PARTY VOTE UNITED FUTURE!

After a life involving family, employment, business, sport and music Pete has turned his consulting, listening and problem resolving skills to politics. He has a fresh people and electorate approach to politics, and offers voters a real choice of a new level of parliamentary representation for Dunedin North.

He has worked in IT before it was called that, as an employee and business owner, and has many contacts in businesses in Dunedin, nationally and internationally through his work as a software consultant.

Pete is well known around the country through his participation in political blogs. On rightish blogs Pete is often labelled a leftie, and on leftish blogs he’s called a rightie, so somewhere in the centre seems about right. His sense of fairness, family, common sense and pragmatism, and a wish for more positive politics, made UnitedFuture a logical choice.

He is enthusiastic about what the people, principles and policies of UnitedFuture can help him deliver to people who want a steady, reliable centre party.

With his family Pete is familiar with issues facing ordinary people:

• His wife is working in tertiary education as a job connection coordinator.
• He helped his mother through the health and hospice system last year when she had cancer.
• He has two step-children and four young grandchildren in working families in Dunedin.
• His son lost his job just after his apprenticeship when F&P closed and now works in Australia.
• Two daughters graduated in Dunedin and went OE to find work and pay off their student loans - one is now ready to return with family when her  husband (Environmental Economist) finds suitable employment here.

Pete has three priority pledges:

- First 100 days, establish public polling in Dunedin to better determine voters’ views on issues that matter to them

- First 100 days, liase with the community to ensure as much as possible is done to contribute to the Green Paper for Vulnerable Children

- First 1000 days, liase with family and child welfare groups in Dunedin.

A new report released by Every Child Counts focuses on the economic and social benefits of investing in the first 1000 days of a child’s life. Pete will invest his time in the first 1000 days to help Dunedin as a city for families.

Pete George will also focus on employment and education, and with UnitedFuture offers Dunedin North a real choice of better, community orientated representation

Top 5 Issues

1. Vote to ensure good government - PARTY VOTE UNITED FUTURE
   
   It's been a difficult few years around the world. New Zealand needs a reliable, moderate government.
   
   UnitedFuture is the logical vote for a sensible coalition partner, with a track record of supporting the government of the day but UnitedFuture gets a few seats will be able to keep the main party moderate and centre-ish.
   
   The sensible vote choice - PARTY VOTE UNITED FUTURE!
2. Vote for better electorate representation
   
   I'm standing for parliament because...
   .... many people (in real life and online) kept saying they were sick of poor behaviour in parliament, they were sick of not being listened to, and they wanted more MPs with a wide range of normal life experience.
   
   I have plenty of normal life experience in family, community, employment and business. I'm good at listening, and I'm good at standing up and speaking up - for you.
   
   ELECTORATE VOTE PETE GEORGE
3. Income Sharing
   
   UnitedFuture believes the tax system should work in the interests of those raising families and it should empower family and community self-sufficiency rather than creating dependency. Income sharing recognises that the spouse or partner who has chosen to work part-time or has opted out of the paid work force in order to raise their children is making a vital contribution to our society.
   
   Income Sharing means that each partner in a relationship caring for children would be taxed on a 50% share of their combined income, resulting in a significant reduction in total income tax paid by the family.
   
   Income sharing recognises the costs of raising a family, and in particular, those situations where one parent is either a full-time carer for their children or works part-time. For tax purposes, the income of both parents is combined and then divided equally, which can mean that they pay less tax since it is levied at a lower rate under our progressive taxation system.
   
   Since the government subsidises childcare for those returning to paid work, it should also acknowledge the contribution of those who have decided to forego their income, in whole or in part, to stay at home with their children.
   
   UnitedFuture has introduced legislation for an income sharing scheme for parents with dependent children up to the age of 18, in addition to Working for Families and other entitlements.
4. Flexible Superannuation
   
   New Zealanders should be able to take superannuation at reduced rates down to 60 or increasingly enhanced rates if they hold off until between 66 and 70, alongside making KiwiSaver compulsory.
   
   Kiwis would then be able to manage their retirement age and lifestyle – choices they currently do not have – and it would be cost neutral with the current scheme.
   
   Each year below 65 that superannuation would be claimed down to 60, would see a small reduction, and each year over 65 up to 70, it would be enhanced.
   
   The final figures used would make it cost-neutral with the superannuation scheme as it stands, with the long term sustainability issue addressed by having compulsory KiwiSaver.
   
   The sustainability arguments around superannuation, and whether it should be 65 or 67, then become redundant.
   
   People can then do their own maths and work out what works best for them based on their lifestyle and aspirations.
   
   It is very simple. Our policy recognises that today people work and stay active for longer – and it is sustainable for New Zealand in the long term when connected to compulsory KiwiSaver, which frankly we need to do as a nation at some point.
   
   Kiwis will have a working, sustainable and secured retirement future and that is what we need to be working towards.
   
   In the meantime, what we propose gives them choice about how they want to shape their lives in retirement and when they want to begin.
5. Outdoor Recreation
   
   UnitedFuture believes that all New Zealanders have a birthright to enjoy our unique, diverse landscape. Our strong outdoor heritage is central to what it means to be a Kiwi.
   
   Our key policies to achieve this are:
   
   * Enshrining public access to all public resources, including game, waterways and coastline, in law.
   
   * Establishing a robust National Environmental Standard for all freshwater waterways.
   
   * Curtailing the application of 1080 poison and replacing it with new and more environmentally friendly forms of pest-control.
   
   * Imposing a moratorium on new hydro and irrigation schemes for rivers without existing dams and still regarded to be ‘wild’.
   
   * Prohibit heli-hunting, herding or hazing from helicopters except for legitimate animal management operations when numbers warrant it.
   * Make sure the Game Animal Council Bill, currently before Parliament is passed, and the Game Animal Council is established as a statutory body.
   * Work with the recreational fishing sector to establish a public consultation process regarding the future of inshore fisheries management. This will include whether a statutory management organisation 'run by fishers for fishers' should be established.

Personal Profile

Born Cromwell, grew up in rural Otago

Schools: Cromwell Primary, Cromwell DHS, Otago BHS
Worked: Dunedin (mostly), Central Otago, North Otago and Auckland
Current employment: Intech Software, Dunedin branch, 10 years - software consultant working with businesses around New Zealand and international.

Family history in Dunedin goes back 100 years when my grandfather worked in Port Chalmers and then for DCCC after WW1.
Father born in Dunedin, school in Dunedin, married in Dunedin. Children born in Dunedin, school in Dunedin, tertiary qualifications in Dunedin.

Interests include family, outdoors, sports (played and refereed rugby until the end of last century and watched TV a lot last month), music, politics.