The quaintly-named waka-jumping Bill should be called out for what it is: a tool for party leaders to dictate terms to their MPs and which removes democratic decision-making from the hands of the voters. There have been no instances in recent times of any MP leaving their party during their term of office. So why is this being pushed through now? Only because Winston Peters does not trust any of his New Zealand First MPs to stay the course.
The democratic functioning of our Parliament is being distorted by one man’s paranoia and lack of leadership. The authoritarian view that the make-up of Parliament, no matter what the circumstances, should remain exactly the same for a full term circumscribes the rights of MPs to exercise individual moral judgements.
Freedom of conscience, allowing any member of Parliament to leave their party, whether an electorate or list MP, must be defended at all costs. They must have the democratic right to disagree with party policy and, in extremis, leave their party during the parliamentary term.
The situation could occur where they are representing a strong public view on policy that is being ignored by their party and they should be allowed to stay in the House to continue representing that. Voters decide at the following election whether or not that dissenting MP should remain in Parliament. Most cases of waka-jumping were in the first MMP Parliament (1996-99) and at the 1999 election all of them lost their seats. The voter at election time is the best judge.
Our MMP system is based on the German model. For almost 70 years an individual MP’s freedom of conscience has been safeguarded in Germany. A party-hopping Bill there would, in fact, be unconstitutional. The Scottish Parliament is also elected under MMP and freedom of conscience is protected there, too. Will it be said that both Scotland and Germany have a better understanding of a functioning parliamentary democracy than New Zealand?
This so-called Electoral Integrity Amendment bill, if it becomes law, will be a stain not only on the reputation of Winston Peters but also on this entire coalition government and our parliamentary democracy.
- Dunedin author Philip Temple has received the Electoral Commissions Wallace Award for his writing on electoral issues.
