A bumper morning on Laidlaw. Interesting debate on MMP. We still favour MMP at The Hive. We like having checks and balances within the legislature. Without it we would need to revert to an upper house, or move to a Presidential style, separation of executive from legislature system. We would happily debate this. One advantage would be a huge improvement in the quality of Ministers.....
Unfortunately MMP was introduced at a time when one could assume that there was no, or very little corruption in New Zealand politics and that freedom of speech would be allowed to continue. We assumed that a minor party would not use its position in Government to force through policies that would be feathering the nest of wealthy individuals in narrow sectors, in return for donations. We also assumed that Prime Ministers would not allow New Zealand's international reputation to be tarnished by a minor party leader just for the sake of maintaining a minority. We, of course, have seen that this was a false assumption. And of course we are now not allowed to speak our minds as freely thanks to the EFA. But should this mean an end to MMP? No, we say. But it does mean the enforcement of our electoral laws is important, and it means a new, totally independent commission to investigate and stamp out corruption is essential.
