MMP Review Defies Public, Complete Waste Of Time And Money

New Zealand First is repeating its call for the number of MPs to be lowered to 80, and is asking why the MMP review has refused to recommend lowering the number of MPs, or in fact, making any recommendations at all.

The MMP Review Select Committee Report has recommended that MMP be retained as it presently is, with 120 MPs and 65 electorates.

“The Review was fatally flawed in favour of the major parties and against MMP. New Zealand First is now vindicated for refusing to take part in the review because it was never going to accomplish anything. They were never going to listen to the public and reduce the number of MPs,” said Mr Peters.

“ New Zealanders, in the referendum at the last election, voted overwhelmingly (82%) to reduce the number of MPs to 99. We believe that given the choice again they would overwhelmingly vote to reduce that number even further. Sadly we will not get a chance to do even that, and that is a disgrace.

“Parliament has once again run roughshod over the wishes of New Zealanders, just as New Zealand First said they would in March last year when the review was set up.

“The review failed to reach any decision whatsoever on: the retention of MMP; the number of MPs; whether another referendum should be held; the retention of the Maori seats; whether the party vote or 1 electorate-seat threshold should continue; representation on the Representation and Electoral Commissions; administration of broadcasting; provision of state funding; voting methods for electorate seats. Why did they bother at all?

“The report is summed up in a nutshell when it says at the end that ‘the absence of decisions and recommendations on many of these issues may disappoint many’ this is more than a mere disappointment, this is a total waste of the public’s time and money,” concluded Mr Peters.

ENDS

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Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>