Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has stood by his call for a referendum on New Zealand's voting system despite widespread criticism from coalition partners, the Opposition and a constitutional expert.
Speaking on Newstalk ZB on Thursday morning, Luxon made the commitment to put the mixed-member proportional system (MMP) to a referendum if re-elected for a second term.
The proposal drew criticism from across the political spectrum. New Zealand First leader Winston Peters labelled it "inexplicable" and a "power grab", while ACT leader David Seymour said New Zealand's experience of a single-party majority government in 2020–23 showed the risks of moving away from MMP.
Labour and the Greens also criticised the proposal, with Labour leader Chris Hipkins saying: "We shouldn't have to change the entire electoral system because the Prime Minister can't manage his own government."
National MPs were reportedly caught by surprise and Deputy Leader Nicola Willis unable to confirm the policy had been endorsed by caucus.
Jack Tame clears up the confusion around the country's 30 year old MMP voting system. (Source: 1News)
At a National public meeting in Auckland's Mount Roskill last night, Luxon said the referendum would become National Party policy and would likely be held alongside a planned referendum on extending Parliament's term to four years.
“When we do the four year term referendum conversation, it makes sense for us to throw an MMP piece into it, and we'll work that out in the second term, but I’m just saying to you that's a good idea,” he told Stuff.
“If we’re out there doing a referendum on a four-year term, it makes sense to ask about MMP as well and we’ll take it from there.”
Referendum on scrapping MMP has 'zero' chance of taking place - law professor
University of Otago law professor Andrew Geddis said the more useful question was not whether voters wanted change, but whether they would ever be asked. (Source: Breakfast)
University of Otago law professor Andrew Geddis said a referendum on dumping MMP has no realistic path forward because Parliament would first have to pass legislation to put it forward to the public.
"I'd say zero because you have to pass legislation to get it to happen, and there just isn't a parliamentary majority in support of this," he told Breakfast.
New Zealanders voted for MMP in a 1993 referendum, a shift regarded at the time as the largest change to the electoral system since women won the vote a century earlier.
A referendum on the future of MMP was held in 2011, with over half of voters in favour of retaining it.
Prime Minister says, if re-elected, he’d have a referendum to test support for continuing the electoral system. (Source: 1News)
Asked about the common complaint that ACT and NZ First have exercised outsized influence over the coalition government - the so-called tail wagging the dog - Geddis said the criticism depended on who you counted as the tail.
"At the moment, there is no party in New Zealand that has the support of over half the population. There's no party can say we represent the majority," he said.
"If you want the laws of the country to be those that the majority support, then you have to have coalitions, otherwise you're artificially rigging the system to allow a minority party to get all of the say."
He also argued MMP had not produced the kind of parliamentary fragmentation seen in countries such as Israel or Italy, with New Zealand's 5% threshold limiting the number of parties in Parliament.
"The idea that somehow MMP just hasn't worked or has made government impossible—it just doesn't really bear out on the facts."
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