Hoping for a better electoral system

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

Opinion

Submissions are pouring in for the review of New Zealand’s electoral laws that will land in the lap of the next government.

The panel has received more than 2000 submissions to its draft recommendations in the space of just over a month. This has already passed the first round of public consultation which saw 1700 submissions over a two-month period.

The panel created controversy with its draft recommendations which included lowering the voting age to 16, dropping the party threshold for seats in Parliament to 3.5 percent and abolishing the coat-tail rule, and a public referendum on a longer four-year parliamentary term.

Panel chair Deborah Hart said they were getting a lot of people agreeing or disagreeing with their draft recommendations which was really helpful to test their thinking.

This included political parties, the Electoral Commission, academics, regulators and organisations representing unions, aged care, youth and ethnic communities, disabled and rainbow communities.

The present review was ordered by former justice minister Kris Faafoi who called for a sweeping review after what have been seen as piecemeal changes over the years.

The most controversial recommendation by far is to lower the voting age to 16. This has already prompted screams of anguish from traditionalists.

There could well be support, however, for lowering the percentage of the vote needed for a party to win seats from 5 percent to 3.5 percent.

Many consider the 5 percent figure is unfair to the smaller parties. Certainly, recent polling would indicate that two or three of them could get seats with a 3.5 percent threshold — which is still quite a high bar, equating to about 100,000 votes.

A four-year parliamentary term has also had majority support in polling since both major-party leaders backed such a move in a debate prior to the last election. Many feel that the present three-year term is dominated by the electoral cycle and provides limited time for a government to enact its legislation and policies.

But there are others who fear a longer term gives too much power to a government, remembering the sweeping changes of the fourth Labour government of 1984 to 1990.

Past recommendations, notably the 2012 review of MMP, have got a thumbs down from politicians.

But Hart is hopeful the robust set of recommendations that will come from the extensive consultations will lead to a better electoral system.

The public have until Monday, July 17 to make their submissions. The review is due to go to the next government in November.