title: Seveso disaster

text: However, in February 1983, the programme "A bon entendeur" on Télévision Suisse Romande, a French language Swiss television channel, followed the route of the barrels to Saint-Quentin in northern France where they disappeared. A public debate ensued in which numerous theories were put forward when it was found that Mannesmann Italiana had hired two subcontractors to dispose of the toxic waste. On 19 May, the 41 barrels were found in an unused abattoir in Anguilcourt-le-Sart, a village in northern France. From there they were transferred to a French military base near Sissonne. The Roche Group (parent firm of Givaudan) took it upon itself to properly dispose of the waste. On 25 November, over nine years after the disaster, the Roche Group issued a public statement that the toxic waste consisting of 42 barrels (one was added earlier that year) had all been incinerated in Switzerland. According to "New Scientist", it was thought that the high chlorine content of the waste might cause damage to the high temperature incinerator used by Roche, but Roche stated that they would burn the waste in the incinerator and repair it afterward if it were damaged. They stated that they wanted to take responsibility for the safe destruction of the waste.


title: Seveso disaster

text: In September 1983, the Criminal Court of Monza sentenced five former employees of ICMESA or its parent company, Givaudan, to prison sentences ranging from 2.5 years to 5 years. They all appealed.


title: Seveso disaster

text: In May 1985, the Court of Appeal in Milan found three of the five accused not guilty; the two still facing prosecution appealed to the Supreme Court in Rome.


title: Seveso disaster

text: On 23 May 1986, the Supreme Court in Rome confirmed the judgment against the two remaining defendants, even though the prosecuting attorney had called for their acquittal.


title: Seveso disaster

text: After the incident, ICMESA initially refused to admit that the dioxin release had occurred. At least a week passed before a public statement was issued that dioxin had been emitted, and another week passed before an evacuation began. Even then, the government was saddled with the responsibility of determining the boundaries of the evacuation area, and thereafter to organise the evacuation. This constituted a major imposition on the community as well as on government resources.


title: Seveso disaster

text: It was soon recognized that the factory's very rudimentary safety systems had been designed with little more than simple explosion prevention in mind. Environmental protection had not been considered. Nor had any consideration been given as to setting up any type of warning system or health-protection protocols for the local community. As a result, the local population was caught unaware when the accident happened, and thus was unprepared to cope with the danger of an invisible poison.


title: Seveso disaster

text: In the context of such heightened tensions, Seveso became a microcosm where all the existing conflicts within society (political, institutional, religious, industrial) were reflected. However, within a relatively short time, such conflicts abated and the recovery of the community proceeded. For, in Seveso, the responsible party was known from the outset and soon offered reparation. Moreover, the eventual disappearance of the offending factory itself and the physical exportation of the toxic substances and polluted soil enabled the community to feel cleansed. The resolution of the emotional after-effects of the trauma, so necessary for the recovery of a community, was facilitated by these favourable circumstances."


title: Seveso disaster

text: Industrial safety regulations were passed in the European Community in 1982 called the Seveso Directive, which imposed much stronger industrial regulations. The Seveso Directive was updated in 1996, 2008 and 2012 and is currently referred to as the Seveso III Directive (or COMAH Regulations in the United Kingdom).


title: Seveso disaster

text: Treatment of the soil in the affected areas is now considered complete, since the dioxin levels are now below background. The entire site has been turned into a public park known as Seveso Oak Forest Park. This area is permanently off-limits to development. There are two artificial hills in the park; today, underneath these hills are the toxic remnants (including destroyed houses, tons of contaminated soil, and animal remains), all protected in a concrete sarcophagus. Investigations into site conditions have confirmed that the sarcophagus life expectancy of 300 years is expected, appropriate, and required.


title: Seveso disaster

text: Several studies have been completed on the health of the population of surrounding communities. While it has been established that people from Seveso exposed to TCDD are more susceptible to certain rare cancers, when all types of cancers are grouped into one category, no statistically significant increase has yet been reported in any specific cancer category. This indicates that more research is needed to determine the true long-term health effects on the affected population.


title: Seveso disaster

text: Epidemiological monitoring programmes were established as follows (with termination dates): abortions (1982); malformations (1982); tumours (1997); deaths (1997). Health monitoring of workers at ICMESA and on decontamination projects, and chloracne sufferers (1985)


title: Seveso disaster

text: The documentary "Gambit" is about Jörg Sambeth, the technical director of ICMESA, who was sentenced to five years in the first trial, and had his sentence reduced to two years and was paroled on appeal.


title: Shanghai massacre

text: The Shanghai massacre of 12 April 1927, the April 12 Purge or the April 12 Incident as it is commonly known in China, was the violent suppression of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) organizations and leftist elements in Shanghai by forces supporting General Chiang Kai-shek and conservative factions in the Kuomintang (Chinese Nationalist Party or KMT). Following the incident, conservative KMT elements carried out a full-scale purge of Communists in all areas under their control, and violent suppression occurred in Guangzhou and Changsha. The purge led to an open split between left-wing and right-wing factions in the KMT, with Chiang Kai-shek establishing himself as the leader of the right-wing faction based in Nanjing, in opposition to the original left-wing KMT government based in Wuhan, which was led by Wang Jingwei.


title: Shanghai massacre

text: By 15 July 1927, the Wuhan regime had expelled the Communists in its ranks, effectively ending the First United Front, a working alliance of both the KMT and CCP under the tutelage of Comintern agents. For the rest of 1927, the CCP would fight to regain power, beginning the Autumn Harvest Uprising. With the failure and the crushing of the Guangzhou Uprising at Guangzhou however, the power of the Communists was largely diminished, unable to launch another major urban offensive.


title: Shanghai massacre

text: In KMT historiography, the event is occasionally referred to as "April 12 Purge" (四一二清黨), while the Communist historiography refers to the event in the form of "April 12 Counter-revolutionary Coup" (四一二反革命政變) or "April 12 Massacre" (四一二慘案).


title: Shanghai massacre

text: The roots of the April 12 Incident go back to the Kuomintang's alliance with the Soviet Union, formally initiated by the KMT founder Sun Yat-sen after discussions with Soviet diplomat Adolph Joffe in January 1923. The alliance included both financial and military aid and a small but important group of Soviet political and military advisors, headed by Mikhail Borodin. The Soviet Union's conditions for alliance and aid included co-operation with the small Chinese Communist Party. Sun agreed to let the Communists join the KMT as individuals but ruled out an alliance with them or their participation as an organized bloc. In addition, he demanded that once in the KMT for the Communists to support KMT ideology and observe party discipline. Following their admission to the KMT, Communist activities, often covert, soon attracted opposition to the policy among prominent KMT members. Internal conflicts between left- and right-wing leaders of the KMT with regards to the CCP problem continued right up to the launch of the Northern Expedition.


title: Shanghai massacre

text: Plans for a Northern Expedition originated with Sun Yat-sen. After his expulsion from the government in Peking, he had by 1920 made a military comeback and gained control of some parts of Guangdong province. His goal was to extend his control over all of China, particularly Peking. After Sun's death from cancer in March 1925, KMT leaders continued to push the plan, and after they had purged Guangzhou's Communists and Soviet advisors during the "Canton Coup" on 20 May 1926, they finally launched the Expedition that June. Initial successes in the first months of the Expedition soon saw the KMT National Revolutionary Army (NRA) in control of Guangdong and large areas in Hunan, Hubei, Jiangxi and Fujian.


title: Shanghai massacre

text: With the growth of KMT authority and military strength, the struggle for control of the Party's direction and leadership intensified. In January 1927, the NRA, commanded by Chiang Kai-shek captured Wuhan and went on to attack Nanchang, and KMT leader Wang Jingwei and his left-wing allies, along with the Chinese Communists and the Soviet agent Borodin, transferred the seat of the Nationalist Government from Guangzhou to Wuhan. On 1 March, the Nationalist government reorganized the Military Commission and placed Chiang under its jurisdiction while it secretly plotted to arrest him. Chiang found out about the plot, which most likely led to his determination to purge the CCP from the KMT.


title: Shanghai massacre

text: In response to the advances of the NRA, Communists in Shanghai began to plan uprisings against the warlord forces controlling the city. On 21–22 March, KMT and CCP union workers, led by Zhou Enlai and Chen Duxiu, launched an armed uprising in Shanghai and defeated the warlord forces of the Zhili clique. The victorious union workers occupied and governed urban Shanghai except for the international settlements prior to the arrival of the NRA's Eastern Route Army, led by Generals Bai Chongxi and Li Zongren. After the Nanking Incident in which foreign concessions in Nanjing were attacked and looted, both the right wing of the Kuomintang and western powers became alarmed by the growth of the influence of the Communists, who continued to organize daily mass student protests and labor strikes to demand the return of Shanghai international settlements to Chinese control. With Bai's army firmly in control of Shanghai, on 2 April the Central Control Commission of KMT, led by former Chancellor of Peking University Cai Yuanpei, determined that the CCP actions were anti-revolutionary and undermined the national interest of China, and it voted unanimously to purge the Communists from the KMT.


title: Shanghai massacre

text: On 5 April, Wang Jingwei arrived in Shanghai from overseas and met with the CCP leader Chen Duxiu. After their meeting they issued a joint declaration re-affirming the principle of cooperation between the KMT and the CCP, despite urgent pleas from Chiang and other KMT elders to eliminate Communist influence. When Wang left Shanghai for Wuhan the next day, Chiang asked Green Gang leader Du Yuesheng and other gang leaders in Shanghai to form a rival union to oppose the Shanghai labor union controlled by the Communists, and made final preparations for purging CCP members.


title: Shanghai massacre

text: On 9 April, Chiang declared martial law in Shanghai and the Central Control Commission issued the "Party Protection and National Salvation" proclamation, denouncing the Wuhan Nationalist Government's policy of cooperation with the CCP. On 11 April Chiang issued a secret order to all provinces under the control of his forces to purge Communists from the KMT.


