With conflicting polls released today in the Herald and Sunday Star Times, the Exclusive Brethren Church has now been accused of further bolstering support for the National Party by conducting "push polling" in some electorates. Labour and Green supporters in the Hamilton, Kaikoura and Invercargill electorates claim reports of young teenagers from Exclusive Brethren schools telephoning voters and asking loaded questions claiming to be conducting a poll on behalf of the National Party. Church leaders deny any formal involvement, although National campaign director Steve Joyce says although there is no formal relationship between the church and the party, members of the church do assist the party in polling and in other respects. A Church spokesman said of the claims “We just want the right persons to get in and lead this country in the right direction, whether they are National or Labour or Act or Greens. As long as they are God-fearing.” A woman from Hamilton says she took a call from a pollster who, when asked, said he was 14 years old, and from the Brethren-run Westmount School in Auckland. He said he was polling on behalf of Don Brash of the National Party, and urged the woman to vote for Dr Brash because of the “moral decline of New Zealand under the Labour government.” When the women asked the boy to specify the decline, he said “the gay marriage bill.” Labour's Kaikoura candidate, Brendon Burns, claims young callers had been push-polling in his electorate as well. He says “They ring and ask leading questions such as whether you like Helen Clark as a leader. If you respond positively, they take on a puzzled tone- and suggest this is out of line with what everyone else is saying.” Although today's Sunday Star Times has released a poll putting National ahead of Labour by seven points with the claim that Brash has been unhurt by the Exclusive Brethren "fiasco", the Herald on Sunday's Digi-Poll puts National on 38.5% behind Labour at 42.1%. Brash told the Herald he did not believe his poll drop was directly related to the recent controversy, which he calls "simply a distraction… I did not lie this week. I did cause some confusion and that's cost me some trust. I've got to work to re-earn that."
Credit: GayNZ.com News Staff
First published: Sunday, 11th September 2005 - 12:00pm