees? Parties have set a new high in terms of what they are promising. If Judith Collins is a minister, will you do business with them? We are the only independent party going into this campaign. If the Prime Minister were to keep Judith Collins on, he would let his whole party down. The whole country would be 80% for letting her go. Immigration. 41,000 net gain. Isn't that success, that people want to come and people want to stay? Let's double it. I'm saying to my critics if you are right, let's double it. Many can't get enough work to live, some are doing two or three jobs, and are flooding the market. Last year, half of the people coming in with no skills. Massive numbers, 46% from one country, were over 50 years of age. This immigration is chaotic, unfocused, a massive housing bubble. This has got to be a joke. How would you reconfigure immigration? We bring in people we need, not people who need us. I have heard all the explanations. 79,000 student visas are given to work in this country. Where is the expert education? We have thousands of New Zealand students who cannot get a job. I am asking for a debate and some commonsense. What is the right number? The magic number is bringing people we need and not to need us. Right now, China outnumbers all the other countries in our immigration numbers. Immigration is a legitimate issue. We will always need immigrants to fill the skills gap. But what we have now is wholesale imported consumerism, and half will not be working, and not for along time. Send us your thoughts. OUR PANEL'S HERE AFTER THE BREAK TO TALK ABOUT THIS WEEK'S DEVELOPMENTS IN THE DIRTY POLITICS SAGA. AND LATER, WHY IS HOUSING SO UNAFFORDABLE FOR MANY KIWIS? A DEBATE ON A BIG ELECTION ISSUE. HOUSING MINISTER NICK SMITH AND LABOUR'S PHIL TWYFORD ARE COMING UP. LET'S BRING IN OUR PANEL NOW ` POLITICAL SCIENTIST DR MARIA BARGH FROM VICTORIA UNIVERSITY, KIWIBLOG EDITOR AND NATIONAL PARTY POLLSTER DAVID FARRAR, FORMER LABOUR PARTY PRESIDENT MIKE WILLIAMS, AND CORIN'S ALSO WITH US. David some direct questions for you off the back of the book dirty politics.. How close are you to Cameron Slater? I've known him for along time. We are friends. Yes, you work together with people, but do you work with them all the time? Tend to support the National Party about 90%. I helped lobby Mps to vote against national in the past occasionally. Yes, I work with people in politics, including Cameron. Is he such a figure that know one should work with them, Fairfax, radio news, many radio and television stations have worked with them. Yes, it is an interesting book, but there would be interesting other communications, some with Labour Mps, some with Green Mps. You were sent off by Helen Clark to find dirt. The Labour Party had a tipoff that John Key was involved in a fraudulent transaction. I was not taxpayer funded,� as the operation in John Key's office has been. I found that John Key was not involved in the second issue, which was what the trial was about; I could not exclude him being involved in the first. It was above board, we announced what we were doing, it was a piece of research. It does not compare with John Key running a dirty tricks operation, funded by his office for at least five years. Attack politics has been around since the Roman Republic time. People will try and put out stuff to differentiate their opponents. Dirty politics tends to be about people's personal lives. We have heard Mister Peters say it has hit a new low. Let me give an example. Judith Collins ` when Cameron asked if she had info on Mr Pleasants, she went to his e-mail and copy and paste it is the mall. That was not flash. But when you get to someone trying to push out the Minister of police` this woman forged a man's signature on an e-mail. She stole his signature and handed out