Nick Clark: Report author and Senior Fellow discusses proposed changes to MMP

More MPs and longer parliamentary terms have been deemed key to modernising a decades old electoral system. 

Fresh New Zealand Initiative research found 30 years on from the introduction of MMP, our parliament is in the need of a four year term and 50 more members. 

That would take the Parliament to 170.

Report author and Senior Fellow Nick Clark says MMP has delivered fairer and more representative parliaments. 

But he says these changes would create better balance between members and the executive. 

Clark says right now there is a huge number of ministers compared to members, making it harder for MPs to hold those ministers to account.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
You report out this morning, This from the New Zealand
Initiative reckons our MMP system needs a four year term
and get this fifty more MPs. It says, parliament's about
thirty percent smaller than other countries. We need more. Nick
Clark is author and senior fellow at the initiative, joins
me Now, morning.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
Nick, morning, Ryan, are you are you good?

Speaker 1 (00:16):
Are you trolling us? Nick?

Speaker 2 (00:20):
No? No, it's actually quite serious. The four year term
is something which has been debated and isn't under consideration
right now. It's not a radical.

Speaker 1 (00:29):
It's fine, that's fine, but what can one hundred and
seventy MPs do that one hundred and twenty can't.

Speaker 2 (00:36):
Yeah, we have a very small parliament by international standards.
Most countries are certain European countries around about our size,
and that are very successful countries, the Scandinavians, Ireland, et cetera.
They all have between around one hundred and seventy and
two hundred MPs, all around the same size as you
see on intensive population. Now, the reason why to answer

(00:57):
your question is why do we need more here in
New Zealand. I think it's probably fair to say that
we have difficulty with select committees in terms of the
ability for them to properly scrutinize legislation. And that's partly
because the MPs that we do have available are so
thinly stretched. We have MPs that end up on city
on multiple committees. They can't get a good handle on

(01:20):
what's going on as much as they perhaps should. They
get inundated with submissions. It's a good idea, I think,
to just spread the load a bit more by having
some more MPs. Also, the electrics that we have are
very large, both geographically and in population terms, and they're
becoming increasingly difficult for MP to service the rather complex
and intense needs.

Speaker 1 (01:41):
These extre MPs will be electric MPs, not this one.

Speaker 2 (01:44):
Some of them will be yep, yep, yep. We'd be
looking at the fifty fifty s.

Speaker 1 (01:47):
Look, I don't think anyone's going to go for this nick,
but I do like your idea of getting cabinet down
from fifteen twenty to fifteen ministers. We also have something
like eighty portfolios. It's like the Grand Central Station trying
to wrangle these portfolio ministers. It's outrageous.

Speaker 2 (02:03):
Yes, absolutely, and we put out a report a few
weeks ago a couple months ago, maybe that talked about
this in more detail, but we have a bloated, fragmented executive.
It's really hard to tell who's responsible for what. We
need to get that executive down in size. That they
also dominate the government parties, so it means it affect.
Was a great way to control a caucus by having

(02:25):
more executive members. It's also a great way to divvy
up the spoils of war after an election with coalish
and partners getting down Nick.

Speaker 1 (02:31):
Nick, appreciate your time this morning. Thank you, author and
senior fellow at the New zeal Initiative. For more from
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