OPINION
A controversial headline, perhaps, but designed to spark debate. I will attempt to justify it with some facts, both positive and negative; however, the negatives outweigh the positives by some margin. The 2023 election is of course a true result of an election run under the MMP system, but I don’t believe it adequately reflects the current mood of the country. Had the election been run under a First Past The Post system (FPP) then the mood for change would have been better illustrated.
There are 72 electorates in the country. National won 44, Labour won 17, Maori Party won six, Greens won three and ACT won two. That to me means, in terms of the two main parties, the electorate wanted real change. What MMP has thrown up is a result where three parties have to now negotiate and thrash out a deal whereby they can work constructively and cohesively together. This might take days.
I am somewhat hopeful Winston might be something of a changed man for two reasons: he invited Christopher Luxon and his wife to dinner and, after the special votes were released his words were “We can expedite this”. This gives me some hope, but it’s hard not be sceptical at the same time, given this horse-racing enthusiast’s track record.
The election was three weeks ago and only now do we have a final result, although no doubt there will be recounts. Negotiations can now start in earnest, but Christopher Luxon, quite rightly, still can’t give a timeframe. Had it been FPP the right would have had 46 seats (including the upcoming Port Waikato by-election) and the left would have had 26 seats. That is a majority of 20 and far more reflective of the wishes of those who made the effort to vote.
It would also have been the end of the matter and National could have immediately gone to the Governor General and got on with the task ahead of it. Personally, I would have ACT involved also to better ensure real change. Instead we have weeks of waiting and we get all these list MPs sitting in well-upholstered green leather seats at our expense – and no small expense at that. What they contribute to my mind is questionable in the overall scheme of things. To be fair, ACT’s Nicole McKee and Karen Chhour are two list MPs who have made some worthwhile contributions.
The Maori seats make for an easier decision: they are long past their use-by date. This is borne out by the fact that in the final FPP election in 1993 only eight Maori MPs won seats, but in 2020 there were 25. Part of the increase is obviously due to MMP but the point is Maori don’t require special privileges to get into Parliament. These concessions to a certain ‘we were here first’ brigade need to go. They are not helpful to uniting a divided country.
The Maori Party have their own agenda and have no interest in doing what’s best for the country as a whole. Their raison d’être is to do what’s best for them at the expense of those who came after, i.e. those dreadful racist colonials. That’s the horrendous irony. They don’t like or want us on the one hand, but need and want us on the other to fund their ‘by Maori for Maori’ nonsense for which there is not a skerrick of evidence of any success.
However, for every dark cloud there is a silver lining. This time the irony is as tasty as a Sunday roast. Here’s why: I believe the Maori Party’s success will be advantageous to the politics of the right and equally detrimental to the left. I don’t for one moment believe ‘swing voters’, the ones who normally decide elections, will risk voting left when the outcome could well be a Labour coalition with a strong Maori Party presence. I think for many, that would be a step too far. The damage it would do to the country doesn’t bear thinking about.
The Maori Party, dancing about in jubilation at their success in gaining the Opposition benches for the next decade, or more, are probably not cognisant of this fact. They have yet to wake up to it. I must admit to being impressed with the oratory of their MPs but, like their gentleman MP with the cowboy hat and facial decoration, I don’t think they’re the sharpest knives in the drawer. Debbie Ngawera-Packer is now hinting she might be amenable to talking to Luxon. What about? I’m not sure.
My main point in writing this is to say that, in my view, MMP has in effect done a disservice to the voting public. Like the TMO at the rugby slowing down the game, so MMP slows down the election process. It also fails to truly reflect the magnitude of the desire for change that was evident in the electorate numbers. Those results showed a landslide, yet Christopher Luxon is forced to cobble together a coalition in order to form a government.