title: Shanghai massacre

text: Before dawn on 12 April, gang members began to attack district offices controlled by the union workers, including Zhabei, Nanshi, and Pudong. Under an emergency decree, Chiang ordered the 26th Army to disarm the workers' militias; that resulted in more than 300 people being killed and wounded. The union workers organized a mass meeting denouncing Chiang Kai-shek on 13 April, and thousands of workers and students went to the headquarters of the 2nd Division of the 26th Army to protest. Soldiers opened fire, killing 100 and wounding many more. Chiang dissolved the provisional government of Shanghai, labor unions and all other organizations under Communist control, and reorganized a network of unions with allegiance to the Kuomintang and under the control of Du Yuesheng. Some sources say that over 1000 Communists were arrested, some 300 were executed and more than 5,000 went missing; some state that 5,000 Communists were killed while others claim up to 10,000 were killed. Western news reports later nicknamed Gen. Bai "The Hewer of Communist Heads". Some National Revolutionary Army commanders with Communist backgrounds who were graduates of Whampoa Military Academy kept their sympathies for the Communists hidden and were not arrested, and many switched their allegiance to the CCP after the start of the Chinese Civil War.


title: Shanghai massacre

text: During the White Terror, the Kuomintang specifically targeted short-haired women who had not been subjected to foot binding. The Kuomintang presumed that women who rejected foot binding and traditional hair styles were radicals. Kuomintang forces would cut off their breasts and shave their heads, displaying their mutilated corpses to cow the populace.


title: Shanghai massacre

text: During the White Terror, the Kuomintang killed more than one million people, primarily peasants. More than 10,000 communists were executed in Changsha within 20 days. The Soviet Union officially terminated its cooperation with the KMT while Wang, fearing retribution as a Communist sympathizer, fled to Europe. The Wuhan Nationalist government soon disintegrated, leaving Chiang as the sole legitimate leader of the Kuomintang. In the years after April 1927, 300,000 people were killed in Hunan's in three years of warfare against the Communists while many Hakkas and She people's whole families killed in the mountains, including infants, while young women were sold to prostitution. About 80,000 people were killed in Hunan's Liling and about 300,000 Hunanese civilians were killed in Hunan's Chaling County, Leiyang, Liuyang and Pingjiang.


title: Shanghai massacre

text: For the Kuomintang, 39 members of the Kuomintang Central Committee in Wuhan publicly denounced Chiang Kai-shek as a traitor to Sun Yat-sen, including Sun's widow Soong Ching-ling immediately after the purge. However, Chiang was defiant, forming a brand new Nationalist Government to rival the Communist-tolerant Nationalist Government in Wuhan controlled by Wang Jingwei on 18 April. The purges garnered the Nanjing government the support of much of the NRA, the Chinese merchant class, and foreign businesses, bolstering its economic and military position.


title: Shanghai massacre

text: The twin rival KMT governments, known as the Ninghan (Nanjing and Wuhan) Split (), did not last long. In May 1927, Communists and peasant leaders in the Wuhan area were repeatedly attacked by Nationalist generals. On 1 June, Joseph Stalin sent a telegram to the Communists in Wuhan, calling for mobilisation of an army of workers and peasants. This alarmed Wang Jingwei, who decided to break with the Communists and come to terms with Chiang Kai-shek.


title: Shanghai massacre

text: On the Communists' side, Chen Duxiu and his Soviet advisers, who had promoted cooperation with the KMT, were discredited and lost their leadership roles in the CCP. Chen was personally blamed, forced to resign and replaced by Qu Qiubai, who did not change Chen's policies in any fundamental way. The CCP planned for worker uprisings and revolutions in the urban areas. The White Terror completely routed the Communists, and only 10,000 party members out of 60,000 survived.


title: Shanghai massacre

text: The first battles of the ten-year Chinese Civil War began with armed Communist insurrections in Changsha, Nanchang, and Guangzhou. During the Nanchang Uprising in August, Communist troops under Zhu De were defeated but escaped from Kuomintang forces by withdrawing to the mountains of Jiangxi. In September Mao led a small peasant army in the Autumn Harvest Uprising in Hunan. It was brutally crushed and the survivors retreated to Jiangxi as well, forming the first elements of what would become the People's Liberation Army. By the time the CCP Central Committee was forced to flee Shanghai in 1933, Mao had established peasant-based soviets in Jiangxi and Hunan provinces, turning the Communist's base of support from urban proletariat to the countryside, where the People's War would be fought. About 300,000 Hunanese were killed in Hunan's Chaling County, Leiyang, Liuyang and Pingjiang.


title: Shanghai massacre

text: In June 1928, the National Revolutionary Army captured the Beiyang government's capital of Beijing, leading to the nominal unification of China and worldwide recognition of the Republic as the legal government of China.


title: Alek Manoah

text: Alek Isaac Manoah (born January 9, 1998) is an American professional baseball pitcher for the Toronto Blue Jays of Major League Baseball (MLB). He was selected by the Blue Jays with the 11th overall pick of the 2019 Major League Baseball draft out of West Virginia University, and made his MLB debut on May 27, 2021.


title: Alek Manoah

text: Manoah attended South Dade High School in Homestead, Florida. As a junior, he hit .492 with five home runs and 32 RBIs. That summer, he played in the Under Armour All-America Baseball Game at Wrigley Field. During his senior year, he signed to play college baseball at West Virginia University. Manoah was not drafted in the 2016 Major League Baseball draft out of high school and thus enrolled at West Virginia.


title: Alek Manoah

text: In 2017, as a freshman at West Virginia, Manoah appeared in 19 games (ten starts), pitching to a 1–1 record with a 3.07 ERA, earning a spot on the Big 12 All-Freshman Team. As a sophomore in 2018, Manoah went 3–5 with a 4.00 ERA in 23 games (eight starts). He particularly struggled with command, posting a 1.50 WHIP. That summer, he pitched in the Cape Cod Baseball League for the Chatham Anglers where he went 4–3 with a 3.57 ERA in nine starts. Prior to the 2019 season, Manoah was named a preseason All-American by "Baseball America". During the season, Manoah was named to the Golden Spikes Award watchlist along with unanimously being named the Big 12 Pitcher of the Year. At the time he received the award, he was 8–3 with a 1.91 ERA in 14 starts, striking out 125 batters in 94 innings. He finished his junior year with a 9–4 record and a 2.08 ERA over 16 starts, compiling 144 strikeouts over innings.


title: Alek Manoah

text: Manoah was considered one of the top prospects for the 2019 Major League Baseball draft. He was selected by the Toronto Blue Jays with the 11th overall pick. He signed for $4.55 million and made his professional debut with the Vancouver Canadians of the Class A-Short Season Northwest League on July 27. Over six starts, Manoah compiled a 2.65 ERA with 27 strikeouts over 17 innings. Manoah did not play a minor league game in 2020 due to the cancellation of the minor league season caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: Alek Manoah

text: To begin the 2021 season, Manoah was assigned to the Buffalo Bisons of the Triple-A East. In his first start of the season, he struck out 12 batters over six scoreless innings. Over three starts with Buffalo, Manoah went 3–0 with a 0.50 ERA and 27 strikeouts over 18 innings.


title: Alek Manoah

text: On May 27, 2021, Manoah was selected to the 40-man roster and promoted to the major leagues for the first time, and started against the New York Yankees that day, while picking up the win in a 2–0 final. He recorded his first MLB strikeout in his debut against Yankees infielder Rougned Odor. Overall, Manoah totalled seven strikeouts while allowing two walks, no runs, and two hits over six innings. On June 22, he was suspended five games for an incident stemming from a June 19 game in which he was ejected for intentionally hitting Baltimore Orioles third baseman Maikel Franco with a pitch. On July 2, Manoah recorded seven consecutive strikeouts against the Tampa Bay Rays at Sahlen Field, setting a Blue Jays franchise record. Manoah finished his rookie season with the Blue Jays having started twenty games in which he went 9–2 with a 3.22 ERA and 127 strikeouts over innings.


title: Alek Manoah

text: Manoah was selected to represent the Blue Jays alongside George Springer, Alejandro Kirk, and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. in the 2022 Major League Baseball All-Star Game. Manoah pitched one scoreless inning and struck out all three batters he faced. In 2022, Manoah went 16–7 with a 2.24 ERA in 196 innings while striking out 180 batters. He started the first game of the Wild Card Series against the Seattle Mariners, pitching 5 innings giving up four hits and four earned runs with four strikeouts as the Blue Jays were swept by the Mariners in the series. Manoah also finished third in the Cy Young Award behind Dylan Cease of the Chicago White Sox and winner Justin Verlander of the Houston Astros.


title: Alek Manoah

text: Manoah features an upper 90s mph fourseam fastball, a mid 90s sinker, a changeup, and a slider that he learned from watching Dellin Betances on Rob Friedman's Twitter account.


title: Alek Manoah

text: Manoah's older brother, Erik, was drafted by the New York Mets in the 13th round of the 2014 Major League Baseball draft, but was released in 2019. Manoah is of Cuban descent and can speak Spanish.


title: Shetland pony

text: The Shetland pony is a Scottish breed of pony originating in the Shetland Isles in the north of Scotland. It may stand up to at the withers. It has a heavy coat and short legs, is strong for its size, and is used for riding, driving, and pack purposes.


title: Shetland pony

text: Shetland ponies originated in the Shetland Isles, located northeast of mainland Scotland. Small horses have been kept in the Shetland Isles since the Bronze Age. People who lived on the islands probably later crossed the native stock with ponies imported by Norse settlers. Shetland ponies also were probably influenced by the Celtic pony, brought to the islands by settlers between 2000 and 1000 BCE. The harsh climate and scarce food developed the ponies into extremely hardy animals.


title: Shetland pony

text: Shetland ponies were first used for pulling carts and for carrying peat, coal and other items, and ploughing land. Then, as the Industrial Revolution increased the need for coal in the mid-nineteenth century, thousands of Shetland ponies travelled to mainland Britain to be pit ponies, working underground hauling coal, often for their entire (frequently short) lives. Coal mines in the eastern United States also imported some of these animals. The last pony mine in the United States closed in 1971.


