‘Second-Class MPs’? New Zealand's Adaptation to Mixed-Member Parliamentary Representation

Political Science

Volumn 49, Issue 2, 1998, Pages 125-152

  Ward, Leigh J ^a  

^a VICTORIA UNIVERSITY OF WELLINGTON   (New Zealand)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 33750136118     PISSN: 00323187     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/003231879804900201     Document Type: Article

References (65)

1. This paper was written as part of the New Zealand Political Change Project, a three year study on the impact of MMP funded by the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology. An earlier version of this paper was presented to the Australasian Political Studies Association annual conference in Adelaide in 1997. I would particularly like to acknowledge the assistance of Elizabeth McLeay, as well as Stephen Levine and Nigel S. Roberts in the preparation of this paper. I would also like to thank the two anonymous referees for their helpful criticisms.
2. See also work on British MPs, for example, J. Marsh, ‘Representational Changes: The Constituency MP’, in P. Norton (ed.), Parliament in the 1980s (Oxford, 1985).
3. Royal Commission on the Electoral System, Towards a Better Democracy (Wellington, 1986), p. 20.
4. Royal Commission on the Electoral System, Towards a Better Democracy, p. 35.
5. J. Boston, E. McLeay, S. Levine, and N. S. Roberts, ‘Why Did New Zealand Adopt German-Style Proportional Representation?’, Representation, Vol. 33 (1996), p. 2.
6. The number of Maori seats varies according to the number of people who register on the Maori roll.
7. S. Boyd, ‘Parliament's Second-Class Group Making Their Mark’, Evening Post, 30 July 1997, p. 7.
8. Boyd, ‘Parliament's Second-Class Group Making Their Mark’, p. 66.
9. Boyd, ‘Parliament's Second-Class Group Making Their Mark’, p. 66.
10. Boyd, ‘Parliament's Second-Class Group Making Their Mark’, p. 67.
11. See Electoral Act 1993, section 27.
12. See House of Representatives, Standing Orders of the House of Representatives (Wellington, 1996).
13. Section 55 of the Electoral Act 1993 states that the seat of any member of Parliament shall become vacant for: non-attendance in the House for one whole session of Parliament; an oath of allegiance to, or adoption of citizenship of, a foreign power; conviction for corrupt election practice or for a crime punishable by two years’ imprisonment; becoming a public servant; written resignation of the seat; a Court declares their election void; death; and mental illness.
14. Electoral Act 1993, sections 129-190.
15. Electoral Act 1993, section 134.
16. The analysis of New Zealand's first MMP Parliament includes National Party list MP Annabel Young―and not Jim Gerard, the MP she replaced.
17. Higher Salaries Commission, The Parliamentary Salaries and Allowances Determination 1996 (Wellington, 1996), Second Schedule, pp. 5–6.
18. See J. Boston, E. McLeay, S. Levine, and N. S. Roberts, ‘Parliament: changing the rules of the game’, New Zealand Under MMP: A New Politics? (Auckland, 1996), p. 88.
19. The Parliamentary Salaries and Allowances Determination 1996, Second Schedule, p. 6.
20. Parliamentary Salaries and Allowances Determination 1996, Explanatory Memorandum, clause 4.10.
21. Parliamentary Salaries and Allowances Determination 1996, Explanatory Memorandum, clause 4.15.
22. See The Parliamentary Salaries and Allowances Determination 1996, Fourth Schedule, clauses 1-11.
23. The difference in allowance allocations for list and electorate MPs continued with the Parliamentary Salaries and Allowances Determination 1997.
24. Parliamentary Salaries and Allowances Determination 1996, Explanatory Memorandum, clause 6.5.
25. Parliamentary Salaries and Allowances Determination 1996, Explanatory Memorandum, clause 6.7.
26. Parliamentary Salaries and Allowances Determination, 1 Explan9atory Me9morandum7, clause 1.3.
27. All information was gathered NPf eawrr lZieaoamleamnntd Who's Who 1996 (Radio New Zealand, 1996); this has been supplemented by interviews with individual MPs, conducted from late 1996 through September 1997.
28. The term ‘new MPs’ refers to those MPs elected for the first time to Parliament.
29. The data suggest that it is perhaps somewhat unfair to characterise list MPs as ‘failed’ MPs unable to win an electorate. Some list MPs did not stand in electorates, and in any case voting results were influenced both by tactical considerations and the persistence even under MMP of ‘unwinnable’ seats.