his cellphone number. Maria, I'll bring you an about John Key. The question is around his moral leadership. It certainly does. Whether this tactic of sidestepping issues is breeding a culture of this untoward behaviour. He needs to demonstrate that he is taking control of the situation. Attacking the primary school teachers as a bit like bullying, he should look at his own ship first. The parties that are best placed to pick up onthose are the Greens, who have always presented themselves as ethical. If there are people who want to reduce voter turnout and thereby benefit right-wing parties, surely that will add momentum to the youth demographic. New Zealand first also has the reputation of keeping them honest. In the Corngate scandal, national were not the big winners, it was New Zealand first and other smaller parties. Labour want to have a bit of both. They want to attack the Prime Minister, but they didn't get much traction in the over 65 age group. They also need the campaign to get back on track and get back to policy debates. But we have a mystery hacker out there. He seems to have hijacked this campaign. It is not only the National Party's campaign that has been derailed. It's virtually everyone else. Labour Party made a forestry announcement, I think, last week. I didn't see it anywhere. I only know about it because it was mentioned in an e-mail. Everyone has been derailed by this. But you have to stand back. It cannot be doing national any good. It cannot do John Key any good. So someone is benefiting. It may well be the gentleman who was Here 10 minutes ago. I don't think the bulk of the population are as deeply concerned as those in Wellington, but it has created a doubt about the prime Mister that was not there before. I follow politics as much as anyone. I can't tell you a single policy that was released in the last week. What is fascinating, none of us know if it is that people will not turn up to vote. Are people saying "we now love Labour"? Iif you look at the Conservatives, they average 2 �%. Last election, four weeks out, they were lower. Corin, in the Herald yesterday, a puff piece on John Key. It was before all of this. What he see it is that politics is a confidence game. I wonder how much this has gotten his head and has affected his confidence. During the week he really struggled, in an interview with Guyon Espiner. But he has had to stick to his strategy where the bits the bulk of the population will see that it is just politics. Therefore people will write it off and he will ride through. But if John Key wins, longer term there will be damage to the ability to be the Prime Minister that he was.� there is a difference between briefing on security issues and OIA Releases. But John Key is asking us to disbelieve the evidence of our own ears. He is telling us he was not briefed; his office was brief. Briefed. But he was backed by the ombudsman and by Mister Tucker. The ombudsman has no axe to grind here. THAT is significant. You shouldn't use the Royal 'we'/ A DEBATE BETWEEN HOUSING MINISTER NICK SMITH AND LABOUR'S PHIL TWYFORD IS NEXT. AND LATER, WE LOOK BACK TO WHAT WAS MAKING POLITICAL NEWS THIS WEEK IN 2003 ` ANOTHER NICKY HAGER BOOK CAUSING POLITICAL PROBLEMS. WELCOME BACK. Nick Smith and Phil Twyford. Do we have a housing crisis? No we don't. If we look at the independent measures, housing affordability was worst in 2008. Across the country, it's 20 to 30% more affordable than it was then. Homeownership was on a constant decline. It was significantly better than what was. This government had interest ratesthere are a lot better, and house prices have gone up far less Phil Twyford, housing crisis? Within this government wants to admit it or not, we do have one. Aucklanders woke up this week to find out the house values have gone