You are probably being asked to vote left, right and centre – literally. Two weeks ago, you might have had a flurry of Instagram requests from potential OUSA election candidates (guilty). If you were remotely clocked into anything the candidates were saying – you would have noticed a large trend towards ‘big issue politics’ – and your votes have determined whether or not the OUSA Executive will focus on advocating for any.
What you vote for in an OUSA election determines not just short-term student voice on campus, but also the long-term strategic direction of the organisation. The same can be said for your vote in the general election. On one hand, you are voting for your immediate wellbeing and life in Aotearoa. However, you are also voting for the direction that politics will take in the future.
Our ecology, our economy, and our communities are still impacted by legislation from numerous previous governments. The introduction of voluntary student membership for unions, the vaccine mandate from COVID years, KiwiSaver, KiwiBank… The list goes on. This month’s replacement legislation for Resource Management Act will make land use resource consents quicker to be approved at the expense of through checks and balances.
I urge everyone to not only enrol to vote, but to truly imagine the Aotearoa you want to live in come twenty years’ time. Think of what kind of system you would like your children to live in, forty years onward.
Ditch the myths that governments piggyback off – like that one party is “better” for the economy than the other – and vote for what you fundamentally believe in.
