Voting age and taxpayer-funded campaigns shaping up to be contentious areas of electoral review
Vote at 16, let parties rule for four years, election campaigns funded by the taxpayer – the electoral system is in for a massive shakeup.
Look, I agree with lowering the voting age to 16, young people face the full fury of climate change and their concerns would force politicians to listen, I disagree with 4 year terms because our Parliament is one if the most powerful in the world and should get its shit together during the 3 year term and I agree with public funding of election campaigns to remove the power of big money from our political system
B-U-T
I think attempting electoral reform when we have 190000 kids in poverty, 22000 on emergency housing wait lists and entire generations locked out of home ownership is a tad eye rolling.
I really wish that instead of announcing new promises of change in 2021 that Labour would just did what they said they would do in 2017!
You can’t launch vast new promises of reform when you haven’t completed the last list!
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Make the parliamentary term 2 years, less if possible. The voters can turf them out if/when they don’t deliver the promises or don’t like the policy, instead of grinding it out for 3 or 4 years. Voter age 16 yrs great idea as at this age money is not the governing concern, their future is. They would probably vote for best climate action and policy to make housing affordable. Someone like Chloe Swarbrick would be able to explain complex issues in a way that can be understood. Young people are smart, they will pick it up easily.
Agree this Jacinda Ardern led Labour Government haven’t delivered the promises they made in 2017 so have they walked away?
To make promises then do little or nothing to deliver them is deceitful.
https://www.labour.org.nz/policy
Its not their policies that are lacking, it is the lack of implementation of these policies that are the issues.
Sorry Sabine, wrong link, these are their achievements, the ones that are implemented.
https://www.labour.org.nz/our-record
Give the fuckers two months to start doing what they said they would or else have them deported for treason. Then there wouldn’t be so many fat comfortable arrogant pricks feasting on the taxpayers tit and wasting time on smoke and mirror projects like this grifter.
Strong comments Jonesy nevertheless true.
Simplistic rubbish, John. You specialise at approving other’s comments; you often agree with or quote anti-Labour comments by lefties here, but you say very little for yourself, and when faced with an argument you pretend not to understand, and act the nice guy. Good trolling!
Gosh in vino I get the feeling you dislike me.
The word for that In Vino is trolling.
This just so typical of Labour. As if Covid wasn’t a big enough job, they are already losing focus to concentrate on they next thing. As if that review was more important than housing or poverty or the economy. It’s the classic sign of poor management – no focus, no clear vision. Please National, get your shit sorted, because the sooner Labour gets voted out the better. We can’t have the country run by a student union.
That is an excellent summary The Kraut particularly “country run by a student union”
This Ardern led Labour Government terrifies me as it should most people.
Yeah let’s get a Natz govt and sell more state assets, privatise health and education, drive wages down by immigration, cut the benefit, build more motorways, crack down on law and order (build 10 more prisons) and back every war America wants….and that’s just for starters.
Thats an excellent summary Garibaldi.
garibaldi remember it was the David Lange led Labour Government that started the sell off?
” garibaldi remember it was the David Lange led Labour Government that started the sell off ”
Yeah and everyone kept ticking the box and voting for it !!!!!
Remember it was John Key who started homelessness,child poverty, high unemployment and so, so many broken promises, like closing the wage gap with Australia, not raising GST, failure to get the men from Pike River mine, filthy rivers, underfunded mental health, the Saudi sheep deal, etc, etc, etc.
As I said, excellent summary garibaldi.
But Bert….St Jacinda, in 4 yrs at the wheel has NOT reduced child poverty totals, homelessness, and wasnt it Little who decided (after 50mil spent) to seal the mine with NO bodies recovered!
You fixate on Key, he was PM 6-7yrs ago, St Jacinda’s stat figures RISING are for last 4 years in charge.
ANDDDDD, house price rises under Labour?, 2 largest periods were when Clark and now ST Jacinda in charge.
Your blinkers to the stats we currently have in NZ are down to St Jacinda and not Keys doing, St Jacinda in 2017 promised it would all be better…seems she is a liar?
I’m Right, seems you’re a liar. It was Key who started it all and Little never promised to “get your men out”. Seems like Key’s planet gave you an overdose of Coolaid.
If Key started it all, then why was St Jacinda promising to ‘fix’ it all in 2017?..in fact made herself the minister of child poverdy! And what is the result after 4 years?….MORE children in poverdy and all you lefties screaming how much of a disgrace at National spending 300k a day on emergency accommodation (motels etc), as of the start of this year it was a MILLION A DAY!
Yessss its all Sir John Key’s fault eh? LoL
Fabulous I’m right facts not silly childish ranting which we are frequently subjected to on this site.
not a bad start. Good work garibaldi
Most people disagree with you and the Ardern govt as the polls give evidence to should be.congratulated by everyone.
