No one seems to be willing to pick up the anti-MMP banner and run with it heading into the referendum.
The arguments for and against proportional representation are being rehearsed in the UK, where the junior Coalition Partner, the ‘Liberal Democrats,’ have achieved their aim of putting AV (alternative voting) to a public poll.
The Lib-Dems’ leader, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, has argued the benefits in the Daily Telegraph: “I believe there is a direct link between our electoral system and the expenses scandal,” he said.
“Why? Not because a new system like AV will turn all politicians into angels — but because the old first-past-the-post system gives hundreds of MPs safe seats: jobs for life, no questions asked.”
Any New Zealander could dismiss that argument: MMP has created even more “jobs for life” MPs, who are entrenched on the List, while “safe” electoral seats are in the minority.
Telegraph readers were also offered a sceptic’s view of outcomes from Australia’s preferential system, which many say is the best alternative to MMP.
Meanwhile, the voters of Finland are likely to wait until the middle of June to see what shape their Government might have (Belgium has just entered the Guinness Book of Records for going a year without one, something that may be worth trying as well).
Like Canada, Finland is afflicted by having more than two political parties that each attract about a fifth of the voting public.
In the latest election, a new Party of the right, ‘True Finns,’ surged to 19% of the vote with nationalistic, Euro-sceptic policies that strongly oppose bailouts of Greece, Ireland, et al.
The next Government will try to combine the ‘True Finns’ with two other water-and-oil parties: the conservative but globalist ‘National Coalition’ (20.4%) and the ‘Social Democrats’ (19.1%).
Nevil Gibson is Editor-in-Chief of the National Business Review. The above appeared as a part of his online Insight column.
