Public Address | Cafe | Legal Beagle: Last call on the Electoral (Integrity) Bill: A plea for Labour, New Zealand First and Green MPs to consider some minor amendments

Dennis Frank

Sun, 21 Oct 2018 14:00:56 +1300

😎 good one, Simon. If they don't manage to get JLR into a coalition partner for National, or re-insert the stray sheep into the fold, and if TOP fails to get over the threshold again, and Winston retires, Nats will have to transform themselves into a progressive conservative party to…

simon g

Sun, 21 Oct 2018 11:13:45 +1300

Farrar is already suggesting on Kiwiblog that a deal could be done with Ross.

It's been a year since Farrar last suggested a "deal". Let's check in with our alternative historians, reporting live from Planet DPF, in October 2018 :

"The National-Green coalition collapsed today, following revelations about the behaviour…

Dennis Frank

Sun, 21 Oct 2018 06:57:17 +1300

Mitchell, Collins & Ross are/were all clients of Lusk, according to various media reports. Two of the three are leading contenders to take over from Bridges. Seems an extremely sound basis for a conspiracy theory.

The doctrine of plausible deniability suggests use of `were' in respect to relations with Lusk is…

linger

Sat, 20 Oct 2018 08:27:50 +1300

Applying "waka jumping" to someone who has not jumped to a different waka, who was arguably pushed as much as jumping, and who still has some claim to representing an electorate … well, I don't think that particular law should exist at all, but this doesn't seem the most appropriate…

simon g

Fri, 19 Oct 2018 17:47:44 +1300

Well, this may be getting tested a lot earlier than anybody anticipated!

Mark Mitchell on RNZ Checkpoint says that National should NOT use the "waka jumping" law to get rid of Jami-Lee Ross.

It's a nightmare if he stays in Parliament (and not just for National actually – the gov't…

linger

Thu, 23 Aug 2018 10:29:28 +1200

Yes, but is the proposed waka-jumping bill going to be based on decisions made by all party members, or just its sitting MPs?

Sacha

Thu, 23 Aug 2018 10:00:41 +1200

Parties are made up of the people whom they collectively choose to represent them in Parliament.
...
why is it such a foregone conclusion that the party's executive is better at representing the party's voters than the list MPs who can't continue to work with it?

Not quite. MMP works…

Dennis Frank

Wed, 22 Aug 2018 19:45:20 +1200

Graeme, one of the contributors to the Standard has compiled a comprehensive report on how the Bill has been processed through the select committee: https://thestandard.org.nz/daily-review-22-08-2018/#comment-1516730

I hope you will examine it and comment here on any points you consider relevant. I commented onsite there from the perspective of someone surprised…

izogi

Tue, 21 Aug 2018 16:40:55 +1200

List MPs votes belong not to them, but to the party they represent. It always seemed logical to me that if a list MP resigns, or is sacked by their party, the next person on the list should take their seat.

I'd counter this by saying that Parties are made…

izogi

Tue, 21 Aug 2018 16:35:58 +1200

Is there something that could reasonably be done to place stronger constitutional constraints on further manipulation of the Electoral Act? Or at least certain parts of it?

In the 90s we had a big discussion and voted to switch to MMP. In 2011 we voted to keep it, on condition…

Strypey

Sun, 19 Aug 2018 04:22:18 +1200

Paul Campbell

Fri, 17 Aug 2018 19:01:01 +1200

A party of two would probably require special rules .... it sort of breaks everything

tussock

Mon, 13 Aug 2018 20:41:24 +1200

It would require registered parties to have rules around the process they would use to seek to expel an MP from Parliament.
Not just that, I would hope, but also clear rules for what constitutes a breach of proportionality to each party, so that MPs are not loosely ambushed by…

Dennis Frank

Mon, 13 Aug 2018 09:11:28 +1200

Yeah, good one.

linger

Mon, 13 Aug 2018 08:19:32 +1200

Perhaps specify "near unanimity" as "one or two dissenters" or "two-thirds", whichever is the maximum: consider the case of a party with fewer than 5 MPs.

Tom Semmens

Mon, 13 Aug 2018 07:11:24 +1200

If you want to read a thought-provoking defence of the bill, Chris Trotter published one here.

I think anything that provides constitutional precedent for regulating the largely unregulated powers of political parties in the MMP environment is probably a good thing, so the amendments suggested above seem reasonable, especially as…

Dennis Frank

Mon, 13 Aug 2018 07:01:55 +1200

I agree, and support your call for those amendments to be incorporated. Near unanimity can be specified as either one or two dissenters only.

I was disappointed that Gholris didn't advocate on behalf of electors, and instead used a pile of dubious and marginally relevant reasons for the Greens to…

Public Address

Mon, 13 Aug 2018 07:01:55 +1200

Discussion from blog post.