Proportional system ‘would return Labour’

Press, 24 May 1988, Page 15

Proportional system ‘would return Labour’

PA Auckland The Labour Government would return to power if the next election was changed to a proportional representation system, the vice-president of the Council of Trade Unions, Ms Angela Foulkes, says. Ms Foulkes is one of three patrons of the new Electoral Reform Coalition which is campaigning for the mixed number proportional system to be introduced for Parliament. It is running an advertising campaign to tell the public what the new system means and to lobby for a referendum on the issue next year. "Labour would get back in if we had proportional representation,” said Ms Foulkes. “But it would be interesting to see which part of Labour made it on the day.” She says the mixed member proportional system would more clearly reveal a swing to the right or left. The M.M.P. system would give voters two votes — one for a politic

cal party for Government and the other to choose their member of Parliament. The other patrons of the campaign are a former National Party leader, Sir John Marshall, and a former Labour Party president, Sir Charles Bennett. Sir John, who was Prime Minister in 1972, said he had changed his mind on the electoral system since he was in power. “When I was a member of Parliament, I was in favour of the first-past-the-post system,” he said. “I now take a more detached view, and realise the proposal for the M.M.P. system would provide a better Parliament. “It would give better representation in the sense that it would represent a majority of the total electorate. “Under the present system, no Government has had a majority support of the electorate since 1951.” The two-vote system would also enable independents or minority party representation in

Parliament, he said. Ms Foulkes said minority parties such as Values, the New Zealand Democrats and Mana Motuhake would have more chance of being represented in Parliament. The main aim of the campaign was to get the Government to confirm an earlier commitment to hold a referendum next year, she said. She had no qualms about being linked with Sir John on the campaign. “That there are people from all sides of the political spectrum reflects the concern many New Zealanders have about the way politics are run, whether it is Roger Douglas or Muldoon in power. There has got to be a better way.” It was C.T.U. policy to support the introduction of proportional representation, he said. Sir John said he had contributed financially “in a modest way” to the campaign and was quietly lobbying some of his former parliamentary colleagues to support the change.