title: Shetland pony

text: The Shetland Pony Stud-Book Society is the breed society for the traditional Shetland throughout the world. It was started in 1890 to maintain purity and encourage high-quality animals. In 1957, the Shetland Islands Premium Stallion Scheme was formed to subsidise high-quality registered stallions to improve the breeding stock.


title: Shetland pony

text: A number of pony breeds derive from the traditional Shetland. These include the American Shetland Pony and Pony of the Americas in the United States, and the Deutsches Classic Pony in Germany.


title: Shetland pony

text: The Shetland Pony is hardy and strong, in part because it developed in the harsh conditions of the Shetland Isles. It has a small head, widely spaced eyes and small and alert ears. It has a short muscular neck, a compact stocky body, short strong legs and a shorter-than-normal cannon-bone in relation to its size. A short broad back and deep girth are universal characteristics, as is a springy stride. It has a long thick mane and tail, and a dense double winter coat to withstand harsh weather. It may be of any known horse coat colour other than spotted.


title: Shetland pony

text: Today, Shetlands are ridden by children and are shown by both children and adults at horse shows in harness driving classes as well as for pleasure driving outside of the show ring. Shetlands are ridden by small children at horse shows, in riding schools and stables as well as for pleasure. They are seen working in commercial settings such as fairs or carnivals to provide short rides for visitors. They are also seen at petting zoos and sometimes are used for therapeutic horseback riding purposes. In the United Kingdom, Shetlands are also featured in the Shetland Pony Grand National, galloping around a racecourse with young jockeys. A few Shetland ponies are still fulfil traditional working roles on the islands, and can be seen carrying peat (which is abundant and used as a fuel source in Shetland) cut from the hillsides in large saddlebags. Their strong physique and ability to cross a variety of difficult terrain types means they are still a viable choice for the job, even in an age of mechanised agriculture.


title: Shetland pony

text: Junior Harness Racing was founded in Queensland by a group of breeders to give young people aged 6–16 an opportunity to obtain a practical introduction to the harness racing industry. The children have the opportunity to drive Shetland ponies in harness under race conditions. No prize money is payable on pony races, although winners and place-getters receive medallions.


title: Shetland pony

text: Miniature Shetlands have been trained as guide horses to take the same role as guide dogs. This task is also performed by other miniature horse breeds.


title: The war to end war

text: "The war to end war" (also "The war to end all wars"; originally from the 1914 book "The War That Will End War" by H. G. Wells) is a term for the First World War of 1914–1918. Originally an idealistic slogan, it is now mainly used sardonically, since not only was the First World War not history's final war, but its aftermath also indirectly contributed to the outbreak of the even more devastating Second World War.


title: The war to end war

text: During August 1914, immediately after the outbreak of the war, English author and social commentator H. G. Wells published a number of articles in London newspapers that subsequently appeared as a book entitled "The War That Will End War". He blamed the Central Powers for starting the war and argued that only the defeat of German militarism could bring about an end. He used the shorter form, "the war to end war", for "In the Fourth Year" (1918), in which he noted that the phrase "got into circulation" in the second half of 1914. It became one of the most common catchphrases of the First World War.


title: The war to end war

text: During the First World War, the phrase met with some degree of skepticism. As it became apparent that the war had not succeeded in ending war, the phrase took on a more cynical tone. The British staff officer Archibald Wavell, a future field marshal and viceroy of India, said despondently of the Paris Peace Conference, "After the 'war to end war', they seem to have been pretty successful in Paris at making the 'Peace to end Peace'." Wells himself used the phrase in an ironic way in the novel "The Bulpington of Blup" (1932). Walter Lippmann 1967, "The delusion is that whatever war we are fighting is the war to end war", while U.S. President Richard Nixon, in his "Silent Majority" speech (1969), said, "I do not tell you that the war in Vietnam is the war to end wars". The 1976 Eric Bogle song "No Man's Land" ("The Green Fields of France"), addressed to the grave of a 19-year-old soldier in a First World War Cemetery, contains the lyric "Did you really believe that this war would end wars?".


title: The war to end war

text: Since at least the last third of the 20th century, the alternative wording "the war to end all wars" has become more popular. "The War to End War" was the title of Laurence Stallings's 1959 book on the war. It was also a title of a chapter of the American high school history textbook "The American Pageant" (first published 1956), and remained so up to its 15th edition in 2013. However, "The War to End All Wars" was used by later authors such as Edward M. Coffman (1968), Russell Freedman (2010) and Adam Hochschild (2011).


title: Slender: The Eight Pages

text: Slender: The Eight Pages (originally titled Slender) is a free-to-play indie-developed first-person survival horror video game released in June 2012 as a beta for Microsoft Windows and OS X by Parsec Productions, using the Unity engine. Developed by Mark J. Hadley, the game is based on the quasi-folklore meme figure known as the Slender Man, who is depicted as a tall humanoid creature wearing a black suit and tie with a white face and no facial features. The character is known for the ominous (although fictitious) abduction of countless children in dark mysterious settings, such as deep forests and abandoned buildings.


title: Slender: The Eight Pages

text: "Slender: The Eight Pages" is set in a dense forest during the middle of the night, and is played from a first person perspective. The player's objective is to collect all eight notes located in various areas of the forest while avoiding the Slender Man. As the player collects pages, the fog in the forest grows thicker, and Slender Man appears closer to the player's character, though the character's sprinting speed slowly increases as well. Slender Man moves by teleporting, creeping around the player, but only from a certain distance. The player is equipped with only a flashlight to see through the dark (its battery life is limited and will eventually shut down permanently if left on for an extended period of time). The player's character has the ability to "jog", which will eventually tire out the player and make them wheeze if forced to go on for too long, causing slower walking as well. Slender Man will occasionally appear in the player's field of vision, accompanied by a loud slamming noise and/or static on the screen. This then allows the ability to "sprint" to become available to the player. "Sprinting" allows the player to move faster than "jogging" does, but will also decrease the maximum stamina available for "jogging" and "sprinting". A game over occurs when either the player has taken too long to find a note, the player stares at Slender Man for too long, or if Slender Man comes into contact with the player, which will turn them around and end the game. The game over screen shows Slender Man's face up close and blinking static pulses.


title: Slender: The Eight Pages

text: Even if the player's character successfully collects all the eight pages, the Slender Man will continue to chase them. Once all the pages are collected, one is allowed to walk around for a couple of seconds in total silence until Slender Man finally appears behind the player and ends the game. However, instead of the normal death screen appearing, a slightly different version is played in which the static slowly fades out instead of abruptly stopping. A few moments later the player awakens in the forest, now in the daytime, and can move around for a few seconds before the screen goes black and plays the end credits. New game modes are then unlocked. There is also a grace period in the very beginning of the game, during which Slender Man remains inactive for only a few minutes, or until the player collects the first page. However, the difficulty level increases the longer one goes without collecting any pages. The end of this grace period is indicated by a repetitive stomping sound echoing in the background. This sound is heard throughout the rest of the game and gradually gets quicker as more pages are collected, as well as several other layering sounds. These sounds include a low droning sound (pages 3–4), a loud wind (pages 5–6), and then a mysterious and unnerving beeping sound (page 7). Once all 8 pages are collected, the sounds abruptly fade into silence.


title: Slender: The Eight Pages

text: In Version 0.9.4 there is a "Daytime Mode" that can be unlocked. To unlock this mode, the player must beat the game on "Normal", in which the ending shows the player's character awakens in the daytime after collecting all eight pages and being caught by Slender Man. After waking up, the player can walk around in the daytime for a few seconds before the credits roll. "Daytime Mode" is simply during the day and without a flashlight. If the player beats "Daytime Mode" the ending will be the same as before, only the player wakes up at night. After the credits roll, the player will have unlocked "$20 Mode". In this mode, the gameplay is the same as "Normal Mode", except that if the player sees Slender Man a song called "20 Dollars" by American rap artist Ron Browz starts playing. This is a reference to a fan-originated meme about Slender Man, stating that if a person gives Slender Man $20, he will leave the person alone. This is the only version in which the Player selects these modes in the "Options" portion of the menu screen, and this is also the only version in which two hidden modes can be played at the same time ("Daytime Mode" and "$20 Mode"). There is also an "MH (Marble Hornets) Mode", viewing the gameplay as a 'Marble Hornets' entry. The creepy sounds and page collector have been removed, there are static bars on the edges, and the ending is slightly different. The "$20 Mode" has been absent since version 0.9.7; The accompanying readme advises "One game mode removed - it was only a matter of time as it contained copyrighted material", referring to the Browz track that's used in that mode.


title: Slender: The Eight Pages

text: The game was first released in version 0.9.0 as "Slender". Originally, when the player would be caught by the Slender Man, the game would quit and return to the desktop. It remained this way until version 0.9.3 (the third update), and the player now has the option to either try again or to quit. From version 0.9.7 on, there is an ambiance during the menu screen, as well as portions of the eight pages being shown. There are also now links to the Slender Man Mythos Forums and some popular web series based on the Mythos such as the "Marble Hornets" and the "TribeTwelve". As of this version, the game was officially renamed "Slender: The Eight Pages" to avoid confusion with its sequel, "". "$20 Mode" was also removed from this version due to copyright issues. "MH Mode" was renamed to "Marble Hornets Mode" (simply the unabbreviated version of the title). Two new light sources became available: a glow stick with almost no light, and almost no range at all, and a crank lantern with a wide range, but a short amount of light which must be replenished by cranking the lantern. The player also gained the ability to pause the game by pressing "Escape" on the keyboard, but only when there is no static on the screen as to not allow the player to quit in response to being frightened.


title: Slender: The Eight Pages

text: The game was given a backstory in its successor; "". It was confirmed that the name of the character controlled in this game is Kate, also known as the Chaser in "The Arrival".


title: Slender: The Eight Pages

text: Some publications noted the effectiveness of the game's minimalist horror approach, contrasting it with many action-based survival horror games of the time period, such as the latest "Resident Evil" titles. The official website crashed after too many people tried to download the game, leading to subsequent mirror downloads on Reddit and later MediaFire.


