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Posts filed under Coat-tailing
Brian Rudman doesn't hide his contempt for coat-tailing in his latest Herald column. But under the headline Cut off the coat-tails and end MMP rorts he's not exactly kind to the Labour Party and David Cunliffe either; he opines:
Labour is promising to abolish within 100 days of taking office the MMP coat-tail rule that enables a minor party electorate MP to bring party list mates into Parliament regardless of the 5 per cent entry threshold.
The joke is that, barring a miracle, there seems little chance of Labour leader David Cunliffe and his Green allies forming a government without the aid of the Mana-Internet "party", whose existence depends on gaming the coat-tail provisions.
And having exploited the system for all it is worth - and spent more than $3 million of internet millionaire Kim Dotcom's cash - to get back into Parliament, it seems unlikely that Hone Harawira and Laila Harre will turn around and vote to end the fun.
The stitch-up between embattled Mana Party leader Mr Harawira and Mr Dotcom, the millionaire refugee from American law enforcement agencies, is not the first attempt to game the MMP rules. It's just the most egregious.
Rudman is dead right. The deal between Dotcom and Harawira is the rort to end all rorts, and everyone knows it. John Key may invite minor party leaders for a cup of tea, but on the rort scale, the MegaMana one is a five course dinner with wine matches, and port and cigars to follow.Of course, that won't stop David Cunliffe, if that is what it takes. Faced with a choice of governing and reaching some sort of deal with MegaMana, and facing another three years in opposition, we all know what David Cunliffe will do.
And we all know that Labour has form; read on:
In 1999, in the second MMP election, Labour leader Helen Clark encouraged Labour supporters in Coromandel to support Green candidate Jeanette Fitzsimons to ensure the defeat of the National incumbent and bring in several Green list candidates on her coat-tails.
Ms Fitzsimons narrowly won - but in the end the Greens' party vote just sneaked over the 5 per cent threshhold, entitling them to six seats anyway.
Of course, that's not Labour's only coat-tail rort. From the first MMP election in 1996 to his retirement at the 2011 General Election, Labour stood a series of Neville Nobodies against former Labour Party president and MP Jim Anderton in Wigram. By the time he retired, Anderton was back to being a Labour MP in every way except his self-named political party.So Labour knows all about coat-tail rorts. But make no mistake; David Cunliffe, for all his pontificating now will reach out to Dotcom and Harawira if that's what it takes after 20 September. Then he will ask the MegaMana MP's to close their eyes, block their noses, and like turkeys, vote for an early Christmas. Labour's hypocrisy is galling.
David Cunliffe has declared war on coat-tailing and the Conservative Party; simultaneously. But he's also dug a deep hole for himself; Stuff reports:
Labour leader David Cunliffe has launched an attack on Conservative Party leader Colin Craig amid growing speculation of an electoral deal with National.
Prime Minister John Key told media this week he would be looking to make three deals to give minor-party candidates a chance at winning seats, and would announce them before the September 20 election.
It is widely understood one of those deals would be with Craig, who is set to announce this month the electorate he will be standing in.
Craig has already indicated his preference to stand in one of the northern Auckland electorates - East Coast Bays, which is held by Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully; Upper Harbour, in which National is standing Social Development Minister Paula Bennett; and Rodney, which is held by National back-bench MP Mark Mitchell.
If National gave way for Craig to win a seat and the Conservative's gained more than 1.2 per cent of the vote, an extra two MPs could be brought into Parliament to form a coalition with National.
Cunliffe today said the situation with Craig was a "strange turn of events".
"I wonder whether the people of East Coast Bays like the fact that their choices are being taken away from them, that MMP is being manipulated and they're being told they have to vote for somebody who basically thinks the earth is flat," he said on Firstline.
"That is a very, very strange turn of events and I think it underwhelms public confidence in the MMP system.
"I also think the prime minister should be aware that something like 75 per cent of New Zealanders object to coat-tailing.
"Labour is opposed to coat-tailing, we've got a bill in the House to end it, we've invited the Government to support the bill and so far they've declined. Now we see why - because they want to use coat-tailing to get fringe parties up into Parliament by gifting them a seat, most likely East Coast Bays."
So here's our question to David Cunliffe. If Labour is in a position to form a coalition after the General Election, and if the MegaMana party brought additional MP's into Parliament legally under the current provisions of MMP, would Labour refuse to go into coalition with them?
