Mike Hosking: What's with the hysteria over the waka-jumping bill?

COMMENT:

So what is it about the so-called waka-jumping legislation that has so many people so upset?

Here are the rules as they stand:

You enter Parliament under a party's banner either as an electorate or list MP. Things, for whatever reason, go pear-shaped, the party moves to expel you. To do this they need two-thirds support. In other words, a significant majority.

If you're a list MP you're gone. If you're from an electorate you get to contest the by-election.

Where is the problem?

Those most vehemently opposed, like the Greens, talk of free speech and being able to express opinion.

All of this is possible without getting booted out of a party. For an expulsion to happen, things would need to have gotten really ugly.

And observers of the political sport will have seen it's happened before.

But, go back to the start of the equation. You enter Parliament under the banner of a party, its name branding and policies.

Under a list option you would not be in Parliament without that party's help. Even as an electorate MP you will have needed the party to get you across the line.

Have a look at the number of independents in our Parliament - there aren't any.

So why did anyone vote for you? Because you represent an organisation people want to support.

Yes, they may like you personally, yes, over time you may become regarded as a good local MP with a good personal profile, even a level of personal support.

But you will never be in the house on your own auspices. Therefore the party that got you into the Parliament in the first place is deserving of a level of respect, and acceptance of procedure.

Not unlike a workplace for the rest of us, there are certain rules and understandings we have in order to hold our place in the company. No, we don't have to be forelock-tuggers, but we can't go rogue.

And what the legislation protects against is the operator who goes nuts, and thinks they can sit in Parliament at taxpayers' expense until the next election representing no-one, having ridden on someone else's bandwagon to get there in the first place.

The party gets hobbled in terms of numbers, and all their time and energy is wasted because the individual concerned gets the protection of outdated law which is blatantly one-sided and unfair.

This is simply a contract that signs you up for three years of dedication and support to a group of people who got you across the line and don't expect you to become a deserter.

What's so egregious about that?