Select Committee Oral Submission
August 30th, 2006 at 3:48 pm by David FarrarI’m appearing before the Justice and Electoral Select Committee tomorrow at 11.30 am to speak to my submission oppossing the Electoral (Reduction in Number of Members of Parliament) Amendment Bill.
Most of the submissions have been against it seems and were heard last week. The Committee kindly delayed hearing me as I was overseas.
Related posts:
- The difference between “committee” and “select committee”
- Select Committees
- The special Electoral Select Committee
- Sedition Submissions
August 30th, 2006 at 4:18 pm
Ha haaa… oral.
Vote:August 30th, 2006 at 4:59 pm
Real. Mature.
Vote:August 30th, 2006 at 5:06 pm
I’m amazed that you are for the status quo, David.
Vote:August 30th, 2006 at 5:18 pm
I’m not. Anyone who has worked in Parliament will know just how over-worked MPs are. The vast majority of MPs on both sides of the house are passionate about their job, and put in 110%, often to the detriment of their families and personal lives.
It simply isn’t fair to expect 100 MPs to do the current work of 121 over worked MPs.
Vote:August 30th, 2006 at 5:19 pm
Lucyna – I think it’s a simple matter of the numbers required for the maths of proportional representation to function, rather than a desire to have more MPs.
Vote:August 30th, 2006 at 5:50 pm
The reason MP’s are over-worked is because government is sticking its damn nose into every bloody corner of our lives these days. For years they’ve been beavering away at only one thing really, and that is trying to make themselves indispensable. I dunno about everyone else, but I’m damned if I need that bunch of self serving parasites taking such an interest in my welfare. Especially at the price they charge.
The only real way for NZ to progress is through a huge reduction in the size of government, massive tax reductions and a focus on developing the private sector. All we need here is 40 MPs max. Unless this happens soon, (and I admit its probably not likely) then we’re heading for a collapse that will make that commie basket case Cuba look like bloody Nirvana.
Vote:August 30th, 2006 at 6:28 pm
Dunno about the Cuba analogy but in the main, I agree with you Redbaiter. The number of MP’s really gets in my claw. This county is slowly but surely, heading towards a grinding, economic halt, whilst these immature individuals appear more interested in spending their time and our money,giving the finger to one another; arguing the toss over rights to smack children; banning prayers in school blah blah blah. Makes me shudder to think what the future holds for coming generations. God help me if I ran my businesse’s the way politicians run this country. This country is suffering paralysis by analysis and its just getting more ludicrous by the day.
Vote:August 30th, 2006 at 7:06 pm
Good luck with the submission; hopefully they’ll pay attention to it.
Any idea which way the committee is inclining?
Vote:August 30th, 2006 at 7:42 pm
The number of MP’s in Parliament does not relate specifically to the extension of the govt into our lives. There is a distinct difference between the govt and the House of Representatives, and many of the hardest working MPs are on the Opposition benches.
NZ is a growing country and we need to keep the representation evenly matched. Having just 100 MPs would not make NZ any better, in fact there are several instances where lowering the number of representatives has disadvantaged a country. Statisically speaking, there are 33333.33 NZ’ers per MP (which is high in comparison to other Western countries).
It is not really a question of quanitity, but quality (there are too many worthless MPs in Parliament) and also the issue that if the number of MP’s is reduced-does that mean the number of Maori seats are reduced too?
Vote:August 30th, 2006 at 8:28 pm
The majority of MP’s enter parliament with the best of intentions to ‘make-a-difference’. There is no-doubt that of the many prerequsites required to become an effective MP, is a healthy dose of arrogance and ego. It is human nature however, that sooner or later upon entering parliament, that many hand-on heart commitments and good intent by new-comers, are eventually prostituted to a pack-mentally and the pressure to conform with peers. Furthermore, the trappings of power bring an elevated boost to an already inflated ego. In the past, I have had ministers of the crown liquored-up at my dinner table, and I can tell you that what they may state publicly, is not always in keeping with their personal beliefs. Julian, you are right. It is quality that counts.
Vote:August 30th, 2006 at 9:03 pm
I ommitted to add…. Once we had 80-odd MP’s who were a law-to-themselves(and had a high living standard by world measure). Now, we have 120-odd (who are still a law-to-themselves). Whats our living standard now by world measure now? Go figure.
Vote:August 30th, 2006 at 9:27 pm
Politicians seem to be overworked siting in parliment preparing to stand up and ask patsy questions or any of a thousand other things that add minimal value to the country (aside from those things that do add value).
Now I don’t blame them for that really because our system asks them to do it, but that just means we should fix the system.
In general I expect that the workload will expand or contract to always leave all MP’s as a equilibrium state of ‘busyness’.
Vote:August 30th, 2006 at 9:53 pm
overworked?!!!
Most of them spend a lot of time on their own business interests etc. – it’s not Parliament that causing them to be “overworked”.
Vote:August 30th, 2006 at 9:55 pm
What the fuck bother with 40 MP’s. At least half of them would still be commie cock-sucking cretins who would carry on gluttonously sucking at the public trough as the always do.
I say no more than 10. Best of all there would be no need to pay them. Only white males over 50, who can stump up at least $10m for their own private advertising campaign should be even eliglble. If we allow this present gang of thieves to put in place this Stalinist “public election funding” we face the prospect that they will continue to buy their way into power,with they money the steal from YOU in the first place. At least that way we get decent upright people who have proven how successful they already are in real life….not the endless parade of failed teachers, wannabe union reps and corrupt coconuts would are dragging this once fine nation into a third-world cesspit of PC thought-control, thuggery by taxation and under the table “favours”. This way there would be plenty of healthy competition for the job natural selection for the nations best and most capable men.
