Keep MMP Launch
Keep MMP are having their campaign launch in Auckland this Friday.
Launch in the morning at Wynyard Quarter; Party in the evening on K Rd.
Get along, have fun, and show your support. Make sure all our votes count.
If Epsom & Ohariu were Northland & Te Tai Tonga…
Just why is it that the anti-MMP crowd only complain about small parties having too much power when those parties are the Greens?
Queen of Thorns has a few thoughts on the matter…
Debate on the electoral system
RNZ’s Insight is hosting a debate on the Electoral System Referendum in Wellington. It’s an excellent panel. If you want to be part of the audience, get along to Te Papa’s Sounding’s Theatre at 6pm next Wednesday, October 26.
NRT on MMP threshold
I/S at No Right Turn looks at the arguments for lowering the MMP threshold instead, or as a trade off for, getting rid of the ‘win an electorate, win list MPs’ rule. The conservatives say that a low threshold would mean more parties and ‘instability’. I/S shows that’s not only mathematically false, it’s not a reason to deny people democratic representation.
Vote for Change’s heart of darkness
Peter Shirtcliffe’s Anti-MMP Vote For Change group has just 16 members and one of them has turned out to be a neo-Nazi. Is it a case of being so short of mates they’ll accept anyone who turns up, or does this give us a truer picture of who really wants to get rid of MMP? The latter, I think.
Anti-MMP group white supremacist link
A good piece of detective work at TUMEKE! has revealed that a founding member of the anti-MMP group “Vote for Change”, one Alex Fogerty, is a white supremacist. Labour Party candidate for Dunedin North, David Clark, notes an interesting entry on Fogerty’s friend list…
MMP rules, FPP/SM drools
Times that the Government had the support of the majority of voters under FPP from formation of Reform (beginning on multi-party system) in 1911: 7 out of 27 (26%)
Times that the Government has had the support of the majority of voters under MMP: 4 out of 5 (80%)
(Another) Tory astroturf fail
The latest anti-MMP outfit is already unraveling with Pundit’s Rob Salmond uncovering the fact it’s basically the Peter Shirtcliffe club.
It’s a surprisingly clumsy effort. Especially given David Farrar provided strategic advice.
I guess he’s not learned any lessons from his previous PR fiascos…
Shirtcliffe’s anti-MMP campaign launches
Peter Shirtcliffe’s latest attempt to destroy MMP has finally launched. The man who spent a million dollars in 1993 is a shadow of his former self. Now, he and his cronies are so despised he can’t front the organisation himself, he’s got some kid doing it. And FPP/SM is so despised they won’t actually campaign for it overtly.
The Right’s MMP conundrum
If there is one silver lining to the cloud of a National government, it is that the MMP referendum has come up on their watch. It rather cripples their attack lines.
Anti-MMP cabal rumbled
National Party pollster David Farrar is to be campaign strategist for an anti-MMP campaign. He’s joined by Nat ‘campaign manager for hire’ Simon Lusk who did the work on the Brash coup, and Jordan Williams a former Young Nat also involved in the Brash coup. I assume the campaign material will have National Party logos on it.
Campaign for MMP Quiz Night
Quiz Night. Food and prizes provided. Friday 13 May, 7pm.
Fickling Convention Centre, Auckland.
Tizard not coming back
Judith Tizard won’t take Labour’s vacant seat in Parliament. It’s the right thing to do. It’s only a quirk that we should be looking back to a list written in 2008 to fill a seat for 6 months now. Tizard and the next four on the 2008 list aren’t on the 2011 list. Their lives have moved on. Better for the seat to go to someone with a Parliamentary future – Louisa Wall.
Key and Shirtcliffe conspire against MMP
Leaked notes from a meeting between Peter Shirtcliffe and Wayne Eagleson have revealed backroom dealings to kill off MMP.
We shouldn’t be surprised that the party of big business and the big-business-backed anti-MMP lobby would be colluding.
After all, it’s in all of their interests to take power from the voters and put it back in the hands of the elite.
Key’s clumsy opportunism
John Key has tried to use the ACT fiasco to take a clumsy swing at MMP.
I guess he reckons it’s just too hard to rip voters off when you have to chase a party vote.
Fixing the election date
Pundit writer and legal academic Andrew Geddis has been doing some important work on electoral law, including contributions to the select committee that is looking at the 2011 referendum on MMP and the reform of campaign funding practices. You should head on over to Pundit and have a look.
Referendum vote count undemocratic
The way the votes will be counted in the Government’s MMP Referendum Bill is highly unusual and in my view undemocratic. There will not be any independent scrutiny on election day of the votes cast or spoiled in the referendum. Independent scrutiny of the ballot in my view is essential part to retaining confidence in the democratic process.
Shirtcliffe can’t tell his electoral systems apart
No Right Turn on the ignorance of the main campaigner wanting a change to our electoral system. You’d think that if you’re campaigning for something that you’d at least know what you are campaigning for. But apparently not.
Help the Campaign for MMP, they’re Internet illiterates
One thing that the election in Britain brought home to me, was how much I’m grateful for having Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) representation here. I didn’t start that way. Over time, I’ve grown to appreciate the gradual progress and stability offered by MMP. However the people at the Campaign for MMP could do with a little help in the Internet age. They’re operating like it was 1993.
Poll good news for MMP
No Right Turn covers the latest UMR poll on MMP, which shows a good but by no means unassailable lead for MMP over less representative systems.
With the forces of reaction once again emerging to undermine our democracy we all need to get in behind the Campaign for MMP.
Key’s loose government
Over the weekend r0b reckoned the shambles of the Key government would start to really hurt. I was sceptical. Winning the next election […]
Poll shows Kiwis prefer MMP
NZPA reports on a new poll from UMR which shows Kiwis don’t want to dump MMP for a less proportional electoral system. The […]
Why National really hates proportional electoral systems
These data, taken from the Elections NZ site, show election results since National’s inception up until the last First Past the Post (FPP) […]
MMP strengthening our democracy
As the assorted rich, white old men behind Peter Shirtcliffe start their campaign to dump MMP, it’s worth remembering that the diversity we […]
Labour Grasps Nettle: Nettles Usually Sting
By Rob Salmond It sounds like Phil G did a great job at Labour’s conference setting out where the party should go from […]
The emerging consensus to keep MMP
Unexpectedly, a consensus is emerging to keep MMP. A search of the Herald, Stuff and other sites shows that most editorial pages and […]
Why Supplementary Member sucks
National and the business elite led by former Telecom chairman Peter Shirtcliffe (who led the pro-FPP campaign back in the 1990s) want to […]
Fran lets the plan slip
Fran O’Sullivan has rather given the game away on the MMP referendum. Frog has explained it so well, I can’t do better than […]
Thinking about a referendum on MMP
There is an interesting paper by Mai Chen in NZ Lawyer Online about the pros and cons of the referendum on MMP that […]
Russian oligarch urges dump MMP
So, the Business Roundtable has resorted to calling in Russian oligarchs to aid their campaign against proportional represenation. Here’s what “Taranaki-born former Treasury […]
Winner takes all (of us to the cleaners?)
The Sunday Star Times reports National is keen to have a referendum on MMP. As you would expect Peter Shirtcliffe has been involved […]
An emerging threat to MMP?
After Brash and the extreme right were exposed in The Hollow Men the Nats changed their leader hoping for a fresh start. What’s […]