30. There are also more MPs of Pacific Island descent (three), and for the first time there is an MP of Chinese descent.
31. See H. Catt, ‘Women, Maori and Minorities: Microrepresentation and MMP’, in J. Boston, S. Levine, E. McLeay, and N. S. Roberts (eds.), From Campaign to Coalition: New Zealand's First General Election Under Proportional Representation (Palmerston North, 1997).
32. Marsh, ‘Representational Changes: The Constituency MP’, p. 66.
33. J. T. Anagnoson, ‘Home Style in New Zealand’, Legislative Studies Quarterly, Vol. 8 (1983), p. 172.
34. Anagnoson, ‘Home Style in New Zealand’, p. 160.
35. Anagnoson, ‘Home Style in New Zealand’, p. 167.
36. Parliamentary Salaries and Allowances Determination 1996, Explanatory Memorandum, clause 4.13.
37. Parliamentary Salaries and Allowances Determination 1996, Explanatory Memorandum, clauses 4.14-4.15.
38. Royal Commission on the Electoral System, Towards a Better Democracy, p. 22.
39. Royal Commission on the Electoral System, Towards a Better Democracy, p. 53.
40. T. Burkett, ‘The West German Deputy’, in V. Bogdanor (ed.), Representatives of the People? Parliamentarians and Constituents in Western Democracies (Aldershot, Hants, England, 1985), p. 129. It is interesting to note that in Germany list MPs ‘receive as much mail from constituents as constituency MPs’. See Burkett, ‘The West German Deputy’, p. 129.
41. Bain, ‘Labour List MPsTo Set Up Shop In Electorates’, The Dominion, 26 November 1996, p. 2.
42. Herald Tribune, 6 September 1997, p. 6.
43. See A. Kominik, ‘MPs Claim Territorial Rights Over Homeless Newcomers’, The Dominion, 19 October 1996, p. 1; and ‘Labour Rejects Shipley Suggestion of Coalition’, The Dominion, 22 May 1995, p. 59.
44. Kominik, ‘MPs Claim Territorial Rights Over Homeless Newcomers’, p. 1.
45. Kominik, ‘MPs Claim Territorial Rights Over Homeless Newcomers’, p. 46.
46. Kominik, ‘MPs Claim Territorial Rights Over Homeless Newcomers’, p. 1.
47. This is illustrated in terms of ‘split-ticket voting’―i.e., the relationship between the two choices made by voters in a general election. See S. Levine and N. S. Roberts, ‘Surveying the Snark: Voting Behaviour in the 1996 New Zealand General Election’, in Boston, Levine, McLeay and Roberts (eds.), From Campaign to Coalition.
48. C. Bean, ‘Party Leaders and Local Candidates’, in M. Holland (ed.), Electoral Behaviour in New Zealand (Auckland, 1992).
49. See M. Ganley, ‘Waipareira: A Four-Way Fight’, in Boston, Levine, McLeay and Roberts (eds.), From Campaign to Coalition.
50. S. Boyd, ‘Law Experts Worry Over List MP Rules’, Evening Post, 30 July 1997, p. 7. Former Prime Minister Palmer is and has been a strong supporter of MMP. See G. Palmer, Bridled Power: New Zealand Government under MMP (Auckland, 1997).
51. Royal Commission on the Electoral System, Towards a Better Democracy, p. 66.
52. K. Jackson, ‘Electoral Reform: An Academic Perspective’, Legislative Studies, Vol. 3 (1988), p. 12.
53. House of Representatives, Report of the Privileges Committee on the question of privilege referred on 22 July 1997 relating to the status of Manu Alamein Kopu as a member of Parliament, Appendix B, p. 9.
54. C. Bell, ‘Kopu “aligns herself with anti-Pakeha movement”’, Dominion, 23 October 1997, p. 2.
55. See House of Representatives, Report of the Privileges Committee, 1997, pp. 12–13.
56. House of Representatives, Report of the Privileges Committee, 1997, p. 6.
57. By virtue of section 55(1)(f) of the Electoral Act 1993 a seat becomes vacant if a member ‘resigns his or her seat by writing under his or her hand addressed and delivered to the Speaker of the House’.
58. House of Representatives, Report of the Privileges Committee, 1997, p. 13.
59. House of Representatives, Report of the Privileges Committee, 1997, p. 13.
60. The Dominion, 26 August 1997, p. 3.
61. C. Bell, ‘Alliance Argues Ethics of Kopu Move’, The Dominion, 20 August 1997, p. 2.
62. ‘Kopu Should Stand Down, Says Peters’, The Dominion, 26 July 1997, p. 2.
63. ‘Kopu Pickle an MMP Recipe’, The Dominion, 24 July 1997, p. 8.
64. A. McRobie, ‘List MP Defections’, The Dominion, 25 November 1995, p. 18.
65. Between 1993 and 1996 13 MPs switched parties, more than ten per cent of the then 99 member House. See R. Laugesen, ‘Bill Aimed At MPs Who Leave Parties’, The Dominion, 17 May 1996, p. 2. The defections of so many MPs and the approach of MMP attracted an interest in legislating against changes of party by MPs.