Dump Maori seats and MMP says report
New Zealand should abolish MMP, scrap Maori seats and the Maori roll, have only 79 FPP MPs, and establish an upper House, according to an Australian-based think tank.
The most controversial proposal by pro-free market economy Centre for Independent Studies was the abolition of the Maori role and Maori seats.
Researchers Luke Malpass and Dr Oliver Marc Hartwich, a German lawyer and economist, said the idea of race-based electorate seats in a modern liberal democracy seemed “anachronistic.”
In a report out today they said no systemic bias existed against Maori in the electoral system preventing them from entering parliament.
They said Maori representation, measured by seats in Parliament held by those who considered themselves Maori, exceeded the percentage of the population which considered themselves Maori.
In a modern New Zealand, there were few convincing arguments for retaining Maori seats despite their historical role in parliamentary representation.
They said New Zealanders needed to seize the opportunity of the upcoming MMP referendum on electoral reform to “reinvent” their system of government.
The report claimed MMP had failed to live up to its promises.
It claimed MMP had not made politics more transparent, more straightforward or more representative.
Mr Malpass said it was time to replace MMP with a system that worked.
Their report recommended Parliament should shrink to 79 MPs elected under first past the post, Maori seats and the Maori roll should be wound up and an upper house of 31 senators be elected on a proportional basis.
According to Messrs Malpass and Hartwich, a new senate would provide a check on power and allow the interests of smaller parties to be represented.
Commenting on MMP being based on the Germany, Dr Hartwich said Germany’s electoral system might be an interesting case study for political scientists but it was not “a panacea for other countries’ political problems.”
They said the central design flaw of MMP was that it was undemocratic – voters voted for a party but after the election parties hammered out what the government should be.
The public was unsure about the role of list MPs and did not value them as highly as their directly elected colleagues.
Among the strange results produced by MMP, the researchers singled out the 2008 election, when MPs were re-elected to parliament and remained as representatives although they had been rejected by their own local voters;
• Former deputy prime minister Michael Cullen, who spent his time as finance minister as a list MP without ever getting the backing of his local voters;
• Former opposition leader Don Brash, who never attempted to stand in an election and convince an electorate to vote for him since the introduction of MMP;
• Former foreign affairs minister Winston Peters was not officially part of the government, he publicly opposed the New Zealand China free trade agreement but traveled to Beijing to sign the treaty as the government’s representative.
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Comments and questions26
Damn right!! Time to purge NZ of racism. Maori have their sovereignty & their parliamentary representation via their vote, like evryone else.
Well then, some of the majority should move out and even the field for the rest and then let's see how things turn out.
Can't see NZ's ideal of post-colonial egalitarianism fitting well with the concept of an 'Upper House'. But I like the idea of equal opportunity representation for all and majority rule.
It's time we faced up to multiculturalism and stopped harboring separatism.
The role of the upper house is not to "Lord-it-up". Rather it is to provide checks and balances. The egalitarian and democratic US system is proof that it works well when the election cycles are different. NZ elections are too closely spaced causing new broom mania as seen with this National government. An upper house with a 7 year election cycle would give NZ more elected representative control over its rampant bureaucracy.
Sounds great to me, get rid of the racist seats. We should all be equal.
Go back to your beauty contests! Good government requires more than the most popular bloke from every quarter. CIS didn't really get the point of MMP, did it? If the Labour Party felt Cullen was an asset and people voted Labour in, that's the voice of the people.
And before anyone jumps in with that being the reason Labour is no longer government....the people said yes more times than they said no.
And I'm curious, just what does the CIS have to say about the Australian system? Were they looking at the Kiwi system in order to assess and improve theirs, or have they just got it in for MMP?
What was the motivation for this research, and was the conclusion reached at the beginning or the end of the project?
Heck why not get a bunch of immigrant Australians to tell us what we should do over here? None of this is likely without a written constitution guaranteeing Maori rights enshrined in the Treaty of Waitangi. With that, yes, the above might be possible; without it you will not get Maori support, fullstop.
"It claimed MMP had not made politics more transparent, more straightforward or more representative."
That is the understatement of the century. We have almost lost our Sovereignty through the MMP system. Thinking Kiwis are going to have to fight hard to retain what we have left.
An Upper House would have stopped Clark & Key from pushing their Agendas - e.g. destruction of the privy council, smacking bill, the ETS bill and so many more....
ok lets go the whole hog - dump the treaty as well - its just been a paper for current so called maori to rip the system off. Whilst we are at it lets ask the real maori's what they think - hint - you can not find any as they no longer exist...
Lets get real instead of living in this 3rd world country lets get our system sorted and move forward finally - 1 person 1 vote - 1 system.
nothing more nothing less all equal.
You obviously have no knowledge what so ever on the treaty, pre european AOTEAROA, or any of the events that occurred post COLONISATION. What makes me maori is whakapapa, a thing that your people have no value for, I actually feel sorry for you. I am a real maori, and what determines that is my whakapapa. Go back to your motherland where a red neck like yourself can be excepted.
Today's New Zealand is a country of race based favoritism, separatism, derision and greed. We are almost living in a country that harbours its own neo-aryan style system. A master race who is above everyone else.
This is not the way a democracy should be working. We all need an EQUAL say in how our country is being run. Having special seats reserved in government because of your race is well, racist! If you are an elected official in parliament it should be because the people put you there due to your merit and worth! Not due to your colour, creed or race!
When will the people of this country finally get a break and be treated as equal citizens instead of second rate crap? MMP is broken and so is the Treaty of Waitangi. We need a change. If not, we will be stuck in the 3rd world. I'd rather live in Australia.
