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Politics in NZ

Entry 2457, on 2026-09-23 at 15:56:55 (Rating 3, Politics)

Here in New Zealand we are being inflicted with the buildup to the next general election, which is on 7 November. I have sort of contradictory views on this: first, I am cynical about politics, and find some of it quite tedious and time wasting; but second, I often find other parts quite interesting, and there is no doubt that it is important for everyone, and in general I advise people to vote.

There are seven significant parties to choose from this time: Labour (center-left, moderately socialist), National (center-right, mildly conservative), Act (moderate right, libertarian), New Zealand First (populist, centre-right, somewhat conservative), Greens (environmentalist, neo-Marxist), Opportunities Party (center-left, somewhat progressive), and Maori (race-based, leftist).

So there is plenty of choice there, and everyone should be able to find a party which suits their preferences at least part, or hopefully most, of the time. And they all have a legitimate right to represent a particular political ideology.

Some though, are primarily ideological and others are more pragmatic. There is nothing wrong with ideology, as long as it is acknowledged honestly, but I would prefer for all parties to implement practical solutions instead of excessively relying on ideological preferences and dogma.

There is also a problem with the Maori Party. Its only chance to gain power is to exploit the special privilege given to Maori voters who can enroll in either the general or Maori roll. All other parties have to either reach 5% of the total vote, or gain one general electorate seat, but Maori can rely on the Maori seats, giving their supporters extra power. This is not fair, and I would like to see the Maori seats abolished.

There is also the issue with that 5% threshold. It looks like one new party, Opportunity Party, might get past that number and gain some power, but that is not guaranteed, and it has been very difficult in the past for new parties to reach 5%. Note that I would prefer Opportunity not to gain any power, but I'm talking about the general principle here.

Finally there is the issue of MMP. We use the mixed member proportional system here. Everyone gets two votes: one for a local candidate and one for a party. Every candidate who wins an electorate gets into parliament, but its overall proportionality is based on the total votes for the parties. To establish this, extra members are taken from a list which each party has until the correct proportion is reached.

Some people find this unfair and would prefer to return to our previous system, first past the post, where there are only electorate candidates and the party with the most seats forms the new government.

If we returned to FPP I wouldn't bother voting, because Dunedin always elects a Labour candidate, and I don't support Labour any more (I used to). So my vote is completely wasted under that system. At least under MMP my party vote counts towards the proportionality of the government that is formed.

Also, there were times in the past where the party with the most votes only had a total percentage in the 30s. That was still higher than the next highest party, but it meant that twice as many people (roughly) didn't vote for the government than did. How is that fair?

One major objection to MMP is that the people taken from the party lists are not elected in the same way as those in electorates. That is true, but people do vote for parties more than individuals, and a vote for a party is an implied vote for people on its list. So in that way, they sort of are elected.

Another objection is that new governments are almost always composed of more than one party and this has two negative effects: first, it makes the government less stable than one with a single party would be; and second, the smaller parties often have more influence than their proportion of votes would suggest, because they get extra bargaining power because the biggest party in the government has to rely on them for support. That is a fair point, but I think the positives of having those smaller parties outweigh the negatives.

So I support a proportional system, and we have MMP now so I say let's just stick with it. The main alternative, STV, would be better, but many people don't understand it, and the switch would be problematic, possibly involving a referendum.

Finally, I would like to ask you all not to fall into the trap of treating supporters of other parties as if they were bad people. Not many people are actively evil. If you are on the left you might be tempted to think of those on the right as self-centered, or uncaring, or racist, but that is not true in almost every case. The people you disagree with generally want similar outcomes to you, they just have a different way of achieving it.

For example, to improve housing you could take the leftist route and use taxes to build cheap houses, or you could take the more right oriented path and change tax and market rules to encourage more private builds and/or reduce the price of current houses. You might agree or disagree with either of those approaches but no one wants to see a lot of homeless people - although we have had them with both approaches!

I can cope with Labour in power, but I am very dubious of Green or Maori, who Labour would need as support parties. It seems to me that they would be a disaster. But I will try to cope if that happens. Those parties aren't evil, they're just deluded.

Comment 1 (9601) by EK on 2026-09-28 at 10:28:32:

How do you rate our chances of getting a 4 year legislative term to end, or at least alleviate, this political seesawing in major project and innovasions?

Comment 2 (9602) by OJB on 2026-09-29 at 17:09:36:

I think give the current cynicism for politics people might be hesitant to allow them an extra year to "mess things up" even more than they do now, so if it was put to a referendum, probably not. Not sure if it is a high priority for most politicians. Not even sure it is a good idea: I can see arguments both ways.

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