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Helen Clark has again proven to be the most gifted political manager of our age.  It’s tough to euthanise old comrades but her new Party list will give us at least 10 new faces in Parliament.  If things go wrong a quarter of our MP’s will be new, which is a good base to rebuild, fight back and hold the Government accountable.  Most will be loyal because they have worked in the Beehive.

NZ faces urgent challenges that cannot be faced because of our political system, it’s systemic, it’s MMP.  Parties are forced to do sordid deals after an election and all spend more money, a bridge in Tauranga, or money to groups who were promised things.  Minorities like taking money from the majority.

After the first MMP election, during which Winston promised never to do a deal with National, the difference between National and Labour was that National would give him the Finance Minister’s job.  Helen showed integrity and wouldn’t make the same offer, after all, Winston was committed to changing the independence of the Reserve Bank.  Of course he didn’t mean it – silly us.  Jim Bolger swallowed that rat with sleazy ease and changed the name of the job to that of Treasurer.  This was a lesson learnt, so after the last election, when Winston had promised to realise the baubles of office, this man who made his reputation attacking foreigners, was made Foreign Minister and produced a world Parliamentary ‘first’, the fiction that he was not a member of the Government.

It’s MMP, stupid!  MMP works in northern Europe because their parties are based on ideas and historic evolution.  The minor parties in NZ are based on the disappointment of ambitious individuals who failed to get what they wanted in the political parties that put them into Parliament.  None would have been first elected without their original party badge.  Peter Dunne and United NZ, Jim Anderton and New Labour, Winston Peters and NZ First, even Roger Douglas and ACT.

The Greens are the only true, new MMP brand.  But they showed the political cynicism of the politburo when they parachuted Russell Norman into Parliament, an MP stood down, others higher on the list were bullied aside and, hey presto, we have a new party leader in Parliament.  This wasn’t the list the people voted for.  But he is impressive, there’s nothing he doesn’t know, how one person can know so much is a mystery to me.  And, he’s spending taxpayers’ money in glossy magazines to say, if you love the planet, write to him.. So much for the new politics …..

The point is that the party lists give too much power to party bosses to select half your MP’s, many of them people who have been voted out locally.  They owe everything to party bosses and have to prove this loyalty.  This creates a situation where they do not question, probe or offer alternatives.  This takes from the leadership the scrutiny and challenges that always improve policy outcomes.  At both party caucus meetings they are very agreeable and not approvingly and laugh loudly at any lame joke.  It’s a bit like party meetings towards the end of Joe Stalin’s time when party members didn’t know when to stop clapping because whoever stopped first was likely to be shot as disloyal.

Parliament is also compromised because no-one could dare question Winston because you might have to deal with him to form a government.  Question time has lost its important relevance with MP’s courageously asking Ministers how wonderful they are and why, then sitting down, looking slightly pleased with themselves.

Richard Crossman, a British Labour MP once observed that ‘backbenchers are no longer watchdogs, they no longer strain at their leashes.  Some perform the occasional trick like walking on their hind legs.  The rest lie about looking wistful, hoping for a biscuit.’

Our democracy has suffered, stifled but not yet stuffed.  The question is this.  Will Winston peter out?  Everyone but those in clinical denial must now know they have been lied to, Parliament misled, the contradictions, diversions, hypocrisy and dishonesty obvious.  None dare call it corruption but if this is not wrong, nothing is wrong.  The bluff and bullying has worked before but has the magic worn thin?  But even if 94.99% vote against Winston because of these rotten rorts, and he still gets over 5%, nothing will change and such behaviour rewarded.  Is there still 5% out there who think it’s a conspiracy and hate journalists more than politicians?  About 20% think that the moon landing was a hoax and 9/11 an inside job.  Perhaps that’s why our National anthem begins with the words, “God Defend New Zealand .”

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