This is probably not the kind of reform our Prime Minister has in mind, but I’d like to tinker slightly with our system and allow a ranked choice of electorate candidates (keeping the party vote system as is). That way, voting for minor parties will not be such a risk of wasting your vote in electorate seats.
For me, this is an issue that seems to fly under the radar but is vitally important. How many people have you heard complain about the duopoly of the two major parties? This would go some way towards making those parties campaign on their merits rather than on tradition, and I hope it forms part of any coalition agreements we see emerging from this election. (Will it? Probably not, since it’s not a big deal for most people right now.)
It works for council elections, it can work for general elections too.
I guess what i see is an ideal system for new zealand, that builds on what we already have is a mix of STV and MMP.
You get the same form you get now, parties on one side, individuals on the other. If you want you can do what you do now and tick one party and one member and be done. However you could also have the ability to rank either the parties or the members or both. When either or both are ranked then your ballot goes into run off with those preferances, if you just tick then it either skips the run off stage or you get parties and members to submit their own prefences ahead of voting and your vote will go into run off using those preferences.
Yeah something like that is what I imagine too. I think our voting system needs tweaks, not replacement. And I definitely don’t want to go to a world where the right bloc can win 51% of the vote in every electorate and get 100% of the seats.