On the weekend of 24-25 November we are mounting a major nationwide collection drive to reach the signature target we need to force a citizens initiated referendum on asset sales. Can you help to collect signatures?
So says the website for this weekend’s Signathon.
If you look at their map of over 300 collection points, there’s places you can help everywhere.
The Keep Our Assets coalition* have the 310,000 signatures needed to force a referendum already, but want 80,000 more to cover all the duplicate / unreadable / not on the electoral roll signatures.
The aim is to get them all this weekend, so that the Electoral Commission can be well into accepting them by Christmas, and the Government has to announce when the referendum will be early in the New Year.
You know you can and want to help, so Sign On!
[Incidentally the list is a great source of the fantastic events happening this weekend in our vibrant Aotearoa!]
* Grey Power, Labour, Greens, Unions, Student Associations and Greenpeace.
So when does time run out on this signature gathering exercise?
Not until about Feb next year, and given that the count is now over 300,000, I think we will make it. The point of this exercise is to overshoot the required number, just in case some signatures are double ups, not filled out correctly, wrong address on the electoral roll, that sort of thing.
Yeah, but there were previous lofty aims of being able to get all the signatures wrapped up in 6-9 months, because it had such widespread support by the public.
Guess not.
IF you had been out collecting signatures you would realise how long it takes to get signatures. It averages about 10-15 an hour and takes a bit of courage to stand on a street corner and ask people to sign and take the odd bit of abuse from National party supporters… It is a massive effort and the Greens have collected over 160,000 of those signatures.
take the odd bit of abuse from National party supporters
That sounds like fun. Take it as a compliment and blow them a kiss…I would
I’d give it right back to them.
What’s that got to do with the predictions it would only take 6-9 months?
So, how many months has it been?
Seems that the petition started in March or April this year. Enough signatures have already been collected but now they’re going for overshoot to decrease the probability of Murphy playing his part.
By my count March +9 = December. April +9 = January.
Predictions are notoriously inaccurate but I’d say things are within reasonable tolerance.
So, what was your point again?
+1 Thanks Draco!
Petition started in late April. By my reckoning if they get there this weekend it will be pretty much bang on 7 months to get the signatures.
Not bad for getting nearly 400,000 signatures.
I,ve signed up 17 times
[lprent: we already have a current geoff, changing your handle. ]
Which just proves that you’re really, really, stupid. You wasted you time for no appreciable gain.
“You wasted you time for no appreciable gain”
Much like this whole initiative then?
To say nothing of the time you waste when people have to check for duplicates. He must be an Act supporter they’re that stoopid.
And it is people like you who make us do the extra work of collecting more than should be necessary.
Also nice one Ben for putting something up about this. If anyone needs evidence that Labour and the Greens can work together, the Keep Our Assets petition is the perfect example.
Citizens Initiated Referendum is a bit ironic considering the “Keep Our Assets coalition*
* Grey Power, LABOUR, GREENS, Unions, Student Associations and Greenpeace.”
Are hardly Citizens!
So political party members are foreigners? Or robots? Aliens…?
Reptilian, surely
Little green men from Jupiter and energy beings from out on the Rim.
So, on Planet Key, all those people aren’t citizens of NZ. Great, we’ll inform them immediately.
Guess they’re like Romney’s 47%.
In Switzerland they need 50,000 signatures for a BINDING referendum, and they have twice our population.
Who cares.
No-one really, except people who are interested in democracy.
You can sit this one out.
I put that info up about Switzerland so you can appreciate the tokenism of our referendum which the government has promised to ignore, even if we get 2 million signatures.
NZ is a parliamentary dictatorship. Changing the dictatorship of the Labour caucus over the members is a small step in the correct direction. The real goal is when all the voters can overrule the stupidities of the NZ parliament with veto referendums.
This is not a battle between Left and Right. Labour governments have passed laws that deserved be put to binding referendums.
Is there anyway for voters abroad to sign this? I am on the electoral roll but am overseas, obviously can’t physically sign the petition. I think a few of the other Kiwis I am in contact with may well be registered voters. Is there some way to sign it abroad?
You can get someone to email you the petition, fill it out, sign it, and:
1. fax it in, or
2. send it by courier.
I am told faxed signatures are supposed to be accepted as legally binding. The bureaucrats might decide differently.
I forgot to mention, you have to be on the voting rolls. If you are not, your petition won’t count.
Surprisingly I am neutral on asset sales even though I would prefer they weren’t sold (I can see benefits holding them and benefits not), so won’t be signing. Truth though is that John Key would ignore the referendum and sell the assets anyway.
The banks which used to be ours (ASB, BNZ, etc.) and now belong to various Australian banks sent $3.6 billion to Australia in profits this year.
$3.6 billion is $900 for every man, woman, and child in NZ. If we still owned them the $3.6 billion would be in NZ, not sent overseas.
Isn’t that enough reason to not sell our assets?
Struth, New Zealand is a colony of the East India Company…scratch that…Australia Inc, China Inc and America Inc. 😉
What a flawed argument. If they were running at that profit to start with, why would they have been sold?
Could it be that now they are being run properly they are making this profit? God forbid capitalism really works!
Only Australian capitalism works, apparently.
At his political peril. If Key were to sell the assets despite a huge majority opposing asset sales in the referendum he will suffer a major electoral backlash.
Pointless if they aren’t selling the assets, isn’t it?
Nah too busy to sign a petition