Public Address | Cafe | Legal Beagle: I heartily endorse this product or event

peterpeasant

Tue, 27 Sep 2011 23:31:31 +1300

Pretty good site.

"spectrum "response got me well placed.

recommend it. Just remember your responses to questions.

Kyle Matthews

Tue, 06 Sep 2011 12:00:37 +1200

In the latter case, voters have a far better chance of over-turning the party’s decision. If, say, 60% of Helensville voters despise National’s choice for Helensville, they have a very good chance of getting someone else. If 80% of party voters despise National’s #1 list candidate, they have next to…

Tim McKenzie

Mon, 05 Sep 2011 13:27:01 +1200

Being #1 on the list or National candidate for Helensville both guarantee election.
In the latter case, voters have a far better chance of over-turning the party's decision. If, say, 60% of Helensville voters despise National's choice for Helensville, they have a very good chance of getting someone else. If…

Rich of Observationz

Mon, 05 Sep 2011 12:06:43 +1200

…do you want (at least some) MPs to be selected by (and therefore accountable to) parties?

MPs are selected by parties in all systems. Electorate MPs are chosen by the party, and their chance of being elected depends on the electorate. Being #1 on the list or National candidate for…

Tim McKenzie

Mon, 05 Sep 2011 11:37:40 +1200

FPP makes it really hard to throw the bastards out.
If you mean throwing parties out of government, maybe, I haven't thought about it in depth. If you mean throwing individual MPs out of Parliament, then MMP makes it much harder.

Take, for example, David Carter --- 9th on National's…

Graeme Edgeler

Mon, 05 Sep 2011 10:39:56 +1200

It’s not that I see the site as a bad idea, just the EC’s involvement.

They've been pretty careful:

1. It doesn't say which you should vote for based on your answers.
2. It keeps repeating that there's no perfect system.
3. They had outside experts do most of the…

Rich of Observationz

Mon, 05 Sep 2011 10:17:46 +1200

The site looks really nice, but I'm a bit wary about the Electoral Commission doing this sort of thing.

To me, their advocacy should be limited to encouraging people to vote and explaining how to do so. This seems to be a bit beyond that (one could do a similar…

Rich Lock

Mon, 05 Sep 2011 09:17:13 +1200

If anyone is interested, there is a 'keep MMP' campaign.

http://www.campaignformmp.org.nz/

They are not (yet) all that active, but hopefully that'll ramp up. Apparently there's some sporting event on or something.

Graeme Edgeler

Mon, 05 Sep 2011 07:38:53 +1200

You wouldn’t tend to get a strong swing away from a government who then held onto power by forming a coalition with someone that was from the opposition – that’s happened under MMP.

That can happen under MMP. But it hasn't.

In 1996 there was a slight swing away from…

Kyle Matthews

Sun, 04 Sep 2011 20:18:28 +1200

FPP makes it really hard to throw the bastards out. That’s the problem with it.

I don't think that's true – relative to others.

It was under MMP that we had Winston picking who to go with and the baubles of power.

FPP tended to make changes of government based…

tussock

Sun, 04 Sep 2011 01:26:32 +1200

FPP makes it really hard to throw the bastards out. That’s the problem with it. Government can stay in total control on 30% of the vote, and so can local MPs. Disaster. All about the vote-splitting nature of the system, particularly hard on the more fragmented left.

There’s systems around…

steve black

Fri, 02 Sep 2011 15:52:17 +1200

I’ve been travelling around Australia for the past 3 months or so and it is interesting to see what’s going on here politically. With a partially proportional system (it’s complex what with two houses and all) they have managed to recapitulate most of the issues which we have travelled through…

Graeme Edgeler

Fri, 02 Sep 2011 14:30:38 +1200

I’d prefer something I could use without having to let Adobe’s (or anyone else’s) proprietary, secret-source software do goodness-knows-what to my computer.

Will I have something for you!

Tim McKenzie

Fri, 02 Sep 2011 14:18:30 +1200

You should head over there. It’s pretty flash.
I'd prefer something I could use without having to let Adobe's (or anyone else's) proprietary, secret-source software do goodness-knows-what to my computer.

Graeme Edgeler

Fri, 02 Sep 2011 12:59:27 +1200

Sorry about the paragraphing, it's fixed now.

Anne M

Fri, 02 Sep 2011 12:59:12 +1200

Thank you!

I've sent the link to my befuddled ("referendum? what?") colleagues

Public Address

Fri, 02 Sep 2011 12:59:12 +1200

Discussion from blog post.