The Electoral Reform Coalition (ERC) is a group advocating

electoral reform in New Zealand Electoral reform in New Zealand has, in recent years, become a political issue as major changes have been made to both parliamentary and local government electoral systems. National elections in New Zealand were first held in 1853 using the basi ...

. It was founded in 1986. The group has been reformed as the ''Campaign for MMP'' to fight to retain

Mixed-member proportional representation Mixed-member proportional representation (MMP or MMPR) is a mixed electoral system in which votes cast are considered in local elections and also to determine overall party vote tallies, which are used to allocate additional members to produce ...

at the 2011 referendum on the issue.

History

The Electoral Reform Coalition was formed in June 1986 to campaign for proportional representation, taking up the goal of a referendum on New Zealand's electoral system in March 1987. It was founded by Roy Middleton, Louis Ehrler and Phil Saxby, who was at the time Chair of the Electorate Committee for Labour MP

John Terris John James Terris (born 19 June 1939) is a New Zealand politician, priest and broadcaster who represented the Labour Party in the New Zealand parliament. Biography Early life and career Terris was born in Wanganui in 1939 to Alexander Roderick ...

. The ERC was formed before the publication of the Report of the Royal Commission on the Electoral System in 1986. The report recommended (amongst other things) that a referendum be held on changing the voting system from First Past the Post to Mixed Member Proportional representation. It was so-called because it consisted of a number of groups in favour of electoral reform, including the Women's Electoral Lobby, Council of Trade Unions, Public Servants Association,

National National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, ce ...

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

, Greens,

Social Credit Social credit is a distributive philosophy of political economy developed by C. H. Douglas. Douglas attributed economic downturns to discrepancies between the cost of goods and the compensation of the workers who made them. To combat what he ...

and Socialist Unity Party. Both

and the

Values Party The Values Party was a New Zealand political party. It is considered the world's first national-level environmentalist party, pre-dating the use of "Green" as a political label. It was established in May 1972 at Victoria University of Wellingto ...

(later the Greens) had won significant percentages of votes as a party at general elections, (For example, Social Credit won 20% of votes at the 1981 general election, but only 2 seats) but had won few seats. In January 1987 the ERC hosted John Taplin of the Proportional Representation Society of Australia to New Zealand, leading to the establishment of several ERC branches around the country. In a leaders debate during the 1987 general election campaign, then Prime Minister

David Lange David Russell Lange ( ; 4 August 1942 – 13 August 2005) was a New Zealand politician who served as the 32nd prime minister of New Zealand from 1984 to 1989. Lange was born and brought up in Otahuhu, the son of a medical doctor. He became ...

promised a binding referendum on electoral reform. Lange was subsequently forced to back down on the promise. The Justice and Electoral Select Committee produced a report critical of MMP, supporting a

Supplementary Member Parallel voting is a type of mixed electoral system in which representatives are voted into a single chamber using two or more different systems, most often first-past-the-post voting (FPTP) with party-list proportional representation (PR). It i ...

system instead. Lange's successor

Geoffrey Palmer Geoffrey Palmer may refer to: Politicians * Sir Geoffrey Palmer, 1st Baronet (1598–1670), English lawyer and politician *Sir Geoffrey Palmer, 3rd Baronet (1655–1732), English politician, Member of Parliament (MP) for Leicestershire *Geoffrey Pa ...

stated that proportional representation was "dead" but could be re-visited in "20 years or so". As a result, the ERC put its efforts into gaining support for a referendum on the electoral system. In the lead up to the 1990 general election, both major party leaders -

Mike Moore Michael Moore is an American filmmaker and author. Michael Moore may also refer to: Academia * Michael G. Moore (fl. 1970s–2020s), professor of education * Michael S. Moore (academic) (fl. 1960s–2020s), American law professor * Michael Moore ...

and

Jim Bolger James Brendan Bolger ( ; born 31 May 1935) is a New Zealand retired politician of the National Party who was the 35th prime minister of New Zealand, serving from 1990 to 1997. Bolger was born to an Irish immigrant family in Ōpunake, Taran ...

- promised a referendum before the next general election on the issue. Following the election of Bolger as Prime Minister, the new government agreed to begin work on an electoral referendum. They put forward a system of dual referendums, one non-binding with two questions (whether to change the electoral system, and if so which system should be used), and a second between the FPP and the highest ranking system.

Electoral reform referendum

The non-binding referendum on electoral reform was held on 19 September 1992, to coincide with local body elections. MMP easily won in the vote, with 84% overall wanting a change in electoral system, and 70% backing MMP. However, turn out for this indicative vote was just over 50% of the voting public. Nonetheless, the government drew up the

Electoral Act 1993 The Electoral Act 1993 is an Act of the New Zealand Parliament for regulating elections in New Zealand. It "establishes the electoral agencies, electoral system, election processes (including that for disputing results), how MPs are replaced betw ...

to replace the previous 1956 legislation, and hold a binding referendum on the electoral system. This was to be held at the same time as the 1993 general election. The ERC then began working towards the referendum on MMP. A group opposed to MMP was also formed. The Coalition for Better Government (CBG) led by Peter Shirtcliffe, former Chairman of

Telecom New Zealand Spark New Zealand Limited is a New Zealand telecommunications company providing fixed-line telephone services, a mobile phone network, internet access services, and (through its Spark Digital division) ICT services to businesses. It was know ...

, was formed in April 1993. The CBG allegedly spent $1.13 million on their campaign (no accounts of its spending on the campaign were ever published), while the ERC spent $181,000. Ultimately, the ERC and MMP prevailed, gaining 53.4% of votes cast at the referendum. A recent (November 2008) poll by Research New Zealand found a majority of support for MMP (53%), with 35% supporting FPP, following the 2008 general election, the fifth under MMP. Volunteers in the campaign included future Labour MP

Dianne Yates Dianne Fae Yates (born 29 November 1943) is a New Zealand politician. She is a member of the Labour Party. Member of Parliament Yates first entered Parliament in the 1993 election, representing the Hamilton East electorate. In the 1 ...

, and future NZ First MP

Deborah Morris Deborah Morris-Travers (born 9 August 1970) is a former New Zealand politician. She was a list MP for New Zealand First from 1996 to 1998. Member of Parliament Morris was an MP from 1996 to 1999, representing the New Zealand First party ...

Local Government electoral reform

From 1994 the ERC began to focus on local government electoral reform. The ERC campaigned for

Single Transferable Vote Single transferable vote (STV) is a multi-winner electoral system in which voters cast a single vote in the form of a ranked-choice ballot. Voters have the option to rank candidates, and their vote may be transferred according to alternate p ...

in Wellington, and for its retention at a 2008 referendum.

Chairpersons

Chairs of the ERC: * David Shields - 1986–1987 * David Round - 1987–1988 * Bridgette Hicks-Willer - 1988–1990 * Lowell Manning - 1990–1991 * Colin Clark - 1991–1994

References

External links