In 1996 New Zealand changed from a First Past the Post (FPP) electoral system to a Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) electoral system. There were many arguments in favour of the adoption of MMP such as the increase in political choice voters would receive, more Māori representation in parliament and greater representation of minor political parties in parliament. However there has been some negative outcomes of the adoption of MMP, as shown by the 2017 General Election where a government was formed without the party that received the highest number of votes and a decrease in representation of minor political parties. While MMP may have been introduced as an improvement it has had a negative impact on the New Zealand Government.
An argument in favour of the adoption of the MMP electoral system is that it allowed for more choice in voting than the FPP electoral system did. The FPP electoral system was used by New Zealand from 1914 to 1993, with this electoral system voters got only one vote to choose the Member of Parliament (MP) they would like to represent their electorate, the candidate who got the most votes won (MMP, FPP, STV, SM and PV – a quick comparison, 2011). FPP is still used to elect MP’s in New Zealand. All FPP elections in New Zealand resulted in a single-party majority government, there was no need for coalitions or agreements between parties (FPP – First Past the Post, 2015). The MMP electoral system was adopted by New Zealand in 1996, with this electoral system voters get more political choice as they get two votes, their first vote is the same as the FPP electoral system, they choose the MP that will represent the electorate they live in. Their second vote is the party vote, this vote largely decides the total number of seats each political party gets in Parliament and how many of the 49 list seats they will get (MMP Voting System, 2014). With the MMP electoral system coalitions or agreements are usually needed to form a government for example, the 2017 New Zealand general election where the Labour, NZ First and Green political parties formed New Zealand’s sixth Labour government (Macdonald, 2017).
Another argument in favour of the adoption of the MMP electoral system is that it would increase Māori representation in parliament. The Māori Representation Act 1867 introduced the four Māori electorates in Parliament, these “seats” are reserved electorates in Parliament for Māori representatives (Māori Representation, 2018). Before the introduction of this act, it was extremely difficult for Māori to vote because in order to vote in New Zealand one needed a certain amount of land, and because Māori held their land in common it became hard for them to vote (The Māori seats under MMP, 2013). With the introduction of the Electoral Act of 1993, which introduced the MMP electoral system, the number of electorates in New Zealand had to be reduced, leading to many electorates being abolished (Electoral Act 1993, 1993). All four existing Māori seats were abolished, and five new Māori electorates were created. This number was later increased to six in 1999, and seven in 2002, the number it is currently at. MMP had a positive impact on Māori representation in Parliament because it implemented that the number of Māori seats would vary according to the size of the Māori electoral population, meaning the more Māori who enroll to vote the more Māori electorates (Tahana, 2008).
A third argument in favour of the adoption of MMP is that it would have a positive impact on the representation of minor political parties in parliament. Under the current MMP rules any party which receives 5% or more of the party vote will receive a share of the 120 seats in parliament, even if they don’t win an electorate for example, in the 2008 general election the Green party failed to win any electorate however they won 6.7% of the party vote and therefore earned nine seats in Parliament (Results of the 2008 General Election, 2017). Also under the current MMP rules, any party that wins one or more electorate seats is entitled to an additional share of the seats in parliament even if they do not win 5% of the party vote (MMP Voting System, 2014). This was exemplified in the 2008 general election where the ACT party won only 3.6% of the party vote but got a total of five seats in the House of Representatives because the ACT candidate Rodney Hide, won the Epsom electorate (Results of the 2008 General Election, 2017). The MMP electoral system had a positive impact on minor political parties in parliament because it allowed minor parties to have more of a say in government and as some people may not agree with the ideologies of the major political parties, they may instead agree more with a minor party and therefore will choose to vote for the minor party to have their beliefs represented in parliament, which is now possible due to the 5% threshold.
The outcomes of the adoption of the MMP electoral system have not all been positive with the 2017 general election displaying major shortcomings of MMP, one of which is a government being formed without the party that received the highest number of votes. Since the introduction of MMP in 1996 no party has been able to win 61 seats and form a government on its own. Because of this it became possible for a government to be formed without the party which received the highest number of votes. Following the 2017 general election National won 56 seats, Labour 46, NZ First 9, Greens 8, and ACT 1 (New Zealand 2017 General Election – Official Results, 2017). Because no party was able to form a majority government of 61 seats on its own or with confidence and support, there was need for a coalition. In the end the Labour party formed a coalition government with the NZ First party along with confidence and support from the Green party, together making a 63-seat majority (New Zealand 2017 General Election – Official Results, 2017). This is a shortcoming of MMP because the National party received approximately 200,000 more votes than the Labour party and it was still not able to form a government. NZ First received the third highest number of votes, only 7.2%, and it got to decide which party formed a government (Phipps & Roy, 2017).
Another shortcoming of MMP was the lack of minor parties in parliament following the 2017 general election. The 2017 general election had the lowest representation of minor parties in parliament since 1996, the first MMP election (Lee, 2017). In previous years there has been 5 or 6 minor parties in parliament, following the 2017 general election there were only 3. The number of MPs from minor parties that made it into parliament in 2017 was 17, the same as 1996, when MMP was first introduced, for comparison, in 2002 there were 41 MPs from 6 different minor parties (Farrar, 2011). Some minor parties didn’t even make it into parliament such as the Māori party and United Future, both of which have previously been in parliament. The most prominent minor party in New Zealand, the Greens just made it over the 5% threshold with only 6.3% of the votes (Lee, 2017). Given the results of the 2017 general election it is likely the Green party may not even make it into parliament in 2020. The ACT party only managed to win a seat in parliament due to Bill English and the National Party endorsing David Seymour in the Epsom electorate. Because of this it is likely ACT will not receive an endorsement in 2020 and will not be elected to parliament. The NZ First party isn’t guaranteed either as their leader Winston Peters will likely step down as he is 75 (Macdonald, 2017). This means it is possible the 2020 general election will be free of minor parties leading to a government forming between the two major parties National and Labour. The lack of minor parties in parliament is a shortcoming of MMP as there was meant to be in increase in minor party representation, however many parties did not make it into parliament as they failed in achieving the 5% threshold, and those who did enter parliament were few.
New Zealand has had an MMP electoral system since 1996, as a replacement for the FPP electoral system. There were many arguments in favour of the adoption of MMP, such as increased political choice, more Māori representation and greater minor party representation in parliament. The 2017 general election showed many shortcomings of MMP such as a government being formed without the party that received the highest number of votes and a decrease in the representation of minor parties. While MMP may have been introduced as an improvement it has had a negative impact on the New Zealand Government.