Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Political Manipulation

What a sad state NZ politics is in!

Not so much that it isn't all that great but more of one where political parties are able to manipulate the system to ensure that their potential allies and friend get voted into parliament.

We have a system where a political party can choose not to contest and electorate seat and thereby giving a preferred ally the chance of being elected. Once elected they can bring in more representatives using the party vote.

We have the Mana Party led by ex Maori Party member Hone Harawira and the Maori Party considering whether or not to run a candidate against him. Hone is keen for them not to as this would give him a certain pathway into parliament and hence a party leaders salary instead of that of a mere MP.

Likewise we have National deciding not to run a candidate in Epsom against John Banks who is leading the charge for the Act Party. This gives John Banks the best chance of being elected and therefore an ally for National after the election.

This means that the electorate do not get a chance to vote for a candidate from the party they support and in effect deprives the electorate of choice.

The system needs to be changed so that if you are a political party then you must stand a candidate in every electorate or you are not allowed to be a political party. This would get rid of those fringe elements who cannot get enough interest throughout the whole country to stand candidates.

The alternative for these small factions is to run as individual MP's, independent's.

The next major problem in NZ is the list MP. MMP has produced a system where the make up of parliament is made up to represent the total vote proportionally. Good you might think and in some ways it is. But once again the system has been set up with huge holes to allow those piggies with their snouts in the trough to remain there.

How you may ask? Well the problem is that those who stand for parliament in an electorate and put their name on the line can also be placed on the party list so that if they fail at the election, ie the people vote against them and they lose they can get into parliament through the back door, sneak in off the party list. The more influential you are in the political party the higher you tend to rank on the party list almost guaranteeing you a seat in parliament.

The system needs to be changed so that you can be a party list MP or an electorate MP but cannot have a foot in both camps. The down side of that is that for the major parties almost all of the cabinet would come from the list, so that makes way for another rule.

This is the one that should be implemented. You can not be on the party list and also run as a candidate in an electorate and that the cabinet and ministerial roles can only be filled by electorate MP's.

That way we would have proportionality and also be represented by those people who had actually won electorate seats.

No getting into ministerial and high ranking positions without the express vote of the people.

I urge NZ voters to either change the system at this years referendum.

Back Stabbing Brash

Don Brash, you wouldn't want him as a friend. Poor, naive Hilary Calvert, one time supporter of Rodney Hyde and famous turncoat for swapping to support the leadership challenge of Don Brash has now got her reward.

Yes! Stabbed in the back by Don, in effect dumped from the party list and to all intents and purposes, Don Brash, as usual has a scape goat to make him look, "the board was keen to....".

But this is normal for Don Brash. He reminds me of Adolf Hitler, always wants to be leader and will go to any end to get there but wants to come up smelling of roses. Let's face it he smells of excrement. There is no one in NZ politics who sinks as low as Don Brash.

He did the same years ago when joining the National Party and stabbing Bill English in the back to take the leadership, then went on to fail at the general election and that was at a time when virtually the whole country was fed up of a Labour government. As usual Don turned defeat into victory stating that he had come so close to getting the required votes to lead. You still LOST!

I'm disappointed in Rodney Hyde, without him there would be no Act representation in NZ Government. He should have fought for his position and on losing should have announced to run as an independent candidate against John Banks, the new whipping boy chosen by Don Brash to win the all important electorate seat.

I implore all Epsom voters to vote for anyone other than John Banks so that we can see the demise of Don Brash. Just watch him decide to leave the Act Party if they do not get into parliament stating other more pressing interests have taken him away.

Brash is a parasite albeit a very successful one. My advice to John Banks, watch your back!