Avalee Donovan (pictured being held up) is a member of the Aqua Ferns New Zealand artistic swimming team heading to Japan next month for the World Aquatics Championships. Pictures supplied
New Zealand’s electoral system has been under review and recommendations we’ve heard before, plus some new ones, are the result of 58 public meetings and an independent panel of legal experts having considered more than 1700 public submissions on almost all aspects of our electoral law.
One headline recommendation, to
extend the parliamentary term to four years, has wide support among politicians and polls have shown majority public support. It will surely come before us in a referendum in the not-too-distant future; though not at the general election this year, the Prime Minister has confirmed.
Another is to reduce the voting age to 16, which is supported on the left of politics but not the right. It’s a change that would require a 75 percent super majority vote in Parliament, or a referendum . . . so it would likely be put to a public vote at the same time as a longer term by a future Labour-led Government, but not a National one.
The party vote threshold of 5 percent to enter Parliament is yet again seen as being too high, with 3.5 percent (or about 100,000 votes) seen as a fairer threshold. The review panel wants to hear more public feedback on this (the Electoral Commission recommended lowering the threshold to 4 percent two years ago).
The panel and the commission before it both see the coat-tail rule as unfair and say it should be abolished. This is where winning an electorate seat means the threshold no longer applies, allowing that MP to bring in other MPs based on the party vote.
