Crash Course in New Zealand Politics

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ScottStevensNZ

245 posts

Master Geek

#531986 11-Oct-2011 15:58

lyma: In Australia I was becoming more politically savvy - taking more of an interest, learning more, etc. I think it's important to have some political knowledge of the country you're living in (under-statement, perhaps) but in my 3 months here in NZ so far, politics hasn't been top of my "get to know" list (local eateries etc, however, another story)...

Can some politically minded person give me a basic run down (dot points work for me!) of the political system/upcoming election here in NZ?

I realise some of you will roll your eyes at this...

Thank you in advance for taking pity on me and sharing your dot-pointed knowledge.

And as you can see about the ongoing discussion regarding the pro's and con's of each electoral system, some kiwis (including me) have fairly strong opinions on politics :) (Simple solution is vote for me...)

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Linuxluver

5824 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Subscriber

#533286 14-Oct-2011 11:43

TheUngeek: No, you are mistaken, what happens when those 5% are looking to join the 47% to form a government. that is what I am talking about.
The tail wags the dog.

Your "dog" is just one more tail....or they would have more than 50% of MPs and have a majority.

No majority? Tail...meet tail.

I'd rather have it this way than have some group pervert the voting system until it makes a dog out of a tail.....and hands 100% of the power to one party the majority did not vote for.

If you don't like minorities dictating to everyone else, then there is no way you can support FPP, PV or SM.

These three voting systems give power to one party the majority did not vote for.

In my book...that's a degraded form of democracy...and the people who want to deprive others of their fair representation are my enemies and the enemies of democracy in general.

They want to make my vote worthless so they can give themselves the seats my party SHOULD have got in a fair election.

Wars have been fought for less. This isn't trivial.

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Bee

671 posts

Ultimate Geek

#533308 14-Oct-2011 12:34

The real problem, that I've seen time and time again in this country is when the majority party decides to do something that only the minority of the people support. We as the people can protest and voice our opinions to them as much as we like and in the end it makes no difference...

The minority party can debate and discuss the issues in parliament and even thou their arguments make perfect logical sense, in the end the majority party rules when the vote is taken and the laws and policies that the majority of the people DO NOT support are passed.

I believe this is just an inherent problem with Democracy - not just MMP or FPP. Basically, we elect a government whether it be a single party or coalition because they say one thing and then for 3 years they are free to do the complete opposite or anything else they decide to do and basically be dictators.

Doing your best is much more important than being the best.

trig42

5604 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

#533309 14-Oct-2011 12:35

I prefer MMP to the old FPP, but I would like to see if there is anything better out there (STV maybe?)

I think this term, MMP has worked well (is that because Winston wasn't there to stuff things up in the post election whoring around?), but in the past it has been a shambles with weak coalitions and parties changing allegiances/leaving the coalition through the term.

I think that the parliamentary term should be longer though - 3 years isn't enough time for an incoming government to implement the policies it was elected on (1st year bedding in, second year making policy, 3rd year greasing up to everyone so they can get elected again). 4 Years would be better IMO.

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