Rein in the kingmaking before 2020
MMP won’t be this circus if the major parties find common ground before the next election.
Politics at its most embarrassing.
We have a prime minister who has barely been seen or heard since the election.
An Opposition leader who, to her credit, does issue a statement after most of her negotiation meetings (though little substance is provided) but sails past Queenlike, not deigning to take a question or two.
And in the middle, a puppetmaster holding the show together on a string with a 7 per cent weight-bearing load – a completely disproportionate amount of pull.
New Zealand has had MMP for 21 years now, a relative infancy. It’s time MMP evolved.
The negotiation process to deliver New Zealand its next Government has given a 7 per cent party more power than either of the major parties.
The leverage, of course, diminishes the second the governing group sign together on the dotted line, but it doesn’t take away from the fact that a 7 per cent party will likely get more than a 7 per cent share of the spoils in Government, such is the way NZ First leader Winston Peters is allowed to play the major parties off against one another.
It’s left National leader Bill English and Labour leader Jacinda Ardern scuttling around the Parliamentary precinct too terrified to speak for fear it could backfire on them.
If ever there was a case for a written rulebook for the weeks following the election, the unedifying farce that’s played out the past three weeks would be it.
Let’s for a minute entertain the possibility that Peters doesn’t necessarily want to be in this position.
He’s a polarising figure in New Zealand politics at the best of times. He knows that and he’s not overly bothered by it. But even a politician with a hide as thick as Peters’ would be reticent in the face the anger of half a country directed his way.
Credit where it’s due – I do believe he’s feeling the weight of the decision.
And as long as a party that holds the balance of power can negotiate with both parties at the same time, of course they will – it’s the surest way to get all they can for their own constituents.
Enter the governor-general. It’s a largely ceremonial role, but it’s not without power in New Zealand. In the UK – although they work to a First Past the Post system – the Queen still invites the largest party to attempt to form a Government in her name.
As a post-election convention, that makes even more sense under MMP and we should allow our governorgeneral to do it.
Following a buffer period until the special votes are counted and finalised, where absolutely nothing happens, the governor-general would allow the largest party a set period of time to attempt to form a Government. Should they fail in that time, then the opportunity is passed to the next-largest party.
The burden of power is at least partially more weighted towards the major party holding the negotiations, rather than a minnow cracking a long whip. And perhaps most importantly, there is less danger of a 7 per cent party negotiating for far more than 7 per cent of the power.
It arguably takes more than a handful of scenarios like the current one to play out before ‘‘convention’’ can be claimed. Nevertheless, a kingmaker party is unlikely to change the way it operates of its own volition.
This is a constitutional change that would need to be legislated. If ever National and Labour might find an area of common ground, perhaps it could be just before the House rises in 2020 to vote it through.
But that would require putting politics aside for the sake of integrity.
There’s been little over the past three weeks to suggest many of them could do that.