Do we need two referenda?

Last month’s referendum cost around $9 million dollars.

Running one at the same time as a general election would cost less than one held in isolation but whatever the cost, logic suggets two would be twice as expensive as one.

Given that, do we need two referenda on whether or not we want to retain MMP?

I don’t see any point in asking us if we want a change unless we know what the alternatives are, and if we know the alternatives why not let us vote for or against them in a single referendum?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 8th, 2009 at 4:13 pm and is filed under politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

6 Responses to Do we need two referenda?

  1. dave's avatar dave says:
    08/09/2009 at 5:32 pm

    thats the whole point of Nationals strategy – it doesn’t want you to know what the alternatives are untll the decision has been made to ditch MMP. Providing information to the public in a timely and effective manner is not one of National’s strong suits.

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  2. pdm's avatar pdm says:
    08/09/2009 at 7:40 pm

    Dave – and of course the kicked out Labour government did – dream on and think Privy Council as just one example.

    Hp – I do not think there is any alternative to holding 2 referenda. Much as I dislike MMp in it’s present format there needs to be time to inform people on not only what the options are but also how they work.

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  3. homepaddock's avatar homepaddock says:
    08/09/2009 at 8:11 pm

    PDM – it’s more than 2 years until the next election, isn’t that enough time to learn about the options and how they work?

    Although we’ve had MMP for five elections and some people still don’t understand how it works . . .

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  4. pdm's avatar pdm says:
    09/09/2009 at 4:27 am

    HP – I hink the main reason we finished up with MMP was that most voters had no idea what the other options, other than FPP, were or how they would work.

    We don’t need that situation again.

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  5. homepaddock's avatar homepaddock says:
    09/09/2009 at 7:38 am

    PDM – I think most – or at least many – voters didn’t understand how MMP would work either and some still don’t.

    I remember hearing an interview a couple of elections ago with the leader of one of the wee parties who said one of his party executive told him he was giving him the electorate vote and giving the party vote to one of the bigger parties.

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  6. Anonymouse's avatar Anonymouse says:
    11/09/2009 at 11:37 pm

    We don’t need two referenda: we don’t even need one.

    National & ACT should just man up & pass the damn law. Get rid of MMP, get back to an electoral system than delivers decisive governments and represents the productive parts of NZ

    * limit the franchise so that civil servants and bludgers don’t get to vote!

    * adopt a verison of SM, say have the existing 70 electorate seats, and then have another 30 seats that go to the party with the largest number of seats.

    * or alternatively, allow say the business round table, chambers of commerce, and the employers federation to nominate 10 MPs each.

    problem solved.

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