When the referendum on our electoral system was being discussed earlier this year, it was suggested that MMP would be reviewed regardless of the outcome.
If the majority of voters opted to keep MMP there would be a review. If they didn’t there would still be a review. Any changes to MMP confirmed as a result of that would be incorporated in the model which would then be put up against whichever of the alternatives gained most votes in the first referendum.
As I discovered last Monday that didn’t make it into legislation.
If a majority vote for MMP next month there will be a review of it. If the majority vote for change there won’t be a review and we’ll get a second referendum in which to choose between the system as we know it and the most popular alternative from the first referendum.
Campaign for MMP is correct that only a vote for MMP will lock in a review but that doesn’t guarantee any change.
Getting consensus on changes will be a very difficult task.
One of the aspects many people dislike about MMP is the way it allows an MP who is rejected by an electorate to enter, or return to, parliament on a party list.
The easiest solution to that is to allow candidates to stand on the list or for a seat but not both.
That’s not something National and Labour, the two parties most affected by this, are likely to support. It would lead to difficulties getting candidates to stand in marginal electorates or seats they’d never win. Wee parties which stand candidates in unwinnable seats to fly the party flag might also be reluctant to adpot this measure.
If the change was to apply to a candidate who held a seat then lost it rather than those who tried to win it and didn’t, it might get wider support. However, a candidate at risk of losing a seat could, with her/his party’s co-operation, get round that clause by standing on the list and not in an electorate.
Getting consensus on other suggested improvements will be just as difficult and the one change I regard as important – smaller electorates – won’t come about under MMP without a considerable increase in the number of MPs. I doubt any party would suggest something likely to be so very unpopular with voters as that.
The Campaign for MMP is right that a vote for MMP will lock in a review but it won’t guarantee popular change or indeed any change at all.
Homepaddock 
Simon Bridges, pushing Key’s ‘FPP with lipstick’ on Q&A, Ele, got hung, drawn and quartered – or rather his fatuous argument did.
Give it up.
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The pro-MMP lobby is much better organised than those wanting change Robert and they will probably win, but that’s no reason to give up.
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I too was concerned with electorate MPs coming back on the list but have changed my mind after listening to the arguements you put foward here.
Also becuase parties make up the lists then if an MP is dumped by an electrorate I think they are learning that they should also be dumped from, or pushed down, that parties list.
This is much the same arguement as the tail wagging the dog when ‘tails’ such as NZ First have now been dumped by the electorate as a whole.
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