up 33%. That's going to hurt when some people get their rates bill. It now takes 50 years to pay off the average mortgage in Auckland. My son's generation doesn't have the dog show of owning own home in Auckland. Meanwhile, the rest of the country are seeing the house values fall. They are losing equity in their homes. People are living in garages. Nick Smith is only person in the city doesn't think there is a housing crisis When we came into government, who were building �1000 a month. We are now building 2000 a month. How many houses are being built? How many actual houses are being built in those accords? Auckland is being built about 3000 houses a month. We are rezoning more land. The Manukau courier saying the appalling abuse accords. There are one 500 houses at the time. Before I go to Phil Twyford, if you are re-elected, would you go a lot harder in this space in terms of regulation and councils? Would you throw the rulebook out? This give us the capacity to process rezoning in three weeks, not three years. would you go harder if you are re-elected? We are building more houses a month. would you keep the special housing areas? Yes, but they're not enough to solve the housing problems. He hasnt built one single house in the special housing areas after 15 months. Auckland needs 39,000 new homes.Even of the Minister metres targets, which he won't,it won't scratch the surface. I will take him around tomorrow. We will dispense with the sort of negativity. You need to deal with the real issues, the core of New Zealand's long-term issues. land supply etc. Phil Twyford ` Kiwi build. If you look at the current problem with the government's approach, they are hoping that if they twiddle with the planning rules except the last year` the consents are going up now because of Christchurch. Kiwi builds ` how are you going to build on that scale? The developers on next special housing areas are signed on to get capital gains. They have no intention of building large numbers of houses I the short term. are you going to back these private developers? We are going to finance the building of 10,000 affordable starter homes every year for 10 years. We are going to bring the Kiwi dream back to a new generation of New Zealanders. We did in the 30s and 40s with state housing. Ability he is going around saying he's going to build 10000 houses a year. There is only money for 5000. We're going to separable loan fund the over 10 years will be fiscally neutral and paid for. That money will be spent 50 times over in 10 years. Every time the house is sold to first-time buyers` I want to committed the issue of $300,000 house. YOU said that house prices have gone up. We've always said rebuild houses will sell for $300,000. But building 10,000 houses a year, we will drive bulk buying deals that we have never seenin this country before. We are going to build Kiwi build houses using off-site manufacturing. Thirdly, we are going to have more control over land prices by using Crown land, local government land` Nick smith, Can they do that? No. Aucklanders woke up this week to find out the house values have gone up 33%. That's going to hurt when some people get their rates bill. It now takes 50 years to pay off the average mortgage in Auckland. My son's generation doesn't have the dog show of owning own home in Auckland. Meanwhile, the rest of the country are seeing the house values fall. They are losing equity in their homes. People are living in garages. Nick Smith is only person in the city doesn't think there is a housing crisis When we came into government, who were building �1000 a month. We are now building 2000 a month. How many houses are being built? How many actual houses are being built in those accords? Auckland is being built about 3000 houses a month. We are rezoning more