Wanted: political parties that’ll work with anyone
New Zealanders have embraced MMP, but for some reason we are stubbornly stuck in the two-party system. This is preventing us from receiving the full benefits of proportional representation. We haven’t had MMP for very long, in the context of things. And we still seem to have a hangover from the First Past the Post system of having two major parties. As a result, the public sees only two perspectives: the Government and the Opposition, slugging it out trench-warfare style. We see the same narrative playing out in the United States, Britain, and Australia.
Countries seem to develop a more mature approach to proportional representation over time.
Germany has the same MMP system as we do, but it has six parties in Parliament, each with between 9 and
33 per cent of the vote. Finland is in vogue for having the world’s youngest sitting prime minister, Sanna Marin. Her party is the largest of the nine parties in Parliament, with 20 per cent of the vote.
Having more parties gives a country’s politics a very different flavour. There are more than two perspectives to consider on any given issue. This prevents people from falling into us vs them camps, polarising politics.
It provides an outlet for different ways of looking at the world, and means that people are less likely to disagree with each other just for the sake of it.
Meanwhile, here in New Zealand we seem entrenched in what is effectively a two-party system.
Both of our major parties refuse to work with each other, despite having basically the same ideas. They rely on tribal politics – red vs blue – to hold themselves together as they battle for the hearts of ‘‘middle New Zealand’’.
Since we have had MMP, Kiwis have refused to 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 the former is finished and it is unclear whether the latter will recover from the last election. 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 that take place around the country 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, but that’s the way the game goes at present.
Strategic voting is Kiwis’ best hope of displacing NZ First from the monarch maker role.
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.
A party with a vision to deliver a clean and clever economy rather than a dumb and dirty one.
One that is focused on fixing our country’s biggest problems, such as the housing crisis.
The next election could shape up like the last one: an episode of The Bachelor where Winston holds the roses.