Time for a new political system?

In the US, New Zealand and other Commonwealth countries for the last century we have only seen continual cycles of Labour and Conservative governments in not only parliament, but most Commonwealth nations and the USA with the Republican/Democrat party majority rule.

Thankfully, more voices in recent decades with changes from First Past the Post changes to others such as MMP have had other voices added but we still have the two continual cycles since 1996 when the MMP system began in this country. Is this set to change further in the near or long term future? Is the current status quo due to the media, advertising or group donations to political parties? I wonder. Perhaps the MMP threshold needs to be reviewed or changed.

The New Zealand Social Credit Party in the 1980s campaigned forcefully for a party voting system that would differ from First Past the Post and in 1993 the vote was put to the public to vote on. With Labour being able to govern alone in the election result of 2020, some would consider this result a failure for our small country of five million people. Astonishingly Black Power President Rei Harris in 1993 supported a change from FPP to MMP, first introduced into Germany to prevent the rise of an extreme party like the Nazis bringing Hitler to total power in 1933.

In the past we have had at least in the UK and across Europe, the divine right of monarchs, feudalism and theocratic rulership.

This I will call ‘The Political Elephant in the Room’ as I think there is a possibility that the political majority of National and Labour cycles may well be likely to change in time. But a discussion of this change in situation would obviously need to be had around the merits and drawbacks from that cyclical two majority party situation from constantly occurring. I suspect voters may be tired of the same results, which may prevent them from voting in parliamentary and possibly to a lesser degree regional and local council elections.

Last year eighteen parties were registered and here in Dunedin no media (radio or print) were at a Loyal Party Event with leader Liz Gunn present. To the credit of The Otago Daily Times, there was at least one public meeting advertised. I think many people regardless of the “anti-vax,” sentiment were unsurprised but happened to be disappointed by that outcome. Many people attended that meeting which was encouraging to see.

Imagine if a hypothetical parliament elected at some time by New Zealanders in future had 30 seats belonging to New Zealand First, 21 seats to Act and 9 seats to National with one independent candidate made into government. The opposition may have New Zeal 20 seats, Opportunities Party 10, Loyal Party 9, 20 Maori Party 1 Green seat. This parliament would be up to the amount of donations, party members and engagement in national politics from the average New Zealander, the trustworthiness and credibility of their party members an obvious must.

We are already beginning to see ACT and the Green party increasing their number of party seats in recent parliament terms in Aotearoa.

If this more inclusive system were to become a new norm in this country and further abroad considering that the likelihood and timing of this parliamentary model is only speculative, how different would New Zealand society become under this situation? Radical? Transformative? Divisive? Whatever the outcome, I believe New Zealanders should consider the idea seriously if as citizens we complain about being subject to the “same old.” I hope that this decision may come about, be discussed openly and with insights from overseas. Some electoral voting systems are rather recent and some are older, which is of no surprise. However, our country is young and our country may be better off for this.

Obviously only time will tell if this comes to pass.