No ballot box for George

 When it comes to voting, the ignoring the ballot box  is not restricted to first-time voters.

Te Awamutu resident George Martin, will be turning 75 in September.  He reckons he has only voted a couple of times in his life – mainly because his girlfriends asked him nicely.

“Politics has never been my thing, they’ve never helped me,” he said. “To me it’s like a pack of school kids fighting. I reckon 10-year-olds would do a better job than they [politicians] do.”

Unwilling to break the trend, Martin will not be voting again this year and blames the lack of decent candidates.

“Who the hell do you vote for? Nobody worth voting for!”

Martin has been unsurprised by the allegations in Nicky Hager’s book, Dirty Politics and described the actions of the National Party as fairly normal.

“To a certain degree in every election, one accuses the other of something that probably never happened anyway. The only truth I have found off the shoulder is Winston Peters. I’m not really a fan but he’s straight off the cuff, calls a spade a spade, and if you don’t like it you can go and get glorified.”

When considering whether he would want to see more politicians like Peters in Parliament, Martin says he would  like to see fewer filling the Beehive.

“I don’t reckon this country needs 121 bloody politicians. I reckon five could do the job that these 121 are doing. I’ve always reckoned that you need a couple of good solicitors and a couple of good accountants and an unbiased person, like a judge or a minister… ‘cause you got all your other parties like your meat board and fruit board [committees], so why do you need these jokers?”

A painter and decorator by trade, the few times Martin has voted he has hoped for a Labour government.

“I have voted Labour because I’m a labourer. A labourer should vote for them. In my opinion, the labourers that vote for National want their head read.

“[Voting] is a waste of time. Well I don’t work no more so I’m not interested in what they do. As long as I get my pension every fortnight, I have no worries.”

Martin says the only thing that he would vote for would be if a party ended hand-outs, especially to single parents.

“That would solve 100 percent,” he says, “or 90 percent of the problems we’ve got. I would vote for any party that would scrap the dole and make the buggers work. The way they [politicians] run around after the solo parents and the dole bludgers, they try and do a good job but they’re a pack of wankers and you can’t hold that against them.”

He would also like to see youngsters spend time doing military service, as well as more apprentices and fewer safety restrictions around building (including no scaffolding while people are fixing or painting roofs).

Martin said he is lucky his wife of still works which allows them to cover their mortgage and bills.

“Just live to survive, and that’s it!”