land. The Manukau courier saying the appalling abuse accords. There are one 500 houses at the time. Before I go to Phil Twyford, if you are re-elected, would you go a lot harder in this space in terms of regulation and councils? Would you throw the rulebook out? This give us the capacity to process rezoning in three weeks, not three years. would you go harder if you are re-elected? We are building more houses a month. would you keep the special housing areas? Yes, but they're not enough to solve the housing problems. He hasnt built one single house in the special housing areas after 15 months. Auckland needs 39,000 new homes.Even of the Minister metres targets, which he won't,it won't scratch the surface. I will take him around tomorrow. except the last year` the consents are going up now because of Christchurch. Kiwi builds ` how are you going to build on that scale? The developers on next special housing areas are signed on to get capital gains. They have no intention of building large numbers of houses I the short term. are you going to back these private developers? We are going to finance the building of 10,000 affordable starter homes every year for 10 years. We are going to bring the Kiwi dream back to a new generation of New Zealanders. We did in the 30s and 40s with state housing. Ability he is going around saying he's going to build 10000 houses a year. There is only money for 5000. We're going to separable loan fund the over 10 years will be fiscally neutral and paid for. That money will be spent 50 times over in 10 years. Every time the house is sold to first-time buyers` I want to committed the issue of $300,000 house. YOU said that are of the housing market, how will they get a house? Those and negatively impacted are that group. One thing I do want to touch on ` you don't believe demand is the answer. While capital gains tax workman is not on the family home? Capital gains tax that excludes family home ` 15%, and you only pay when you sell the property. Westpac said in the last few weeks that Labour's capital gains tax will reduce the value of a rental property for investor. They all said don't do a capital gains tax. If you exempt the family home,a capital gains tax will have no impact on house prices. You said it would take 20 years` I have said the issue of declining homeownership has occurred over 30 years. The single biggest factor that will affect a Kiwi family getting into a home is interest rates. Interest rates went up under all the recent Labour governments. Big spending, left wing Labour policies, drive interest rates up. They will again if we get a sixth Labour government. We will reform monetary policy that brings interest rates down. How will you do that? Through our variable savings rate. We give Kiwis the chance to put money into the KiwiSaver accounts rather than putting it into Aussie banks. We will work this out in due course. It could be two or 3%? Interest rates are so high in New Zealand compared to Australia, the US, is because the National Party has no idea about how to address our lack of savings and our poor export growth. Why can't you tell us how much you would have to do increase the savings rate? That will be worked out in the fullness of time. We are offering a real alternative to Kiwis shovelling money into the Australian banks. Do you know what the figure is? Labour has a lot of policies to reform monetary policy that will bring interest rates down. Interest rates are currently heading to 8% under this government. It has taken thousands of dollars out of the budgets of ordinary families. State housing in Christchurch. It was a goal to build 700 new State houses in Christchurch. About 67 have been built. We are on track to the commitment that we made three years ago, that by the end of 2015 we will have 700 new