MMP defective, says Australian professor

The election is likely to produce a third bad result under MMP, an Australian political scientist said yesterday.

Associate Professor Malcolm Mackerras said the first MMP parliament in New Zealand, from 1996 to 1999, was a "shambles".

The second "began all right" but ended in the need for an early election, he wrote in The Australian newspaper.

The timing of this ballot was not prompted by Prime Minister Helen Clark's cynicism, but by the defects in the system.

Professor Mackerras, who lectures at the Australian Defence Force Academy in Canberra, said one example was that MPs were appointed by the party machinery, rather than elected by the people.

Another was the party-hopping legislation, the result of the "absolutely ridiculous outcry" over Alamein Kopu's decision to quit the Alliance in 1997.

Helen Clark cited the meltdown in the Alliance as the main reason for going to the polls early.

Professor Mackerras expected New Zealand would eventually ditch MMP and adopt a system where the party vote was not linked to electorates.

He predicted the Greens would hold the balance of power and exploit it.

- NZPA

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