Political Diary

TUESDAY

Labour's sit-down caucus meeting in Nelson during Parliament's one-week recess turns out to be more of a stand-up affair for one participant. Shane Jones has put his back out after play-wrestling with his son and cannot stay seated for long periods. The MP good humouredly says he has been the "butt" of many jokes from caucus colleagues. He adds that he rang his chiropractor, who asked him if the injury was covered by ACC. Quipped Jones: "I guess being stabbed in the back in my line of work qualifies as a work-related injury."

WEDNESDAY

From the Jobs for the Boys file ... Economic Development Minister Gerry Brownlee announces the appointment of two new directors to the board of the New Zealand Venture Investment Fund.

One of them is Christchurch businessman Roger Bridge, who, according to Brownlee's press release, has a property investment and management background. The press release says Bridge has been involved in the formation and development of new business ventures, is a member of the Institute of Directors and is on the board of the Christchurch Arts Festival Trust. It neglects to mention that Bridge is also on the National Party's board of directors and is chairman of the party's Canterbury-Westland region, which includes Brownlee's Christchurch electorate of Ilam.

THURSDAY

The gross unfairness of a first-past-the-post electoral system was exposed in Britain's general election. But will that experience filter through to next year's referendum in New Zealand on MMP?

The UK result saw the Liberal Democrats win 23 per cent of the vote but less than 9 per cent of the 649 seats in the House of Commons. Labour did not do much better in terms of votes, securing around 29 per cent of the total votes, but was rewarded with nearly 40 per cent of the seats. Crucially, FPP failed to deliver on its supposed strength - decisive government.

All this will provide extremely valuable ammunition for the pro-MMP lobby in the first of two referendums here. That first "indicative" referendum will test whether voters want to keep MMP. It will also put four alternatives - one of which is FPP - in front of voters. The winner of that contest will square off with MMP in a second referendum if a change from MMP is favoured in the first referendum.

The anti-MMP lobby is no longer backing FPP. It is now pushing the supplementary member system. That would still see the great majority of MPs elected by FPP, with the remainder coming into Parliament on a proportional basis.

The coalition agreement between the Conservatives and the Lib Dems stipulates a referendum be held in Britain on the "alternative vote" system. This is another name for the preferential system used in Australia under which voters rank candidates by preference. That system is another option in the New Zealand referendum. Again, it is not a proportional system. If Britain adopts a preferential system, it could make a huge difference to Lib Dem representation. As a (sort of ) centrist party, the Lib Dems could expect a lot of Labour and Conservative voters to give them their second preferences. Those second preferences might be sufficient for its candidates to clear the 50 per cent bar in many seats other than Conservative or Labour strongholds.

FRIDAY

For observers back here there was a sense of deja vu as Britain's politicians adjusted - amazingly slowly, it seemed - to the likelihood of a hung Parliament and the consequent inevitability of coalition or minority Government. However, any "been-there, done-that" sense of superiority should be tempered. The new Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition has bold plans for reforming the Westminster political system. New Zealand has a hybrid version of the Westminster system. But reform - with one exception - is not on the political parties' agenda here. It is not even on the backburner, although we await the details of the "constitutional review" which National has promised the Maori Party. The exception is the Green Party, whose open-government policy contains two initiatives which will be adopted in Britain. The first is fixed-term Parliaments to deny the incumbent prime minister the weapon of being able to call an election when circumstances best suit his or her party. The other is a statutory register of lobbyists, which is designed to bring some transparency to Government decision-making in terms of who influences whom.

- compiled by John Armstrong