The Right hates MMP. Back in the good old FPP days, about 20% of voters backed leftwing parties like Values, the Alliance, and Social Credit but got nearly no representation. National could govern alone with just 35% of the vote or fewer votes than the other major party. The Right was happy with that.
Now, far fewer voters are disenfranchised, there is a geniune range of parties to choose from, and a government won’t be able to stand without the support of parties that have won the votes of a majority (or near majority) of voters. It makes the competition much fairer and has brought far more diversity to Parliament. The Right hates it.
So, they’ll be pissed that their attempt to scuttle MMP is failing with 51% of voters wanting to retain MMP according to a new Herald poll to 40% against, which is a huge increase in support since the last poll on the topic.
Don’t think they’ll give up easy. Peter Shirtcliffe and the other big money men won’t be able to spend $1.5 million smearing MMP like they did in 1993, thanks to the spending limit that Labour and the Greens got Simon Power to put into the referendum law. But they’ll try their damnest.
A vote to get rid of MMP and replace it with FPP-lite (also known as Supplementary Member) would put them back in full control and allow them to control their agenda of selling of public assets and slashing public services so they can give themselves tax cuts unfettered by pesky public opinion.
The elite regard democracy as a pain the arse and would get rid of it entirely if they could. So, They badly want to win this referendum, and a fair few in the media will be trying to help them. We can’t rest on our laurels yet.
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