You see, David Cunliffe has a problem. If coat-tailing is such an urgent problem that legislation must be introduced in the first 100 days of a Labour-led government to outlaw it, surely he cannot accept the votes and support of a party that coat-tails MP's into the House. Or does Mr Cunliffe seriously believe that coat-tailing is only bad when the parties of the Right do it?So the ball's in your court Mr Cunliffe; you need to categorically rule out any deal or accommodation with the Internet Mana Party including coalition arrangements, abstaining, and confidence and supply deals. Will you do it?We reckon the answer to that is self-evident. Labour is all about power at any cost. John Key might be prepared to cut deals, but at least he cuts them out in the open, not in the War Room or the union halls.
Coat-tailing is either good, or it's bad. But David Cunliffe is being a hypocrite if he thinks he can have a dollar each way.
With the General Election now little more than three months away, there's plenty of banter going on around the traps.
Unsurprisingly, David Cunliffe is copping his share of ribbing, given his constantly changing policies (immigration, to name just one), more policy launch glitches, and his general yeah-nah style.
Botany MP Jami-Lee Ross has sledged Mr Cunliffe on Facebook:
David Cunliffe has only himself to blame for these kinds of comments. Surely, as a politician of 14 years' experience, he must have seen the potential danger in setting up a secret trust to receive anonymous donations.
Kudos to Ross for pointing out this apparent hypocrisy on the part of the Labour leader. We have already reflected this week in the naked self-interest in Mr Cunliffe's Road to Damascus conversion with regard to coat-tailing, and we once again thank him for being such an easy target!
There's an interesting editorial in this morning's NZ Herald. Under the headline National should rise to challenge on coat-tailing the editorial begins thus:
Labour has made a worthy, and now selfless, proposal to abolish the provision in the Electoral Act that can give parties two or more MPs for the price of one electorate. It is a worthy intention because the "coat-tailing" rule can give those MPs influence out of all proportion to their tiny fraction of public support. And it is selfless because if Labour is in a position to carry out its policy after the coming election, it could owe its power to the electoral provision it wants to abolish.
The merger of Kim Dotcom's money with Hone Harawira's lone seat gives Labour a possible ally with two or three seats, which could change the Government. If that happens, it is hard to see Internet-Mana supporting legislation to abolish the very mechanism that has given it pivotal power.
By that time, Internet and Mana have said, they will be separate entities. They plan to dissolve their marriage of convenience six weeks after the election.
That would make their arrangement the most cynical use of the coat-tailing rule to date. Having entered Parliament on the basis of Hone Harawira's electorate, Laila Harre would become an independent. In that event she would have less moral right to be in Parliament than MPs who fall out with their party after entering on its list. They at least enter in good faith.
We disagree with the leader writer that Labour's position is "selfless". If anything, it smacks of self-interest. Labour will have polled internally over the weekend, and just as last night's Roy Morgan poll was an indictment on MegaMana, Labour's War Room boffins will have read the tea leaves, hence the policy being released on the hoof.The irony here of course is that for Labour to be able to make good its promise, it will almost certainly need anyone elected under the MegaMana banner in order to be able to form a coalition and pass its promised anti-coat-tailing legislation. The voting public will see that, even if the Herald's editorial writer cannot.There is a second irony to this. The 50th Parliament does not have any coat-tailers, when you consider:- The Maori Party won three electorates, but not a big enough share of the party vote to bring in additional MP's
- Act (John Banks) won Epsom, but not a big enough share of the party vote to bring in additional MP's
- United Future (Peter Dunne) won Ohariu, but not a big enough share of the party vote to bring in additional MP's
- Mana (Hone Harawira) won Te Tai Tokerau, but not a big enough share of the party vote to bring in additional MP's
On that basis, David Cunliffe is using a sledgehammer to smash a problem that doesn't currently exist. And even worse, he is likely to form some kind of post-election deal with MP's who enter Parliament by a means he so opposes that he will introduce legislation to outlaw within 100 days of being elected. That is anything but selfless in our ever-humble opinion.
John Armstrong helpfully points to the hole that David Cunliffe has dug for himself over his determination to ban coat-tailing:
Of more immediate pertinence, Labour could yet need Internet Mana to secure a majority in the next Parliament. But bringing more MPs into Parliament alongside Hone Harawira will likely require that the new umbrella party's leader hold his Te Tai Tokerau electorate.
