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Disgrace to Democracy

DISGRACE TO DEMOCRACY

Justice Minister Judith Collins’s announcement that there will be no changes to MMP and Prime Minister John Key saying ‘that is the end of the matter’ constitutes a blatant attack on our democratic process.

In the 2011 referendum, New Zealanders voted decisively to keep MMP as our electoral system and triggered a $12 million review of MMP by the Electoral Commission.

More than 5000 groups, organisations and individuals took part. At the end of October the Commission sent the Government a set of conservative recommendations based on their submissions. The main ones were dump the one electorate, coat-tail rule and reduce the threshold to 4%.

Ms Collins has deliberately delayed any action so that changes cannot be implemented for the 2014 election. She says that she couldn’t get consensus from all the parties in Parliament.

But MMP is nothing to do with the parties in Parliament. The electoral system belongs to the voters of this country.

New Zealanders voted to keep MMP and overwhelmingly want the recommended changes. The cavalier attitude of both Judith Collins and John Key is a direct attack on the democratic process and the rights of New Zealand voters.

ENDS

[Philip Temple is an electoral and constitutional issues commentator and holds a Wallace Award for his contribution to 'public understanding of electoral matters'.]

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