It has been reported in New Zealand that a new Christian political party may be formed to contest the next general election. It would be led by Alfred Ngaro, who is currently a National member of parliament.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12231733
This has been tried in the past and failed, so what's different now? Ngaro is a sitting MP and likely National will step aside to allow him to win a seat. Previous Christian parties had no sitting members. In 1996 the Christian Coalition gained 4.33% of the vote and had they managed to do a deal with an MP they may well have held the balance of power in that parliament. Then Christian Heritage followed in 1999, receiving 2.38%. That would have meant several seats in parliament.
National doing a deal with one of their existing MP's and setting up a Christian broad spectrum party may entice voters away from Labour. It is no secret that Labour gets heavy support from Pacific Islanders and Catholics. They're socially conservative communities but socialists when it comes to unions and worker rights. Many of these voters are uncomfortable with Labour's one size fits all diversity policies. National need to gain ground from the centre left and this could be the way to do it.
Another option they could add, is doing a deal with Vernon Tava's Sustainable New Zealand party. That would gather up those Green voters who are not socialists. There are a lot of them and the Port Hills electorate in Christchurch is a good example of this phenomenon. It is an electorate with affluent voters proud to drive a hybrid car and buy organic food, but they enjoy their many trips overseas and putting their children through private schools. In 2011 Greens gained 19.60% of the party vote in Port Hills. Across the whole country they only gained 6.72%.
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