title: Slender: The Eight Pages

text: "Slender: The Eight Pages" gained a cult following through let's players such as PewDiePie and Markiplier, this spawned several imitations and fangames.


title: Slender: The Eight Pages

text: A reimagining was released one year later, named "." In 2022, a remaster was released titled 'Slender Reborn'.


title: Macaroni penguin

text: The macaroni penguin (Eudyptes chrysolophus) is a species of penguin found from the Subantarctic to the Antarctic Peninsula. One of six species of crested penguin, it is very closely related to the royal penguin, and some authorities consider the two to be a single species. It bears a distinctive yellow crest, and the face and upperparts are black and sharply delineated from the white underparts. Adults weigh on average and are in length. The male and female are similar in appearance; the male is slightly larger and stronger with a relatively larger bill. Like all penguins, it is flightless, with a streamlined body and wings stiffened and flattened into flippers for a marine lifestyle.It has a small eye and is good at seeing.


title: Macaroni penguin

text: Its diet consists of a variety of crustaceans, mainly krill, as well as small fish and cephalopods; the species consumes more marine life annually than any other species of seabird. These birds moult once a year, spending about three to four weeks ashore, before returning to the sea. Numbering up to 100,000 individuals, the breeding colonies of the macaroni penguin are among the largest and densest of all penguin species. After spending the summer breeding, penguins disperse into the oceans for six months; a 2009 study found that macaroni penguins from Kerguelen travelled over in the central Indian Ocean. With about 18 million individuals, the macaroni penguin is the most numerous penguin species. Widespread declines in populations have been recorded since the mid-1970s and their conservation status is classified as vulnerable.


title: Macaroni penguin

text: The macaroni penguin was described from the Falkland Islands in 1837 by German naturalist Johann Friedrich von Brandt. It is one of six or so species in the genus "Eudyptes", collectively known as crested penguins. The genus name is derived from the Ancient Greek words "eu" "good", and "dyptes" "diver". The specific name "chrysolophus" is derived from the Greek words "chryse" "golden", and "lophos" "crest".


title: Macaroni penguin

text: The common name was recorded from the early 19th century in the Falkland Islands. English sailors apparently named the species for its conspicuous yellow crest.


title: Macaroni penguin

text: Molecular clock evidence using DNA suggests the macaroni penguin diverged from its closest relative, the royal penguin ("Eudyptes schlegeli"), around 1.5 million years ago. The two have generally been considered different species, but the close similarities of their DNA sequences has led some, such as Australian ornithologists Les Christidis and Walter Boles, to treat the royal penguin as a subspecies of the macaroni penguin. The two species are very similar in appearance; the royal penguin has a white face instead of the usually black face of the macaroni penguin. Interbreeding with the Indo-Pacific subspecies of the southern rockhopper penguin ("E. chrysocome filholi") has been reported at Heard and Marion Islands, with three hybrid subspecies recorded there by a 1987–88 Australian National Antarctic Research Expedition.


title: Macaroni penguin

text: The macaroni penguin is a large, crested penguin, similar in appearance to other members of the genus "Eudyptes". An adult bird has an average length of around ; the weight varies markedly depending on time of year and sex. Males average from after incubating, or after moult to before moult, while females average after to before moult. Among standard measurements, the thick bill (from the gape) measures , the culmen being around a centimetre less. The wing, from the shoulder to the tip, is around and the tail is long. The head, chin, throat, and upper parts are black and sharply demarcated against the white under parts. The black plumage has a bluish sheen when new and brownish when old. The most striking feature is the yellow crest that arises from a patch on the centre of the forehead, and extends horizontally backwards to the nape. The flippers are blue-black on the upper surface with a white trailing edge, and mainly white underneath with a black tip and leading edge. The large, bulbous bill is orange-brown. The iris is red and a patch of pinkish bare skin is found from the base of the bill to the eye. The legs and feet are pink. The male and female are similar in appearance; males tend to be slightly larger. Males also bear relatively larger bills, which average around compared to in females; this feature has been used to tell the sexes apart.


title: Macaroni penguin

text: Immature birds are distinguished by their smaller size, smaller, duller-brown bill, dark grey chin and throat, and absent or underdeveloped head plumes, often just a scattering of yellow feathers. The crest is fully developed in birds aged three to four years, a year or two before breeding age.


title: Macaroni penguin

text: Macaroni penguins moult once a year, a process in which they replace all of their old feathers. They spend around two weeks accumulating fat before moulting because they do not feed during the moult, as they cannot enter the water to forage for food without feathers. The process typically takes three to four weeks, which they spend sitting ashore. Once finished, they go back to sea and return to their colonies to mate in the spring. Overall survival rates are poorly known; the successful return of breeding adults at South Georgia Island varied between 49% and 78% over three years, and around 10% of those that did return did not breed the following year.


title: Macaroni penguin

text: A 1993 review estimated that the macaroni was the most abundant species of penguin, with a minimum of 11,841,600 pairs worldwide. Macaroni penguins range from the Subantarctic to the Antarctic Peninsula; at least 216 breeding colonies at 50 sites have been recorded. In South America, macaroni penguins are found in southern Chile, the Falkland Islands, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, and South Orkney Islands. They also occupy much of Antarctica and the Antarctic Peninsula, including the northern South Shetland Islands, Bouvet Island, the Prince Edward and Marion islands, the Crozet Islands, the Kerguelen Islands, and the Heard and McDonald Islands. While foraging for food, groups will range north to the islands off Australia, New Zealand, southern Brazil, Tristan da Cunha, and South Africa.


title: Macaroni penguin

text: The diet of the macaroni penguin consists of a variety of crustaceans, squid and fish; the proportions that each makes up vary with locality and season. Krill, particularly Antarctic krill ("Euphausia superba"), account for over 90% of food during breeding season. Cephalopods and small fish such as the marbled rockcod ("Notothenia rossii"), painted notie ("Lepidonotothen larseni"), "Champsocephalus gunneri", the lanternfish species "Krefftichthys anderssoni", "Protomyctophum tenisoni" and "P. normani" become more important during chick-rearing. Like several other penguin species, the macaroni penguin sometimes deliberately swallows small (10– to 30-mm-diameter) stones; this behaviour has been speculated to aid in providing ballast for deep-sea diving, or to help grind food, especially the exoskeletons of crustaceans which are a significant part of its diet.


title: Macaroni penguin

text: Foraging for food is generally conducted on a daily basis, from dawn to dusk when they have chicks to feed. Overnight trips are sometimes made, especially as the chicks grow older; a 2008 study that used surgically implanted data loggers to track the movement of the birds showed the foraging trips become longer once the chick-rearing period is over. Birds venture out for 10–20 days during incubation and before the moult. Macaroni penguins are known to be the largest single consumer of marine resources among all of the seabirds, with an estimated take of 9.2 million tonnes of krill a year. Outside the breeding season, macaroni penguins tend to dive deeper, longer, and more efficiently during their winter migration than during the summer breeding season. Year round, foraging dives usually occur during daylight hours, but winter dives are more constrained by daylight due to the shorter days.


title: Macaroni penguin

text: Foraging distance from colonies has been measured at around at South Georgia, offshore over the continental shelf, and anywhere from at Marion Island. Macaroni penguins normally forage at depths of , but have been recorded diving down to on occasions. Some night foraging does occur, but these dives are much shallower, ranging from only in depth. Dives rarely exceed two minutes in duration. All dives are V-shaped, and no time is spent at the sea bottom; about half the time on a foraging trip is spent diving. Birds have been calculated as catching from 4 to 16 krill or 40 to 50 amphipods per dive.


title: Macaroni penguin

text: The macaroni penguin's predators consist of birds and aquatic mammals. The leopard seal ("Hydrurga leptonyx"), Antarctic fur seal ("Arctocephalus gazella"), Subantarctic fur seal ("A. tropicalis"), and killer whale ("Orcinus orca") hunt adult macaroni penguins in the water. Macaroni colonies suffer comparatively low rates of predation if undisturbed; predators generally only take eggs and chicks that have been left unattended or abandoned. Skua species, the snowy sheathbill "(Chionis alba"), and kelp gull ("Larus dominicanus") prey on eggs, and skuas and giant petrels also take chicks and sick or injured adult birds.


title: Macaroni penguin

text: Like most other penguin species, the macaroni penguin is a social animal in its nesting and its foraging behaviour; its breeding colonies are among the largest and most densely populated. Scientist Charles Andre Bost found that macaroni penguins nesting at Kerguelen dispersed eastwards over an area exceeding 3×10 km. Fitted with geolocation sensors, the 12 penguins studied travelled over during the six- to seven-month study period and spent their time largely within a zone 47–49°S and 70–110°E in the central Indian Ocean, not coming ashore once. This area, known as the Polar Frontal Zone, was notable for the absence of krill.


title: Macaroni penguin

text: Living in colonies results in a high level of social interaction between birds, which has led to a large repertoire of visual, as well as vocal, displays. These behaviours peak early in the breeding period, and colonies particularly quieten when the male macaroni penguins are at sea. Agonistic displays are those which are intended to confront or drive off or, alternatively, appease and avoid conflict with other individuals. Macaroni penguins, particularly those on adjacent nests, may engage in 'bill-jousting'; birds lock bills and wrestle, each trying to unseat the other, as well as batter with flippers and peck or strike its opponent's nape. Submissive displays include the 'slender walk', where birds move through the colony with feathers flattened, flippers moved to the front of the body, and head and neck hunched, and general hunching of head and neck when incubating or standing at the nest.


title: Macaroni penguin

text: Female macaroni penguins can begin breeding at around five years of age, while the males do not normally breed until at least six years old. Females breed at a younger age because the male population is larger. The surplus of male penguins allows the female penguins to select more experienced male partners as soon as the females are physically able to breed. Commencing a few days after females arrive at the colony, sexual displays are used by males to attract partners and advertise their territory, and by pairs once together at the nest site and at changeover of incubation shifts. In the 'ecstatic display', a penguin bows forward, making loud throbbing sounds, and then extends its head and neck up until its neck and beak are vertical. The bird then waves its head from side to side, braying loudly. Birds also engage in mutual bowing, trumpeting, and preening. Monitoring of pair fidelity at South Georgia has shown around three-quarters of pairs will breed together again the following year.


