Although it is a little hard to tell, as I am not on the executive of the Internet Party, its appears as though the branches of the Party are not well served by the current structure for the Party’s. There appears to be a hands off approach to the other Party’s internationally that could lead to Internet Party NZ being in opposition to Internet Party AU and so on.
I believe it has also led to a lack of focus on national issues in the case of Internet Party NZ. The executive of the Party has become involved in the fight for Julian Assange that they have forgotten the Constitution of the Party points seven tenths of their efforts at New Zealand.
This lack of interest in national events has lead to Internet Party New Zealand failing to submit on extremely important Bills before the countries Parliament such as the Privacy Act which has exemptions for the Intelligence services with no opposition from the Party.
Another example is Internet Party NZ’s reaction to the Christchurch mosque shootings, the blocking of websites in the aftermath, the rushed legislation to ban weapons and the ongoing investigation into the events by the government. It has been two months Internet Party NZ has still not released any official position nor approached members in any formal way.
A better way to deal with this conflict between international and national priorities might be to create an Internet Party International controlled by an executive made of one member from each international Party, or even better a voting share based on their membership sizes.
In my view this would allow the national parties to concentrate on national events and the international party to concentrate on international events as well as acting as a central resource for the other Party’s.
