Rex Warwood: New Zealand in urgent need of a reset of the way it is governed

Former Prime Minister, Sir John Key, is obviously still hurting after losing his bid in 2016, to see a change in the make-up of New Zealand’s flag when the vote in the second referendum ended with 56.6 per cent to 43.2 per cent support for the current national flag.

Sir John was reported as saying recently he would not hold a flag referendum if he could have his time as Prime Minister again. “Instead,” stated 1 TV News, “he would simply change New Zealand's national flag and “let the public love it or lump it.”

This story raised the question of binding referenda, a subject which is taboo to most politicians who know very well that by giving the public a say on major issues, the politicians would lose a large proportion of the control which they now currently hold over the electorate.

David Round: Democracy!

  

Colin Craig, the leader of the Conservative Party, recently announced that a bottom line in any coalition agreement with the National Party after the general election would be National’s agreement to introduce binding referendums as part of our constitutional arrangements. These referendums would, presumably, be ones initiated by citizens themselves, such as we already have here in non-binding form. (In some countries governments themselves can propose referendums, to run their ideas past the people.) 

Binding referendums are familiar to us from overseas; in California, for example, citizens vote on “propositions’, put forward by a certain minimum number of voters, at the same time they cast their ballots in general elections. The resulting decision of the voters automatically acquires legal effect.