MP Seeks To Make Her Compatriots Redundant

Tuesday, 14 March 2006, 4:08 pm
Article: Kevin List

MP Seeks To Make Her Compatriots Redundant

Scoop Audio: This week Barbara Stewart's Electoral (Reduction in Number of Members of Parliament) Amendment Bill will go before the House for its first reading. The Bill would reduce the number of MPs to 100 at the next election by amending s191 of the Electoral Act 1993.

Scoop caught up with Ms Stewart today for a short natter about why she wants to potentially guillotine some of her parliamentary chums. Over the course of the conversation it was discovered that Ms Stewart was getting some good feedback from talkback callers regarding her Bill.

However, when Scoop sought to get down to the nuts and bolts of how Ms Stewart's Bill would work, and whether or not it had the potential to greatly advantage parties whose MPs are predominantly electorate MPs, things became somewhat murkier.

According to Ms Stewart's Bill the number of electorate and Maori seats would remain the same whilst list MPs would shrink dramatically. In this situation a party - for example the Maori Party - that received a small amount of the party vote and a large amount of electorate seats would end up in a stronger position than they currently hold.

Barbara Stewart explains how making 20 MPs redundant is going to assist NZ democracy:

Scoop Streaming Audio: Ms Stewart Explains The Electoral Amendment Bill

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here to download file(mp3)

ENDS

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