Laila Harre: Poll shows Internet Mana at 'first base'

Internet Party leader Laila Harre and Mana Party leader Hone Harawira.

This morning's Herald-DigiPoll survey showing the Internet Mana Party would get two seats in Parliament means the electoral alliance has made it to "first base" but still needs to hit a home run, Internet Party Leader Laila Harré says.

The poll had the combined Internet Mana Party at 1.4 per cent which would take Ms Harré - who is second on the party list behind Mana Leader Hone Harawira - into Parliament, assuming Mr Harawira holds his Te Tai Tokerau seat in September.

"That will give others confidence in voting for us in September," Ms Harré told the Herald.

"What I'm very pleased about is that the Internet Mana alliance is cementing itself into people's consciousness and people can have confidence that their party votes for Internet Mana won't be wasted."

However she didn't agree with suggestions that Internet Mana's support was coming at the expense of the Green Party whose support fell by two points.

"It's impossible to tell where votes have transferred from. We think it's likely that the number of undecideds has grown and undecided voters have moved towards us as well."

She also said the fact the poll and other media polls were based on response via landline telephones meant a key group of potential voters - particularly youth who predominantly used mobile phones - were left out.

"If we are very successful in mobilising the youth vote, then that's unlikely to show up in media polls."

However, overall, "the polls tell a part of the story and in terms of this one I think they tell a good story, for us we're at first base and our job's to hit a home run."

Commenting on the poll's question about Internet Mana's plan to coat-tail MPs into Parliament on Mr Harawira's seat, where 39 per cent found it was a legitimate use of rules against 43 per cent who said it was an unprincipled rort, Ms Harré said responses would have been coloured by people's political views.

"It says to me that those want to see a change of Government see the sense of agreements like this to bring that about."

Meanwhile, the Internet Party's push for young voters gathers pace next month with a series of "Party Party" concerts in Auckland Wellington Christchurch and Dunedin next month.

Party founder and party time DJ Kim Dotcom will be appearing with acts including State of Mind, Optimus Gryme, Sons of Zion, and Laughton and Brad Kora in the shows which Ms Harré said were "focused on getting young Kiwis interested in politics in a way that was fun and entertaining".