Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Nick Clark: Report author and Senior Fellow discusses proposed changes to MMP

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Nick Clark: Report author and Senior Fellow discusses proposed changes to MMP · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: You report out this morning, This from the New Zealand
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Initiative reckons our MMP system needs a four year term
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: and get this fifty more MPs. It says, parliament's about
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: thirty percent smaller than other countries. We need more. Nick
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Clark is author and senior fellow at the initiative, joins
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: me Now, morning.
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: Nick, morning, Ryan, are you are you good?
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: Are you trolling us? Nick?
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: No? No, it's actually quite serious. The four year term
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: is something which has been debated and isn't under consideration
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: right now. It's not a radical.
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: It's fine, that's fine, but what can one hundred and
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: seventy MPs do that one hundred and twenty can't.
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we have a very small parliament by international standards.
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: Most countries are certain European countries around about our size,
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  Speaker 2: and that are very successful countries, the Scandinavians, Ireland, et cetera.
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: They all have between around one hundred and seventy and
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: two hundred MPs, all around the same size as you
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: see on intensive population. Now, the reason why to answer
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: your question is why do we need more here in
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: New Zealand. I think it's probably fair to say that
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: we have difficulty with select committees in terms of the
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: ability for them to properly scrutinize legislation. And that's partly
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: because the MPs that we do have available are so
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: thinly stretched. We have MPs that end up on city
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: on multiple committees. They can't get a good handle on
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: what's going on as much as they perhaps should. They
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: get inundated with submissions. It's a good idea, I think,
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: to just spread the load a bit more by having
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: some more MPs. Also, the electrics that we have are
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: very large, both geographically and in population terms, and they're
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: becoming increasingly difficult for MP to service the rather complex
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: and intense needs.
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: These extre MPs will be electric MPs, not this one.
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: Some of them will be yep, yep, yep. We'd be
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: looking at the fifty fifty s.
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: Look, I don't think anyone's going to go for this nick,
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: but I do like your idea of getting cabinet down
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: from fifteen twenty to fifteen ministers. We also have something
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: like eighty portfolios. It's like the Grand Central Station trying
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: to wrangle these portfolio ministers. It's outrageous.
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: Yes, absolutely, and we put out a report a few
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: weeks ago a couple months ago, maybe that talked about
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: this in more detail, but we have a bloated, fragmented executive.
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: It's really hard to tell who's responsible for what. We
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: need to get that executive down in size. That they
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: also dominate the government parties, so it means it affect.
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: Was a great way to control a caucus by having
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: more executive members. It's also a great way to divvy
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: up the spoils of war after an election with coalish
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: and partners getting down Nick.
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: Nick, appreciate your time this morning. Thank you, author and
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: senior fellow at the New zeal Initiative. For more from
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: Early Edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live to News Talks
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: it'd be from five am weekdays, or follow the podcast
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: on iHeartRadio