title: Macaroni penguin

text: Adult macaroni penguins typically begin to breed late in October, and lay their eggs in early November. The nest itself is a shallow scrape in the ground which may be lined with some pebbles, stones, or grass, or nestled in a clump of tussock grass (on South Georgia Island). Nests are densely packed, ranging from around 66 cm apart in the middle of a colony to 86 cm at the edges. A fertile macaroni penguin will lay two eggs each breeding season. The first egg to be laid weighs , 61–64% the size of the second, and is extremely unlikely to survive. The two eggs together weigh 4.8% of the mother's body weight; the composition of an egg is 20% yolk, 66% albumen, and 14% shell. Like those of other penguin species, the shell is relatively thick to minimise risk of breakage, and the yolk is large, which is associated with chicks born in an advanced stage of development. Some of the yolk remains at hatching and is consumed by the chick in its first few days.


title: Macaroni penguin

text: The fate of the first egg is mostly unknown, but studies on the related royal penguin and erect-crested penguin show the female tips the egg out when the larger second egg is laid. The task of incubating the egg is divided into three roughly equal sessions of around 12 days each over a five-week period. The first session is shared by both parents, followed by the male returning to sea, leaving the female alone to tend the egg. Upon the male's return, the female goes off to sea and does not return until the chick has hatched. Both sexes fast for a considerable period during breeding; the male fasts for 37 days after arrival until he returns to sea for around 10 days before fasting while incubating eggs and young for another 36 days, and the female fasts for 42 days from her arrival after the male until late in the incubation period. Both adults lose 36–40% of their body weight during this period. The second egg hatches around 34 days after it is laid. Macaroni penguins typically leave their breeding colony by April or May to disperse into the ocean.


title: Macaroni penguin

text: From the moment the egg is hatched, the male macaroni penguin cares for the newly hatched chick. For about 23 to 25 days, the male protects its offspring and helps to keep it warm, since only a few of its feathers have grown in by this time. The female brings food to the chick every one to two days. When they are not being protected by the adult male penguins, the chicks form "crèches" to keep warm and stay protected. Once their adult feathers have grown in at about 60 to 70 days, they are ready to go out to sea on their own.


title: Macaroni penguin

text: The population of macaroni penguins is estimated at around 18 million mature individuals; a substantial decline has been recorded in several locations. This includes a 50% reduction in the South Georgia population between the mid-1970s to mid-1990s, and the disappearance of the species from Isla Recalada in Southern Chile. This decline of the overall population in the last 30 years has resulted in the classification of the species as globally Vulnerable by the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Long-term monitoring programs are underway at a number of breeding colonies, and many of the islands that support breeding populations of this penguin are protected reserves. The Heard Islands and McDonald Islands are World Heritage Sites for the macaroni penguin. The macaroni penguin may be being impacted by commercial fishing and marine pollution. A 2008 study suggests the abilities of female penguins to reproduce may be negatively affected by climate- and fishing-induced reductions in krill density.


title: 2017 New Zealand general election

text: The 2017 New Zealand general election took place on Saturday 23 September 2017 to determine the membership of the 52nd New Zealand Parliament. The previous parliament was elected on 20 September 2014 and was officially dissolved on 22 August 2017. Voters elected 120 members to the House of Representatives under New Zealand's mixed-member proportional (MMP) voting system, a proportional representation system in which 71 members were elected from single-member electorates and 49 members were elected from closed party lists. Around 3.57 million people were registered to vote in the election, with 2.63 million (79.8%) turning out. Advance voting proved popular, with 1.24 million votes cast before election day, more than the previous two elections combined.


title: 2017 New Zealand general election

text: Prior to the election, the centre-right National Party, led by Prime Minister Bill English, had governed since 2008 in a minority government with confidence and supply from the Māori, ACT and United Future parties. It was the first election for English as incumbent Prime Minister, having replaced John Key on 12 December 2016 and the first since 1975 where both major parties had leadership changes. The main opposition parties to the National government were Labour (the official opposition), led by Jacinda Ardern, the Green Party, and New Zealand First.


title: 2017 New Zealand general election

text: The National Party won a plurality of the seats with 56, down from 60 in 2014. Labour made large gains following Jacinda Ardern becoming the party leader seven weeks prior to the election, increasing its representation from 32 to 46 seats. Labour was the only parliamentary party to gain support but a large portion came at the expense of the Green Party, who lost almost half their seats (dropping from 14 to 8) following co-leader Metiria Turei's resignation over self-admitted benefit and electoral fraud. The anti-immigration populist party New Zealand First won 9 seats, down from 12 in 2014. ACT retained its one seat. Election-night counts had National with 58 seats, Labour with 45 seats, and the Greens with 7 seats, but when special votes were counted, National lost one list seat each to the Greens and Labour.


title: 2017 New Zealand general election

text: The election saw five parties return to Parliament, down from seven in 2014 and the lowest number since the introduction of MMP in 1996. Māori Party co-leader Te Ururoa Flavell lost his seat of Waiariki and, with the party's vote count being below the threshold of 5%, they also lost their list MP, co-leader Marama Fox, and departed Parliament. United Future leader and sole MP Peter Dunne retired from politics during the campaign due to poor polling in his electorate of Ōhāriu and his successor failed to win the seat. The party voted to dissolve less than two months later.


title: 2017 New Zealand general election

text: Even with support partner ACT retaining its sole seat, the existing National minority government were short of the 61 seats needed to govern, and Bill English declared that the arrangement would not be continued. New Zealand First's nine seats gave it the balance of power between the National Party and the Labour–Green bloc. On 19 October 2017, New Zealand First leader Winston Peters announced that the party was intending to form a minority coalition government with the Labour Party of 55 seats, with confidence and supply agreement from the Green Party. This is the first Government in New Zealand under MMP where the most popular party is not part of the Government. The election resulted in Ardern becoming New Zealand's third female Prime Minister, and Peters being reappointed Deputy Prime Minister, a role he had first held in 1996–98. This marked an end to nine years under the Fifth National Government, and the beginning of the Sixth Labour Government of New Zealand.


title: 2017 New Zealand general election

text: New Zealand uses the mixed-member proportional (MMP) voting system to elect the 120-member House of Representatives. Each voter gets two votes, one for a political party (the party vote) and one for a local candidate (the electorate vote). Political parties which meet the threshold (5% of the party vote or one electorate seat) receive seats in the House in proportion to the percentage of the party vote they receive. In the 2014 and 2017 elections, 71 of the 120 seats were filled by the MPs elected from the electorates, with the winner in each electorate determined by the by the plurality ("first-past-the-post") method; the remaining 49 seats were filled by candidates from each party's closed party list. If a party wins more electorates than seats it is entitled to under the party vote, an overhang results; in this case, the House will add extra seats to cover the overhang. The 2014 election saw a one-seat overhang where Peter Dunne won the Ōhāriu electorate when his United Future Party was entitled to zero seats under the party vote.


title: 2017 New Zealand general election

text: The majority of members in the House will form a Government. Since it is difficult for any single party to win a majority of seats under MMP, parties must generally negotiate with other parties either to form a majority coalition government or to obtain sufficient confidence and supply to operate as a minority government.


title: 2017 New Zealand general election

text: Electorate boundaries in the 2017 election were the same as at the 2014 election, with 64 general electorates (48 in the North Island and 16 in the South Island), and 7 Māori electorates.


title: 2017 New Zealand general election

text: The Electoral Amendment Act 2017 and the Broadcasting (Election Programmes and Election Advertising) Amendment Act 2017 made a number of changes to the conduct of general elections, including:


title: 2017 New Zealand general election

text: Unless an early election is called or the election date is set to circumvent holding a by-election, a general election is held every three years. The previous election was held on Saturday, 20 September 2014.


title: 2017 New Zealand general election

text: The Governor-General must issue writs for an election within seven days of the expiration or dissolution of the current Parliament. Under section 17 of the Constitution Act 1986, Parliament expires three years "from the day fixed for the return of the writs issued for the last preceding general election of members of the House of Representatives, and no longer." The writs for the 2014 election were returned on 10 October 2014, a day late due to a judicial recount of the Te Tai Tokerau electorate. As a result, the 51st Parliament would have expired, if not dissolved earlier, on Tuesday, 10 October 2017. Consequently, the last day for issuance of writs of election would have been 17 October 2017. The writs must be returned within 50 days of their issuance (save for any judicial recount or death of a candidate), which would have been Wednesday, 6 December 2017. Because polling day must be a Saturday and two weeks is generally required for the counting of special votes, the last possible date for the 2017 general election would have been Saturday, 18 November 2017.


title: 2017 New Zealand general election

text: On 1 February 2017, Prime Minister Bill English announced that the election would be held on Saturday 23 September 2017. This was the first election since 1975 that both major parties, Labour and National, contested under new leadership.


title: 2017 New Zealand general election

text: Political parties registered with the Electoral Commission can contest the general election as a party. To register, parties must have at least 500 financial members, an auditor, and an appropriate party name. A registered party may submit a party list to contest the party vote, and can have a party campaign expenses limit in addition to limits on individual candidates' campaigns. Unregistered parties and independents can contest the electorate vote only.


title: 2017 New Zealand general election

text: Preliminary results were gradually released after polling booths closed at 19:00 (NZST) on 23 September. The preliminary count only includes advance ordinary and election day ordinary votes; it does not include any special votes. Special votes include votes from those who enrolled after the deadline of 23 August, those who voted outside their electorate (this includes all overseas votes), hospital votes, and those voters enrolled on the unpublished roll.


title: 2017 New Zealand general election

text: All voting papers, counterfoils and electoral rolls are returned to the electorate's returning officer for a mandatory recount; this also includes approving and counting any special votes, and compiling a master roll to ensure no voter has voted more than once. Official results, including all recounted ordinary votes and special votes, were released by the Electoral Commission on Saturday 7 October 2017.


