Download the Democracy and MMP Policy as PDF
Vision
Aotearoa New Zealand has a proportional electoral system that is open, transparent and fair. The country is governed by a parliament where a broad range of viewpoints are represented. Legislation is scrutinised from this range of viewpoints, government action is effective and timely, and stems from the range of concerns represented in parliament.
Definitions
New Zealand Citizen: Someone can become a New Zealand Citizen either by birth or by descent or by grant. New Zealand citizens have a number of rights (including entitlement to vote and to stand for public office).
Permanent Resident: A permanent resident is someone who has not taken up citizenship but who is entitled by law to live permanently in New Zealand. It's a status that gives most of the advantages of citizenship, including entitlement to vote and to work in the country on a permanent basis.
Eligibility to vote: Any New Zealand citizen and permanent resident who is 18 or over and whose name is on either the Māori or general electoral roll before election day can vote in a general election.
Eligibility to enrol: A New Zealand citizen can be out of the country for three years continuously before they are no longer eligible to enrol. For a permanent resident, the period is only one year. If they come back to New Zealand during this time the three years (or one year for a permanent resident) starts again.
Key Principles
In Aotearoa New Zealand:
- Every adult citizen and permanent resident of Aotearoa New Zealand has the right to vote in the general elections.
- Key decisions on the shape of the nation's electoral system belong to the people, not political parties or Parliament.
- The electoral system is accessible and readily understood by voters with full government funding of election information in the official languages.
- The votes of all electors are of equal weight in influencing election results.
- Maori and Maori points of view are fairly and effectively represented in Parliament through guaranteed representation.
- Membership of Parliament ideally reflects significant characteristics of the voting population, such as gender, ethnicity, socio-economic class, locality and age.
- The number of seats gained by a political party are generally proportional to the number of voters who support that party.
- The electoral system encourages close links and accountability between individual MPs and their constituents or constituencies.
- The electoral system encourages all groups to respect other points of view and to take into account the good of the community as a whole.
- The electoral system provides a Parliament which is capable of exercising its functions as effectively as possible, e.g. promoting policies, passing laws and scrutinising government policies.
- The electoral system recognises and facilitates the role political parties play in modern representative democracies.
- The electoral system allows all members of the community to endorse the system and its procedures as fair and reasonable.
Policy Points
1. Preferred Electoral System: MMP
For general elections, the Green Party supports:
- The Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) electoral system, which is characterised by having MPs elected to represent local electorates, plus additional MPs, such that each party's total share of MPs is proportional to the share of the vote it received in the election.
2. Improving MMP: An Independent Commission
The Green Party supports:
- The appointment of an independent commission to make recommendations on possible improvements to the current MMP system following a public submission process. An independent commission is one where the commissioners are not members of Parliament or Parliamentary employees and have no vested interest in the outcome of the process.
3. Process for changes to the Electoral System
The Green Party believes that it is important that New Zealand's electoral system is not substantively changed without a referendum; to do so would be undemocratic and could lead to political parties tampering with the electoral system to further their own ends. However, this should not apply to changes which make more citizens and permanent residents eligible to vote, as such changes improve, rather than diminish, the application of universal suffrage in NZ; nor should it apply to minor changes in the electoral system, provided such changes have been recommended by an independent commission. The Green Party will consider supporting changes to the electoral system only if:
- The only effect of the change is to grant the right to vote to some group of citizens and permanent residents of Aotearoa New Zealand, who were previously ineligible to vote; or
- The changes are minor adjustments to the existing electoral system that have been recommended by an independent commission, and are consistent with our Key Principles.
The Green Party will consider supporting changing to a new electoral system only if:
- The new electoral system is approved by a free and fair referendum of all people in Aotearoa New Zealand eligible to vote under the existing laws. The referendum should have the following characteristics:
- the referendum process is determined by an independent body such as the Electoral Commission, not by members of parliament, and
- there are clear spending limits and transparency for all campaigners in any referendum campaign - this is essential to ensure a healthy and fair referendum process.
