By IANS,
Sydney : Major New Zealand political parties serving in the government between 1972 and 2005 honoured at least half of their pre-election promises, with some administrations being nearly 90 percent true to their word.
These are the findings of a six-year study by University of Canterbury doctoral student Nathan McCluskey. The study reviewed 33 years of New Zealand government spanning 11 terms from 1972-2005.
“According to opinion polls, the public consider politicians to be about as trustworthy as used car salespeople or professional wrestlers. All of which lends itself to a popular impression of dishonesty and a fundamental lack of integrity…,” said McCluskey.
“This causes skepticism and generates a lack of faith in the democratic nature of our politics, calling into question the efficacy of our representative electoral system.”
The research found both the Labour and National parties better at keeping their word prior to 1984, averaging about 80 percent delivery on pre-election promises, according to Sciencealert.