title: 2017 New Zealand general election

text: Parties and candidates have three working days after the release of the official results to apply for a judicial recount. These recounts take place under the auspices of a District Court judge (the Chief District Court Judge in case of a nationwide recount), and may delay the return of the election writ by a few days.


title: 2017 New Zealand general election

text: Prior to the election, the National Party held the majority of the electorate seats with 40. Labour held 27 seats, and NZ First, ACT, and United Future held one seat each. Between the 2014 and 2017 elections, one seat changed allegiance: in the 2015 Northland by-election, NZ First leader Winston Peters won the seat off National, after MP Mike Sabin resigned.


title: 2017 New Zealand general election

text: Fifty-five electorates saw the incumbent MP re-elected, while another 11 saw a new MP elected from the same party as the retiring incumbent.


title: 2017 New Zealand general election

text: In three electorates, the incumbent MP was defeated. Labour candidate and lawyer Duncan Webb claimed Christchurch Central off National MP Nicky Wagner; Labour previously held the electorate continuously from its formation in 1946 until Wagner won it in 2011. After National lost Northland to NZ First leader Winston Peters in 2015, candidate Matt King claimed the electorate back for National from Peters. Labour candidate and former television presenter Tāmati Coffey claimed Waiariki off Māori Party MP Te Ururoa Flavell; Flavell's defeat saw the Māori Party without an electorate seat and with the party polling below 5% in the party vote, saw the party voted out of Parliament. Coffey's win also saw Labour claim a clean sweep of the Māori electorates for the first time since the 2002 election.


title: 2017 New Zealand general election

text: In Hutt South, National list MP Chris Bishop claimed the electorate from Labour – the first time the electorate has swung since its creation in 1996. Contributing to the swing was the 2014 boundary changes which saw the Labour-leaning suburb of Naenae swapped for the National-leaning western hill suburbs of Lower Hutt, and long standing Labour MP Trevor Mallard standing down at the election to contest the party list only. In Ōhāriu, incumbent United Future MP Peter Dunne stepped down after holding the electorate in various incarnations since 1984. Labour candidate and former police officer Greg O'Connor subsequently claimed the electorate.


title: 2017 New Zealand general election

text: Overall, National gained one electorate to hold 41, Labour gained two electorates to hold 29, while ACT retained its one electorate seat.


title: 2017 New Zealand general election

text: Hamilton West was considered to be New Zealand's bellwether seat. Since the formation of the electorate in 1969, the winning candidate was from the party that went on to form the government, with the exception of 1993 when it elected a Labour MP while National went on to form the government (albeit with a one-seat majority). Hamilton West, Maungakiekie and Rotorua were also regarded as bellwethers in the MMP era, swinging with the government at every election since 1996. All three electorates in the 2017 election were won by National candidates.


title: 2017 New Zealand general election

text: Two former MPs (Shane Jones and Willie Jackson) and 31 first-time MPs were elected to the 52nd Parliament, joining 87 incumbents from the 51st Parliament.


title: 2017 New Zealand general election

text: Following the retirement of Peter Dunne, Bill English (National, list) became the new Father of the House, having served as an MP continuously since 1990. While both Winston Peters and Trevor Mallard have served longer than English, their tenures have been non-continuous.


title: 2017 New Zealand general election

text: 23-year-old Chlöe Swarbrick (Green, list) became the new Baby of the House. She was the youngest MP to be elected to Parliament since the election of the 23-year-old Marilyn Waring in 1975.


title: 2017 New Zealand general election

text: Golriz Ghahraman (Green, list) became the first former refugee to be elected to the New Zealand Parliament.


title: 2017 New Zealand general election

text: Preliminary election results gave National 58 seats, Labour 45, New Zealand First 9, Green 7, and ACT 1, leaving no party or obvious coalition able to command a parliamentary majority of 61 seats. Final results saw the National Party lose two further seats, one each to Labour and the Greens, confirming New Zealand First as the election's kingmaker. Both the National and Labour parties outlined planned negotiations with New Zealand First in the hope of forming a government. A National–NZ First coalition would hold 65 seats, while a Labour–NZ First coalition would also need the support of the Green Party to form a majority government with 63 seats. National Party leader Bill English ruled out a formal governing arrangement with the ACT Party's sole MP David Seymour, though such an agreement existed following the 2014 election.


title: 2017 New Zealand general election

text: New Zealand First has held the balance of power in previous parliaments and its leader has served in several ministries. Following the 1996 election, the party joined a coalition government with National with Peters as Deputy Prime Minister and Treasurer, an agreement that ended when Peters was sacked from Cabinet in August 1998. Following the 2005 election, NZ First entered into a confidence and supply agreement with the minority Labour government that also saw Peters appointed as Foreign Minister but not as a member of the Cabinet.


title: 2017 New Zealand general election

text: Shaw announced the Greens' negotiation team of himself, MP Eugenie Sage, acting chief of staff Tory Whanau, Green co-convenor Debs Martin and campaign staffer Andrew Campbell on 26 September. Labour's negotiators were led by leader Ardern and deputy leader Davis.


title: 2017 New Zealand general election

text: Negotiations concluded on 12 October, with "extensive dossiers" provided to NZ First from both Labour and National. The NZ First Board met alongside the parliamentary caucus on 16 October to begin the process of formally choosing a coalition partner.


title: 2017 New Zealand general election

text: On 19 October, NZ First announced the formation of a minority coalition government with Labour. As part of the agreement, NZ First received four ministerial positions inside Cabinet and one parliamentary under-secretary position. Winston Peters also accepted an offer of the role of Deputy Prime Minister.


title: 2017 New Zealand general election

text: The Greens received three ministerial positions outside Cabinet and one parliamentary under-secretary position as a result of a confidence and supply agreement reached between them and Labour.


title: 2017 New Zealand general election

text: On 20 October 2017, the names of Labour's 16 Cabinet ministers were announced as Jacinda Ardern, David Clark, Clare Curran, Kelvin Davis, Chris Hipkins, Iain Lees-Galloway, Andrew Little, Nanaia Mahuta, Stuart Nash, Damien O'Connor, David Parker, Grant Robertson, Jenny Salesa, Carmel Sepuloni, Phil Twyford, and Megan Woods. The Labour ministers outside cabinet were Kris Faafoi, Peeni Henare, Willie Jackson, William Sio, and Meka Whaitiri.


title: 2017 New Zealand general election

text: The Green Party announced on 21 October its three ministers outside cabinet and one parliamentary under-secretary slots as James Shaw, Julie Anne Genter, Jan Logie and Eugenie Sage.


title: 2017 New Zealand general election

text: The final ministers to be named were from New Zealand First. On 25 October, it was announced that Ron Mark, Tracey Martin and Shane Jones would join the Cabinet, with Fletcher Tabuteau as a parliamentary under-secretary.


title: 2017 New Zealand general election

text: During the three-month regulated period prior to election day (i.e. 23 June to 22 September 2017), parties and candidates have limits on how much they may spend on election campaigning. It is illegal in New Zealand to campaign on election day itself.


title: 2017 New Zealand general election

text: For the 2017 election, every registered party contending the party vote is permitted to spend $1,115,000 plus $26,200 per electorate candidate on election campaigning during the regulated period, excluding radio and television campaigning (broadcasting funding is allocated separately). A party contesting all 71 electorates is therefore permitted to spend $2,975,200 on election campaigning. All electorate candidates are permitted to spend $26,200 each on campaigning over and above their party's allocation.


title: 2017 New Zealand general election

text: Registered parties are allocated a separate broadcasting budget for radio and television campaigning. Only money from the broadcasting allocation can be used to purchase airtime; the actual production costs of advertisements can come from the general election expenses budget. The Electoral Commission sets the amount of broadcasting funds each party gets; generally the allocation is based on the number of seats in the current Parliament, previous election results, and support in opinion polls. The initial broadcasting allocation was released on 26 May 2017. The broadcasting allocation was revised on 23 August 2017, redistributing funds from parties that failed to register in time for the election.


title: 2017 New Zealand general election

text: Third party promoters, such as trade unions and lobby groups, can campaign during the regulated period. The maximum expense limit is $315,000 for those promoters registered with the Electoral Commission, and $12,600 for unregistered promoters. , the following third party promoters were registered:


title: 2017 New Zealand general election

text: In a January 2017 poll conducted by Roy Morgan Research, 26 percent of respondents named housing supply and affordability as the most important issue facing New Zealand, while another 17 percent named poverty and income inequality.


title: 2017 New Zealand general election

text: On 27 August 2017, National pledged a $379 million education package. New "digital academies" focused on IT training and similar to existing trades academies, would be introduced for 1,000 year-12 and 13 students at a cost of $48 million. There would also be investments of $126 million to improve maths achievements for primary school students and $160 million to give all primary school students the opportunity to learn a second language if they wished. There would be an expansion of the National Standards scheme that would allow parents to check the progress of their child via their mobile phone.


title: 2017 New Zealand general election

text: Labour leader Jacinda Ardern announced on 14 August 2017 that the party had reinstated a 2015 pledge to assist school students to learn to drive and budget. Five driving lessons and the fees for the licence test would be free, and students would be taught life skills and budgeting. On 29 August, Ardern announced that Labour would implement its 2016 policy of three years free tertiary education, starting with one year in 2018 and expanding to two years in 2021 and three years in 2024. She also announced a $50 per week increase in the student allowance and student loan living costs.


title: 2017 New Zealand general election

text: The ACT party continued to support partnership (charter) schools, with intentions to allow state schools to convert into partnership schools. ACT leader David Seymour said on 2 September 2017 that the party would give schools $975 million more, so long as they abandon nationally negotiated union contracts. Schools would be funded $93,000 per teacher in a bulk funding arrangement and would be free to allocate the grant how they wanted, with principals able to decide how much to pay individual teachers. Teachers' pay would be boosted by $20,000 on average, and the payments would reward good teachers and attract "our brightest graduates" to careers in teaching.


title: 2017 New Zealand general election

text: According to Quotable Value, residential house prices across New Zealand increased 34.2% between June 2014 and June 2017, from an average of $476,000 to an average of $639,000. In the Auckland metro area, the increase was 45.5% in the same period, from $718,000 to $1,045,000.


