Founder Bill Wallace | ||
Leader Bill Wallace and Mike Downard Ideology Opposes the use of 1080 poison | ||
The Ban 1080 Party is a registered political party in New Zealand. The party was founded in 2014 by Bill Wallace. It opposes the use of 1080 poison (sodium fluoroacetate), which is widely used in New Zealand for controlling mammalian pests such as possums and rats. The party's co-leaders are Bill Wallace and Mike Downard.
Contents
Policies
The Ban 1080 Party's stated policy is:
"to develop a pathway to a solution that includes the following elements:
- To immediately stop [the Department of Conservation's] indiscriminate aerial 1080 poison programme.
- To develop a science-based, measurable programme that includes
- Species specific protection plans,
- Targeted pest control, using people not poison,
- Community conservation involvement.
- To protect all waterways by ensuring no future aerial poison drops."
The party considers that the Department of Conservation "has an important task in working to protect and preserve our natural environment", but believes that aerial 1080 drops harm native species and are ineffective at controlling rat and stoat populations.
2014 General Election
The Ban 1080 Party contested the 2014 election. The party applied for registration with the New Zealand Electoral Commission in mid-2014 and was approved on 8 August. On 19 August 2014, the party announced a party list of nine candidates, of which five were also electorate candidates.
The party received 0.21% of the party vote, below the 5% threshold, and did not win any electorates, so did not win any seats in Parliament. Of the electoral candidates, the most successful was Pete Salter, who stood in West Coast-Tasman. He received 2,318 electoral votes, which was 6.5% of electoral votes cast and placed him fourth.