Amazing how such a short plane ride away can give such clarity of thought and ideas without the inconvenience of all the local NZ smoke and mirrors. Bring it on I say, sooner the better.
Suggest you stay there mate.
Ok, so now I want to keep MMP even more. if the Aussies think we are racist and under-represented, we must be on the right track ...
And if we are talking about democratic under -representation, those of you in Auckland have a whole lot more to worry about than MMP.
MMP gives proportional representation (if imperfectly) we could probably refine it to a better system, but going backwards to FPP is pointless.
I couldn't give a #$%#$ who my local representative is compared to which parties are actually in government, and most voters are the same so any numpty wearing the right coloured blazer will get in via FPP (and do with that part of MMP)
Perhaps we should be electing local government locally and national government nationally, i.e. our Mayors etc represent our regional affairs and parliament would be made up of the individual parties first choice (list) MP's
I agree we need to reduce the number of MP's but FPP is completely outdated.
Maori and all other races and minorities of all kinds can get representation via an MMP like system, they're buggered under FPP, so if we did go back to FPP Maori seats would make sense to honour the treaty terms, under MMP you can argue they're not required as they have a fair representation.
G.
What a fantastic report, I totally agree with it.
Agree wholeheartedly. It's a pity it originates from Oz - kinda undermines its credibility.
What people fail to recognise is when your MP becomnes a Cabinet Minister you effectvrely lose your local representative. Perhaps this is a way of using all that dead wood in Parliament.
Unfortunately even if changes are made it won't make a scrap of difference ALL registered political parties endorse the United Nation's crippling environmental dictates and are ALL tainted with varying degrees of of socialist communism. They do not represent the majority of democratic thinking people.
What a compelling report. Clear, underpinned by solid fact and devoid of suffocating political correctness.
MMP - the New Zealand version - has morphed into a casserole of "Mish Mash Politics" and "More Maori Politics". Nothing gets done without having to endlessly "debate" and "engage" with belligerent coalition partners and noisy minority interests.
The Maori Party has a horribly warped but very convenient understanding of the word "partnership". Whilst Maori make up only sixteen per cent of the population, the Party is convinced "their people" are entitled to fifty per cent of everything. Democratic?
This report should be required reading for all those who desperately defend MMP. Out of Australia? Who cares. If it works, use it.
Wholeheartedly agree with Moggy’s comments. Does make one (me) wonder if Aussie taking over NZ could be a good thing, I would be all for it if it would abolish the Treaty of Waitangi. Tho I am not a raciest or an activist of any sort, am sick to death of hearing about the Treaty, the divide this piece of paper puts between our NZ people, is it really worth it? 1 person 1 vote - 1 system
IT WOULD BE INTERESTING TO SEE THE RESULT IF THE GOVT HAD A REFERENDUM ON ABOLISHING THE TREATY.
Perhaps they could do this at the same time as the referendum for MMP.!
The whole concept is about splitting power so one group of elected politicians elected under FPP can pass legislation but another group proportionally elected can veto any of it if considered unsuitable for whatever reason. Some recent legislation would not have got past first base so not have induced a veto. What you call the two houses is not too relevant. But they are not upper lower or such like just different functions.
I would go further and take the various audit and checking functions such as the Ombudsman and put them under the new house. At present the PM can pressure the auditor general or solicitor general. Move them out to the new house.
As for the treaty stuff. Arn't you / we who whiteys a bunch of wimpy suckers to have been sucked in so far. But wait until you see what the latest health developments Whanau ora has got in store for you. That is no settlement but an ongoing takeover of the health system to employ Maori in 'valuable jobs' . This is not in the future. It is already happening as big prices are offered to local doctors to sell out and join the Maori way. And then follows the take over of the education system again to employ Maori in 'valuable jobs' and teach your children Maori because the whole education system will be run by Maori. Wake Up. The only way to stop it is to stop the high taxes.
Oh Dear So finally an outsider exposes the great 300lb Gorilla in the NZ corner
Yes folks we are a corrupt little country Hiding behind the pretence of political correctness and cultural stupidity
You see the rest of the world sees us for what we are A sad little place at the bottom of the world trying to fend off the imagined guilts of 170 years and all supported by our racist pollies all of them The divide and rule mob all complict in their corruption to set us upon ourselves so they can control us
Yawn and right wing think tank things MMP is undemocratic - actually under FPP guess what and unpopular MP is very unlikely to get voted out if they are in a safe seat and if the party supports them. The voters in safe seats end up with no power and voters in marginal seats get the goodies
Have a look at Australia recent elections in SA a solid vote against Labor but because the vote is as strong in the marginal seat Labor squeaks back into power.
I have seen some of the unresearched nonsense this think tank has put out in Australia and if they are recommending a return to FPP then I would suggest based on my reading of over papers that this will be the wrong answer.
Hehehe - since when do we listen to the Aussies on our domestic politics? Adding a secondary house to improve representation but taking away the list seats seems a case of musical chairs, but in this instance the rich and the connected get in and the rest, maori included, get stuff all. MMP at least allows for the majority-status quo to be challenged. FPTP was a crusty system that benefited few and the Auckland Mayoralty will show that in fine form. i reckon add more Maori seats and lets see how this busted as system handles that!!
yarn yarn yarn all i hear is how everyone want equality and how people think maori seats are racist blah blah, think up something new to say its always racist this and racist that - change the channel on the radio OK? I see racist people alright, and it is the people who are publicly rude to the Maori culture, give it a rest. And abolishing the treaty will make us like ALL the other WESTERN societies, pretty much racist - lol so whats it going to be? we going to turn WHITE now because having Maori representation in parliament isn't the WHITE thing to do??