houses built. Include the houses that we have done with the community centres. Is the pace good enough? It is incredibly challenging. Christchurch on average build 100 houses a month. Right now we are building 300 a month. There is a building boom in Christchurch. Even though we are building them three times the normal rate, it will still take three years. And we have the issue of accommodating builders. We are doing well on an incredibly challenging situation down there. No one can just click their fingers and make it work. We sorted out the building consents department down there. They are not going great guns. Four years after the quakes they have only built a handful of houses. It has been painfully slow. It's unforgivable that Cantabrian's Are spending winter living in a caravan or sleepout. It is a complete failure, and it is holding up the recovery in Canterbury. Could you not have put in more effort? We are building houses at the fastest rate ever in Christchurch. Over three times the normal rate. I challenge Phil to go down there and say there is not a massive building boom going on. Can we get back to a situation where incomes are in the right range for people to buy a house in this country? How long? Problems have developed over 30 years in terms of home ownership rates. The average Kiwi family that looks after the money carefully will be able to own a home. We can never achieve that goal unless we tax speculators we will bring back the Kiwi dream of home ownership. THE PANEL'S BACK AFTER THE BREAK. PLUS THE POLITICAL SCIENTIST BEHIND VOTE COMPASS EXPLAINS HOW IT WORKS. AND WE LOOK BACK AT WHAT WAS MAKING POLITICAL NEWS THIS WEEK IN 2003 ` ANOTHER NICKY HAGER BOOK. ANOTHER GOVERNMENT ON DEFENCE. THAT'S NEXT. WELCOME BACK. The panel is with us. CORIN is joining the panel. I apologise to the justice minister. She did not forge her signature. She stole the signature. She cut and paste the signature. I think cutting and pasting is simply cutting and pasting. Maria, who left the policy that is going to get Kiwis back into their homes? I think Corin did well. The Greens, Labour and New Zealand first have policy around that. We can see supporting property developers are a circle of their own friends. David, do you have any idea about the big announcement this week? No. I think there was a hint of when you said 'I don't want to upstage the prime minster'. I tend to go back to the productivity commission, who look at this and said they said that land supply is a problem. If you don't get more land, all the other stuff will help around the edges, but I think land has to be the focus. It takes time. Mike? I was all knocking Manurewa, and the problem is that every third house, there is a family living in garage. There is a two speed economy going on here. My property in Auckland has gone up hundred thousand dollars in a year. if you live in Hastings, the value of your property has dropped. The only way historically to get people into houses in New Zealand is to get the states involved in a very large way. After World War II, my parents had a choice. If you get the state house or estate advanced loan. They got the state advanced loan. if you leave it as national are trying to do to the developers to solve this problem, it won't work developers will not build a house with a profit of $50,000 if they can build an expensive house with a profit of $100,000. It has to be state intervention in some way. It is possible we are on to something here. There could be a private partnership in housing. Housing New Zealand Need to build more houses in Christchurch. They will struggle. ub Auckland, 300 to 400,000, unless you get the land prices down, just would be impossible. John key's big announcements ` he has to be on song. I do know the housing announcement is going to