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Home / New Zealand

The Civilian Party: 'An honestly dishonest politician'

By Sophie Ryan
APNZ·
25 May, 2014 07:31 AM2 mins to read

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Satire writer Ben Uffindell says 'don't take me seriously'. Photo / NZ Herald

Satire writer Ben Uffindell says 'don't take me seriously'. Photo / NZ Herald

Satirist Ben Uffindell has laid out another policy of his political party The Civilian Party.

The creator of The Civilian commentary site launched The Civilian Party by saying this year's election needs an injection of humour.

Today he told TV One's Q and A that his party intended on initiating a referendum on the value of referenda.

He also admitted to being "an honestly dishonest politician."

"I am completely honest about the fact that we're entirely dishonest," he said.

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He said he would be approaching the Mana Party as soon as the party was registered with the Electoral Commission.

"We believe we're a slightly better option than Kim Dotcom," he said.

However, he said a coalition with Winston Peters would be unproductive.

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"I imagine very little work would get done, because we're lazy - not for any other reasons."

Politics needed to be a little less serious, he told TV3's The Nation.

"We all need to laugh and we all need to take ourselves a little less seriously and have fun in an environment that is too often too serious and too hostile and that's why it's great the Conservative Party is bringing that."

Mr Uffindell calculated that if 70 per cent of the people who read The Civilian voted for his party, that would translate to 844,000 votes.

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"And we will probably be the next Government."

**************************

The Civilian Party referendum would ask: "Should a stupid question as part of a good referendum be answered yes by a margin of more than 60 per cent, should that referendum be legally binding, should this referendum be legally binding, should all previous referenda, citizen initiated or parliament initiated, be legally binding including the 1949 referendum on compulsory military service , yes or no?"

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