MMP denounced in farewell speeches in parliament

MMP came in for severe criticism when National MP Max Bradford delivered his valedictory speech in Parliament today.

The electoral system was a fraud and had destroyed the rights of voters to directly elect their representatives, he said.

Mr Bradford, who came to Parliament in 1990 and has held six ministerial portfolios including defence, said neither National nor Labour had successfully run a coalition government.

"MMP is a fraud on New Zealanders. Nobody expected the tail wagging the dog syndrome to afflict our parliament in the way it has," he said.

"The promise of stable government held out by the Labour/Alliance government has disappeared in the face of the fundamental flaw in a system of coalition government."

The flaw was that small parties did not seem to be able to survive electorally when they were part of government, and governments could not implement their mandates without majority votes which were often cobbled together.

Money was wasted to "buy" votes, compromises were often poor, small parties had to maintain positions which were different to their core policies, and it took too long for decisions to be implemented.

"Frankly, New Zealand doesn't have a lot of time to deal with our key problems of ageing, educating our young, employment and investment, a poor savings performance and the corrosive effects of lingering unresolved Treaty claims," he said.

"MMP has destroyed the voters' right to directly elect their representatives and forces them to depend on unelected party machines to appoint nearly half the MPs in this House."

Mr Bradford said the only occasions MPs were heard in respectful silence in the debating chamber was when they arrived and when they left.

"Everything else resembles a barnyard brawl...nothing can prepare a new MP for the complexity and often irrationality of Parliament.

"Parliament needs a good dose of genetic engineering," he said.

Mr Bradford praised the men and women of the defence force and said New Zealand was one of very few developed countries which did not have a bi-partisan defence policy.

"We ask a lot of the men and women in our defence force and they deserve the certainty of settled policy and superb equipment, not the uncertainty of policy lurches every time a government changes," he said.

Mr Bradford, 60, was MP for Tarawera and then Rotorua. He announced last year he would not contest Rotorua again and instead become a list MP but decided earlier this year to retire.

He was considered to be one of National's "old guard" of MPs who were being targeted by new party president Michelle Boag in her campaign to put new, younger faces in Parliament.

Retiring National MP Warren Kyd also attacked MMP in his farewell speech, saying it "has blighted this country".

National-led and Labour-led governments had both suffered under the proportional representation election system, as it made it more difficult to govern, he said.

Parliament should have a poll on whether it wanted MMP or not and, if not, what should replace it.

"That will unshackle New Zealand and allow it to go forward," he said.

Mr Kyd, a rural South Auckland MP for 15 years, also hit out at New Zealand being in "grievance mode".

A lawyer by profession, he cited the European Court of Human Rights, which said inheritance of the guilt of the dead was "not compatible with standards of criminal justice in a society governed by the rule of law".

Mr Kyd wanted for New Zealand "less grievance mode, less living in the past, less being tied to that time, more going forward in the future".

"Until the 70s, we were an extremely self-confident outward looking country, extremely proud of our achievements, with a high social conscience, good standard of living and an immense love of New Zealand," he said.

"In fact it was called Godzone, somewhat smugly.

"It's changed a lot. We need to get out of grievance mode, and put right some of those things and get on with being all New Zealanders."

He said he had tried to serve his electorates well.

He had played a part in DNA testing being used in criminal investigations, and legislation allowing water to be piped from the Waikato River to Auckland.

"I found this a strange and discordant place indeed, after a relatively regular environment," he said.

"Parliament still strikes me as the ideal occupation for someone who has been to a robust boys' boarding school followed by a career in the armed services.

"The fact I got to enjoy it probably means it's time that I should go, unfortunately."

He made no mention of being swept out of the party as one of its old guard.

Mr Kyd lost National's nomination to contest the new and marginal seat of Clevedon to Remuera lawyer Judith Collins.

In Hunua, Mr Kyd got one of the party's biggest majorities in 1999, with a personal majority of 5195 -- double National's party vote lead.

- NZPA