A quick guide to Saturday’s referendum on voting systems #votenz
This Saturday you don’t just get to vote, you get to decide how we vote in future. You basically get four boxes to tick on Saturday, a party vote, an electorate vote, a vote to say YES or NO to keep the MMP voting system and which system should replace it, if indeed it should be replaced.
Below is a very broad overview of the voting systems, I am not an expert just want New Zealanders to be more informed about their options. In the interest of full disclosure I will admit I’m still unsure which way I will vote on this issue. But I will probably vote AGAINST keeping MMP so at least if it stays it will be given a thorough review.
MMP – Mixed Member Proportional
The system we have now where every citizen has two votes. Government is made up of 120 people, 70 of those are represent electorates (the area you live in) and the other 50 are made up from party votes. Under this system the government is often formed by coalitions (where a two or more parties agree to work together). This can be really good if you want minor parties to have more power. Unfortunately there are a few flaws in MMP, and if we keep this system those will be reviewed and hopefully fixed.
FPP – First Past the Post
This is the system New Zealand used to have, back in the days when the government swung between Labour and National. There are still 120 people in parliament but they are all representing electorates (so these are divided into smaller areas than under MMP). Because there is just often one party in charge they have a lot more power and can pass laws much faster without the need for debate and negotiation.
PV – Preferential Voting
This is the system which Australia has. Again there are 120 people in parliament, each one is voted in to represent an electorate. The difference is you rank the candidates you like. It’s a bit complicated, which means people have to do a lot more research about candidates before voting. Basically if the first person you vote for is declared the loser in your electorate they drop out of the race and your vote goes to the second person on your list. And so on and so on until someone has the majority of votes. People in Australia tend to either vote for personalities they like or just which ever candidate their preferred party tells them to vote for. It can produce majority governments or coalitions.
STV – Single Transferable Vote
This is a bit like the Preferential Voting system but with more people for each electorate. So there would still be 120 members in parliament, but only 24-30 electorates. So you might pick 3-4 people to represent the area you live in. Again you rank the candidates in the order in which you like them and the most popular members would be elected, a bit like how we elect members of local council. Under this system minor parties and independents have a good chance of getting in and coalitions would generally be required to form a government.
SM – Supplementary Member
This system is a bit like our current voting system, MMP, but with a lower number of list MPs. So out of the 120 people in parliament 90 would be elected to represent electorates and 30 would be made up by party votes. The other main difference is a minor party would not need over 5% to get list MPs in on party votes like they do currently. Everyone is represented how the public votes for them. So if a minor party won just over 3.5% of the party votes they would be allowed 3.5% of the party seats, which according to my math would be one seat in parliament.
To find out more go to referendum.org.nz and do their quiz. This is written to be a very basic overview, but if it’s sparked your interest there are more in depth summaries around including this paper from Maxim Institute.
Occupy Madison Avenue
I’ve been following Occupy Wall Street for awhile but trying to keep my head down because I work for an advertising agency. One that services a big financial institution no less. I’m at the bottom of the holy list, some might say.
However when I saw this flier floating around cyberspace promoting “Occupy Madison Avenue” I just could resist the urge to post.
After all the protests were started by Kalle Lasn who founded a magazine called Adbusters (not Bankbusters), so why didn’t he pick off the marketers first? When I first went to London during my university years I saw a copy in some flashy design shop. By the way it was perfectly art directed and the insight of the content I thought it must be written by someone in the industry, trying to push it forward rather than shut it down. Suffice to say that’s not Adbuster’s intention.
So Ad Age asked Lasn why they were picketing Wall St not Madison Ave. The article is a good read, but it basically comes down to people hating on the financial bailouts. He does make the distinction between people who sell products and people who sell ideas. At the end of the day you still need the later in a functioning society, especially at a time of political unrest.
Some NYCers didn’t get this memo as the protest on the advertising industry is apparently happening in two weeks.
I completely agree that the advertising industry, more than any other, needs regulation and unions to stop top level greed and distorted representation. In fact when my BF who works in finance and I meet new people, they see my profession as the worse of the two. However no banker has brought as much positive change to the world as some of the famed mad men.
Unique thinking can be the best and the worst thing, depending on the idea and who’s there to implement it.
The workaholism, disproportionate pay and severe absence of women needs fixing. But at the end of the day we have the best careers in the world, we get paid to be artists. I think instead of protesting I’m going to try to come up with some cool ideas, but if you’re heading down to Maddy Ave then I’ve made you this great poster you can take with:
You’re welcome.
A question we all asked ourselves when bush was in power
Seriously though, go see In The Loop. You will like it.
Do you know which other Prime Minister has a daughter who dresses weird?
There’s been some controversy over this photo of Spanish Prime Minister’s goth daughters on a political trip to the USA via gawker >
Kinda similar to someone else who else took their fashionably awkward daughter on a political trip to the USA recently….
Federal motorcade blocks ambulance
I saw this ad in Hawaii, it was weird seeing ads on television as I watch all my news, tv series, movies and also advertising on computers these days. Unfortunately most of the ads which I saw in Hawaii were for constipation medication. This medical ad however caught my attention.
It’s easy for me to have very strong opinions about the medicare reform bill, when I have an interest in American politics and come from a country which is small enough to cover its citizens pretty well.
This ad tells it how it is; people with too much money and power are stopping every day people getting the medical attention they need. Americans with statuses about not wanting to pay for other people health insurance drive me crazy! Don’t they realise that they are the lower to middle class citizens that this bill will help? I don’t know all the answers to health insurance, but I do know that if you believe everything the insurance companies are saying, you should also watch Michael Moore’s ‘Sicko’… and then go out and find some real facts.
Lessig on my favourite TV show… four years ago
When James found out that our flatmate had the first season of West Wing on DVD he decided it was imperative that I watch it. Our relationship could only survive if I loved it a much as he did. So we watched it and I liked it. I can not describe how ecstatic he was the next night when I asked if we could watch the second episode.
Three months and five and a half seasons later, I felt that same joy… OMGOSH it’s Lawrence Lessig on West Wing! Probably not my pick for an actor, but I guess West Wing is set in Back to the Future, where most things except Donna’s turtleneck jumpers are timeless.
Professor on the show:
And so is “fame” made: My story is on the West Wing because I was at Harvard — not because the brilliance of my intervention had been noted and reviewed, but because I was teaching talented kids who would prove to be important. Indeed, so has the most important of my “fame” been made: Did Justice Jackson pick me to be his special master because he had determined I was the perfect mix of Holmes and Ed Felten? No, I was picked because I was a Harvard Law Professor teaching the law of cyberspace. Remember: So is “fame” made.
I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by pseudo leftism..
Interesting modern take on Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl”. Although it lacks the rawness which made the original infamous:
“who copulated ecstatic and insatiate with a bottle of beer a sweetheart a package of cigarettes a candle and fell off the bed, and continued along the floor and down the hall and ended fainting on the wall with a vision of ultimate cunt and come eluding the last gyzym of consciousness”
Listen to “Howl” by Allen Ginsberg read outloud or read it for yourself at poets.org >
Mao and more
We were waliking down Cleveland rd and spotted this furntiture shop. I thought foolishly it was some cheap Chinese imports place named by a patriot.
Turns out it’s an up market furniture place with beautiful Asain lamps and bird cages and a bunch of Mao statues and posters.
One bird cage took my fancy, a wooden taj palace. When I can afford the $2k price tag I will buy it for Starkey and Larry.
Cake on the face of dictatorship
BTW since when was Fidel not the president of Cuba anymore? Well 2008 apparently, noone told me!