Can't see that happening. Despite Labour turning hard right, on election night they were still in theory pretty left wing – election policies etc. Can't pick NZ Party going with them until Douglas started to fire…

(our alt.history MMP with no minimum)

Other than Labour/Values winning in '72, Social Credit has held the balance of power since forever. Labour wins again for one term in 1984 with…

1981: 47 National, 25 Social Credit. No foreign borrowing for think big.
1984: 52 Labour, 15 Bob Jones. Free…

I wonder how much of that is people who mistakenly believe that NZ has more elected representatives with legislative authority than other countries. We actually have…

Hard to argue with that.

Most worrying thing about keeping the threshold quite high is how hard it is for new political movements to gain any parliamentary experience and resources without…

I wonder if those people would rather that country was run by a CERA style board of 'highly-qualified people' with a handful of MPs to act as a rubber stamp.

Operating Parliament, including buildings, salaries and expenses, costs a tiny, tiny fraction…

Possibly the first time anyone, anywhere has made a genuinely funny joke about the issue of electoral reform. To you, sir, I bow in humble amazement.

And despite being a South Islander I do wonder if a debate about the 16 seats for the south would be worthwhile especially as all forward population studies show a…

The Maori Party don’t make any serious effort to seek list votes. While this is their right (and I don’t think Pakeha and others have any standing to interfere with the disposition of the Maori seats) it does have a…

Goldilocks was still ejected from the house by a bear majority.

As I understand it, no. It means that if there would be an…

Anderton got a ministerial role on the back of his microparty and electorate showing (even as the former tended to miniscule). If he'd stayed in Labour, he probably wouldn't have done. So those Wigram voters (not to mention…

You have misunderstood it. The Electoral Commisison is proposing that a) parties which…

Have I misunderstood this change, or does this mean that the Maori Party, who have never received a single seat from list votes, will lose any…

The 4% improves proportionality, but removing the electoral seat lifeboat (likely) reduces it – a party that wins 3.5% of the vote…

i don't get how it reduces proportionality. Surely it increases it? Maybe not as much as setting the threshold lower,…

But in turn that becomes complicated because the terms of reference of that Review don't require a report until Sept 2013. That is far too late in the cycle for any changes for the…

Basically, at best we have a Parliament as representative as we have now. But we're looking at significantly worse in some cases, which have…

The Electoral Commission's proposals would have made the results of the 2011 election more proportional, not less.

Same with 2008.

Paraphrasing
That some voters choose not to avail themselves of the history of Winston Peters does not alter the fact that voters…

That some voters choose not to avail themselves of the information readily available to them in party lists does not alter the fact that list MPs are elected.

But it still reduces proportionality. It would have…

That's because it can't be answered without knowing the Constitutional Review's answer on the Maori…

"In conclusion, therefore, the Commission’s sense is that 5% is too high and that 3% is the lowest end of an acceptable range. We suggest 4% is preferable. It reflects the Royal Commission’s original recommendation. It would compensate for abolition of the…

[Background: keeping a minimum of 16 South Island electorates over time increases the number of…