detract from other announcemnts. LAST WEEK, TVNZ LAUNCHED VOTE COMPASS, A VOTER SURVEY WHICH SHOWS YOU WHERE YOU STAND ON IMPORTANT ELECTION ISSUES AND HOW YOUR VIEWS LINE UP WITH THE VARIOUS POLITICAL PARTIES. IT'S BEEN USED BY THE CANADIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION, ABC AUSTRALIA AND THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, BUT NZ HAS BEATEN THEM ALL FOR THE FASTEST UPTAKE. SO FAR, MORE THAN 200,000 PEOPLE HAVE TAKEN PART. VOTE COMPASS WAS DEVELOPED BY CLIFF VAN DER LINDEN, A POLITICAL SCIENTIST AT THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO. I SPOKE TO HIM WHEN HE WAS HERE WORKING WITH LOCAL POLITICAL SCIENTISTS ON OUR VERSION OF VOTE COMPASS, AND I ASKED, WOULD IT TELL NZERS HOW TO VOTE? HOW PEOPLE VOTE IS A MUCH MORE COMPLEX DECISION THAN RESPONSES TO 30 PUBLIC POLICY QUESTIONS. PEOPLE TAKE INTO ACCOUNT THEIR ATTITUDE TOWARDS LEADERS, HOW THEY'VE HISTORICALLY VOTED, HOW CERTAIN PARTIES HAVE PERFORMED, SO IT'S A MUCH BROADER CALCULUS THAN WHAT WE ARE ENGAGING IN. BUT COULD IT CHANGE THE WAY YOU VOTE? YOU MIGHT THINK YOU'RE ONE THING, YOU DO YOUR QUESTIONS, YOU GO, 'ACTUALLY, I'M ANOTHER.' HAVE YOU HAD ANY EVIDENCE OF THAT? WE HOPE THAT WHAT VOTE COMPASS IS FUNDAMENTALLY DOING IS GIVING PEOPLE A MOMENT TO REFLECT ON WHERE THE POLITICAL PARTIES STAND ON THE ISSUE AND THAT IT'S INCREASING THE FLOW OF INFORMATION AND THE TRANSPARENCY OF POLITICAL PARTIES' POSITIONS, SO CERTAINLY IT COULD GIVE YOU A MOMENT OF PAUSE AND CONSIDERATION AND WILL FACTOR INTO ONE OF MANY THINGS YOU THINK ABOUT WHEN MAKING A CHOICE ON ELECTION DAY. ONE OF THE THING WHEN CREATING IT ` YOU TALKED ABOUT CREATING A CRACK IN THE DISENFRANCHISEMENT. OF YOUNG PEOPLE, THERE ARE A LOT OF VOTERS IN THIS COUNTRY ` WE HAVE ABOUT 800,000 WHO DON'T TURN UP. HAS VOTE COMPASS CAUSED THAT CRACK? HAS IT GOT YOUNGER AND NON-VOTERS ACTUALLY VOTING? SO IF WE LOOK AT THE UPTAKE OF VOTE COMPASS THROUGH VARIOUS DIFFERENT DATA SOURCES, WHAT WE SEE IS THAT THERE IS A STATISTICALLY SIGNIFICANT AND POSITIVE EFFECT ON YOUTH VOTER TURNOUT. IF YOUNG PEOPLE USE VOTE COMPASS, THEY FEEL MORE INFORMED, MORE CONFIDENT, ESPECIALLY IF IT'S THEIR FIRST TIME VOTING, AND SO I BELIEVE IT IS STARTING TO MAKE THAT CRACK IN THE DISENFRANCHISED POPULATION. IS IT DISCERNABLE? IS IT A BIG POPULATION OR JUST A SMALL NUMBER AT THIS POINT? SO IT'S` THE EFFECT IS NOT ONLY STATISTICALLY SIGNIFICANT BUT SUBSTANTIVE. SO WE'RE ACTUALLY SEEING THAT IT'S` THAT THERE ARE SIGNIFICANT NUMBERS OF PEOPLE WHO ARE GOING OUT AND ENGAGING IN DEMOCRATIC AND CIVIC ACTIVITIES, AND THE VOTE COMPASS CAN BE AN ENTRY POINT TO THAT. YOU'RE CANADIAN, OBVIOUSLY. HOW DO YOU GET THE ISSUES RIGHT FOR NZ? SO WE ACTUALLY WORK WITH A TEAM OF NZ ACADEMICS. WE WORK WITH SCHOLARS FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF AUCKLAND AND VICTORIA UNIVERSITY, AND THOSE SCHOLARS HAVE SPENT THE LAST WEEK AT A WORKSHOP AT WHICH WE'VE RESEARCHED THE PARTY PLATFORMS, WE'VE RUN A CROWD-SOURCING CAMPAIGN THROUGH TVNZ, WHICH WE'VE ASKED THE PUBLIC WHAT ARE THE IMPORTANT ISSUES? WE'VE LOOKED AT MEDIA CONTENT AND OTHER WAYS THAT PARTIES CAN MAKE THEIR POSITIONS ON ISSUES AVAILABLE TO THE PUBLIC, AND WE'VE TAKEN ALL THAT RESEARCH AND WORKED THROUGH IT BIT BY BIT, EXCRUCIATINGLY, AT TIMES, IN ORDER TO TRY AND DETERMINE WHAT ARE THE SALIENT ISSUES AND WHAT ARE THE PARTIES' POSITIONS. AND WE'LL ACTUALLY GO BACK TO THE PUBLIC AGAIN BEFORE WE LAUNCH VOTE COMPASS IN ORDER TO ASK THEIR OPINIONS ON WHICH OF THE ISSUES THAT WE'VE IDENTIFIED ARE MOST IMPORTANT, AND THOSE WILL END UP ON VOTE COMPASS. AND YOU CHECK WITH THE PARTIES, TOO, DON'T YOU? ONCE YOU GET THE POSITIONS, YOU ACTUALLY CHECK WITH THE POLITICAL PARTIES? VERY MUCH SO. SO IT'S NOT` VOTE COMPASS DOESN'T ONLY ASK USERS ABOUT THEIR POSITIONS. WE ACTUALLY ASK