Bring back Policy.nz – the complete guide to election 2023

And so the election is over, and another Policy.nz campaign has come to an end. We wanted to share a wrap-up of what we achieved this campaign, and pass on our final thanks for your support.

Where we started 

We've always relied on advertisers and sponsors to make our work on Policy.nz possible. As the election approached this year, we heard from sponsors that times were tough. For the first time, we faced the prospect of no commercial sponsorship and significant uncertainty over our campaign. That's when we turned to you, our supporters, for help. 

We were blown away with the response. More than 200 people pledged more than $10,444 in total, including five generous supporters pledging more than $250, and 24 supporters pledging more than $100. (Our special thanks to the anonymous supporter who pledged $1,000!). This helped push us over the line at a critical time, and made it possible for us to deliver essential information to voters this election.

Where we finished

• Policy.nz had 465,000 unique visitors in total – which is around one in six voters. This is roughly the same proportion of voters using Policy.nz as in 2020, but a larger number of users per day, as the 2020 campaign ran for much longer due to the election being delayed following a covid outbreak.

• A third of visitors returned to Policy.nz at least once, and there were 771,650 visits to Policy.nz in total.  

• Visitors looked at more than 10,250,000 pages, and three-quarters of those pages were policy comparisons. This is more than three times our 2020 election coverage. 

• The average user spent 8 minutes, 53 seconds on each visit. 

• We summarised nearly 1,500 policies. The topic with the most policies was Law, justice and government (449 policies) followed by Economy (438) and Environment (333).

• A majority of candidates (nearly 60%) filled out their candidate profile.

We're really happy with these results, which show that Policy.nz is now an essential part of the democratic fabric at election time.

And of course, the numbers only tell part of the story, and are complemented by the amazing feedback we've had from users directly. For example, we heard from one user on the day before the election who told us that he felt Policy.nz had shielded him from the "argumentative, personal bickering and posturing" that has characterised the election campaign, and that the tool had been invaluable in helping him decide who to vote for.

What you made possible

In addition to the core editorial work of creating Policy.nz, we were also able to: 

• run a nationwide billboard campaign with Phantom Billstickers, helping to inform new audiences about our work. See below for a photo!

• create a hardcopy version of Policy.nz to be distributed around prisons in New Zealand for voters without internet access  

• create resources for teachers to educate and engage our young people on election issues

• create and share posters in all corners of the country. See below for a photo of one of our posters in the wild, shared from Ōpōtiki Library!

What's next?

We'll be back for the local elections in 2025, and the next general election in 2026. Stay tuned!

The final word

Making trustworthy, non-partisan, and accessible election information available matters. We started Policy.nz after seeing research from the Electoral Commission that found one in three non-voters cite ‘not knowing who to vote for’ as their main reason for not voting. This election, we heard from voters directly that using Policy.nz gave them the confidence they needed to exercise their democratic right.

Your support was an essential part of our work this year. Thank you again, from the whole Policy.nz team, for what you made possible – we couldn't have done it without you.

Credits

Policy.nz is made by a small team of New Zealanders. 

Editorial Director: Ollie Neas

Senior Editors: Sam Bigwood and Miriam Buhler

Editors: Josh Barlow, Callum Benfell, Donald McIntosh, Beth Mountford, Diana Leufkens Smith, Camryn Williams

Candidates Manager: Luka Didham

Social Media Manager: Callum Benfell

Illustration: Ezra Whittaker-Powley

We partnered with The Spinoff to publish Policy. Our awesome site was built by the Daylight Group. 

We give special thanks to Phantom Billstickers, Saj Patel, Madeleine Chapman, and Elisa Rivera.

Policy.nz was founded by Asher Emanuel, Chris McIntyre, Ollie Neas, and Racheal Reeves.

Policy.nz is now back up and running with our coverage of the 2023 election

Thanks to your support, we're back, helping voters make informed choices. You can check out Policy.nz now! 

Behind the scenes, we've summarised 895 policies from the eight major parties, across 13 topics and 74 sub-topics. That number will keep growing as the campaign continues – check back in to see new policies added as they're announced!

We've also surveyed 456 candidates from more than 20 parties – and 45% have already completed their candidate profiles.

To get to this point, our team has spent more than 1,600 hours researching, reading, summarising, writing, and editing. 

Tomorrow morning, our publishing partner The Spinoff will announce to the world that Policy.nz is back. But in the meantime, feel free to share on to family, friends, and any other voters you know. 

Finally, keep an eye out on The Project on TV3 this week. They're producing a segment using Policy.nz, and have been out and about asking voters on the street which parties they think created a selection of policies.  

Thanks again for your support,

The Policy.nz team  

P.S. For those who pledged enough for an attribution reward: we're waiting on the list of pledgers' names from PledgeMe before we can attribute your support on the website. We hope to be able to do this in the next 2-3 days.