South island independence    NZ South Island Party   Hi NM   Im originally from Nelson but living in Oz at the moment Tell me more about the NZ South Island Party What were their policies Do you think that public support for South Island Independence has increased over the last few years  To be honest I dont know that much about their policies I think they advocated some sort of partial return to the old provincial governments like in the th century making NZ into a federation a bit like Australia As for support for independence I dont think so This is entirely a personal opinion but Id say you tend to find more calls for southern independence when theres a National government than a Labour one  Dunedin and Christchurch are the two staunchest labour strongholds in NZ and because they usually both end up with several cabinet ministers during Labour governments they have a little more say in the running of the country Certainly here in Dunedin the city tends to go through a major revival whenever theres a Labour government BTW you might find it useful to sign your messages with four tildes   that gives an automatic link to your user page