PARTIES ABOUT THEIR POSITIONS. AND WE TRY AND CREATE A MORE TRANSPARENT ENVIRONMENT BY WHICH TO ENGAGE WITH PARTY PLATFORMS. SO ALL THE QUESTIONS THAT A USER WILL ANSWER ` THE PARTIES HAVE BEEN` THE SAME QUESTIONS HAVE BEEN PUT TO THE PARTIES, AND WE'D ASKED THEM FOR THEIR RESPONSES, AND WE'VE ALSO LOOKED AT EVERYTHING THEY'VE SAID ABOUT THOSE ISSUES TO DO A BIT OF A CHECK AND ENSURE THAT THE WAY THE PARTIES ARE CALIBRATED IS ACTUALLY REFLECTIVE OF THEIR REAL POSITION. WHAT DO THE POLITICAL PARTIES MAKE OF YOU? DO THEY LOVE YOU? DO THEY HATE YOU? I'M NOT SURE. THEY DON'T TALK TO ME THAT MUCH, WHICH IS PERHAPS TYPICAL FOR POLITICAL SCIENTISTS. I THINK THAT THERE ARE ELEMENTS WITHIN THE POLITICAL` ELEMENTS WITHIN THE POLITICAL PARTIES WHO WANT TO SEE FURTHER ENFRANCHISEMENT AND ENGAGEMENT AMONG THE POPULATION, AND I THINK AMONG THOSE ELEMENTS, THE VOTE COMPASS WOULD BE A POPULAR APPLICATION. BUT, CERTAINLY, I ACCEPT THE PREMISE THAT IT CAN'T ALWAYS BE EASY FOR PARTIES TO HAVE SUCH AN OVERT AND TRANSPARENT REPRESENTATION OF THEIR PUBLIC POLICY POSITIONS. BECAUSE IN CANADA, SOME OF THE CRITICISM HAS BEEN A LIBERAL BIAS ` YOUR RESULTS COMING BACK WITH A LIBERAL BIAS. HOW DO YOU RESPOND TO THAT? SO THAT ACTUALLY ONLY OCCURRED IN THE INITIAL EDITION OF VOTE COMPASS THAT WE LAUNCHED IN THE 2011 CANADIAN FEDERAL ELECTION. AND THAT CAME FROM A CRITICISM THAT ACTUALLY I GAMED THE SYSTEM IN ORDER TO EXPLOIT A STATISTICAL CHECK THAT WE USE IN CREATING VOTE COMPASS. SO IN FACT, OUR OWN CALIBRATIONS WERE IN SOME WAYS USED AGAINST US, AND WHAT HAPPENED IS WE LEARNED FROM THAT EXPERIENCE JUST TO BETTER COMMUNICATE WHAT VOTE COMPASS IS AND WHAT IT DOES, BUT CERTAINLY ANY ALLEGATIONS OF BIAS HAVE BEEN SOUNDLY, UM, PUT TO REST. WHAT ABOUT ALLEGATIONS OF INACCURACY? SO THOSE ARE DIFFICULT ALLEGATIONS TO EVEN MAKE BECAUSE THERE ARE SO MANY DIFFERENT CHECKS ON THE WAYS THAT WE CALIBRATE THE PARTIES. SO WE HAVE A TEAM OF TOP ACADEMICS ` THE LEADING SCHOLARS IN THIS COUNTRY ` AND A TEAM OF RESEARCHERS ` OF REALLY WELL ESTABLISHED AND RENOWNED RESEARCHERS ` LOOKING AT ALL THE PARTY POSITIONS IN ORDER TO DETERMINE HOW THE PARTIES ARE SITUATED ON THESE ISSUES, AND, AGAIN, WE'RE COLLABORATING DIRECTLY WITH THE PARTIES, SO THERE ARE MULTIPLE INSTANCES WHERE WE GO UP TO THE PARTIES AND SAY, 'THIS IS HOW WE'VE CALIBRATED YOU 'BASED ON YOUR PUBLIC DISCLOSURES. 'IF A TEAM OF POLITICAL SCIENTISTS CAN'T UNDERSTAND YOUR POSITION 'ON THIS ISSUE, PLEASE CLARIFY IT FOR US.' AND WE ARE OPEN TO INPUT FROM THE PARTIES, THE PUBLIC AND THE ACADEMIC COMMUNITY TO ENSURE THAT THESE CALIBRATIONS ARE AS ACCURATE AS THEY COULD BE. IS IT TOO SIMPLISTIC ` JUST A 10-MINUTE QUICK QUESTION AND ANSWER ` IS IT TOO SIMPLISTIC TO COME UP WITH A MEANINGFUL RESULT? IT'S TOO SIMPLISTIC TO MAKE YOUR VOTE CHOICE, CERTAINLY. THERE ARE` AS I SAID, MAKING YOUR` DECIDING HOW TO VOTE IS A COMPLICATED DECISION, AND IT REQUIRES A LOT OF THOUGHT AND SOUND JUDGEMENT. BUT WHAT THIS IS IS AN ENTRY POINT INTO A MORE SUBSTANTIVE ENGAGEMENT WITH PARTY PLATFORMS AND PUBLIC POLICY THAN IS NORMALLY CONDUCTED IN THE COURSE OF AN ELECTION CAMPAIGN. SO PUBLIC POLICY AND A LOT OF THESE ISSUES GET THE SHORT SHRIFT. THEY'RE NOT DISCUSSED BECAUSE THERE'S A FOCUS ON THE HORSE RACE AND HOW THE LEADERS ARE DOING ON A SPECIFIC DAY AND WHICH LEADER` WHICH LEADER MADE WHICH SLIP. BUT THIS IS A CHANCE FOR PEOPLE TO ENGAGE WITH A SUBSTANTIVE RANGE OF PUBLIC POLICY ISSUES. NOW, THAT'S A REALLY INTERESTING POINT, BECAUSE WE'VE SEEN POLITICS ` STARTED PROBABLY WITH YOUR NEIGHBOURS, THE AMERICANS ` THAT VERY PRESIDENTIAL, VERY MUCH ABOUT THE PERSON AND THE PERSONALITY ` BUT DO YOU THINK THERE'S A REAL INTEREST IN THE ISSUES? BECAUSE WHAT DOES TEND TO HAPPEN IS, YOU'RE RIGHT, WE FOCUS ON THAT, AND DO YOU THINK THE ISSUES ARE GETTING LOST? IS THIS AN