INDEPENDENT THINKER: Rangotai independent candidate Don Richards and wife Sue Hamill.

INDEPENDENT candidates in NZ elections must be driven to make some sort of point, because they only ever get a handful of votes.

And it’s is no big revelation that independent candidates don’t expect to win their electorate seats, says Emeritus Professor Margaret Clark of Victoria University.

“Most people can find a party of sorts that suits them if they want to get involved, because there are quite a lot of them out there now,” she says, agreeing that those who choose to go independent are likely to have extreme or viewpoints.

However, if issues are the independent candidate’s focus, then going it alone may not be the best tactic.

Professor Clark (right) says there are many candidates who are independent in all but name, but use a political party as a vehicle for their own political agendas.

“In a way, forming a party is a way of getting extra money out of the state,” she says.

She cites Winston Peters, Jim Anderton and Peter Dunne as examples of candidates who are essentially one-man bands, but created parties around themselves after going independent.

“(Anderton) got a lot more money as a party leader than he would have as ‘Jim Anderton independent’,” she says.

This may indicate that politicians require the backing of a party to be effective in pushing their agenda in Parliament.

Alternatively, it may show candidates who already have a public profile because of their former association with a major political party are far more likely to be successful.

The 1993 Tauranga by-election is a good example.

Winston Peters stood as an independent candidate after being ousted from the National Party. He won and entered Parliament independently before he established NZ First. This was the last time an independent won a seat in a general election.

There are only two formally independent candidates in the Wellington region this year.

One is Karena Puhi (right), who could not be reached for comment. Mr Puhi’s campaign focuses on Treaty issues, the return of “stolen” national assets to Maori, jobs for Maori and iwi, hapu and whanau independence .

The other is Don Richards, a manager at the Building Research Association of New Zealand, who previously worked in the NZ oil industry and for the NZ Dairy Board.

Don Richards in standing in Rongotai, and his campaign is built around the ethos of Positive Money, an organisation he founded with wife Sue this year.

Positive Money is an organisation dedicated to campaigning against the current debt-based financial system.

“I did a programme called the Landmark Forum about 10 years ago and I learned that I either do something about issues or stop complaining. So I thought I’m not going to stop talking about this, so I have to do something,” he says.

“Banks do not actually have the money that they lend to us through a system called fractional reserve banking. They only need to hold about 5% of the money they lend, and they create the rest of the money out of thin air.”

Mr Richards and fellow campaigner Laurence Boomert had approached political parties to ask whether they would be interested in adopting this policy as a platform for their political campaign, but there was little interest.

Mr Richards decided to run as an independent in Rongotai purely because it was a more effective way of getting his message to the public.

“I’m standing in the Rongotai electorate, so I have Annette King, Russel Norman and Chris Finalyson, who are all senior parliamentarians, who all listen to my talks.

“If I was somebody off the streets, I don’t think I could have got their time to let them know what’s going on. Plus, I’m talking to over 500 people at the meet-the-candidates meetings.”

Mr Boomert (left) has taken a slightly different approach to Mr Richards and has established the New Economics Party as part of his bid for the Wellington Central seat.

Richards says it is fair to say that he does not expect to win.

“For me, I’d be happy if I got 1000 votes, I’d be happy if I spoke to 1000 people, and I’d be happy if I got 1000 hits on my positive money website.

“I’ve picked it up to make sure the message gets out there.”

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