There was quite a bit going on this week, so the Prime Minister deferred the dissolution of Parliament to Monday. Not a surprise really. Who could know what else would happen this week?

Almost immediately, leader of the National Party Judith Collins started calling for the date of the election to be moved - November was recommended, or potentially next year. She’s not alone, NZ First's Winston Peters, Act leader David Seymour, and the Maori Party have also called for it to be delayed if Auckland remains in lockdown for much longer.

For practical reasons, the last date we can hold an election this year is November 21^st - this is because the government’s 3-year term expires in mid- October, and once that has happened legally, an election must be held within a certain number of weeks. November 21^st also allows enough time for votes to be counted, and a new government to be put in place before the year ends.

If the Prime Minister chooses next year, and at present, the date of the election is entirely her prerogative, then three-quarters of all MP’s must vote for Parliament to be extended for a 4-year term. It was reported yesterday that this would be National’s preference.

This would also appeal to those who think the three-year term is too short for any government – and there’s something in that. A test run of a four-year term might be interesting, but this hasn’t been done since WW1, and now wouldn’t seem the time for a trial.

Collins believes it’s in the best interest of 5 million people that we have an opportunity to hear what each party plans for New Zealand’s future. And she’s right - we shouldn’t just be able to cast a vote safely, we should, as Claire Trevett wrote in the NZ Herald, be able to cast an “informed vote”.

While Collins might not think the middle of a health and economic crisis is a suitable time to campaign, I say bring it on. Politicians have found it impossible not to politicise Covid 19, and with such an uncertain future ahead of us, I want to know how parties are going to deal with it. And I’d like to know now.

Thanks to our second wave of Covid, many Aucklanders have more time than usual to be cruising political party websites musing on policy.

Oh, that’s right; unless you’re the Greens or Act, there’s little to read – except billboards.

I know the current government is working hard to get us through this second wave – but if their testing and contact tracing systems are as gold standard as they claim, then by the end of this week we should have this cluster under control, and we can start working our way back down through the alert levels, and political parties can get back to their traditional campaign trail.

We can deal with this second wave, and an election, right? We’ve never been more interested in how political parties are going to get us out of this mess.

We have been told since March this is an exceptional time, and exceptional things have been asked of us. Businesses have been told to pivot, to find new ways of working. And the same goes for retailers, schools, exporters – we’ve all adapted.

So why can’t politicians? Why do they have to campaign like it’s the 80’s? In this era of websites, social media, podcasts, video stories, zoom, various media mediums, surely political parties can do what the rest of us have done, pivot and find a way to run a virtual campaign?

They might even find ways to present their policies in more depth, rather than rely on the usual news soundbite filmed by the TV cameras in front of a billboard on the side of the road.

The Electoral Commission is prepped to hold an election if the country is in Level 2 – and they have options too for what may need to change if the worst happens. 

So I hope that the Prime Minister holds the line of the election date – give or take a couple of weeks - and locks us in, and after that we’re out of the politician’s hands. What happens next can be determined by the Electoral Commission rather than moaning.