Brian Rudman: Don't sweat over waka-jumping or party lists

Campaigners for MMP in Hawke's Bay. Photo / APN

Hopefully that's the last we'll hear of dumping MMP for another generation or two at least. A vote of 57.77 per cent in favour of retention in the recent referendum was not as resounding as supporters might have liked, but it's still a solid endorsement of the existing voting system.

What the voting highlighted is the distinct lack of support for any of the alternatives proposed, underlined by the fact that 748,086 voters ignored the second part which asked what alternative they supported. This was a higher "vote" than that received for the top ranking alternative, the First Past the Post we dumped back in 1996.

If my voting was anything to go by, the 707,117 FPP received was not necessarily an endorsement. I voted for FPP on the grounds it was the worst and most undemocratic system on offer, and if MMP had to go through a run-off in three years, FPP would be the easiest to defeat.

All that remains is the review of MMP to iron out any perceived wrinkles. Surprisingly, Prime Minister John Key has highlighted waka-jumping as his main dislike. He says list MPs who change parties should leave Parliament. "I don't believe you have a right to claim that you're an independent ..." List MPs were there by virtue of those who gave their party vote to their original party.

The philosophical battle about the rights of list MPs compared with electorate MPs, and the controls party organisations have over MPs engendered much political angst in the early days while the MMP system was bedding in, but since Mr Key entered Parliament in 2002, things have been remarkably settled.

Since he became an MP, only two list MPs have done a bunk from their parties to join another: Donna Awatere Huata (2003-2004), who was booted out of Act to become an Independent, and Gordon Copeland (2007-2008), from United Future to the Kiwi Party.

In the same period, four electorate MPs changed parties. Two, Taito Phillip Field and Chris Carter, were forced out of Labour, and two, Tariana Turia and Hone Harawira, formed new parties, both forcing byelections.

It was in the decade or so before Mr Key entered Parliament that party- hopping was an epidemic. Political scientist Jack Vowles, in a recent paper to the NZ Political Studies Association conference in Dunedin, lists 11 cases of party-hopping in the first Parliament after the initial MMP election in 1996. Nine were MPs fleeing New Zealand First, two from the Alliance. Seven were list MPs and four were electorate MPs.

The paper highlights that party-hopping was more a disease of the last years of First Past the Post than one of MMP. In the four years up to 1996 under FPP, 17 MPs defected, most from National to New Zealand First or United New Zealand. Make it 18 if you throw in Jim Anderton's move in 1989 from Labour to New Labour.

In 2001, in response to public disquiet, Labour and its Alliance ally passed the Electoral (Integrity) Amendment Act, forcing "unethical" MPs who deserted ship, or who fell out of favour with the party leadership, to give up their seats. The bill had a five-year sunset clause and after the 2005 election, Labour, as part of its confidence and supply agreement with NZ First, tried to revive it. National, the Greens, Maori, Act and United Future outnumbered the Government in opposition and the bill was dropped.

National's then deputy leader, Gerry Brownlee, attacked it as a "draconian" bill which "effectively destroys the integrity of members of Parliament" and asked, "why do we have a democratic process to put members in Parliament if, immediately, the franchise of that MP is constrained - and even removed ... and handed to a political party leader?"

Mr Key's present Minister of Finance, Bill English joined in, calling it "an abomination on the Parliament". How far Mr Key plans to push his support for this "abomination" in next year's Electoral Commission-led review into MMP will be interesting.

With Social Development Minister Paula Bennett being rewarded with a front bench seat, despite narrowly losing her electorate seat, and relying on her list position to remain in Parliament, the question of whether electorate MPs should be able to have a second chance via the list is another dilemma for the politicians.

My preference is for the status quo, ensuring as it does that a party's best and brightest get a chance to interface with the public in seats which aren't safe for that party, but still get into Parliament according to their ranking on the party list. Others differ, but as with waka-jumping, let's be pragmatic. Why be at each other's throats on an issue that isn't exactly pressing or prevalent.

Professor Vowles notes that "the survival of electorate-defeated MPs through dual candidacy is relatively rare". In 2002, 0.8 per cent of defeated electorate MPs snuck back via the list. In 2005 that jumped to 10.8 per cent, but in 2008 fell to 4.3 per cent. For those who see it as offensive, the "most important finding" was that of these second-lifers, about 60 per cent left Parliament at the next election.