The new Internet Party has now joined the Mana Party. This is a surprise. It is difficult to understand why they have joined together. The Mana Party has one MP, Hone Harawira, who represents Maori people in Northland. This is a poor area where there is a lot of unemployment.
The Internet Party was started recently by the millionaire Kim Dotcom who is a German immigrant. He thinks young people will vote for his party.
Listen to January 18th 2014 to hear more about Kim Dotcom and the Internet Party.
He has given the Internet-Mana Party $250,000 to start with and has promised more money. Kim Dotcom himself cannot become an MP as he is not a New Zealand citizen. He is not poor or Maori. He lives in a mansion with a large staff of people to look after his home and family.
The United States Federal government wants to extradite him to the United States to stand trial for copyright crimes. Mr Dotcom does not want John Key’s government to win the next election. He thinks another government might not allow the United States to extradite him.
Listen to January 21st 2012 to hear more about Kim Dotcom and copyright.
The new leader of the Internet-Mana Party is Laila Harre. She used to be an MP. She is known for her work for equal pay for nurses. She says she joined this party because she wants to encourage young people to vote.
Vocabulary
- mansion – large, expensive house
- staff – his workers
- extradite – have permission to take someone from one country to their own country for a trial
- copyright – the owner of movies, music, books has copyright and nobody can copy them for free