The Constitutional Advisory Panel

The Constitutional Advisory Panel has published a discussion booklet. Some of the issues they are looking at are:

1. Should the size of Parliament be changed?
2. Should the term of Parliament be increased?
3. Should the election be a fixed or semi-fixed date?
4. How many electorates should we have?
5. Should the South Island requirement of 16 electorates remain?
6. Should the population tolerance for electorates remain 5% or increase to 10%?
7. Should we have electoral integrity or anti-party-hopping legislation?
8. Should the Maori seats be retained?
9. Should the Maori seats be entrenched?
10. Whether there are alternative or complementary ways to ensure Maori are represented in Parliament, to the Maori seats?
11. Should there be guaranteed Maori representation on local authorities?
12. Are there are more effective ways of ensuring Māori views are represented in local authority decision-making?
13. Should the Treaty of Waitangi be supreme law so laws can not be inconsistent with it?
14. Should the Bill of Rights Act be supreme law so other laws can not be inconsistent with it?
15. Should the Bill of Rights Act be superior law so other laws can not be inconsistent with it, unless Parliament explicitly resolves otherwise (a notwithstanding clause)
16. Should the Bill of Rights Act be broadened to include additional rights, such as property rights, social rights, cultural rights or environmental rights?
17. Should the Bill of Rights Act be entrenched?
18. Should we have a written constitution, with the judiciary able to strike down laws inconsistent with it?
19. Should we reintroduce a second legislative chamber or upper house?
20. Should we become a republic?

My views are:

1. The size of Parliament should be increased to 160.
2. The term of Parliament should be increased to four years.
3. The election should be a semi-fixed date of last Saturday in November unless no Government can govern with confidence.
4. The number of electorates should be 100, with 60 list MPs or alternatively be a ratio of 5:3
5. The South Island should have 25 electorates.
6. The population tolerance for electorates should be 10%.
7. We should not have electoral integrity or anti-party-hopping legislation.
8. The Maori seats should not be retained, but realise change should only occur with Maori agreement.
9. The Maori seats should not be entrenched.
10. The alternative to Maori seats should be a lower threshold for parties representing Maori interests, as recommended by the Royal Commission.
11. There should no guaranteed Maori representation on local authorities.
12. All local authorities should have non-voting representatives of local Iwi on them, who have the same support and access as Councillors. However voting rests with elected Councillors only.
13. The Treaty of Waitangi should not be supreme law unless there is a mechanism to amend it.
14. The Bill of Rights Act should not be supreme law.
15. The Bill of Rights Act should be superior law so other laws can not be inconsistent with it, unless Parliament explicitly resolves otherwise (a notwithstanding clause).
16. The Bill of Rights Act should be broadened to include property rights.
17. The Bill of Rights Act should be entrenched.
18. We should have a written constitution, with the judiciary able to strike down laws inconsistent with it.
19. We should not reintroduce reintroduce a second legislative chamber or upper house.
20. We should become a republic.