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Leader's LetterMARCH 2005
President’s ReportWe are now into election year which can be no later than September 24th.I am pleased to say New Zealand First’s election plans and strategies are well advanced. We expect our caucus team will be much bigger by the end of September. Following the success of our campaign in 2002 we will again be targeting the list vote or party vote as it is sometimes known, so please impress that fact upon your friends.The first thing people should do on entering the polling booth is to tick NEW ZEALAND FIRST then they can start to look at the candidate names.This message must be reinforced time and time again in the coming months. Many people who phone and write to me urge us to promote our twelve MPs rather than Winston Peters and want us to present a team image at election time. We do understand the good intention of the advice and appreciate the thoughts behind it. However, today’s elections dictate otherwise and we will get maximum advantage from our Leader’s good name and high profile. That’s why we promote him. Even before the advent of MMP, elections focused more on the leaders rather than the team behind them. Obviously the team has to be tidy and not create havoc or votes will certainly be lost, but the fact is, it is the leaders who get the TV time and the newspaper columns. In this regard New Zealand First is particularly blessed because Winston Peters is by far the best campaigner in Parliament today. The bad news for other parties is that he will be for many years yet. I have deliberately waited until now to comment on the opposition our leader faces in Tauranga. The rest of our members should just forget about it and get on with campaigning for the party vote. Winston Peters will win Tauranga and win it comfortably. In fact, by the time the election is over the country will be feeling sorry for the other contenders in the Tauranga seat! You can take it from this that we are approaching the coming election with confidence. But it is confidence born of a job well done over the previous three years; a confidence that New Zealand First is established as a centre party not aligned to either the left or right. The only non-aligned party in Parliament I might tell you.It is a party that is assured of a major role in the corridors of power into the future beyond the lifetimes of those involved now. New Zealand First has worked hard and successfully to moderate the excesses of both the old parties. This year’s election is about getting more people into Parliament, which in turn gives us the ability to transfer policies into reality We have done well with the thirteen we now have, but we will be able to do so much more with the extended caucus post September. Don’t forget to encourage your family and friends to vote New Zealand First with their first vote. Their choice of candidates comes second.It is the party vote that counts. Doug Woolerton MP
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