You know when society is fuck’d! When they start screwing with the ‘rules’ of the game to stay in power!
It’s a bit like the rule book of the America’s Cup. The Winner can alter, change the rules and make shit up as they go! What happens when that happens? No one wants to play with you anymore.
No to the whiny self-cancelling 16-year-olds. Just start with sending them off to the next ‘Conflict’ in the south pacific to get some life experience because as an adult, they have no game!
They have nothing of value to contribute because they have not contributed anything. That will only happen when they leave home and make a life for themselves instead of living in the comfort of their mums and dads.
Who the fuck comes up with shitty ideas like this I wonder? Oh! Let me guess? A government that’s in the shit!
I have a better idea. Let us have an early election instead!
Denny Paoa When the reader gets through the hyperbole there is real substance and practical thought under there. This government is being pushed forward and sideways by a tv journalist? Why not appoint Mike Hosking and make not criticising Labour part of his contract. It would wipe out much of the right wing high-tide swamping them and stir things up as well. What if Mike had an Open mike and had some surprising good ideas? Then I see Kris had valuable BBC experience. If we are looking overseas I would back Eddie Izzard; lively, thoughtful, gender-malleable, politically astute, good at promotion and business, resilient, etc.
https://www.beehive.govt.nz/minister/biography/kris-faafoi
Hon Kris Faafoi was elected as the Member of Parliament for Mana in November 2010, following more than a decade working as a journalist at both TVNZ and the BBC.
He is Minister of Justice, Minister for Broadcasting and Media, and Minister of Immigration.
As Minister for Broadcasting and Media, Kris is committed to bridging the digital divide to allow consumers and business to benefit from technology, and to ensuring New Zealand culture is reflected in broadcasting.
Kris was also responsible for the COVID-19 response package for the media, and the Government’s wider programme to strengthen public media.
Totally agree Denny Paoa.
Changing the rules to screw the scrum.It’s like cheating.
I’m glad I am not the only one who saw through this. Get 16 and 17 yr olds voting and you may change/improve the outcome in the 2023 election as most will vote Labour reflecting demographic and societal issues at the moment. Cancel all those who will vote against you that didnt buy into local drama and in some cases, have been waiting for a lift home for years and then give yourself another year to reengineer NZ by stealth without any pesky democratic concerns in place. Sounds like a leaf out of the US republican’s playbook. Electoral jiggery pokery to ensure an outcome.
Before Ardern, I would’ve supported a 4 Yr term but in those days, I naively thought they were going to build houses and fix our hospitals. This government does not intend to do anything in this term *. So we have 2 more years of social engineering and no action ahead.
* My husband has a wider role in the Project Management space. In early July, he attended some kind of meeting relevant to what the govt would be doing in this space as they’d been in place for 9 months and after discussing all the things they had promised, within the industry, the view was that nothing seemed to be happening. At it, an individual from ?? The PM’s and Cabinet Office ? said “There is unlikely to be any new projects undertaken over the next term as there isnt enough time to get anything off the ground”.
My husband was gobsmacked. I wasnt even surprised.
I was kind of thinking if you can’t achieve bugger all in 3 years and most especially the big promises, and with a majority, what’s the point of 4?
I would like to see term limits introduced so that representation in parliament is not seen as a career. That way we have representatives in our parliament with real world experience. Looking at Brownlie and Mallard but there are others.
The last thing we need in parliament are list MP’s that go from univercity, MP office staffer to MP. Never having done much more than worked part time in the proverbial fish and chip shop.
Limit terms to 4x3years or 3×4 years. No more.
Lets see some real world experience in our parliament.
Gerrit – Good thinking, you list our problems.
Gerritt – absolutely I am fed up with the likes of Mallard, Brownlie and other tossers, Ruth Dyson should have buggered off years ago, she finally did but a tad too late.
Well if it remains at 3 years, only 3 terms tops. Why should they stay there when they aren’t getting anything right except of course for themselves.
LET THEM EAT CAKE!!!!!
If you’re under 18 and in paid employment, perhaps you should be entitled to vote.
However, an unemployed 16 year old, glued to the main road and holding a climate sign – no so much.
1. Maybe one of the reasons substantial issues aren’t addressed substantially by governments is because they’re in (and we’re in) a perpetual short election cycle.
2. For god’s sake let us not have electoral reform as Labour’s flag referendum.
3. Every single day the commentators on Kiwiblog demonstrate that having 16 year olds not vote because they’re too immature, too uninformed and too dumb is shown to be spurious reasoning. Those commentators have those qualities along with the bonus of being totally blinkered.
16 year olds have a lot less ‘skin in the game’. Unless employed or a parent/care-giving (unlikely at 16) it’s all protest and no responsibility.
