ACT I:
The cynical manipulation of MMP by the National Party should be outlawed, but I am sure they will never do it, because they are only interested in power and their manipulation enables them to keep it.
That is blatant corruption. Democracy goes out the window; lust for power marches in the door. The result is that the minor-party tail wags the National Party dog, which is how Rodney Hide was able to get away with trashing local government democracy in his self-hyped Auckland Super Silly.
His minor party, whose trivial party vote, and vanishing poll ratings, prove it to be highly unpopular, nevertheless gets enormous power in the country. We voted against it overwhelmingly, but National's corruption has trashed our wishes.
ACT 2:
Then the cynical National-ACT combine realised as the 2011 election loomed that Hide was so loathed that he might not make in it Epsom and with him as ACT Leader his party might not get enough votes to get National more than one seat for the price of not standing its own candidate in Epson.
So what happened? The former leader of the National Party, Don Brash, who at that stage was not a member of the National Party, not of ACT, gets himself confirmed as the new ACT leader, does the necessaries of membership and all that, all in a bid to pump up ACT's party vote.
Cynical manipulation of MMP on steroids.
Damn their impudence!
The irony is that with Labour shooting itself in every part of its anatomy, none of National's dishonest game-playing is needed. They could win honestly hands down.
ACT 3:
The cynical manipulation of MMP by the National Party should be outlawed, but I am sure they will never do it, because they are only interested in power and their manipulation enables them to keep it.
It should be compulsory for major parties--meaning any party that got more than, say, 25% in the previous election--to stand a candidate in every seat. That means a serious candidate, one chosen to win and really does try to win, and it should also be illegal for a party to do a deal with another one, so that one concentrates on the party vote to let the other get the candidate vote. That would stop dead National's corrupt habit in Epsom and Ohariu.
It makes a deal with a minor right-wing party, ACT in Epsom and United Future in Ohariu, not to stand a National candidate in those electorates, or not to stand a serious one, one who will win the seat, and it tells its supporters to give it the party vote and the minor party the candidate vote. The minor-party candidate is then sure of getting the right-wing vote and winning the seat, and if the percentage of its party vote is enough--as little as 2%--that party will get at least two seats in Parliament, thus getting round the 5% threshold. Then National forms an alliance with it, and thus the right-wing bloc gains at least two seats when it would have gained only one if National had stood its own candidate.
That is blatant corruption. Democracy goes out the window; lust for power marches in the door. The result is that the minor-party tail wags the National Party dog, which is how Rodney Hide was able to get away with trashing local government democracy in his self-hyped Auckland Super Silly.
His minor party, whose trivial party vote, and vanishing poll ratings, prove it to be highly unpopular, nevertheless gets enormous power in the country. We voted against it overwhelmingly, but National's corruption has trashed our wishes.
ACT 2:
Then the cynical National-ACT combine realised as the 2011 election loomed that Hide was so loathed that he might not make in it Epsom and with him as ACT Leader his party might not get enough votes to get National more than one seat for the price of not standing its own candidate in Epson.
So what happened? The former leader of the National Party, Don Brash, who at that stage was not a member of the National Party, not of ACT, gets himself confirmed as the new ACT leader, does the necessaries of membership and all that, all in a bid to pump up ACT's party vote.
Cynical manipulation of MMP on steroids.
Damn their impudence!
The irony is that with Labour shooting itself in every part of its anatomy, none of National's dishonest game-playing is needed. They could win honestly hands down.
ACT 3:
Even if Brash is just a blue-neck raver with a giant anti-Key chip on his shoulder, unless National gets honest and stands honestly in every seat it will still be cynically abusing MMP for its own ends--and abusing the government of the country with it. Corruption is corruption, whatever spin is put on it. Judge the tree by its fruit.
If two businesses got together to cook things for their mutual advantage they would be breaking the law. The same sort of laws should apply to the far more serious business of democracy.
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A party that does not reach the 5% threshold despite getting an electorate seat or two should not get its quota bumped up. That would stop the big parties using small ones to plump up their own numbers.
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The <a href="http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10740449">New Zealand Herald's editor</a> was scathing about the stitchups between National and ACT.
