Seeing as we are seriously going to do this Electoral Law Review, let’s argue it out.
I say Keep Parliamentary term 3 years!
Here are the arguments for 4 years.
It will allow the Government to plan better and get more long term results with 4 year terms.
Accountability will occur via Opposition Chairs of Select Committees, which is an excellent idea which we should actually adopt but I say we stick with the 3 year term with that Select Committee adaptation.
I say 3 years because our Parliament is a unicameral legislature which makes it the most powerful Parliament in the Westminster tradition.
Under urgency you can literally read a bill into law within a day!
That’s enormous power and to allow that power to go unchecked by the people once every 3 years feels like a recipe for abuse.
The reason little gets done in 3 year terms is because the public service block reform and change for their own agendas. A party that actually had a 100 day legislative plan could force change but that takes courage.
Lengthening the term will just allow the Wellington Mafia to entrench their interests further.
Politicians need to be brave and use the powers this Parliament provides rather than lengthening the dates between accountability!
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I do not mind 4 years – plan, deliver on it and then be accountable. Some poor performing governments get two terms because of public inertia.
Greater SC scrutiny fits better with a 4 year term.
Stick to 3 years and do away with government pensions. Why on earth does John Key need a government pension for life and free air travel for he and his wife, when he’s worth over 60 million?
Problem is that when in opposition no political party plans to be the next government, ready to have the feet under the treasury benches with well thought out policies, strategies and action plans. Hitting the first day in office ready to run.
Instead we get, like Labour in 2017, having spent nine years in opposition, “waste” the first three years trying to sort out just what their policies should be, never mind where and how to implement those policies.
If eliminating child poverty was an election promise surely during the preceding nine years, sitting on the chuff collecting massive salaries, strategies and workable action plans would have been written in a manual somewhere ready to roll before breakfast the first day after election victory?
National has fallen into the same trap. No forward planning with sound and believable electable policies.
Political parties do not need longer terms to implement their policies, they need to spent the time in opposition planning to be the next government.
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