The 2014 New Zealand Election Study

University of Auckland

Jennifer Curtin
Gerard Cotterell

The 2014 NZES was funded by the Victoria University of Wellington, the New Zealand Electoral Commission, and the University of Auckland.

The 2014 NZES is based on a dataset of responses from 2,835 people whose names were randomly selected from the electoral rolls and who either returned questionnaires sent to them in the post or completed the survey online. These questionnaires were in the field 2-3 days after the election. Of these responses, 1,419 had responded to the 2011 NZES, making it possible to compare their responses between the two elections. The remaining 1,462 responded for the first time in 2014. Those enrolled in the Maori electorates were oversampled, with 547 responses.

The response rate for those freshly sampled was 33.4 per cent, a conservative estimate calculated without taking out those who were reported deceased or not at the address at which they were enrolled. Responses were received until late February, and then closed off. 61.7% of the previous election respondents who could be tracked down on the new roll were successfully recontacted.

The book drawing on the 2014 NZES is A Bark But No Bite: Inequality and the 2014 New Zealand General Election, has been published by the ANU Press and is now available for free download. Its authors are Jack Vowles, Hilde Coffe (Victoria University of Wellington) and Jennifer Curtin (University of Auckland). The book provides an account of the 2014 general election in New Zealand, and inquires into the implications of social and economic inequality as a matter of political party contest in the election. The authors chose the latter as a theme both because of its importance both nationally and internationally, and because it posed a puzzle. Adapting a metaphor from a famous Sherlock Holmes story, during the 2014 election campaign inequality was a dog that barked, but did not bite. On the basis of well-known assumptions, its salience in the campaign should have benefitted the centre-left, but did not. In a nutshell, this was the starting point