Kerre Woodham: Misinformation and attack ads

If you listen to Labour's ads, and you can't really avoid them right now as we lead up to final days of the election. If you listen to Labour's ads, you'll be able to go in and make an appointment to get all that dental work you can't afford right now done, once the dentists open up at 7am next Monday. If Labour become the next Government.  

Wrong.  

Taxpayer-funded dental work is going to only going to be for the under 30s. It only kicks in at the next election in 2026, three years away, and it only covers the very basics. Those wisdom teeth and implants you'll still have to pay for.  

If you listen to National’s ads, which you can't avoid and that lead up to the election, households all over the country will be showered with money when their tax bracket adjustment kicks in.  

Well, no.  

Most households won't get the $250 that's been the razzle dazzle figure of the campaign ads. Sure, there was an ‘up to’ $250 in there and ‘an average household’ in there, but people only really hear what they want to hear, don't they?  

If you listen to Labour and you're on the Super, they'll tell you that Super will end should the Nat’s become the Government. Clear message - They win, you lose.  

Wrong.  

What National have said is that they'll gradually increase the age of eligibility to 67, with adjustments not beginning until 2044, 20 years after the legislation is passed. This change wouldn't affect anyone born before 1979. So if you're getting the pension now, whichever government gets in, you'll be getting it till you turn up your toes.  

Oh, but if those Nat’s get in, say Labour, they're going to cut the winter energy payment, leaving frail old ladies shivering in the cold. These weren't ads, but this was expressed on Labour MP's Facebook pages. They're going to cut the winter energy payment. You're going to freeze to death.  

Wrong again.  

And in fact, National’s been roundly criticised for not doing away with the winter energy payment. The Taxpayers Union says it needs further targeting to go to those who actually need it, and this is exactly the kind of wasteful spending that National should be campaigning against. Instead, they're choosing to do what they think is popular. National will continue to fund the winter energy payment for all retirees, regardless of whether they need it or not.  

So misinformation. National would have you believe that if Labour cobbles together a government, it'll be with the Greens, Te Pati Maori, and the gangs. And it won't, of course. I mean, Labour's given money to gang affiliated community programs, as indeed have National in the past. But you know, it’s an example of hyperbole - driving home the point that the Nat’s are going to get tough on gangs, Labours soft on gangs and they'll be part of the Government. Of course they won't be an official part of the Government. And yet there are people that believe it.  

The misinformation and negative campaigning is part of modern life, I suppose, and part of the final days of election campaigning. But it is a bit dispiriting. You roll your eyes, and you think surely people know that that is not strictly true. You only have to go to any of the parties' websites and see their policies for yourself, it's really not difficult to find.  

But people don't do it. They'd rather take the snackable bites that come through the media as advertising and believe them to be true. Even though mistrust in the media is huge, according to polls, doesn't matter, people will believe what they want to hear. If they perhaps are biased against Labour or biased against National, they will hear what they want to hear. They will stop all deductive reasoning and critical thinking.  

If you still haven't voted yet, just have a long hard think about why are you going to vote? How you want the country to look? What direction you want it to go?  And don’t listen to the ads. Because that's all they are, they’re ads that are, at the very best, gussying up information to try and appeal to you. To try to frighten you into voting.  

It's a bit of a shame, really, it it'd be better to go for the positives. This is what will happen. This is what we can do and to represent it truthfully. But I guess that is too much to hope for in 2023, Anyway, only three days to go. 

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