referendum Archive

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  Head of State opinion piece kicks off debate - by Keith Locke

  
  
  
  I received a good New Year present from the Dominion Post when they published my opinion piece on the Head of State Referenda Bill under the title “Hands up for a president of Aotearoa”. This has kicked off the debate I had hoped around my Head of State private members bill, which enables Kiwis to choose between keeping the monarch or moving towards a democratically selected head of state. read more
  January 6, 2010 2:49 pm - 165 Comments
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  What’s up and wrong with the Supplementary Member System - by frog

  
  
  
  Image by Lyndon Hood Just when we have started to get our heads around MMP, people are now kicking around the supplementary member electoral system (SM) as an alternative (Key and the anti-MMP campaigners seem to like it). So what’s wrong with SM? The amount of votes you get does not determine the number of [...] read more
  September 9, 2009 1:10 pm - 60 Comments
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  Sue’s Truth: The referendum – the aftermath - by Sue Bradford

  
  
  
  The New Zealand Truth has become the Truth Weekender, so the publication both there and here of my regular article there will be a bit later in the week from now on. This week I focus on the aftermath of the child discipline referendum. Last week the result of the child discipline referendum came out. [...] read more
  August 28, 2009 11:55 am - 158 Comments
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  Bradford’s Truth: Referendum 09 - by Sue Bradford

  
  
  
  My regular New Zealand Truth column this week is about the child discipline referendum and the inadequacy of the legislative provisions regarding the wording of citizens initiated referenda questions: As I am sure everyone is excruciatingly well aware, we are right now in the middle of the postal referendum on the physical discipline of children. [...] read more
  August 12, 2009 2:05 pm - 168 Comments
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  What do the kids think? - by frog

  
  
  
  Family First have made much of various opinion polls, many (like their referendum question) leading in their questions and some dodgy in their methodology, in advocating that parents have a “right” to hit their children. Little has been said about what children think about the issue, despite New Zealand having ratified the United Nations Convention [...] read more
  June 24, 2009 3:17 pm - 337 Comments
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  The Yes Vote – NZ Referendum on Child Discipline 2009 - by frog

  
  
  
  Here is a website, yesvote.org.nz, that spells the issue out very well, and makes a call to action that is hard to resist. I haven’t spoken to anyone in the party about it yet, and invite all frogblog readers to visit the site and express their views. The opening says it all: Aotearoa New Zealand [...] read more
  April 18, 2009 10:09 am - 89 Comments
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  Should Australia become a Republic? - by frog

  
  
  
  It’s an important question for Australians, with ramifications for New Zealand. Australian Green Senator Bob Brown has introduced legislation requiring a simple yes or no referendum at the 2010 election. The last time a referendum was held in 1999, it was soundly defeated, but Brown claims that this was because the government of the day [...] read more
  December 8, 2008 11:58 am - 114 Comments
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  Reflecting the zeitgeist - by frog

  
  
  
  The Herald’s editorial on MMP concludes: Twelve years ago, MMP was this country’s answer to a widely recognised need. A change so soon thereafter would be justified only if it were failing to produce governments that voters could recognise as an expression of their collective will. Broadly, it has passed that test, the ultimate test [...] read more
  May 20, 2008 9:03 am - 22 Comments