Electoral (Repeal Of Threshold) Amendment Bill
Project discussion: Remove the MMP threshold
Electoral (Repeal of Threshold) Amendment Bill
Member's Bill
Explanatory Note
(TBD)
Electoral (Repeal of Threshold) Amendment Bill
The Parliament of New Zealand enacts as follows:
1. Title
This Act is the Electoral (Repeal of Threshold) Amendment Act 2009
2. Commencement
This Act comes into force on the day after the date on which it receives the Royal assent.
3. Purpose
The purpose of this Act is to amend the Electoral Act 1993 to repeal the 5% threshold in MMP.
4. Principal Act Amended
This Act amends the Electoral Act 1993.
5. 5% Threshold repealed
Sections 191 (4) and 191 (4A) of the principal act are repealed.
page revision: 1, last edited: 08 Feb 2009 12:21
Shouldn't it address the problem of coat-tail MPs in the current system as well, i.e. ACT MPs who only got in because Hide won an electorate?
And what about the overhang problem, i.e. Maori Party getting more seats than their MMP percentage justifiably allows for?
a) One thing at a time. You could propose a more extensive MMP reform bill, but it would be that much more of a challenge to draft and sell to an MP.
b) "coat-tail MPs", as you term them, are a feature, not a bug. They make Parliament more proportional, not less. I know everyone hates ACT, but they won 3.65% of the vote, and are therefore entitled to 3.65% of the seats. The inequity here is that they got seats while NZ First, who won more of the vote, got nothing. And that's what this bill is intended to correct.
c) Dealing with the overhang requires abolishing electorates. We can't do that without a referendum or a 75% majority, which I think puts it a bit beyond the scope of this project. Think small!
I do feel that the threshold serves a purpose, in that a single MP in their own party (like Anderton or Dunne) has more power than they would as a backbencher in a larger party.
One alternative to abolishing the threshold would be to introduce preferential voting for the list, e.g, people could vote along the lines of:
1. RAM
2. Alliance
3. Greens
4. Labour
(with preferences being reallocated when a party didn't reach 5%)
This would prevent the situation where voters shun smaller parties for fear of a wasted vote.
Another option would be to make electorates more democratic by having preferential votes there as well.
Finally (reducing complexity) we could remove the split vote. People would vote (preferentially) for candidates, and their party vote would go to that candidates party. That would reduce overhangs while retaining electorates (because a party that elected members would also get a reasonably large list vote).
We could also tack on overhang MPs reducing the number of MPs in Parliament like independents do. That doesn't deal with the overhang so much as make sure the number of MPs is always capped at 120, though.