$2.5m in donations from the property industry to political parties since 2021. 97% of which has gone to National, Act & NZ First.
$2.5m in donations from the property industry to political parties since 2021. 97% of which has gone to National, Act & NZ First.
I guess I just look at countries like the UK (usually 5 year terms), and see all the same problems we have in NZ around governments not doing much, etc. So I don’t think longer terms will solve that at all. It just means you wait longer for a new government to come in, where they usually do stuff in the first term (often just the first year of their first term!) and then are too scared to do anything after that.
Do places with 5 years terms typically still get 3 terms? It’s hard to imagine a country not getting bored with the ruling party after 10 years.
Yep. The UK has basically had 2 changes of government since 1979. Obviously there have been a lot of changes of PM over that time (especially in recent times), and part of the issue is FPP. But there is a certain logic behind governments winning around 3 elections in their lifetime. Being an incumbent gives you an advantage, but over time people get a bit sick of you and vote for change. That tends to get you 3 election wins (including the first), although there’s a lot of variation. But I would expect we’ll still get 3-term governments as the norm in NZ if we move to 4 year terms.
If it goes to a referendum, I hope that is a point that gets through to people.
Interesting! Do you think the current 3 years is a good middleground?
In my view, it’s OK. I know it creates problems with govt’s trying to get things done in 1-2 years to avoid spending lots in an election year. But the importance of electoral accountability cannot be overstated.
It wouldn’t be the end of the world moving to 4 years, but I don’t think it’ll fix most of the problems supporters are arguing it will. And if you ask politicians, of course they’ll say they want longer (especially if they’re currently in power, or about to be).
Do you know the reasoning behind the recommendation? presumably they looked at these impacts.
Maybe we should have yearly elections, so we can have lists of things to do in the first 100 days, then Christmas, then back to campaigning for the next election. Might get more done 😆
I think their recommendation was for a referendum, they didn’t specifically endorse increasing the term.