20 Sept 2017

List MPs Go Home!

The Conservative Party of New Zealand is calling for a change to our electoral system whereby list MPs from parties that do not form Government, do not enter Parliament.

In 1999 81.5% of respondents to a referendum on “Should the size of the House of Representatives be reduced from 120 members to 99 members?” voted yes. As with all other Citizens initiated referenda, the government of the day totally ignored the result.

With our proposal, the leaders of the parties affected would remain in parliament, and retain the voting rights as per the percentage received in the General Election. All conscience votes would be put to Referenda for the public to decide.

Although we recognise the effort that list MPs put in, they do not represent a specific constituency, and the votes of their leader can reflect the percentage support for that party, “Do our list MPs give value for money when we could have saved up to $100ml in the last 15 years, money that could have been spent on knees, hips, or education?” asks Leighton Baker, Leader of the Conservative Party.

ENDS

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