by Cimino | 1 Sep 2017 | Climate action, Election turnout, Youth voting
There’s no reason to imagine Aotearoa will be spared its youthquake. In the United Kingdom, it was a 68-year-old Labour Party leader, Jeremy Corbyn, who triggered the tremor. The quake unleashed by the youth-adjacent Jacinda Ardern, who has just rocked the polls to a...
by Cimino | 21 Aug 2017 | Concurrent elections, Direct democracy, MMP, Online, Parliament, Youth voting
As with the America’s CupWhether apocryphal or otherwise, and whether ‘Your Majesty, I regret to report, there is no second’, or “Ma’am, there is no second” the response to Queen Victoria beautifully sums up the cruel reality of two-party politics., coming second...
by Cimino | 14 Aug 2017 | Climate mobilisation, MMP, Parliament
It’s 30 years since David Lange belatedly called taihoawait; do not hurry. Lange, in fact, said it was ‘time for a cup of tea’. His Labour Party caucus cohorts had unleashed the neoliberal onslaught that, amongst other tragedies, precipitated New Zealand’s ongoing...
by Cimino | 9 Aug 2017 | Four waters, Local, Local board, Regional governance, Representation, Warkworth
Twin tweaks to conquer local-democracy deficit Status quo would be the less satisfactory option. Corner to corner, the Rodney Local Board area stretches 86 kilometres—a 165-kilometre, 2-hour drive by road, plus at least an hour’s walk at either end. In the context of...
by Cimino | 22 Apr 2017 | Māori representation, Online, STV
The first requirement of a voting system is to reflect voters’ preferences. First-past-the-postfirst-past-the-post is probably better described as single-round-winner-takes-all, given that the ‘post’ is the close of voting, and not a majority of votes cast does one...
by Cimino | 7 Apr 2017 | Local, Representation
Representing hundreds and thousands On average, each of Auckland region’s part-time local board politicians represents 9500 people. But a report prepared for Auckland Council argues for the number of local boards and local board members to be halved, which would...
