Voting for change

The anti-MMP campaign is underway. We received this in our in-box this morning:

The Vote for Change Society Incorporated today launches its campaign for New Zealanders to tick ‘Change’ in the electoral referendum.

“Vote for Change asks the 40% of New Zealanders who have already realised that MMP doesn’t offer enough accountability, to join our group” says Wellington Lawyer and Vote for Change Spokesperson, Jordan Williams. “We want Kiwis to use their opportunity to have a better voting system. Only by voting ‘change’ in November can we ensure a proper debate on MMP’s merits. Only a vote for change will mean there is another vote, a run-off between MMP and one of the four alternatives at the 2014 election.”

“Vote for Change wants a system that restores more certainty, that allows voters to easily hold governments to account and kick rascals out of Parliament,” says Mr Williams. “The current system lets party bosses sneak MPs who have been dismissed by their local electorates back into Parliament on party lists.”

“New Zealanders are tired of Lists that make MPs beholden to political party bosses instead of being accountable to constituents. We want politicians to have to think of the people they serve and not party list rankings when making tough decisions” says Mr Williams.

Vote for Change is a grassroots campaign, with members and supporters from across the political spectrum. Its founding members include Bob Harvey, a former Labour Party president and Michael Bassett, a former Labour Party cabinet minister. A list of founding members is on the campaign’s website www.voteforchange.org.nz . New Zealanders can join the Society and donate to the campaign from today.

With the General Election and attendant referendum now less than five months away, it's timely that Vote for Change had launched itself onto the public stage. Whem MMP was introduced at the 1996 election, we were promised a review, but 15 years on, nothing has eventauted until now.

We did not support MMP when it was introduced, and it probably won't surprise anyone when we say that we still don't support it. Not only did MMP make the Parliament too large and unwieldy, but it gave genuine minor parties far more power than could ever have been intended.

November's referendum then is timely. It is an opportunity for the public to decide whether MMP should be our electoral system going forward, or whether it is time to consider some other form of representation. Let's have the debate, in a reasoned and informed manner, and then let's see what the voting public wants; after all, it's US that the politicians represent.