New Zealand general election: National, Labour TV debate

Tuesday, August 23, 2005 

The New Zealand General Election
New Zealand
Preliminary Election Results:
Labour NZ First National 40.72 5.84 39.63 Greens United Future ACT 5.07 2.72 1.52 Progressive Maori Party Others 1.21 1.98 1.29 100 % Counted:5 hrs in to the Count Polling Places Counted: 6,094 of 6,094 (100.0%) Total Votes Counted: 2,052,813 Special Votes: 193,348 Official Results
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Political parties in New Zealand New Zealand House of Representatives Politics of New Zealand Mixed Member Proportional voting system Previous New Zealand General Elections

Helen Clark (Prime Minister) and Don Brash (Leader of the Opposition) have gone head-to-head in the first live televised debate between the two leaders in the New Zealand general election of 2005.

A studio audience contained equal numbers of National and Labour Party supporters.

The debate ran through tax, race relations, foreign affairs, immigration, education and health (all the key policy areas).

Taxes were at the top of the agenda; the debate was just hours after the National Party released their tax policy.

Don Brash said that the nuclear freeze policy of New Zealand (which bans nuclear powered US warships from its ports) and Helen Clark's criticism of the war in Iraq have both contributed to her failure to secure a free-trade pact with the United States.

Helen Clark was confident and aggressive and she often forced Don Brash into defensive explanations of National's policies.

Sources

• "Brash and Clark go head to head" — TVNZ - One News, August 22, 2005

• "Brash says he would be tougher if PM was a man." — New Zealand Herald, August 23, 2005
  

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