If Harawira lost, Internet Mana's party votes would go down the gurgler to the huge disadvantage of the centre-left in what is shaping as a very close contest.
But Cunliffe is now hamstrung. If he drops even the slightest hint - even a coded one - that Labour voters should opt for Internet Maori in Te Tai Tokerau, Cunliffe will be deemed an absolute hypocrite.
Not the kind of label you want to be carrying during an election campaign.
John Armstrong gets this one absolutely right (sorry Rex!), especially with the news this morning that Labour is prepared to do a deal with MegaMana if that is what it takes. To enable coat-tailing when you are promising to do away with it later would be complete and utter hypocrisy.
It would seem once again that David Cunliffe has managed to seize disaster from the jaws of triumph!
Idiot/Savant from No Right Turn has ripped into the Labour Party over its plans to outlaw coat-tailing:
On Firstline this morning, Labour's David Cunliffe promised to introduce legislation to scrap the "electorate lifeboat" provision of MMP within his first hundred days in office:
“The incoming Labour-led government under my leadership would, within our first 100 days in office, initiate moves to repeal this part of the Electoral Act.
“National has supported a widely discredited electoral rule which skews the democratic process to its own political ends. The New Zealand public can see through that,’’ said David Cunliffe.
I think this is a terrible change. The one MP rule is a vital safeguard which ensures representation of smaller parties. Without it, our Parliament would be much less representative than it is at present (unless it was balanced by a removal of the 5% threshold) - and therefore much less democratic.
It doesn't help that there's the usual enormous helping of hypocrisy from Labour on this.Despite their claims to have been "principled and consistent" on the issue, they quietly gifted Coromandel to the Greens in 1999; their opposition is more recent, and based entirely on a desire to rob National of potential coalition partners. And in order to do that, they're willing to make our Parliament less representative and rob their fellow citizens of a democratic voice. It is immoral and undemocratic - but its what happens when you get professional politicians who view the electoral system as a game to be rigged to their advantage, rather than a framework to maximise democratic representation and responsiveness.
I/S is dead right about Labour's hypocrisy on this issue, even though he downplays it by only mentioning Coromandel. Labour of course gave Jim Anderton a leg-up in Wigram election after election after election by standing a series of Neville Nobodies against the former Labour Party president. Here's a potted summary of how that dirty deal worked:
By the late 1990s, Labour under Helen Clark had largely purged itself of the influence of Roger Douglas. Realising that the cost of a split in the left-wing vote was a continued National government, the two parties agreed to form a coalition for the 1999 elections. Anderton became Deputy Prime Minister after National lost the election. He was also given the newly created post of Minister of Economic Development, which had an emphasis on job creation and regional development initiatives.
Towards the end of the parliamentary term Anderton came into conflict with the Alliance's administrative wing. Party president Matt McCarten and his allies claimed that the Alliance had become too close to Labour, and that it should take a less moderate path; Anderton replied that some moderation was required for the Alliance to accomplish any of its goals. There were complaints that Anderton was too dominant in the party's decision-making and over the fact that he supported the government's stance on the bombing of Afghanistan, while the executive and wider membership opposed it. Eventually, Anderton and three other MPs left the Alliance, establishing the Progressive Coalition, later renamed the Progressive Party. In order to get around the Electoral Integrity Act, which had been passed largely because of Anderton's complaints about waka jumping, Anderton technically remained the Alliance's parliamentary leader until the writ was dropped for the 2002 election.
In the election, Anderton was returned to Parliament, and the Progressives took the Alliance's place as Labour's coalition partner. Although Anderton won his electorate, the small amount of support the Progressives received (1.4% of the party vote) was enough for only one other Progressive – deputy leader Matt Robson – to enter Parliament. Anderton gave up the deputy prime minister's post to Minister of Finance and Labour deputy leader Michael Cullen. He remained Minister of Economic Development, and also held other ministerial portfolios. He ranked third in Cabinet, behind Clark and Cullen.
In the runup to the 2005 election Anderton renamed his party "Jim Anderton's Progressive Party". However, he was the only Progressive returned to Parliament by a narrow margin after many left-wing voters voted for Labour to prevent a National government from being elected due to a split on the left. He became Minister of Agriculture, Minister for Biosecurity, Minister of Fisheries, Minister of Forestry, Minister Responsible for the Public Trust, Associate Minister of Health, and Associate Minister for Tertiary Education.
