Dr James Allan: Australia’s Conservatives Are Paying the Price of Kowtowing to the Left

When the so-called ‘moderate’ MPs in a Westminster conservative political party remove a sitting Prime Minister from their own party, one who has delivered a majority government but is to the right of these moderates, the long-term effects are not good. Back in 1990, and after delivering 11 years of majority governments, Maggie Thatcher was knifed by the wets or moderates in the British Tory party. It is arguable that the party has never recovered.

Dr James Allan: Mandates matter

I’ve asked this question before, and I’ll ask it again: why do right-of-centre politicians want to go into politics? If the answer is nothing more than ‘to win elections’, then notice what follows from that value-free vacuum. You can get an Angela Merkel, who won election after election, all while opening up the country’s borders to young, single men from Afghanistan and the Middle East, who overall lacked any obvious sympathy or liking for the whole array of Western values. How has that worked out for Germany?

Kate Hawkesby: Labour are laser-focused on keeping power. But can you trust them?

I said yesterday that I worry we care more about having a Prime Minister who looks like someone you could have a beer with, than caring about leadership, economic responsibility or policies. 

The electorate fell head over heels in love with a smiling friendly looking Jacinda Ardern, until her ideology started to bite, then everyone freaked out and she was gone.

In came smiley friendly looking Chris Hipkins. “Just a boy from the Hutt!” the media exclaimed with glee, Chippy! Guy next door vibes. Innocuous looking.

Gerry Eckhoff: The Sin of Omission

Election time especially can see a strange metamorphosis occur. Candidates promise to understand and serve the will of the people yet can soon change from servant to master.  It is not what is said but what is not said - that is concerning. Yes, space is limited but for a photo shopped candidate to state he/she is in favour of something equivalent to healthy families, clean rivers, blue skies, transparency and accountability, which is not particularly helpful.  

The “sin of omission” is hardly an issue that keeps us all awake at night, but during the election period the impact of deliberate omission can be profound.

Frank Newman: Uniting the Minor Parties

The call has gone out for the minor parties to unite. It’s a great idea, until it comes to putting it into practice. Let’s put hope and wishful thinking aside for a moment and deal with realities.

The minor parties that contested the election in 2020 are: The Opportunities Party (TOP), New Conservative, Advance NZ, Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party, ONE Party, Vision New Zealand, NZ Outdoors Party, TEA Party, Sustainable New Zealand Party, Social Credit, and HeartlandNZ. Collectively these 10 parties gained 5.2% of the vote. That vote was wasted – that percentage was allocated to the parties that did win seats (so Labour was the main beneficiary). 

Guy Steward: Elections

Karl Marx said, “take away a nation’s heritage and they are more easily persuaded”.

That’s us now in New Zealand as we move into 2021, although the taking away and the easy persuasion have been happening for some time. However, the heritage referred to has helped ensure that the way our elections are conducted has remained above board, whether or not the outcome has been to our liking.

Barend Vlaardingerbroek: Is postal voting compatible with the democratic ideal of the secret ballot?

Election time in early to mid-Victorian England used to be a barrel of fun – quite literally, as candidates plied their potential constituents with liquor to gain their favour.

Deals were struck (usually accompanied by the tinkle of gold) with local personages who would see to it that the favour would be returned by all members of that constituency under their influence (bearing in mind that numbers of electors were much smaller in the days when only men who owned property could vote).

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.

Karl du Fresne: A shot in the dark

Some of us (but only a minority, by the look of things) have taken the time during the past couple of weeks to cast our votes in the local government elections. As a result of this three-yearly exercise in participatory democracy, some cities and towns will have new mayors by this time next week. A much larger number will have an intake of new councillors.

As always, the candidates include a significant proportion of no-hopers, cranks, misfits, oddballs, mischief-makers, egotists and single-issue obsessives. Fortunately, local government also attracts conscientious, capable people who genuinely want to serve their communities. The problem for voters is that it’s often hard to tell the difference between the two types of candidate.

Gerry Eckhoff: Independent MPs

At first glance the eventual loss of so many Otago institutions such as the Invermay research facility and Hillside work shops (where railway wagons were built) has little to do with the way we elect our political representatives to Parliament. (It actually has a lot to do with the fact that only railway wagons were built there)

 In fact it has everything to do with our electoral system allowing political parties to appoint – not our, but their representatives. The fault lies directly with the Political Party system of governance of this country. National, Labour, Greens, NZ First etc. all exercise total control of who they will accept into Parliament and not the voters. The voters elect the parties but the MPs are chosen by the party.

Steve Baron: The time for internet voting has arrived

The internet has become intricately entwined in the lives of New Zealanders and has the potential to improve our democracy. A 2010 AUT study showed that as many as 83% of New Zealanders use the internet. While we can enroll to vote online and ballot papers can also be downloaded by New Zealand citizens while overseas, votes cannot be cast over the internet.

The Government, along with the Electoral Commission, appears to be dragging the chain in bringing New Zealand into line with other countries and states. New South Wales in Australia has internet voting as has Canada, France, Estonia and Switzerland.