MMP Referendum enshrines "the right of the voter" says Kiwi Party
The Kiwi Party
Press Release
May 24, 2008
Embargoed until 11am May 24th

The Kiwi Party has called for a referendum on MMP at the 2011 election.

Speaking at the Nelson Party Conference, Kiwi Party Leader Larry Baldock outlined a 5 point plan for bolstering the Democratic process and enshrining "the right of the voter".
 
Most New Zealanders believe that a referendum was promised when the country adopted MMP, and keeping that implied promise is long overdue.” said Mr Baldock.

"The Labour Party, in their dramatic loss of Electorate seats in 2005 and deserved drop in positional polling in 2008 is in danger of becoming a List Party, so to expect a referendum on MMP from Labour would be an ambitious expectation at best".
 
"MMP has provided the opportunity for a range of competing views to be expressed in our democracy. The Kiwi Party believes that MMP could be amended to place more emphasis on the electorates and electorate candidates and we would therefore like to see a number of options debated and presented in a referendum".

"It is the right of every Kiwi voter to have the opportunity to express their view and to see that view respected by the Government of the day".

 The minority-led Labour Government has consistently rammed through legislation without majority support of the citizens it is supposed to be representing, and is thus not likely to have any respect for majority opinion".

"One significant proposal regarding referenda is to reduce the threshold of signatures required for Citizens Initiated Referenda and to make them binding when they are concerned with any legislation already passed by Parliament".

"The Kiwi Party also plans to give New Zealanders the option of adopting a four year election cycle with a fixed date for Parliamentary and Local Body elections".
 
"Such a system would provide a polling day every two years that would also serve as a referenda day".
 
"Voters could exercise their views on controversial issues more frequently, and would be assured that the majority will would be respected by their elected officials".
 
"It is my hope that these plans could restore interest in our democracy and reverse our falling voter turn out statistics. When 25% of the population fail to vote in our Parliamentary elections and 50% in our Local Body elections,  something needs to be done,” said Mr Baldock.

Ends.

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