They must start by smashing the commie pig unions. The biggest mistake ever made in this country was not imprisoning large numbers unionist, Maoist traitors in the 1950 Waterfront Strike. A few “accidents” while they were being held in custody would have gotten the message across about how traitors are dealt to and the whole the 5th column leftie perversion would have been nipped in the bud. Instead we now have a pack of pig-ignorant illiterate cunts who would barely qualify to consume oxygen in a decently run country, holding hard-working, innovating and prpgressive minded business owners to ransome, by demanding ruinous conditions like FOUR weeks annual leave. Just WHO the fuck do these arrogant dickwads think they are? Few of them are worth jack-shit and have never done 40 hours worth of work for their 40 hours of inflated pay in their miserable over-long lives. We need new laws to make any form of collective blackmail (friken “barginning” the call it) illegal and punishable with indefinite prison terms for economic sabotage.
With taxes massively cut to a fair and flat 5% accross the board, 10 MPs would still have fuck all to do, because the first thing they would have to do is sell off all the hospitals, schools, all the timewasting dickwad departments like DOC and all the rest of the bureacractric PC-riddled, report vomitting, lazy morons who staff the endless byzantine nests of public theft empires. Turn them all over to efficient, private enterprise; take the grotesquely bloated, flabby carcass of the entire public sector and drown it in a bath-tub. Taser it afterward to ensure the lesson is learnt. The only State entity a properly run country needs is a well-run army and air-force in order to keep a tight rein on law and order. And it need not cost much if we simply ask our good and long-suffering friends the Americans (the greatest nation in the world) to supply us with all the latest hardware needed, in return for us apologising for all the despicable “non-nuclear” grief we have been giving them for the last few decades of Lairbor’s insolence. With unemployment a much higher there should be no shortage of fine young men ready to do national service in Iraq , Afghanistan or anywhere else the Americans needs us to go.
It is this kind of military experience that will re-build the moral backbone that this cross-wired, dumbfucked over nation needs. We desperately need a new officer class, men of proven caliber, toughened in real battles, who when they move back to private life can then take on the indoctrinated, self serving parasites that have stolen this country from us, drag the lower classes back out of the a filthy, corruption-riddled, socialist hell-hole the are wallowing in, and put New Zealand back on it’s own two feet so as we can once again hold our heads high at the high table of civilised nations.
Vote:August 30th, 2006 at 10:59 pm
Who are the bottom ranked 20 MPs proprtionate to each party- -what would be the impact if they were not there? eg we could expect about 8 less from both National and labour, a couple from nz first, and maybe the greens united and act would lose one each. Looking at th elabour list there would be no loss as they are mainly useless unemployable unionists.
Vote:August 30th, 2006 at 11:22 pm
BlueBalls = a leftie troll trying to pose as a rightwing wingnut *yawn*
Vote:August 30th, 2006 at 11:25 pm
BlueBalls, do you need a hug?
And question time is a huge time waster. What really annoys me is when they argue with eachother when really they could be working together. But then when it comes down to it, its all about being the party who is ‘right’. In some ways I beleive that most MPs beleive they are doing the right thing, its just the ones who refuse to budge from their ideological strongholds (just to spite their opponents) that really suck.
I keenly await the report from the Select Committee on this.
Vote:August 30th, 2006 at 11:30 pm
You’re right Jman, Who would be so boring and deceitful. Who would try so hard? Who would mistake such pathetic witless crap for something smart but someone from the left, and its not hard to guess the name he usually posts under…
Vote:August 30th, 2006 at 11:37 pm
The UK with approx 630MPs for 60 Million is approx 1MP per 10,000, I realise you need a minimum number on the Govt benches to adequately operate the main roles and list MPs certainly seem to a problem being impossible to remove at the ballot box. Perhaps an answer is to extend the term to 4 years and have an election at the 2 year point for list MPs only thus providing democracy re the list and the electors to communicate their views on performance. Would be interesting to see the panic of losing sufficient MPs off the list to the govt of the day and how this would affect their effectiveness and responsiveness to the electors!!
Vote:August 30th, 2006 at 11:38 pm
And to add, if this Bill passed, it would be implemented next election-not during this term. So it would be proportionate to the party vote just as it is now. Otherwise it would be unfair.
Vote:August 30th, 2006 at 11:41 pm
Rumpole, its a good idea. Sadly there have been a fair number of them before. Unfortunately the change in the electoral system needs to be changed by the MPs themselves. I cannot see this Labour-let Govt doing anything to make the system more accountable. Can you?
Vote:August 30th, 2006 at 11:49 pm
Julian
Vote:Sadly not but I do not see National being enthusiastic either. Real pressure for citizens binding referendums may be a route that would forcibly start the ball rolling.
August 31st, 2006 at 12:35 am
Hey, I might see you there. I’m heading off to the select committee hearing on the repeal of section 59 in the morning.
Vote:August 31st, 2006 at 6:18 am
Sophia – very likely – say hi.
Vote:August 31st, 2006 at 5:49 pm
Rumpole:
Vote:We have 120 MP’s for a population of 4,000,000
Dividing 4,000,000 by 120 I get 48,000
The UK has 630 MP’s for approx 60,000,000.
Dividing 60,000,000 by 630 I get 95,000
Do we need to reduce the number of MP’s to 60 to achieve the same representation?
Or is the fact we have the dreaded MMP make a difference!!
August 31st, 2006 at 8:10 pm
Case rested, Jacko.
Vote:June 12th, 2007 at 2:13 pm
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Vote: