On 17 October, New Zealanders go to the polls to elect their representatives for the next three years. As in every election since I was old enough to vote, I’m faced with a selection of candidates and parties that don’t fully represent me. Those that are strong on one of the policy settings I’m passionate about are diametrically opposed to another. I want social settings that lift up the poor, look after the disabled, protect the vulnerable. None of them promise me that.

It’s a dilemma I’ve resolved in a number of ways over the years. I’ve voted for independent candidates and minor parties. I’ve split my votes, supporting a candidate I believe will work hard to represent the area I live in and giving my party vote to another party. I’ve voted two ticks (electorate and party votes both for the same party).

(New Zealand has mixed member proportional voting. One vote goes for a candidate standing in your electorate; the other for the parties that are registered with the Electoral Commission. Once all the votes are cast, the seats in Parliament are split among the parties according to the percentage of the party vote each gets. The leader of the party or coalition of parties with the most members becomes our prime minister. Since MMP came in, we’ve never had a majority government, and we’ve always had at least five and often more parties with the 5% of the vote they need to get a Parliamentary seat. I lived under a two-party system for half my life, and I can tell you, I don’t want to go back there. MMP rocks.)

Seven principles for a just society

One thing I don’t do is vote on a single issue. My vote is informed by Catholic teaching. All of the teaching. All seven principles, not just one or two that I decide, in my defective wisdom, to be more important.

• Life and Dignity of the human person.
• Solidarity.
• Care for creation.
• Call to family, community and participation.
• Option for the poor and vulnerable.
• Rights and responsibilities.
• Dignity of work and rights of workers.

All of these matter, and I can’t throw out six of them in order to vote for a party that supports only one and trashes the rest. To take one of the most divisive of issues, I believe that the dignity of the human person and a respect for rights and responsibilities means we must give people the choice about decisions around their own health and well-being. I fully support women’s choice, right up to the moment there’s another life in the balance. I want children to be treasured and welcomed, and I’m not prepared to put an artificial boundary on when that cluster of cells become human.

But a simple look at the numbers shows us that things aren’t that simple. Abortions increase under a government that limits abortion access without providing better maternity care, easier access to social support structures, stronger community support for working parents, and all the other things that allow women to make fear-free and independent choices to keep the life they are nurturing within them.  They decrease when a government provides all those things, even if it makes abortion a right.

The same with the other issues. Parties that strongly support care for God’s creation are often anti-family and preference policies that undercut small businesses and therefore communities and workers. Parties that support economic growth because they believe a strong economy will provide for communities and workers often trample of the poor and vulnerable. Indeed, in New Zealand, we’ve seen child poverty and homelessness creep up and up under the party that was in Government for nine years prior to the election in 2017.

Voting is essential, but it isn’t enough

Taking everything into account, I can’t wholeheartedly vote for any party. But I can’t refuse to vote. Voting is an obligation; it is not just my democratic right, it is one of the ways I exercise my responsibilities as a citizen. One of the ways. Another is to continue to advocate, between elections, for the kind of society I believe in; one in which all of the seven principles I believe in underpin every policy decision. I can speak to my friends. I can hassle my Member of Parliament. I can make submissions on legislation. Democracy isn’t just a matter of casting a ballot.

This time around, I’m voting for candidates and parties that promote solidarity; that look to build community and teamwork, and to solve problems collectively. When any one issue is promoted above another, when one segment of society is pitted against another, when people refuse to debate with reason and respect, any hope of achieving a just society breaks down completely.

Be kind, people. Be the person who creates peace and respect. Only then can we change our country for the better.