Sweeping Changes Proposed to NZ Electoral System ‘Straight From Green Party Manifesto’: ACT Leader

A person casts their referendum vote during election day in Wellington, New Zealand, on Oct. 17, 2020. Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images

A panel reviewing New Zealand’s electoral system has published a set of recommendations that some politicians have said will set the stage for the country to have a permanently undemocratic government.

The draft report (pdf), released on June 6, proposed major changes to modernise electoral processes and create a “fairer, clearer, and more accessible” voting system.

The major recommendations include:

• Lowering the voting age for general elections to 16.
• Allow all prisoners and New Zealanders who live overseas long-term to vote.
• Lower party vote threshold from five to 3.5 percent. (Under New Zealand’s mixed-member proportional system, a party requires at least five percent of the vote to be represented in Parliament.)
• Hold a referendum to extend the Parliamentary term from three to four years.
• Change the Electoral Act to explicitly give effect to the Treaty of Waitangi and its principles, and make the Treaty a statutory objective of the Electoral Commission.
• Cap political donations to $30,000 (US$18,000) and restrict donations to registered voters only. Prohibit all entities, including unions, trusts, and companies, from providing political funding.

The New Zealand Green Party has welcomed the draft report and called on parties from across the political spectrum to commit to implementing its recommendations.

“This report is big news and gives Aotearoa [New Zealand] a blueprint to create a more transparent, fairer democracy that also better upholds te Tiriti o Waitangi [Treaty of Waitangi],” Green Party electoral reform spokesperson Golriz Ghahraman said.

“While we can be proud of democracy in Aotearoa compared to many other countries, successive governments have not done enough to curb the influence of big money interests who try to stop climate action, rent controls, and fair tax reform.”

Return of Voting Age Debate

However, ACT Party Leader David Seymour accused the panel chair, Deborah Hart, of being partial and having political intentions.

“Implementing her recommendations would set New Zealand on a course for permanent left-wing government,” he said.

“More state funding for political parties, lowering the voting age to 16, giving all prisoners the right to vote, honouring the Treaty—all of that is plucked straight from the Green Party’s manifesto.”

Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has already indicated that his government would not work towards lowering the voting age for general elections because such legislation would unlikely gain the support needed to pass in Parliament.

However, the government confirmed it will introduce legislation to lower the voting age to 16 in local elections before the term ends.

New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins speaks during a tree planting ceremony at Parliament in Wellington, New Zealand, on April 26, 2023. Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images

Seymour noted that most New Zealanders have already indicated their opposition to lowering the voting age.

“Only 13 percent of New Zealanders support lowering of the voting age because they know there are already far too many voters in New Zealand who don’t pay tax. We don’t want 120,000 more voters who pay no tax voting for more spending and bigger government,” he said.

“Taxpayer funding makes politics a closed shop where everyone’s an insider on the taxpayer’s teat. People should have to go out to the community and seek funding to contest political power.

“If they’re funded by the very institution they’re supposed to be holding accountable, that’s no longer true democracy.”

The one recommendation Seymour agreed with was the extension of parliamentary terms to four years, but he highlighted that this change doesn’t require a referendum.

Panel Are ‘Not Experts’: Former Deputy PM

Meanwhile, the former Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters is also against the changes, calling some of the proposals “disastrous” by people who are “not experts.”

He said that if arguing that a young person’s brain has not fully developed is such a commonly used defence in the criminal court, then the same should be applied to the voting age debate.

Peters, who is the leader of New Zealand First, also called the donation proposal a change that stood against democracy being funded through private donations, in the same vein that people have the privacy of the vote.

“What they’re really saying to you, but they’re not putting it in their report, is they want the taxpayer to pay for the political campaigning,” he told 1News.

“I’d rather people—whether they’re ordinary people like so many or wealthier people—make their contribution, at certain levels disclosable, and not try and fix up a system that’s not broken.”

Meanwhile, prime minister Hipkins said the government had yet to discuss the recommendations but would have an official position before the election.

“One of the challenges around electoral law is that we do try and approach most electoral law issues on a more bipartisan approach. But that does tend to lean towards more of an enhanced status quo rather than significant change,” he said at a post-cabinet press conference on June 6.

“The risk of doing the alternative is that you end up with a situation where the incumbent government of the day can change electoral laws to its own advantage. We’ve generally tried to steer away from that in New Zealand.”

New Zealand will hold its next general election on Oct. 14.