KEY POINTS:
Eleven years after the first MMP election business leaders are more opposed than ever to the voting system. Business has never warmed to MMP but distaste has turned to disgust and demand for change, according to the latest survey of business leaders.
The New Zealand Herald Mood of the Boardroom survey reveals that nearly eight out of 10 large-company chief executives believe MMP stops governments from implementing policies necessary for New Zealand's success. Fewer than one in five CEOs think MMP helps the country.
Seventy-seven per cent of chief executives want a national referendum on MMP versus the former voting system, first past the post - something denied to voters since the first MMP election in 1996. A similar proportion would welcome MMP being put to the vote against other forms of proportional representation.
Opposition to MMP is not restricted to big business. The heads of small and medium enterprises came to a similar conclusion. Two-thirds said they were concerned MMP stopped governments from implementing policies necessary for national success. Fewer than 17 per cent said MMP was helping the country.
Business Roundtable executive director Roger Kerr, a long-time opponent of MMP, said the survey results reflected the concerns of business before MMP was introduced.
"One of the things the business community was saying in the debate about MMP was that it would not aid New Zealand's economic performance and would lead to more compromises and low-quality decision-making because of deals done between coalition partners," he said.
"Members of the business community are well aware of the deleterious impact of MMP, even though they have not been stimulated by any recent public debate on it."
Auckland rental car proprietor and hotel owner Dick Langridge said MMP had proved terrible for business and he urged National leader John Key to commit his party to a referendum on MMP if National formed the next government.
"Labour can no longer govern without the support of the Maori Party and the Greens," he said. "MMP was designed in Germany to stop the Nazis regaining power and has denied governments having real power ever since."
Langridge said unless MMP was ditched, the New Zealand economy would continue to lag behind other western economies.
"We are going to get further behind. Apart from Fonterra, the economy is going down fast."
A chief executive in the motor industry said MMP had not delivered the co-operative and constructive Parliament it had promised.
"STV [the single transferable vote system] allows everyone's vote to count but it also allows for a single party to gain a mandate for its policies and the seats to implement them," he said.
