http://www.crikey.com.au/2008/10/30/mackerras-why-nzs-mmp-voting-system-sucks/ now with extra source Sun, 12 Feb 2012 02:48:10 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 http://www.crikey.com.au/2008/10/30/mackerras-why-nzs-mmp-voting-system-sucks/#comment-10181 James O'Neill Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000 #comment-10181 While the NZ system of MMP has its problems it is not helpful when commentators overlook its obvious strengths. Unlike Mr Mackeras I recall that at the time of the referendum there was strong support because the voters were sick of a system that effectively disenfranchised all those who voted in a constituency for a non-winning candidate. Massive majorities were often obtained by parties that achieved barely more than 40% of the vote.<br />The experience of the Muldoon government showed that there were effectively no checks or balances on a power hungry megalomaniac who could and did manipulate the system for the benefit of his party. In the 1981 election his party's share of the vote was less than Labour but he still won because of the vagaries of the first past the post system.<br />Legislation is now much more likely to be looked at on its merits because the proposing party knows that it has to persuade at least one and often more of the minor parties to vote alongside it. In my view that is democracy in action. For a more recent example of one party misusing its power look at the last Howard government which used its House and Senate majorities to ride roughshod over attempts to have legislation properly scrutinised.<br />Does Mr Mackerras really think that a system that elects House and Senate candidates from the National Party to the Australian Parliament in significantly greater numbers than Green members but has less than half of the share of the primary popular vote than the Greens truly democratic?<br />I also find his continued support for the Maori seats astonishing. In South Africa such a system would have been described as apartheid. On what possible basis can one justify the allocation of seats on the basis of a racial classification in a modern democracy?<br />There is room for improvement in the NZ system. Sadly, Mr Mackeras does not even come close in suggesting how that might best be done. While the NZ system of MMP has its problems it is not helpful when commentators overlook its obvious strengths. Unlike Mr Mackeras I recall that at the time of the referendum there was strong support because the voters were sick of a system that effectively disenfranchised all those who voted in a constituency for a non-winning candidate. Massive majorities were often obtained by parties that achieved barely more than 40% of the vote.
The experience of the Muldoon government showed that there were effectively no checks or balances on a power hungry megalomaniac who could and did manipulate the system for the benefit of his party. In the 1981 election his party’s share of the vote was less than Labour but he still won because of the vagaries of the first past the post system.
Legislation is now much more likely to be looked at on its merits because the proposing party knows that it has to persuade at least one and often more of the minor parties to vote alongside it. In my view that is democracy in action. For a more recent example of one party misusing its power look at the last Howard government which used its House and Senate majorities to ride roughshod over attempts to have legislation properly scrutinised.
Does Mr Mackerras really think that a system that elects House and Senate candidates from the National Party to the Australian Parliament in significantly greater numbers than Green members but has less than half of the share of the primary popular vote than the Greens truly democratic?
I also find his continued support for the Maori seats astonishing. In South Africa such a system would have been described as apartheid. On what possible basis can one justify the allocation of seats on the basis of a racial classification in a modern democracy?
There is room for improvement in the NZ system. Sadly, Mr Mackeras does not even come close in suggesting how that might best be done.

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