Legal Beagle by Graeme Edgeler

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Legal Beagle: A four-year parliamentary term?

80 Responses

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  • James,

    Had anyone suggested linking the 4 year term with term limits? So for example, a prime minister could be limited to a single 4 year term?

    Could remove a lot of distractions from cabinet ministers - and shadow ministers - if they all knew they had a better chance of having a turn.

    New Zealand • Since Feb 2007 • 34 posts Report Reply

  • DexterX, in reply to Jeremy Andrew,

    Richard Prosser

    Silly Little Girl

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 1224 posts Report Reply

  • Kyle Matthews,

    Not sure, to be honest. They need to be “given a space”, definitely. But that’s not the same as “given more space”. They get an extremely long space already, by comparison to practically any other kind of work.

    I don’t think it’s too bad here, but the US 2 year congressional term, combined with the horrendous influence that money has in their electoral system clearly isn’t working for them.

    Me too. There aren’t a whole lot of times I can think of when I’ve gone “If only they had a couple more years to slip that one through, things would be so much better now”. But quite a few times where I’ve gone “If only there had been an election looming, this wouldn’t have happened, and things would be better”.

    The suspending/dismantlement/deposing of ECAN received assent in April 2010, well halfway into the electoral cycle. The outcry over it and any electoral impact has been nigh on embarrassing for a democratic first world nation.

    Yes governments pass policies etc with an eye on people’s short memories and the electoral cycle. But like the US issue it is at least as much a problem of money as electoral terms, surely the problem here is that electors haven’t taken the suspension of democratic bodies seriously enough and punished the government for it.

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report Reply

  • Rob Stowell, in reply to Kyle Matthews,

    The suspending/dismantlement/deposing of ECAN received assent in April 2010, well halfway into the electoral cycle.

    There was a good 18 months and a significant distraction or two between that and the election at the end of 2011. But yeah: it's an embarrassment and a disgrace.

    Whakaraupo • Since Nov 2006 • 2120 posts Report Reply

  • BenWilson, in reply to Kyle Matthews,

    I don’t think it’s too bad here, but the US 2 year congressional term, combined with the horrendous influence that money has in their electoral system clearly isn’t working for them.

    There's so much that's broken in the US system, that it's hard to pinpoint anything in particular. It's a highly exceptional nation, being the richest and most powerful, and one of the largest, physically, and in population. Their system seems to have served them for hundreds of years now. To me Congress looks like a very real check on the incredibly large power of the President, something we might not be so concerned about under Obama, but there have been American presidents who were bad enough that a check like that is well worth keeping around.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 10657 posts Report Reply

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