spinofflive
a white blonde woman in formal business dress surrounded by 'orange guy' mascots
Deborah Hart, chair of the Independent Electoral Review. (Image: Archi Banal)

PoliticsJune 11, 2023

‘I would like to hear from all those people’: Electoral review chair responds to critics 

a white blonde woman in formal business dress surrounded by 'orange guy' mascots
Deborah Hart, chair of the Independent Electoral Review. (Image: Archi Banal)

Deborah Hart has urged those attacking the panel’s integrity to engage on the substance.

“It pretty much looks like what a heavily left leaning group would drum up,” was the assessment of Mike Hosking. In the eyes of NZ First leader Winston Peters, it was “more dangerous woke nonsense”. Act leader David Seymour made it personal, calling Deborah Hart, who has led the review into New Zealand electoral rules, a “totally politicised and partial chair”. He said: “She’s trotting out slogans like a populist politician masquerading as a sober independent chair.”

“Well, it’s great that people are interested,” said Hart, refusing to take the bait. “And I’ll tell you another thing, if you’re going to do work like this, you do have to be prepared to have your ideas tested.” 


Gone By Lunchtime

Bonus episode: Electoral review chair on the recs and the wreckers

The review of New Zealand's electoral law has called for many controversial changes to be made to the current system. Deborah Hart explains the reasoning behind the recommendations.


Hart, a former lawyer and member of the Human Rights Review Tribunal, said she relished both the process and the response – she “literally danced a wee jig” when she was offered the role of chairing the panel. She  added: “I would like to hear from all of those people. Tell us what it is that you’re concerned about, and what could be done better.”

The panel had been motivated in no way by trying to advantage one side of the political spectrum or the other other, she said. “I’m more interested in people telling us, look, that part of the report is wrong, or this is not quite right … Those kinds of conversations are going to ensure that we really test our ideas.”

Speaking to The Spinoff for a bonus episode of politics podcast Gone By Lunchtime, Hart said the panel had been selected at arm’s length from the government. She said: “We’re trying to be incredibly principled about this, and not to be involved in the politics. That’s for others.”

Wide-ranging recommendations from the independent panel included a substantial tightening of the size and source of political donations, a reduction in the voting age to 16, reducing the party vote threshold to 3.5% and ditching the coat-tail rule. The panel called for a referendum on increasing the parliamentary term to four years, giving all prisoners the right to vote, and rewriting the Electoral Act to incorporate treaty principles and drag it into the 21st century as far as accessibility and clarity is concerned. 

Alongside Hart, the review group includes academics Maria Bargh, Andrew Geddis and Lara Greaves, as well as co-president of the National Disabled Students’ Association Alice Mander and former chief electoral officer Robert Peden. 

There were no accusations of bias from the leaders of Labour and National, but they were at best muted; aside from the Greens, who cheered the review’s ideas and called for cross-party cooperation, there was little in the way of enthusiasm. 

Hart said she was not disheartened by the response, nor by politicians’ tendency to shrug and shelve earlier recommendations, including the 2012 Electoral Commission review of MMP, noting that back in the 1980s there had been plenty of scepticism about whether the Royal Commission into Electoral Reform would come to anything, and it ultimately led to a fundamental change in the electoral system and the adoption of proportional representation in the form of MMP. 

She said: “We will do everything that we can possibly do as a panel to understand what it is that New Zealanders are telling us in their submissions, to look at the international evidence to understand the research that has gone on, and to feed it all into the final report. And I think that any government should be interested in that kind of comprehensive, holistic and independent view.”

Public submissions on the review are open until mid-July, with the panel’s final report due in November. 

‘If you regularly enjoy The Spinoff, and want it to continue, become a member today.’
Toby Manhire
— Editor-at-large

Follow Gone By Lunchtime on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favourite podcast app.

All the party leaders. (Image: Archi Banal)
All the party leaders. (Image: Archi Banal)

PoliticsJune 9, 2023

A new poll plots the crunchy terrain for the election ahead

All the party leaders. (Image: Archi Banal)
All the party leaders. (Image: Archi Banal)

What are the issues judged most important by New Zealanders – and which parties do we think are best equipped to deal with them?

Across political debate, headlines and anecdata, crime has moved to the foreground over the last 18 months. That is reflected in a new Ipsos New Zealand Issues Monitor, which shows law and order placed second in a ranking of the issues rated most important by New Zealanders. 

Rewind to February last year, and 19% named law and order as one of their three main issues of concern. Since then it has climbed steadily, to 40% in this latest survey (see the dotted line, below). That is the fourth consecutive high for the issue since the Ipsos Monitor began in 2018.

Carin Hercock, managing director at Ipsos NZ, noted that it reflects international trends. “Ipsos is seeing concerns about crime increase globally, making it the third-highest issue across all countries we monitor,” she said. “Many countries have seen a spike often attributed to post-Covid truancy and inflation-related poverty levels. In New Zealand it appears to be an issue that is particularly concerning for older New Zealanders, with retirees more than twice as likely to be concerned about crime than those aged under 35 years.”

Which party is considered most capable of managing the issue? A third say National, 23% say Labour, and 11% pick Act. 

Crime/law and order as a key issue, and party best equipped to manage it (Ipsos Issues Monitor, June)

Zooming out to the top issues, with about four months to run, cost of living remains top of the pile, though it has dropped a smidgen, from 65% in the last Ipsos Monitor to 63% today. 

Ipsos New Zealand Issues Monitor, June 2023

As for the parties that respondents reckoned were better placed to manage those issues, the news is good for National. Since February, they’ve overtaken Labour on housing (including the price of housing). 

Of the top five issues, National is preferred for three. In February, Labour could boast that they were judged better placed to deal with 11 of the 20 most important issues, compared with six for National. No longer. That same comparison gives National 10 of 20, with Labour seven.

Ipsos New Zealand Issues Monitor, Feb v June 2023

More grim news for Labour: the Issues Monitor also measures sentiment on the performance of the government. Respondents are asked to assess the performance over the last six months on a scale from zero to 10, “where 0 means ‘abysmal’ and 10 means ‘outstanding’”.

The average score in this new survey is 5.0, the lowest since Ardern formed a government after the 2017 election. 

Ipsos surveyed 1,002 people from May 23-30.