Whatever advanced forms of diary technology we now have, a list written on the back on my hand with a Bic is still best. The list included "vote" — which I did, "clean car" — which I did not, and "get cardy" — which I did. A successful day’s chores done, because two out of three ain’t bad.
I voted party vote Green and electorate vote Te Pāti Māori.
I really like not having to vote for the old parties, Labour or National. I like knowing my vote does something useful and puts better people into Parliament. I am a big fan of mixed-member proportional (MMP) for that reason.
I really like the small advances in voting process we are making under MMP as well.
The advance voting system is great for procrastinators like myself. I really like how people can enrol and vote right up to election day.
I’m not saying our system is perfect. How can it be, it’s made of people. But whatever the system, we have to keep improving it, even while we have a transformation agenda.
There is one part of MMP that hasn’t transformed enough yet, the tendency for the biggest rump of voters to vote for one or other of the two old parties.
It is one hangover from first past the post that has yet to be really tackled by the New Zealand voting public.
When one of the two old parties are uninspiring and unimaginative in an election, the MMP parties do better.
It often happens when government is shifting colour from red to blue and back again. But none of the MMP parties have yet cracked 15% of the vote on election day under MMP.
The Greens have been the most successful of the MMP parties in vote terms.
They have exceeded 10% three times, with their highest vote so far of 11.1% in 2011.
They could well beat that record this election, given they are leading Act New Zealand in the average poll of polls.
New Zealand First has cracked 10% twice, but the most recent time was in 2002, over 20 years ago. Act has never exceeded 8% but may crack that this year. Te Pāti Māori remains an outlier, having made it back into Parliament after a shock hiatus in 2017.
That is impressive in itself in our MMP system. At their height in 2008, they won five of the seven Maori electorates, and they are on track to win three seats this election.
So that leaves about 800,000 swing voters who tend to vote blue and red with some fickleness.
The weight of voting has been against the MMP parties. That really needs to stop.
The third parties, even those I dislike, should be getting around 15-20% for voters to really feel the benefit of MMP in policy and leadership.
One of those benefits is creating governments that have to use the best of their collective policy and people to govern. Coalition agreements between the big and old and the small MMP parties have been so narrow that when there is a policy gap or, as we saw dramatically this year, a dearth of ministerial talent, the old parties fail to use the ideas and talent in the MMP parties to make the government itself more resilient. This option has its risks for certain, but it is also a ridiculous waste of the capacity of people we voted for.
Another benefit is the degree to which MMP parties provide critical sand in the wheels.
It seems counterintuitive. MMP parties can, and have, constrained old party policy programmes and that can be very frustrating.
But in New Zealand politics, the old parties become inert when they are not being pushed. The Sixth Labour Government is a case in point.
Gaining an outright majority in 2020 made them even more inflexible, because squatting in the middle of the road like a recalcitrant cow became more important than exercising the political clout Labour voters gave them to make systemic change.
Is squatting a good strategy for winning an election? So far, apparently not. Labour voters need to reappraise their responsibilities here.
Voting for a Labour majority was bad for the Left in the medium term and will have longer term consequences if an extreme unencumbered right-wing government is elected this year.
The solution is for left-wing voters to focus on building up the political power of the Left and left-leaning MMP parties.
This election, if you won’t vote Green or Te Pāti Māori, then vote for New Zealand First. National needs sand in its wheels too — gritty, annoying, irrational sand in a double-breasted suit and matching hanky.
Voting for any two of these MMP parties will build the strength of the Left (and leftish) parties over the short and long term. And that’s what we need to have happen for the people we care about.
Voting is not a three-year strategy, it is a lifetime strategy. We need to build political strength as lefties, and then weld that strength when we can. Left-leaning voters of all persuasions can vote to strengthen our collective political power.
You have two votes. There are three MMP left-wing (and leftish) parties.
Two out of three ain’t bad.
- Metiria Stanton Turei is a law lecturer at the University of Otago and a former Green Party MP and co-leader.
