Winston looks absolutely buggered in that Herald interview, I haven't seen him look so tired, almost jumbling his words. Must be close to a final agreement or he might run out of puff(ery).
It's all too ridiculous for words. MMP needs a fair bit of fine tuning. If the 3 parties were 25% to 35% each - then they could battle out a coaltion which would be acceptable to most of us. But a party with 7% holding the power to punch a million miles above its weight is a worry. Whatever he decides will leave a lot of dissatisfaction. I'd like to see us revisit the supplementary option at some stage - and while I'm at it I think Peter Shirtcliffe deserves a knighthood.
So the board members have 95-99% reached a consensus on policies they want, now the politicians are going to speak to Labour and National to see who matches up, I guess. The board members are going home, but will be available by Skype and other methods when it comes to further decisions.
Winston is meeting one-on-one with Jacinda Ardern later this evening.
Ok fair enough, there is always next time. I will keep you informed of any juicy odds on the Labour party if and when they come up I am very conflicted now as a Labour win is a good financial windfall ah well can't win em all.
Hopefully Winston announces something soon, he may not last the distance otherwise.
Ok fair enough, there is always next time. I will keep you informed of any juicy odds on the Labour party if and when they come up I am very conflicted now as a Labour win is a good financial windfall ah well can't win em all.
Hopefully Winston announces something soon, he may not last the distance otherwise.
It's all too ridiculous for words. MMP needs a fair bit of fine tuning.
Drop threshold to 1%. That way if you get one percent you get a seat. That then gives the big winners more options to go to during coalition talks. For example say a true "green / environmental party" got a seat then that party could be wooed. This would ensure more "right" "left" or "centre" parties had an opportunity to be in government.
Other change would be to allow the party that won the greatest proportion of Party votes first option to form a government. So the vote leader gets first dibs on the smaller parties to see if a coalition can be formed. If not Second largest party gets a shot.
Third change would be that Special votes have to be processed by polling day so they go into the count on that day. If you cant get your vote in in time tough.
Though in the end none of its a big deal. Every one has continued to get paid, the wheels of commerce continue to turn. The markets dont mind the delays. The NZX50 has gone from approx 7770 to 8120 which is a bloody shame as I was banking on it tanking a bit over this period.
To my mind this is a lose, lose situation. The party that goes with Peters will be totally compromised and they will need several elections to recover.I would love to see National walk away from the deal right now and simply declare that an agreement to govern with NZ First is not in the national interest. Seven per cent of the voters and a group of faceless unknowns is not what the great majority of voters sought as a government of New Zealand. But my gut feeling is that Labour will be the ones to make the mistake of stepping into this quagmire.
To my mind this is a lose, lose situation. The party that goes with Peters will be totally compromised and they will need several elections to recover.I would love to see National walk away from the deal right now and simply declare that an agreement to govern with NZ First is not in the national interest. Seven per cent of the voters and a group of faceless unknowns is not what the great majority of voters sought as a government of New Zealand. But my gut feeling is that Labour will be the ones to make the mistake of stepping into this quagmire.
We'll soon know - just a matter of negotiating Winston's knighthood then waiting till after the long weekend and 5 o'clock Tuesday he'll tell us.
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