$2.5m in donations from the property industry to political parties since 2021. 97% of which has gone to National, Act & NZ First.

  • SamC@lemmy.nz
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    1 year ago

    It’s pretty worrying. There are proposals to reform the donations system, but zero chance they’ll go anywhere if National/Act/NZ First are in power. Labour should have acted on that when they had the chance.

    • Dave@lemmy.nzM
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      1 year ago

      It would have been nice if they had picked at least one of the recommendations from the 2012 review to implement, but at least they stated another review (that National might kill?).

      • SamC@lemmy.nz
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        1 year ago

        There’s also the more recent Independent Electoral Review, which including political donations/party funding: https://electoralreview.govt.nz/

        The final report is due to go to the Minister in November. If it’s a National minister, the whole thing will likely go straight to the trash.

        Actually, they will probably keep the referendum on longer parliamentary term… but nothing else.

        • Dave@lemmy.nzM
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          1 year ago

          Yeah that’s the one I was thinking of, I didn’ t realise they were nearly done.

          I wouldn’t mind if they pushed forward longer parliamentary terms, at least that’s one recommendation that could be actually implemented.

          • SamC@lemmy.nz
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            1 year ago

            It could be a fairly close if it went to a referendum. My problem with longer parliamentary terms is that it doesn’t seem to affect how many times a government wins re-election. So if you extend it to 4 years, you’ll regularly get governments in power for 12 years rather than 9, which means the politicians become even more comfortable/arrogant and less accountable than they are now.

            • Dave@lemmy.nzM
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              1 year ago

              If governments can make 12 year plans instead of 9 year plans, that’s a win in my book. Plus, they have even less of an excuse to not do anything.

              I think if politicians need to be help more accountable, then having more regular elections probably isn’t the best way. It makes the government less stable, which gives them an excuse to not do things.

              • SamC@lemmy.nz
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                1 year ago

                I guess I just look at countries like the UK (usually 5 year terms), and see all the same problems we have in NZ around governments not doing much, etc. So I don’t think longer terms will solve that at all. It just means you wait longer for a new government to come in, where they usually do stuff in the first term (often just the first year of their first term!) and then are too scared to do anything after that.

                • Dave@lemmy.nzM
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                  1 year ago

                  Do places with 5 years terms typically still get 3 terms? It’s hard to imagine a country not getting bored with the ruling party after 10 years.

                  • SamC@lemmy.nz
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                    1 year ago

                    Yep. The UK has basically had 2 changes of government since 1979. Obviously there have been a lot of changes of PM over that time (especially in recent times), and part of the issue is FPP. But there is a certain logic behind governments winning around 3 elections in their lifetime. Being an incumbent gives you an advantage, but over time people get a bit sick of you and vote for change. That tends to get you 3 election wins (including the first), although there’s a lot of variation. But I would expect we’ll still get 3-term governments as the norm in NZ if we move to 4 year terms.

                    If it goes to a referendum, I hope that is a point that gets through to people.

    • Ilovethebomb@lemmy.nz
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      1 year ago

      Labour should have acted on that when they had the chance.

      Sums up their second term, to be honest.