The 2008 election saw a swing to the right, with National winning approximately 45% of the party vote to Labour's 34%. Anderton retained his seat but the Progressives' share of the party vote remained low, at less than one percent.[3] In a move described as "unorthodox" by the New Zealand Herald, Anderton announced that he would remain in coalition with Labour in opposition. He said that a priority for the Progressives would be to support better access to dental care.[4]
Yes; even in Opposition, Labour and Anderton were joined at the hip and were one in everything but name. We remember well the farce in 2002 when the Alliance split (to be led by none other than Laila Harre), and Helen Clark used every excuse in the book plus a few more to justify Anderton's position, and to avoid an early election. It was a farcical time.But wait; there's more. There was also a time when Peter Dunne was useful to Labour, so Labour's candidates in Ohariu didn't try too hard. Dunne was rewarded with Ministerial roles when he supported Helen Clark and Labour in the post-election wranglings after the 2005 General Election, even though his supporters were expecting him to support National, and have nothing to do with Winston First.So Labour has been more than happy to deal with coat-tailing MP's in the past, and based on present polling, it will need coat-tailing MP's this year if David Cunliffe is going to form a government. Then, of course, he's going to use the majority accorded to him by the dirty deal with coat-tailing MP's to change the Electoral Act to outlaw coat-tailing.Idiot/Savant is dead right. This is indeed an "enormous helping of hypocrisy" from Labour and its leader. But why would we expect anything else?
Those who have been hanging around Keeping Stock for a long time will know our history. The blog was started due to our anger at Labour's insidious Electoral Finance Bill, rammed through Parliament in the last sitting days of 2007. It was bad legislation, and the process was even worse.
After its defeat in 2008, many in Labour acknowledged their mistake, and their Act was repealed and replaced. The new law is not perfect, but it sure beats the legislation rammed through by Labour, with the support of the Greens and Winston Peters.
Today, it would appear that Labour has learned nothing from the 2007 fiasco, and two subsequent defeats at the polls; Stuff reports: Labour leader David Cunliffe has committed to legislation that will remove the "coat-tailing" provisions that allow small parties to get more MPs into Parliament.
The party already has a member's bill before the House, but Cunliffe said legislation would be introduced within the first 100 days of a government he led.
Coat-tailing allows for smaller parties that have not reached the 5 per cent threshold, to bring more MPs into Parliament on the back of one MP who may have won an electorate seat.
It also can allow larger parties to do deals that would help smaller parties into Parliament, which happened with ACT and National in the Epsom seat in Auckland.
The Internet Party and Mana have also merged their list, in the hopes of bringing more MPs into Parliament on the coat-tails of Mana leader Hone Harawira, if he retains his Te Tai Tokerau seat.
Cunliffe said he challenged prime minister John Key to sign up to Labour's bill, but the party would move to change the Electoral Act within its first 100 days in government, regardless.
"We're saying a very principled and consistent thing," he told Firstline this morning.
"We think it's wrong, no matter who does it.
It's good that Labour is now admitting it was wrong to put up low-profile candidates against Peter Dunne in Ohariu, against Jeanette Fitzsimons in Coromandel and against Jim Anderton in Wigram for all those elections. Even in 2008, when the tide was going out on Labour, they still gave Anderton an armchair ride into Parliament by standing a candidate who got almost 10,000 more party votes than electorate votes.There is no need for Labour to rush through this legislation under urgency and with either an abbreviated or no select committee process however. The "100 days" target sounds snappy, but the reality is that if Labour was able to form a government, they have to start on the assumption that the coalition will be robust enough to last a full three-year term. That leaves plenty of time for a full select committee process and a proper parliamentary debate, without the need for urgency.To trample on the Electoral Act in the cavalier manner which Labour is proposing sets a very dangerous precedent. That alone makes us very suspicious that today's announcement by David Cunliffe is an act of political posturing, possibly influenced by Labour's internal polling showing distaste for the MegaMana dirty deal.And of course the ultimate irony would be this; Labour forms a coalition with the GIMPs, of whom MegaMana have coat-tailed into Parliament, then outlaws coat-tailing. Hypocrisy much?