OPPORTUNITY FOR PEOPLE TO REALLY ENGAGE WITH THOSE ISSUES? THAT'S PRECISELY THE CONTRIBUTION WE HOPE TO MAKE. I THINK THERE'S A SPECIFIC STRATEGY IN PLAY AMONG POLITICAL PARTIES AND IN POLITICS, GENERALLY, TO TRY AND BE AMBIGUOUS ABOUT YOUR ISSUE POSITION TO THE EXTENT THAT THAT'S POSSIBLE. AND THAT CASTS A WIDER NET AND HAS LESS OF A POTENTIAL NEGATIVE EFFECT ON VOTERS, IF THEY DON'T KNOW EXACTLY WHAT YOUR ISSUES ARE, AND EACH MAKES THEIR OWN ASSUMPTION ABOUT WHERE YOU STAND ON AN ISSUE. BUT WE'RE CREATING A FRAMEWORK THAT'S TRANSPARENT AND ACCOUNTABLE FOR THE POLITICAL PARTIES, AND, ADMITTEDLY, WE SIMPLIFY THESE ISSUES AS A STARTING POINT TO A CONVERSATION. SO WE HOPE THAT THIS IS A LAUNCHING POINT FOR PEOPLE TO ENGAGE IN A SIMPLE AND ACCESSIBLE WAY INTO A DEEPER, MORE SUBSTANTIVE CONVERSATION AND TO BE MORE INFORMED WHEN THEY GO TO THE POLLS. YOU CAN STILL TRY VOTE COMPASS FOR YOURSELF. JUST GO TO ONENEWS.CO.NZ/VOTECOMPASS. BEFORE WE GO, LET'S LOOK BACK AT WHAT WAS MAKING POLITICAL NEWS THIS WEEK IN 2003. A YEAR BEFORE, WEEKS BEFORE THE ELECTION, NICKY HAGER HAD DROPPED A POLITICAL BOMBSHELL. IS THIS STARTING TO SOUND FAMILIAR? THE BOOK, SEEDS OF DISTRUST, CLAIMED THE LABOUR GOVERNMENT HAD KEPT SECRET A MEMO ON A POSSIBLY GE CONTAMINATED CORN CROP. FAST-FORWARD TO THIS WEEK IN 2003, AND A PARLIAMENTARY INQUIRY INTO THE HANDLING OF THE AFFAIR WAS UNDERWAY. THE PRIME MINISTER DODGING PROTESTERS TODAY AND MISSING QUESTIONS IN PARLIAMENT ABOUT THE CORNGATE SCANDAL. IT WAS LEFT TO ENVIRONMENT MINISTER MARIAN HOBBS TO TAKE THE HEAT AT A PARLIAMENTARY INQUIRY. I REALLY OBJECT TO THAT. I REALLY OBJECT TO WHAT THAT MAN HAS JUST SAID. HELEN CLARK WON'T FACE THE SAME GRILLING BECAUSE LABOUR AND UNITED FUTURE MPS BLOCKED MOVES TO FORCE HER TO GIVE EVIDENCE. WHAT HAS SHE GOT TO HIDE? THE MOST COMPETENT, BEST BRIEFED, SMARTEST, ON-TOP-OF-HER-GAME PRIME MINISTER WE'VE EVER HAD, WHO CAN'T FACE THE GRILLING OF THE BACK BENCH OF THE PARLIAMENT. BILL ENGLISH CLAIMS MPS WERE ACTING ON HELEN CLARK'S INSTRUCTIONS. THE PRIME MINISTER'S NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR THE ACTIONS OF GOVERNMENT MEMBERS ON SELECT COMMITTEES. BUT THE OPPOSITION CLAIMS SHE IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE ACTIONS OF HER OFFICIALS AND THE DECISION TO KEEP A MEMO BRIEFING HER ABOUT CORNGATE SECRET UNTIL AFTER THE ELECTION. THE PRIME MINISTER KNEW THAT THE RELEASE OF THAT DOCUMENT IN THE LAST 10 DAYS OF THE ELECTION CAMPAIGN WOULD HAVE BEEN BAD, BAD NEWS FOR HER. HELEN CLARK SAYS SHE DID ORDER ALL CORNGATE DOCUMENTS TO BE MADE PUBLIC. THE MEMO WAS RELEASED LAST YEAR AND HAS BEEN MENTIONED IN THE SELECT COMMITTEE AND THE HOUSE. A LOT OF LIES WERE TOLD ABOUT ME IN THE COURSE OF THE CAMPAIGN. A LOT OF LIES ARE BEING TOLD NOW. I THINK MY REPUTATION FOR INTEGRITY WILL STAND ON ITS OWN MERITS. BACK AT PARLIAMENT, MARIAN HOBBS CAME TO HER LEADER'S DEFENCE. THE PRIME MINISTER ISN'T A SCIENTIST, BUT SHE IS ABSOLUTELY IN THE STAGE WHEN FACED WITH THAT, SHE KNOWS, AS I KNOW, THAT WE DID NOT BREAK THE LAW. SHE KNOWS, AS WE KNOW, THAT THERE WAS RELIABLE EVIDENCE THAT THERE WERE NO GENETICALLY MODIFIED ORGANISMS IN THE GROUND. AND I REST MY CASE ON THAT. THE SELECT COMMITTEE PROVED THIRSTY WORK. COULD SOMEONE GET ME A GLASS OF WATER? COS I'M DYING. THANKS. WITH GIN IN IT. MARAE IS NEXT, TAKING A CLOSE LOOK AT THE BATTLE FOR WAIARIKI. AND NEXT WEEK, Q+A WILL HOST THE FIRST TV DEBATE BETWEEN FINANCE MINISTER BILL ENGLISH AND LABOUR'S FINANCE SPOKESPERSON, DAVID PARKER. AND Q+A REPEATS TONIGHT AT 11.30 ON TV1. THANKS FOR WATCHING AND THANKS FOR YOUR CONTRIBUTIONS. THOSE WERE THE QUESTIONS AND THOSE WERE THE ANSWERS. THAT'S Q+A. SEE YOU NEXT SUNDAY MORNING AT 9. CAPTIONS BY TRACEY DAWSON AND JUNE YEOW. CAPTIONS WERE MADE POSSIBLE WITH FUNDING FROM NZ ON AIR. COPYRIGHT ABLE 2014