The voting age has to start somewhere and I think 18 is fine. Depending on people’s date-of-birth and elections dates, some people don’t get the opportunity to vote in the general election until you’re 21.
Rogernomics was imposed on the country in 1984 by stealth and sneakiness–not voted for by a fully informed populace. National’s Ruthanasia followed and the Parlimentary neo liberal consensus was formed.
So, after coming up for 40 years of filthy neo liberalism and monetarism, surely it is time to give the people a say on The Reserve Bank Act, the State Sector Act, Contracting out, Managerialism, and traitors at the top of the Public Service. That is the type of Parliamentary Reform that is needed–the end of the NZ neo liberal state.
Of course all the 16 year olds should be able to vote. It is absolutely their future why should all the olds decide their futures, after all we are the ones that have screwed it for them.
Never mind that their brains aren’t fully formed yet. Try reading this: https://www.nature.com/articles/nn.3177
Of course Martyn loves the idea of enfranchising 16 yr olds because he knows a lot of them – fresh from their brainwashing by the Ministry of Indoctrination- will vote for his darling Chloe and her cohorts.
That is so cutting he’ll be in ribbons. Green ones you think?
I’m starting to be convinced a one-party system is the way to go. We still have elections to vote MP’s in or out. Throw all the MP’s into the ‘ring’ and douche out some decent policies ‘T-O-G-E-T-H-E-R!’
and keep them on minimum wage with bonus payments should they actually achieve something of substance.
Not only should the voting age be lowered to 16, it should be capped at 70. People who won’t have to face the consequences of suicidal environmental policies shouldn’t get to vote for them.
Fair enough but you are forgetting it is their taxes that paid for the roads you drive on and the education and healthcare you received. Its one thing to argue someone who doesnt pay tax doesnt get a say and a whole nother thing to argue someone who paid a lifetime of taxes doesnt get a say.
And there is also the old adage that “With age comes wisdom” not to mention that pesky little thing called democracy – “1 Man, 1 Vote” or should I now be required to say “1 Person 1 Vote” assuming that is that NZer’s still consider democracy relevant.
Define ‘Man?’ And while you’re at it. Woman?
I think this thing called democracy needs a new warrant of fitness. The tow-bars that attach it to general citizens seem to have warped, rusted or fractured or all three. It’s time for the populace to demand better standards of themselves and more informed input, and acceptable, useful outcomes, and the same for gummint!
What about a scratch test before anyone votes with some basic questions so the young ones and the old ones and those in the middle who haven’t had a new thought for years, all have to turn over their brain and let some fresh air in between their ears. The airy-fairy young teenagers have to understand the complex human mind which only growing into adults will do.
It could have questions like how does NZ earn its national income, what is the minimum wage, and what keeps wages low? Those may be too hard for the average punter though. For old people the simple question of where their superannuation (old age pension) is paid from, and are they willing to help out as volunteers in the community to put something back; to pass on their wit and wisdom and skills before they go soft in the head with alzheimers or their hips and hearts go (I am in that common situation as are many I know.)
Knarf off you!
Like that’s all there is to vote for. Anyway that’s ageism and “not allowed”. You might be old one day, if you live that long.
Said with a smile.
3 years is enough to allow for voters to know what the Government is about—the either vote them in again, or not—4 years is too long…and why the F*** does the taxpayer have to fund this circus—do not let the Government trick taxpayers into letting them take more money from taxpayers…
How much money has LINO been paid to push this 4 year term which only suits the Pony puller’s exclusive club.
I am cynical with any attempt to pro long our parliamentary term by one year which will mean squat with the votes of under matured adults who with respect don’t have the experience to understand the evils of capitalism and by making that statement i am in no way ridiculing 16 year old Kiwis it is just an admission of fact.
I remember the immaturity of being 16.
A three year term makes the ruling parties accountable and unfortunately they will market this idea as a way to exert even more control over the neo liberal stranglehold of the current ” democratic ” i use that term loosely as a way to give them a longer term to implement the current status quo with even less resistance.
Get the money out of politics, these ‘donations’ seem to come with strings attached.
Remember what Jamie Lee Ross said about party donations and about splitting large donations between members, all the rest went silent…..
Dont expect politicians to change this, this is far to lucrative for themselves to even think about introducing some honesty to all this.
Maybe we should let the yet to born ‘people’ have a vote.
I haven’t figured how to do that yet but maybe we could put together a committee to do that?
“Enough Said” by Devo
Take all the leaders from around the world
Put them together in a great big ring
Televise it as the lowest show on earth
And let them fight like hell to see who’s king
Gather up the pieces when the fight is done
Then you’ll find out living really can be fun
You wanted a world you could figure out
But something happened while you were asleep
You wanted a good life you could brag about
Too bad they took the parts you wanted to keep
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