Voters could make better use of MMP
The 1980s were bad, but not everything about them was bad: we voted for MMP, Tim Hazeldine writes.
IHAVE been thinking about the tumultuous decade of the 1980s recently. There were the Think Big megaprojects forced upon us by the dogmatic, authoritarian National prime minister Robert Muldoon in the early 1980s, then there was the courage of Labour’s dogmatic, authoritarian finance minister Roger (now Sir Roger) Douglas and his henchmen, who used the excesses of Think Big as an excuse to impose an even bigger megaproject in the second half of the decade: the neoliberal reforms that came to be known as Rogernomics.
It can be argued that the Think Big projects were incredibly risky and ridiculously expensive, but that it all came right in the end because we are the beneficiaries of them now.
I understand the point but I disagree. It can never be to the benefit of future generations to divert huge sums of money into longlasting investments with negative rates of return.
Rogernomics has been credited with creating a robust, open competitive economy. I think this is misleading. Our income gap with Australia — a country which followed a much more moderate reform path — has widened, instead of being eliminated as the rogernomes promised.
The 1980s were arguably the most wretched decade in New Zealand’s modern history, and not just because of bad hair, bad music and the Springbok tour.
Unemployment tripled, one manufacturing job in three disappeared, never to return. Together, the two supermegaprojects, Think Big and Rogernomics, ripped apart our economic and social fabric.
But one good thing did come out of it: mixedmember proportional representation, or MMP.
Largely due to concerns about the evident ease that our politics could be captured by singleissue zealots, in 1992 and 1993 we voted in two referendums about replacing the firstpastthepost (FPP) electoral system.
In the first referendum, I voted for retaining FPP because two experienced people whose views I respected — Helen Clark and
TODAY is Wednesday, May 24, the 144th day of 2023. There are 221 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date:
— The General Legislative Council meets for the first time, in Auckland. It has the power to enact laws and ordinances proposed by Governor William Hobson.
— Samuel Morse transmits the message ‘‘What hath God wrought?’’ from Washington to Baltimore as he formally opens America’s first telegraph line.
— Governor George Grey, accompanied
Jim Bolger — were against the change. I now think I was wrong here.
For the second question — if there is to be a proportional representation system, which option do you prefer? — I voted for STV (single transferable vote), and I think I was right about this.
But we got MMP instead. What have we done with it? On the face of it, not much.
For 88 years now, since the election of Michael Joseph Savage’s 1935 Labour
by Tamati Waka Nene and Te Wherowhero, arrives at Wanganui in an attempt to bring peace to the region.
— New Zealand’s first House of Representatives is opened by Acting Governor Robert Wynyard in Auckland.
— The foundation stone for Dunedin’s town hall is laid on a site known as the Market Reserve on the northwest side of the Octagon.
— The first shipment of New Zealand frozen mutton arrives in London.
— The Brooklyn Bridge is opened, linking Manhattan to Brooklyn, New York.
— The unveiling ceremony, attended by an estimated crowd of 8000, takes place for the statue of Robert Burns in the Octagon.
— Empire Day (later Commonwealth Day) is celebrated for the first time in New Zealand.
— A formal truce is declared at Gallipoli, during which the Turkish dead from the May 19 government, the prime minister of New Zealand, who under our unicameral system is basically an elected dictator, has been the leader of either the National or the Labour party.
True, small parties now win a few seats and may even enjoy a few postelection weeks in the limelight before being buttoned up into unequal coalition agreements. This has usually been an unseemly process.
In 2017, the next three years of governance were settled at the whim of one Winston Peters. Today I read that Te Pa¯ti Ma¯ori may be kingmaker in the upcoming postelection manoeuvring.
Is kingmaking what we wanted when we brought in MMP? I think we wanted to do away with kings, to move to a system of genuinely negotiated cooperation between political parties: to coalitions of equals.
As for the cosy twoparty dominant duopoly that somehow survives through it all well, we have in New Zealand plenty of experience with cosy duopolies in business. They get stale, complacent, even arrogant, and
attacks are buried.
— A civic reception is held in Dunedin to welcome the Prince of Wales.
— The German battleship Bismarck sinks the British battle cruiser Hood in the North Atlantic in World War 2. More than 1300 lives are lost.
— The Auckland Harbour Bridge is opened to pedestrians only, with more than 100,000 taking the opportunity to walk over the city’s new landmark, which is officially opened a week later.
— More than 300 people die during a riot at a football match in Peru after the referee disallows a goal.
— Telford Farm Training Institute at Otanamomo, near Balclutha, opens for its first student intake.
— An earthquake measuring 7.1 on the Richter scale rocks Inangahua Junction in the South Island’s West Coast region. Three people are killed in a landslip and three others die when a rescue so too in politics.
The current government has perhaps slid furthest back, even into the bad habits of the Think Big 1980s, with a slew of illconsidered megaprojects: centralisation of polytechnics and hospitals, merger of TVNZ and Radio New Zealand, a
$16 billion hydro dam we may not need (Lake Onslow), a
$40 billion slow train to Auckland airport we do not need, rampant radiata reforestation, the Three Waters fiasco, and, of course, the usual election year bribing of the voters with billions of dollars of our
❛ We got MMP instead. What have we done with it? On the face of it, not much.
own tax money.
In the past, the many New Zealand voters dissatisfied with the performance of the current majorparty government have tended to simply switch their vote to the other big party — and get more of the same.
But it is not the 1980s anymore, and they do have an alternative. helicopter crashes.
— Minister of Works and Development Hugh Watt announces proposals for a hydroelectricity scheme for the Clutha and Kawarau rivers, eventually leading to the relocation of the old Cromwell township and the creation of Lake Dunstan behind the Clyde Dam.
— Britain and France begin a transatlantic Concorde service to Washington.
— A stampede kills 270 pilgrims at a shrine in Mecca, Saudi Arabia.
— Auckland’s CBD is chockfull, with around 300,000 wellwishers gathered for a tickertape parade honouring Team New Zealand winning the America’s Cup.
— Temba Tsheri, a 15yearold Sherpa who lost five fingers to frostbite in 2000, becomes the youngest person to conquer Mount Everest.
— Thick smoke engulfs central Queenstown as fire units from throughout Central
Otago and Invercargill are called to battle a large blaze in Shotover St that affects three businesses.
A storm brings strong winds and heavy rain to Dunedin about 3pm, as temperatures plummet 10degC within minutes, from a high of 17degC. It caused sports matches to be called off, including a premature end for all five Dunedin premier rugby matches, and left surface flooding around the city. Emergency services were inundated with calls as strong winds brought down power lines and damaged poles, while power authorities scrambled to restore electricity to 1790 Dunedin consumers.
— US entertainer Bill Cosby is ordered to stand trial in a sexual assault case in Norristown.
Today’s birthdays:
Queen Victoria (18191901); Alfred Picard, New Zealand politician (18241855); Dame Joan