Māori representation
Aotearoa might best advance stv by enhancing mmp
Aotearoa is not just the world’s first full democracy because it was first to enfranchise women. Thanks to New Zealand’s geographic isolation and late colonisation, a partnership approach was attempted from the get-go, with greater and lesser success. One uniquely…
Healing unhealthy health-board ballots
The first requirement of a voting system is to reflect voters’ preferences. First-past-the-post does one thing and one thing only: it reveals voters’ first preferences. But in the real world of human interactions, second and subsequent preferences are…
Dispatching two electoral review room elephants
Two elephants in the room, are two too many. The Māori roll and size of parliament are the two no-go areas for the Electoral Commission review, which will call for public submissions in mid-February and hold public meetings in April and May. The two …
Thoughts from the front of the class
I am now three months off age 64. And I think I am finally over waking up election morning and making sure that me my children and one mokopuna go out and vote. My paternal grandfather urged his children to ‘tick the paper or don’t moan.’ I am of the same ilk, as was...
Ultimately successful Māori roll model
Humans are hard-wired for fairness. Which is why so many traditional supporters of the Australian Labor Party abandoned it following the treachery visited on its fleetingly victorious leader Kevin Rudd. The political system of Aotearoa, until joined recently by...