Parties needed that will work with anyone

give either large party an outright majority. We seem reluctant to hand them unbridled power as they had in the 1980s and 90s. We prefer coalitions as they keep the large parties in check. So Labour and National have had to rely on working with smaller parties to command the Treasury benches.

Some of those parties, like ACT and the Greens, refuse to work with the other side, which effectively makes them part of the two-party system. This hands enormous bargaining power to parties in the centre who are prepared to work with either side. This role is often known as the ‘‘king (or more appropriately these days, monarch) maker’’ as it decides who leads the government.

For a long time this group of monarch makers included Unitedfuture and the Ma¯ ori Party. But in this term of government, the monarch maker has been Winston Peters. Can we put a price on his support? You betcha! It is $3 billion and is known as the Provincial Growth Fund.

Depending on how the donations scandal plays out, NZ First may disappear from contention at the next election. If it doesn’t, the next election could shape up like the last one: an episode of The Bachelor where Winston holds the roses.

To avoid being held ransom to NZ First, New Zealand desperately needs sensible parties that are prepared to work with Labour or National. Sadly, the cost of setting up a new party that can get over the 5 per cent threshold is enormous, and the waka-jumping legislation killed off the possibility of new parties appearing from inside Parliament.

The short-term answer to this conundrum is strategic voting. The electorate battles make very little difference to the outcome of an election, which is ultimately decided by the party vote. However, if a minor party wins one electorate, it gets the electorate’s full party vote. It is a bizarre quirk in our current system.

With strategic voting, instead of conservative populism holding the most powerful position in New Zealand politics, this spot could be held by a party that wants to take the country forward.