title: 2017 New Zealand general election

text: ACT announced its housing policy on 6 August 2017, proposing to scrap the urban rural boundary to free up land for those who want to subdivide and build, claiming that this would create room for 600,000 possible houses.


title: 2017 New Zealand general election

text: Green Party leader James Shaw reaffirmed on 22 August the party's intention to introduce a capital gains tax, saying that it was "a priority" for the party and a measure "we want to see addressed in a first term of a new government." Shaw said the fact that New Zealand was one of the only countries in the developed world without a consistent capital gains tax had helped fuel inequality between "those who don't own a home and those who now own ten".


title: 2017 New Zealand general election

text: Labour's flagship housing policy was the KiwiBuild scheme, which would aim to build 100,000 homes over 10 years. Labour announced on 3 September it would extend the landlords' termination notice period to 90 days (from 42 days), abolish termination without cause, and limit rent increases to once every 12 months (from 6 months). This was in addition to previously announced policies of extending the "bright-line test" for taxing capital gains on residential properties from two years to five years, and abolishing negative gearing on investment properties.


title: 2017 New Zealand general election

text: According to Statistics New Zealand estimates, New Zealand's net migration (long-term arrivals minus long-term departures) in the June 2016/17 year was 72,300. That was up from 38,300 in the June 2013/14 year. Of those migrants specifying a region of settlement, 61 percent settled in the Auckland region.


title: 2017 New Zealand general election

text: Labour promised to reduce net immigration by about 20–30,000 annually, partly by reducing the number of students enrolled in "low value" courses that were susceptible to being used as a subterfuge for immigration. The party said it would introduce a stricter test regime to ensure employers seek to hire New Zealanders before recruiting overseas applicants, and would require skilled migrants to stay and work in the region their visa was issued for.


title: 2017 New Zealand general election

text: National planned to count migrants as "skilled" only if the job they were coming to paid more than about $49,000 a year, but the plan was opposed by employers who said their businesses would be put at risk by the blocking of foreign workers. Immigrants only needed to be paid over $41,859 a year – resulting in about 6000 more workers being able to stay in the country longer. Those earning less would be considered low-skilled and can stay in the country for a maximum of three years, after which a stand-down period applies before they can apply to come back. National planned to introduce legislation in 2018 that would raise the residency requirements for superannuation from 10 to 20 years.


title: 2017 New Zealand general election

text: NZ First leader Winston Peters vowed to reduce net immigration to around 10,000 per year. Peters said that unemployed New Zealanders would be trained to take jobs as the number was reduced, and the number of older immigrants would be limited, with more bonded to the regions.


title: 2017 New Zealand general election

text: The Green Party proposed that migration should be capped to 1 per cent of population growth, but later abandoned that policy due to the perception that the Greens were pandering to anti-immigrant rhetoric.


title: 2017 New Zealand general election

text: ACT had "long opposed populist attacks on immigrants", according to David Seymour. ACT wanted immigrants to "demonstrate they've earned above the average wage in their field" to get residency, and it would put an end to foreigners leaving their kids in New Zealand while paying taxes overseas by implementing an "infrastructure charge" of $10 per day for a maximum of a year for all migrants.


title: 2017 New Zealand general election

text: The Opportunities Party (TOP) wanted a change so that immigration would not be driven by student visas or reciprocal visitor working visas. The party also wanted to abandon the requirement for highly-skilled migrants to have a job to come to.


title: 2017 New Zealand general election

text: National Party leader and Prime Minister Bill English announced on 6 August 2017 that there would be a $267 million investment in Auckland and Wellington commuter rail, which would include (in Auckland) electrification of the line between Papakura and Pukekohe, a third line between Westfield and Wiri, and (in Wellington) double-tracking the line between Trentham and Upper Hutt, and several other improvements.


title: 2017 New Zealand general election

text: Labour announced on 6 August 2017 that it would accelerate the building of a proposed light rail system between Auckland CBD and Auckland Airport so that it would be completed within a decade. The plan is part of Labour's wider transport improvements that would include a light rail link to West Auckland, an eventual extension of light rail to the North Shore, a bus network between Howick and the airport, electrification from Papakura to Pukekohe, a third main line between Westfield and Papakura, and other rail and road improvements. On 21 August 2017, the party's leader Jacinda Ardern announced a $20 million plan for a passenger rail service linking Auckland, Hamilton and Tauranga. She said that the region would grow by 800,000 people in the next 25 years, and that rail was historically a fundamental travel mode and it was time that it was again.


title: 2017 New Zealand general election

text: The Green Party announced on 17 August 2017 that it would introduce a passenger rail service between Auckland, Hamilton and Tauranga on a trial basis from 2019. The party had previously said that its policy was to complete the electrification of the rail network between Auckland and Hamilton and extend electrification to Tauranga. On 25 August 2017, Green party plans for a light rail line between Wellington railway station and Wellington Airport via Newtown were announced. The party would establish the line by 2027, and it could form the spine of an extended network north to Epuni via central Lower Hutt and south to Island Bay.


title: 2017 New Zealand general election

text: During the leaders' debate held on 4 September 2017, National leader Bill English committed his party to a target to bring 100,000 children out of poverty within the next term. The National party policy was mainly built around their Families Package, due to be introduced in April 2018, which English said would bring 50,000 children out of poverty. They would increase the tax credits for 310,000 families who receive Working for Families, and the abatement level for the tax credits would decrease from $36,350 to $35,000.


title: 2017 New Zealand general election

text: At the same debate Labour leader Jacinda Ardern committed to changing the law to require that every government budget update would have to include a measurement of child poverty. Labour promised to extend Working for Families to another 30,000 families, by raising the abatement threshold and increasing the tax credits. They introduced the Best Start package that would give $60 a week for each child in their first year and extend paid parental leave to 26 weeks.


title: 2017 New Zealand general election

text: On 16 July 2017, the Green Party announced at their AGM that they would increase all benefits by 20% and remove all penalties and excessive sanctions to those on the benefit, looking to change the “punitive culture” at MSD. They would boost the Working for Families package and raise the minimum wage to $17.75.


title: 2017 New Zealand general election

text: The Māori Party set a target to eliminate all poverty by 2025, introducing a living wage for all workers and making cost of living adjustments to all benefits. The party promised to increase support to grandparents raising grandchildren and expand Whānau Ora.


title: 2017 New Zealand general election

text: TOP proposed an introduction of a universal basic income of $200 a week to all families with children under 3 (or under 6 if adopted), which would replace paid maternity leave. Low income families regardless of employment would get $72 a week and free child care.


title: 2017 New Zealand general election

text: ACT campaigned on implementing lifetime limits of five years for the sole parent benefit and three years for the jobseeker benefit. They proposed cutting Working for Families and paid parental leave for upper income earners. On 12 July 2017, ACT deputy leader Beth Houlbrooke made a Facebook post criticising Labour's Best Start package, stating "The fact is, parents who cannot afford to have children should not be having them. ACT believes in personal responsibility, meaning we stand with the majority of parents who wait and save before having children."


title: 2017 New Zealand general election

text: National was campaigning for a fourth term in government. If successful, it would have been the first four-term government since the Second National Government (1960–72), and the first four-term government under MMP. National revealed the design of its first tranche of party hoardings in early July, featuring leader Bill English and the slogan "Delivering for New Zealanders".


title: 2017 New Zealand general election

text: On 20 August 2017, English announced that the government, if re-elected, planned to build ten new "Roads of National Significance" at a cost of $10.5 billion. Four-laning the Hawke's Bay Expressway, a solution for the Manawatu Gorge road (closed after rock falls in April 2017 and a long history of such falls), and a highway from Wellsford to Whangarei were included.


title: 2017 New Zealand general election

text: The party announced on 13 August 2017 that it would create a new bootcamp for youth offenders at the Waiouru Military Camp. English said that there were about 150 "very serious young offenders". The justice minister said that a new Young Serious Offender (YSO) classification would be established for the group.


title: 2017 New Zealand general election

text: Prime Minister Bill English and Health Minister Jonathan Coleman announced on 19 August 2017 that a new hospital costing more than $1.2 billion would be built to replace Dunedin Hospital, rather than refurbishing the existing building. It would be expected to open in 7–10 years. On 21 August, English and Coleman announced a pledge that 600,000 low income people would have access to $18 doctors' visits. The Community Services Card would also be expanded to an additional 350,000 people with low incomes and high housing costs.


title: 2017 New Zealand general election

text: The party's infrastructure spokesman Steven Joyce announced on 2 September 2017 that a National Infrastructure Commission would be set up to help expand and oversee public–private partnerships (PPPs). The commission would supervise large infrastructure projects, such as the building of new schools, roads, and hospitals, which would be built as PPPs. It was likely that the first project would be the $50 million rebuild of Whangarei Boys' High School, but several other large projects totalling several billion dollars were also being considered.


title: 2017 New Zealand general election

text: Labour announced it would reverse the tax cuts included in the 2017 Budget and instead increase Working for Families rates and introduce a new benefit for families with children under 3 years old. It also would introduce a winter heating supplement for people on superannuation and benefits.


title: 2017 New Zealand general election

text: On 1 August 2017, party leader Andrew Little resigned on the back of poor opinion polling performance. Deputy leader Jacinda Ardern was unanimously elected leader by the party caucus, while Kelvin Davis was unanimously elected deputy leader to replace Ardern. The leadership change saw a large boost in the Labour Party's support – the party had received $250,000 in donations and signed up 1000 volunteers within 24 hours of the leadership change, according to party secretary Andrew Kirton.


title: 2017 New Zealand general election

text: The design for Labour's first tranche of party hoardings was released in early July, featuring both Little and Ardern with the slogan "A fresh approach". After the change of leadership, the new hoardings solely featured Ardern with the new slogan "Let's do this".


title: 2017 New Zealand general election

text: On 26 August, Ardern announced a plan to cut fees for visits to doctors. Community Services Card holders would be charged $8 for a visit to a doctor, teenagers would be charged $2, and under–13s would still pay nothing. The cost for an average adult would fall from $42 to $32.


