Tuesday September 26, 2006
By Paula Oliver

National remains neck-and-neck with Labour in the battle for the female vote, with the latest Herald Digi-Poll survey hinting that there has been little fallout yet for Don Brash from his reported affair.

The poll shows National has 42.3 per cent support among females and Labour has 42.7 per cent.

The battle for the female vote is crucial to National’s hopes of getting into Government.

The party enjoys strong support among males, and this is reflected in the latest poll, with National on 49.6 per cent and Labour 33.3 per cent.

The last Herald poll in August had National slightly ahead of Labour in the race for female votes – something the party could not achieve in any of the newspaper’s polls in the lead-up to last year’s election.

One of the potential negative spinoffs for National from publicity about Dr Brash’s alleged affair with businesswoman Diane Foreman was a drop in female support.

But a breakdown of female reaction to the affair story shows an interesting twist.

Asked if the public ought to have been told about Dr Brash’s supposed affair, 76.5 per cent of women said no.

I don’t know how many others are concerned about National’s reaction to gaining women’s support but for myself, I see this attitude showing. “I want to WIN at any cost and I will sacrafice the country’s and it’s people’s best interest to get what I want.”

I am starting to see that Don Brash thinks us females are just plain “stupid.” Are women today so gullable that we would think only of our own sex’s rights and give femenism even more power so that the National Party can power themselves.

And it doesn’t show much for his male image either. Does this man think that he will keep the male’s votes by going to the feminist side?

But just like every major political party in New Zealand is being shown up for, this man is being selfish and we have to realise there are big fish behind these political parties, the one’s that are bribing by paying cash to the party so that they get in and will work with other parties of their choosing. And Don Brash doesn’t care about that either.

Where did all the great “Heroes” and “Heroine’s” go?

Oh, sorry, I didn’t see you there.