National shouldn’t stop the will of the people on MMP changes: Green Party

Green Party Justice spokesperson Golriz Ghahraman has called on National Party leader Simon Bridges to follow the will of the people and add his voice to MMP changes that were recommended in 2012.

“National put the country through an MMP review that took thousands of public submissions and made a series of independent recommendations. Judith Collins then refused to bring these to Parliament. There was no genuine consultation.

“Simon Bridges says he is concerned about changes being passed by a simple majority in the house but the previous Government rejected the changes outright just by issuing a press release.

“The best thing Simon can do is support our call for these changes to be debated in Parliament so we can see what sort of majority exists for change.

“Simon has previously told New Zealanders he might consider going even further than the electoral commission’s independent recommendations – so we don’t actually know where he stands. He needs to come clean on whether he is against the recommendations or not.

“We’ve launched a suite of measures to strengthen democracy, including making all those changes that were recommended in the 2012 MMP review by the independent electoral commission.

“We understand that people don’t want politicians to cherry pick the recommendations which is why we think the independent electoral commission advice should be followed.

“Judith Collins rejected the recommendations out of hand in 2012 after voters were promised a review of MMP. Simon Bridges needs to help us clear up the mess she left.

“The Green Party thinks that reviews of how MMP is working should be taken more seriously by politicians rather than discarded when they don’t suit them, as National did in 2012”.

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