title: 2017 New Zealand general election

text: Labour's finance spokesman Grant Robertson announced on 14 September 2017, nine days before the election, that there would be "no new taxes or levies" until after the 2020 election. Any changes arising from its tax working group would not take effect until 2021. Robertson's announcement reversed the position taken by leader Jacinda Ardern who had reserved the right to implement changes before obtaining a mandate at the 2020 election, and came as a Newshub-Reid Research poll showed National rising at the expense of Labour. Labour had gone into the previous two general elections with a capital gains tax policy.


title: 2017 New Zealand general election

text: The Green Party launched its election campaign on 9 July in Nelson. Bryce Edwards writing for "The New Zealand Herald" claimed the party's policies announced in the run up to the election showed that: "After years of watering down policies and desperately trying to make themselves more respectable to the mainstream, they have made an abrupt shift to the left". One of the major announcements was the party's new radical welfare reform proposals. Social policy academic and welfare campaigner Susan St John gave the social welfare reforms a "definite thumbs up", pointing to two "breathtakingly bold policies" within the reforms. These two aspects included in the reforms were, one: "sole parents to keep their sole parent support when they attempt to repartner. She is the one to say, not WINZ [Work and Income New Zealand], when she is in a partnership in the nature of marriage". A second aspect would be to make "the In–Work Tax Credit available to all low income families".


title: 2017 New Zealand general election

text: The party also announced as part of its 'Families Package' it would lower the bottom rate of tax to 9%, introduce a new top rate of tax of 40% on those with an income over $150,000 and increase all core benefits by 20%.


title: 2017 New Zealand general election

text: Another policy announced by the party was the proposed introduction of an interim $0.10 per litre excise levy on bottled water. This would be in place until "a proposed working party helped develop a system to charge all commercial water users 'a fair amount'".


title: 2017 New Zealand general election

text: On 16 July 2017, co-leader Metiria Turei publicly admitted that she had not disclosed to Work and Income New Zealand that she was accepting rent from flatmates while on the Domestic Purposes Benefit in the early 1990s, and admitted on 3 August 2017 that she had registered a false residential address to vote for a friend who was running in the Mount Albert electorate in 1993. On 7 August 2017, MPs David Clendon and Kennedy Graham announced that they planned to resign as Green Party candidates for the 2017 election, due to Turei's revelations and her handling of the resulting situation. Both Clendon and Graham resigned from the party caucus the following day, after the party made moves to remove them involuntarily.


title: 2017 New Zealand general election

text: On 9 August 2017, Turei resigned as co-leader and as a list candidate for the 2017 election, saying that the "scrutiny on [her] family has become unbearable". She campaigned in the Te Tai Tonga Māori electorate, and retired from Parliament at the election. Per their constitution, the Green Party will choose a replacement co-leader at the next annual general meeting in 2018, leaving James Shaw as the sole party leader through the election campaign.


title: 2017 New Zealand general election

text: On 21 August 2017, the party promised free public transport for students and those aged under 19, to be achieved by means of a "green card". Green Party transport spokeswoman Julie Anne Genter said the cost of the card would be $70–80 million.


title: 2017 New Zealand general election

text: The party announced plans on 2 September 2017 to counter pollution by introducing a tax on farmers of $2 per kilogram of nitrate (fertiliser), which it said would raise about $136 million per year. The party would also distribute funds and allow concessions to the agricultural sector in response to declining water quality.


title: 2017 New Zealand general election

text: Leader James Shaw said on 17 September 2017 that the party wanted a capital gains tax, exclusive of the family home, to be implemented in the first year after the election, if Labour and the Greens formed a coalition government. Labour had already said that if it became the government, any capital gains tax recommendations made by its tax working group would not be implemented until after the 2020 election.


title: 2017 New Zealand general election

text: New Zealand First launched its campaign in Palmerston North on 25 June 2017. Announced policies included ring-fencing GST to the regions it is collected from, writing off student loans of people willing to work outside major centres, cutting net immigration to 10,000 per year, retaining the superannuation age at 65, and holding two binding referendums on whether Māori electorates should be abolished and whether the number of MPs should be reduced to 100.


title: 2017 New Zealand general election

text: New Zealand First also campaigned on increasing the minimum wage to $17. They would later increase it to $20.


title: 2017 New Zealand general election

text: On 31 August 2017, party leader Winston Peters announced a policy of relocating the Port of Auckland to Marsden Point by 2027. Peters had vowed in July that a Northport rail connection to Marsden Point at a cost of up to $1 billion was non-negotiable in any post–election coalition between NZ First and either National or Labour.


title: 2017 New Zealand general election

text: The Māori Party election campaign focused on protecting indigenous rights by providing an independent voice for Māori. The party's whānau based policies focuses on obtaining affordable housing to help Māori in low-wage jobs, strengthening employment-support for Māori beneficiaries and making Te Reo Māori and Māori history core curriculum subjects in all schools up to year 10.


title: 2017 New Zealand general election

text: The party's policies on rangatiratanga focused on combating climate change in the Pacific to alleviate environmental destruction of our neighbouring Pacific nation and scholarships for Māori and Pasifika students to strengthen recruitment and retention of these students in tertiary institutions.


title: 2017 New Zealand general election

text: The party's policies on kāwanatanga focused on protecting freshwater as tāonga and growing iwi economic resources. They released a policy for a new rail scheme called IwiRail which they said would open up the regions to freight and tourism. Since the 2008 general election, the party provided parliamentary support to the Fifth National Government.


title: 2017 New Zealand general election

text: In previous elections their policies included improving public transport with fewer emissions, giving tax breaks to lower income earners, taking GST off food products, and banning the use of controversial 1080 poison.


title: 2017 New Zealand general election

text: Since the 2008 general election, the party provided parliamentary support to the Fifth National Government.


title: 2017 New Zealand general election

text: ACT announced policies including tax cuts, with the top personal tax bracket reducing from 33% to 25%, and raising the age of superannuation from 65 to 67 gradually every 2 months starting in 2020.


title: 2017 New Zealand general election

text: In taxation, the party proposed to deem a minimum rate of return for all assets (including housing, land and business assets) and charge a tax on it. At the same time, reduce income tax rates so that the total tax take would remain unchanged. The changes would be done gradually to ensure house prices remain stable while incomes grow. The party considered the existing tax regime to favour owners of capital and to over-tax wage earners, to favour home-owners and to disadvantage those who rent their home, and to encourage investment in real estate rather than productive businesses.


title: 2017 New Zealand general election

text: They would tighten immigration laws and shift the focus to attracting highly skilled migrants. Criteria for immigrants would involve demonstrating they can help improve the living standards of all New Zealanders, limiting net immigration to 1% population growth per annum (i.e. 47,900 based on June 2017 population), and making access to permanent residency harder and longer.


title: 2017 New Zealand general election

text: The party's founder, Gareth Morgan, announced plans to almost halve the number of prison inmates by 2027. Morgan said "New Zealand has some of the world's worst and most outdated criminal justice policies", and to reduce the prison population by 40%, the party wanted to scrap the 'three strikes' law, extend eligibility for the Youth Court to offenders under 20, and increase funding for restorative justice.


title: 2017 New Zealand general election

text: On 21 August 2017, United Future leader and sole MP Peter Dunne announced that he was quitting politics at the election, citing recent polling and his perception that there was a mood for change in his seat of Ōhāriu. United Future's candidate for the Botany electorate took over as leader shortly after, promising to move his party towards Labour because of its stance on social issues.


title: 2017 New Zealand general election

text: Television New Zealand (TVNZ) hosted three television leaders' debates; two between the National and Labour leaders, and one where the leaders of the secondary and minor parties were also invited. The two National-Labour debates were to be moderated by Newstalk ZB and "Seven Sharp" host Mike Hosking. Hosking withdrew from moderating the multi-party debate due to illness; the debate was instead moderated by "1 News" political editor Corin Dann. It also hosted an online debate focusing on young voters and youth issues, moderated by "Breakfast" host Jack Tame.


title: 2017 New Zealand general election

text: To be able to participate in their multiparty leaders debate, TVNZ requires a party to have an MP already in parliament, or be polling above 3% in the most recent One News/Colmar Brunton poll. Polling at 1.9%, new party TOP met neither of those criteria. Party leader Gareth Morgan filed an urgent judicial review, arguing that as he was polling higher than ACT, United Future and the Mãori party (who all fit the criteria by having at least one MP in parliament), his party had a right to be involved in the debates and TOP's exclusion was problematic. The case was heard at the Auckland High Court on 7 September, with the judge ultimately ruling against Morgan.


title: 2017 New Zealand general election

text: Three hosted one television leaders' debate between the National and Labour leaders on 4 September. The debate was moderated by "Newshub" political editor Patrick Gower.


title: 2017 New Zealand general election

text: Fairfax again hosted a debate, the "Stuff" Leaders Debate (formerly called "The Press" Leaders Debate), between the National and Labour leaders on 7 September. It was moderated by Fairfax's South Island editor-in-chief Joanna Norris and "Stuff" political editor Tracy Watkins, and was streamed online.


title: 2017 New Zealand general election

text: Unlike in some other countries, political endorsements in New Zealand by media and people outside the political sphere are rare. The following people and organisations endorsed parties and candidates:


title: 2017 New Zealand general election

text: Opinion polls have been undertaken periodically since the 2014 election, primarily by MediaWorks New Zealand, Roy Morgan Research, and Television New Zealand. The graph on the left below shows the collated results of all polls for parties that polled above the 5% electoral threshold at the 2014 election; the graph on the right shows results for parties that polled between 1% and 4.9%, or won an electorate seat, at the 2014 election.


title: 2017 New Zealand general election

text: Metiria Turei stepped down as co-leader of the Green Party during the campaign period and the party did not elect a replacement before the election. In 2018 she was succeeded by Marama Davidson.


title: 2017 New Zealand general election

text: The following local by-elections were required due to the resignation of an incumbent local body politician following their election to Parliament: