Not so bad
OPINION: Your old mate notes that Conservation Minister and Green MP Eugene Sage was waxing lyrically about the recent legal protection of 11,800 hectares of new conservation land in the Mackenzie Basin.
Oh, and change the 5% party vote MMP threshold to 4% without a public referendum — just a simple majority in Parliament will do (we nearly forgot about that bit buried in the fine print).
With the Greens clinging to 5% in recent polls and being the third leg of the coalition, and NZ First at about 3%, it’s no surprise the Greens want to move the goalposts before the next election.
Gharaman has been called out on this undemocratic move by political commentators such as PR man Matthew Hooton, and others, but her response has been flippant, to say the least. She says her real target is overseas donations, and anyway the Electoral Commission said dropping the MMP threshold to 4% was worth doing. As Hooton rightly says, “parliamentarians with integrity should only change how Parliament is elected by a 75% super-majority or referendum”.
