Waka jumping amendments the Greens voted against

I want people to understand that not only did the Greens vote for the waka jumping bill, they voted against every amendment put forward by National. Many of these amendments would have made the bill slightly less undemocratic. A principled Green Party would have voted for them. But they sold out as poodles to Winston.

Here’s what they voted against:

• Allowing any expulsion of an MP by a leader to be subject to judicial review
• Mandating any vote in caucus to expel an MP be by secret ballot
• That parties are required to have rules around expulsion of MPs and that they be registered with the Electoral Commission
• That party rules around how an MP is expelled that are changed don’t take effect until the next Parliament
• That the names of the MPs who voted in favour of expulsion (if not a secret ballot) be required as part of a statement
• That the notice from a party leader expelling an MP be published in the Gazette within five working days
• Increasing the threshold for expulsion from 75% of MPs to 95%

So the Greens voted against secret ballots, against judicial review, against party rules around expulsion being made public and against a higher threshold.

Remember this when they start lecturing on democracy.