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.
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