Public awareness and political party relationships

The Beehive, Wellington 2016. Source: Rod Barker.

It would be difficult to determine an accurate level of public awareness of political party relationships in New Zealand. This is not because there's lack of information available on the subject, it's probably because the public feel alienated from political processes. 

Polls and surveys are ways to establish public awareness, however, when looking at a recent Colmar BruntonPoll (February 2018), the information sought pertains to: preferred Prime Minister, key political events, preferred party vote, economic outlook and parliamentary seat entitlement. Surveys such as this capture a snapshot view of public opinion, however, do not generate public awareness of current political party relationships. There seems to be little interest from the public on political party relationships due to societal beliefs that politicians have ulterior motives and have a tendency of catering to corporate interests.

According to Bryce Edwards, political parties have become more remote from civil society as relationships become strained between parties and social constituencies and no longer have relevant links with societal organisations (2003). Mr Edwards also believes that the erosion of traditional linkages between party and interest groups creates a free market for influence, in which the numbers of unaligned groups searching for influence have multiplied. In this environment, political parties compete for their attention and the interest groups compete for that of the political parties. It is his view that increasingly, interest groups choose to work objectively with whoever is in government rather than form allegiances with any particular political party.

Public awareness of specialised roles within Parliament

The meaning of caucus is simply a ‘meeting’ of all party members of a particular party within Parliament to discuss political matters.  During caucus decisions and discussions on policy direction and formulation occur.  At other times caucuses agree on the tactics to be followed by party members in the House and at select committees, and determine appointments to public office (McGee, 2005).  However, because caucuses are party bodies and not government or parliamentary bodies, matters discussed and papers prepared are not considered official information. This means there is no right of public to access such information.  Partly because of this practice the general public are unlikely to be aware of the role of caucus.  Furthermore, the word ‘caucus’ is specialised language and is therefore, jargon.  

News presentation practice suggests to avoid jargon because its often used to impress, rather than inform the audience.  Similarly, the term ‘whip’ is jargon and not understood by the public either. The whip has an organisational role within Parliament. One of their main tasks is to ensure party members are present in Parliament to support a question that is put to the vote. The whip’s job is to ensure the Government maintains a voting majority in the House and they do this by keeping track of member’s movements and only granting member absences from the House when justified.

Just how aware the public are of the role of caucuses, whips, and the organisation of different political parties is difficult to determine. One international study undertaken by Md. Z Abedin and Md. Moniruzzaman from the World University of Bangladesh (2015) sought to measure the level of political consciousness of the public though a study on political talk shows.  This study also sought to identify how much these shows act as a common and authentic platform of communication between public and government.  The findings revealed that the television shows had little impact on public awareness due to the different channels presenting a particular topic in different ways causing viewer ambiguity.  Whether any parallels with New Zealand political talk shows can be drawn remains to be seen.  Additionally, television is only one medium through which the pubic gain an understanding of New Zealand’s politics, political relationships and roles.

Organisation of political parties

Political parties are typically hierarchically structured with a party leader at the top with following supporting members. There are other roles within parties involving speechwriting, political analysis, marketing, publicity, public relations, communications and fundraising. In regards to party structure, ex Green Party politician Catherine Delahunty stated, political parties are all a bit different in style but most have similar structures. For example, everyone has a Party President, or in the Green’s case, Co-Convenors and have groups like Young Nationals, Young Labour, Young Greens, Māori Caucus, Women’s Network plus other interest groups, and they all have delegate structures representing electorates. There are differences around who gets to vote for leaders and how lists are ranked. Not surprisingly Ms Delahunty believes that the Green Party structure is the most democratic and consensus based.