Philip Temple: Nothing to fear?

On 24 April the Minister for Māori Development, the Hon. Willie Jackson, stated on TVNZ’s Q+A programme that government plans for Māori co-governance were part of MMP. It meant ‘shared decision-making’, ‘partnership’, ‘diversity, about minorities working together’. ‘Co-governance is based on the principles of MMP, this is a consensus type democracy now’, ‘not the tyranny of the majority anymore’. And ‘co-governance and co-partnership are the same thing’ as MMP.

In 1992 and 1993, a dual referendum process was undertaken before MMP was voted on to change our electoral system. The electoral information process was overseen by the neutral non-partisan Electoral Referendum Panel. All this was based on the exhaustive 1986 Report of the Royal Commission on the Electoral System, ‘Towards a Better Democracy’. By the time the MMP vote was taken in November 1993, the issues has been thoroughly aired and debated, encouraged by organisations such as the Electoral Reform Coalition (for) and the Campaign for Better Government (against).