Opinion: In the latest in our State of the Nation series, a 34-year-old North Islander explains her reasoning behind voting differently to how she ever has before.
What do you do for work? I am an artist, and a part-time barista.
How many people live in your household? If you include secondary dwellings, there are seven of us. My husband and I and our two kids are in the main house and then we have relatives living in two other buildings on the property.
What’s the combined annual income of you and your husband, before tax? It would be just under $100,000.
Have you decided who you'll vote for in the November election? It's really tricky this year. Normally, I’d have decided at this stage but I'm not 100% sure at all. Honestly, my vote is going to be way out there, and I know people will say it's a wasted vote, but I'm just kind of sick of the main parties. I'm going for a really small party.
Yeah? Which one? The NZ Outdoors & Freedom Party.
What is it about that party that appeals? They have great morals for eco issues, like looking after New Zealand's native bush and stopping 1080 [a poison used for pest control] and things like that which are important to me. I feel the Greens have got a little bit more political in terms of not looking too much at the actual green stuff anymore.
I went through the time where I didn't get vaccinated [against Covid], so I went through that period where I felt very rejected by the parties I used to vote for, which was Labour/Greens. So it's thrown me into new territories.
Had you always been anti-vaccination? No, I loved Jacinda, voted for Jacinda in 2020, and I was very happy with how [the pandemic] was handled up until the mandates.
A family member had a very bad reaction [to the Covid vaccine], he collapsed on the floor and was hospitalised. So we decided we don't want to do that, we don't want to take it, we're young, we're fit and healthy, we look after ourselves.
[My view became] take the vaccine for your own personal wellbeing and safety, but I think the mandate was an overstep. I lost my job at the time and that was very, very difficult going through that process.
I was reaching out to MPs early on, saying ‘these are my concerns’, feeling like they would listen, and I was absolutely blanked. [The attitude] was just like, we're anti-vaxxers, we're evil. And then, sorry to say, but the narrative coming from the media was very nasty. At the time it felt very isolating. I was really quite shocked at the divide that was starting to happen in New Zealand.*
Do you think you’ll ever return to voting for Labour or the Greens? I can’t with Hipkins [then Minister of New Zealand's Covid 19 response] in there. Just a little acknowledgement or apology from him would change things. ‘Yep, sorry, we did that wrong’. But his adamant denial is just really rubbing me the wrong way. With new [leaders] I could possibly return to Labour or the Greens.
Do you ever look though at the overseas death rate compared to New Zealand and think the government made the best of a bad situation? I agreed with what they did up until the mandate.
I absolutely feel for people who've lost loved ones to Covid. My dad had a really hard time with it [overseas], the first strain really knocked him, so I can see both sides. But it seems to be that there's a empathy and compassion held for people who’ve passed away or had horrific experiences with Covid; and I just felt like can we have that compassion for the vax-injured too.
What’s your stance on the current coalition government? I think they're terrible. In the last election, I voted for NZ First, purely because they were pushing for the inquiry [into Covid vaccine injuries]. But no, I’m not happy with the Coalition Government, it is a shambles. I'm very disappointed.
What, in particular, has disappointed you? Drilling for oil. [A ban on offshore oil and gas exploration was lifted by the Government in July 2025.]
I've never been a National Party lover. You know, they're all business, and they've been very harsh towards people who are on benefits and struggling. They've cut a lot of funding to the arts. I understand that [international] wars are outside of their control, but my life hasn’t got any easier in terms of the cost of living and things like that.
How much has the cost-of-living crisis affected you? It's definitely pinched the belt. But I’m in a very fortunate position compared to many people. I don’t know how some people do it. We have family members who really struggle. This is very difficult time for a lot of people.
What's your view on the large AI data centres being proposed or planned around New Zealand? An opportunity or something we should avoid? I am very anti AI as a whole. I think there's a very slim little margin of it that’s extremely useful for certain jobs. But these massive companies are in this race to be at the top, to be the one who gets to super-intelligence first, they’re just putting all the safety things to the side. I think it's very dangerous. I don't really use it at all in my own life, outside of what you can't help with the LinkedIn and with Google and whatnot.
I worry about the environmental impacts. Most of these companies that are investing in New Zealand are overseas companies, and so they don’t care about the pollution aspects, the water use. Our future generations, our kids will live with these decisions that are being made now, and they're being rushed through.
Do you think that New Zealand should be part of the Paris Agreement? I like the intention behind the Paris Agreement, but I don’t actually think it’s going to get us where we need to be, so I think it's sort of wasting money.
It’s not like I don't want to address the climate crisis, I'm just very cynical of targeting farmers [and their emissions] when you turn around and build these massive AI data centres that use incredible amounts of fossil fuels to run, and then go OK, your cows are farting. I just feel like it's so hypocritical.
It seems like some of your views would chime with the Green Party... Yeah, that’s where I came from. I was a big lover of Chloe Swarbrick. I was so championing her, when she was one of the youngest people to get into Parliament at 23, because we're a very similar age. But interactions with her via email over the Covid time really hurt. I know I'm holding on to that, I should move through stuff.
What do you think of the National Party's proposal to increase the interest on student loans for New Zealanders living overseas?
I lived in Sydney for a little while with a student loan. So in that sense, I'm like, oh, that would be difficult. But then at the same time, you want to retain people here, and we want to have the people who have studied here to remain here. So I can see it from that sense.
Do you still have a student loan? I do. I didn't work for a while when I had my children, so there was also a period where there was nothing coming off it, and yeah the interest that was added [during the Sydney years] set me back a bit.
So on November 7, I think we can agree that the NZ Outdoors & Freedom Party won't be the new government. What would realistically be the best outcome from your perspective? I feel like no matter what the end result is, I'm going to be disappointed. I can't do Hipkins as a prime minister. I’d be very disappointed to have him represent New Zealand, with his past.
*A study partly funded by the Ministry of Health concluded that Covid vaccinations saved an estimated 6650 lives in New Zealand between January 2022 and June 2023. ACC has received 4229 claims for treatment injuries related to Covid vaccinations, with 1,696 of those claims accepted. Official medical assessments have determined that four deaths are likely linked to the vaccine. In New Zealand to date, over 5,600 deaths have been recorded for individuals who died with a recent Covid infection.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity. The views expressed do not represent those of TVNZ.
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