Editorial: Parties alert to Dotcom's campaign

Kim Dotcom at an Internet Mana event in Kelston. Photo / Sarah Ivey

Opinion

Youth find it all a lot of fun, but there are votes at stake

There is no question which party has made the most impact in the "phony war" of these weeks before the election campaign gets properly under way. Kim Dotcom's travelling "party party" has attracted crowds of young people with plenty of music and some wild politics. The offensive chant against John Key by the young crowd in Christchurch probably gives the essence of it: not too serious, sheer fun.

Yet other parties cannot afford to ignore the show. All of them will be wondering whether the excitement will turn into votes, and if it does, whether they will come from the non-vote or the vote of another party. The Greens in particular have cause to be worried. Theirs has been the fashionable party for the young and not-so-young who take little interest in day-to-day political affairs and do not identify with mainstream parties. The Greens will hope that Internet-Mana is reaching zones of political indifference even they cannot reach.

Labour must have decided the Dotcom party would not add to the total anti-government vote and would merely cannibalise its own vote or the Greens', for Labour has already ruled out a post-election deal. It will thereby hope that any voters strongly motivated by Mr Dotcom to change the government will need to vote for Labour or the Greens.

National will be wondering how deep the antagonism at the Dotcom carnival really goes. Certainly the stagemaster seems to hold the Prime Minister personally responsible for his legal problems but it is hard to believe he has convinced legions of youth that this is so. More likely, they are simply enjoying his humour and the iconoclasm of it all.

They will be particularly enjoying po-faced criticism that their chant has taken politics to a new low. Mindless offence becomes hilarious only when someone takes it seriously. The chant is of less concern than the fact that somebody saw fit to put a video of it on YouTube. If that was not Mr Dotcom, he is evidently happy that it was done, tweeting a link to it.

The Prime Minister was clearly disgusted but did not take it too seriously, unlike Mr Dotcom's hired party leader, Laila Harre, when Mr Key called him her "sugar daddy". That was "deeply offensive, totally sexist and bordering on defamation", Ms Harre complained. Mr Dotcom is personally bankrolling the party and by all accounts paying his candidates an MP's wage.

All of the attention on Internet-Mana so far is ignoring the Mana element. It is not clear what part, if any, Hone Harawira and other protest veterans are playing in the pitch for young voters. Mr Harawira's only purpose is to win the seat that would be needed to bring the whole alliance into Parliament. The terms of the deal enable it to be ended some time after the election when Mr Dotcom could use his MP(s) to change the government and Mana could remain where Mr Harawira is happier, uncommitted.

His Labour rival for the seat, Kelvin Davis, is doing his utmost to upset the whole scheme, or "con" as he calls it.

The young voters chanting on queue for Mr Dotcom might not be aware that their votes will be worthless if Maori enrolled in Te Tai Tokerau do not return Mr Harawira. But they probably do not care. They are constantly being told they have a duty to vote.

Ordinarily they find politics dull and it can be particularly dull when the Government is sensible and other parties are unexciting. Who can blame the young for attending a party party? But voting is different, it calls for thought.