Rural Women New Zealand welcomes news that the re-appointment of a Minister of Rural Affairs is back on the political agenda.

The position was axed three years ago, leaving many rural people without a direct voice in Parliament.

“Only 14% of the population who identify themselves as rural actually work in agriculture,” says Rural Women New Zealand National President, Liz Evans.

“We don’t believe the interests of the other 86% of the rural population can be realistically and effectively represented by a Minister of Agriculture and Biosecurity, who already has a huge and specific workload.

“We were assured three years ago that rural community interests would be addressed by other Ministries, but often rural concerns seem to be marginalised and wait listed. As a result, Rural Women New Zealand still sees the need for the reinstatement of a Minister of Rural Affairs.”

Our brief to the Minister would be to safeguard the wider rural perspective in all legislation and to champion rural issues to the whole of government by encouraging rural impact assessments on all legislation and policy.

 Next year’s referendum gives you the chance to have your say on the voting system you'd like to use to elect our Parliaments in the future.

You will be asked two questions:

• whether you want to keep MMP (which is the voting system we use at the moment) or whether you want to change to another voting system; and

• which of four other voting systems you would choose if NZ decides to change from MMP.

  Article from Bulletin Aotearoa - November Issue.   

  Voting Systems on Offer

MMP – Mixed Member Proportional: In this (NZ’s current system) there 70 electorates, (both Maori and General). Each electorate elects one MP, called an Electorate MP. The other 50 MPs are elected from political party lists and are called List MPs.

Each voter gets two votes. The first vote (the party vote) is for the political party the voter chooses and largely decides the total number of seats each political party gets in Parliament. The second vote (the electorate vote) is to choose the MP the voter wants to represent the electorate they live in. The candidate who gets the most votes wins. They do not have to get more than half the votes.

Currently, a political party that wins at least one electorate seat or 5% of the party vote gets a share of the seats in Parliament that is about the same as its share of the party vote (if a party gets 30% of the party vote it will get roughly 36 MPs in Parliament, and if it wins 20 electorate seats it will have 16 List MPs as well as its 20 Electorate MPs).

Coalitions or agreements between political parties are usually needed before Governments can be formed.

FPP - First Past the Post: in this there are 120 electorates, including the Maori electorates, and each elects one MP.

Each voter has one vote to choose the MP they want to represent the electorate they live in. The candidate who gets the most votes wins. They do not have to get more than half the votes.

The winning party usually wins a share of the seats in Parliament larger than its share of all the votes across the country. Smaller parties usually receive a smaller share of seats than their share of all the votes.

A government can usually be formed without the need for coalitions or agreements between parties.

PV - Preferential Voting: there are 120 electorates, including the Maori electorates, elects one MP.

Each voter ranks the candidates – 1, 2, 3, etc – in the order they prefer them. A candidate who gets more than half of all the first preference “1” votes wins. If no candidate gets more than half the first preference votes, the candidate with the fewest “1” votes is eliminated and their votes go to the candidates each voter ranked next. This continues until one candidate has more than half the votes.

The winning party usually wins a share of the seats in Parliament larger than its share of all the votes across the country. It is hard for smaller parties to win seats in Parliament, but votes for smaller party candidates may influence who wins the seat because of second, third, etc preferences.

A government can usually be formed without the need for coalitions or agreements between parties.

STV - Single Transferable Vote: in this system each electorate (including the Maori electorates) has more than one MP. It is likely the 120 MPs would be divided between 24 and 30 electorates, each with 3 to 7 MPs.

Each voter has a single vote that is transferable. Voters rank the candidates (1, 2, 3, etc) in the order they prefer, OR they can vote for the order published in advance by the political party of their choice.

MPs are elected by receiving a minimum number of votes, known as the quota. This is based on the number of votes in each electorate and the number of MPs to be elected. Candidates who reach the quota from first preference votes are elected. If there are still electorate seats to fill, firstly the votes the elected candidates received beyond the quota are transferred to the candidates ranked next on those votes. Candidates who then reach the quota are elected. Then, if there are still electorate seats to fill, the lowest polling candidate is eliminated and their votes are transferred to the candidates ranked next on those votes. These steps are repeated until all the seats are filled.

The number of MPs elected from each political party usually mirrors the party’s share of all the votes across the country.

Coalitions or agreements between political parties are usually needed before governments can be formed.

SM - Supplementary Member: there are 90 electorates in this one (including the Maori electorates). Each elects one MP, called an Electorate MP. The other 30 seats are called supplementary seats. MPs are elected to these seats from political party lists and are likely to be called List MPs.

Each voter gets two votes. The first vote is to choose the MP the voter wants to represent the electorate they live in. This is called the electorate vote. The candidate who gets the most votes wins. They do not have to get more than half the votes. The second vote is for the political party the voter chooses. This is called the party vote. The share of the 30 supplementary seats each party gets reflects its share of the party vote (if a party gets 30% of the party vote, it will get about 9 List MPs in Parliament, no matter how many electorate seats it wins). This makes SM different from MMP where a party’s share of all 120 seats mirrors its share of the party vote.

One or other of the major parties would usually have enough seats to govern alone, but coalitions or agreements between parties may sometimes be needed.

RWNZ members from Marlborough are hosting a 'Meet the Candidates' evening this Wednesday 9 November, 7:30pm at the Giesen Sports Centre in Renwick. All candidates have a copy of our 'Hard Questions' - head along to see what they have to say!

Candidates present include:

Colin King - National 

Liz Collyns - Labour

Steffan Browning - Greens

Richard Evans - Act

We’ve produced some ‘hard questions’ that you can use as a basis for voicing rural concerns during ‘meet the candidates’ events, and as a basis for developing your own questions.

We’ve also produced (and printed) a manifesto (which we can supply copies of). This will be useful post-election as well, when we begin to advocate for RWNZ issues with our newly elected representatives. Click here to see our Manifesto and hard questions page on our website, or contact Belinda enquiries@ruralwomen.org.nz to receive printed copies.

Interested in what the main parties see as the key issues for NZ agriculture? View this interview by Country 99TV.

RWNZ National Council had a trial run of some of their hard questions when the Minister of Health, the Hon Tony Ryall, visited the recent National Council meeting. Contrary to expectation, the Minister did not use time to talk exclusively about party politics. In fact, after the introductions, he sat down at the table and asked us what we wanted to talk about.

The Council asked him specifically to review the effectiveness of the  2007 Fair Travel Policy for home support workers who have to use their  vehicles to travel to  clients in rural areas with very limited recompense (about 20c per km).  Few, if any, other workers in New Zealand are required to self fund travelling between various  places of work several times per day.

Mr Ryall said he would re-evaluate the policy and asked for some specific examples of support workers who have been disadvantaged.

He was asked to make home based support services, often the Cinderella area of health funding and status, higher up on the priority list, especially when considering inflation price adjustments.  He said he would look at it if re-elected.

Other topics covered  during the  hour-plus meeting included the need for more support for rural-based midwives, the advances in technology related dementia care, and  rural dental health which Mr Ryall said is increasingly becoming a major problem for the over 65’s age group, as well as for rural children.

The Minister’s future specific targets included shorter waiting times for elective surgery, cancer treatment and emergency department consults; a 90% immunisation rate for 2 year-olds, affordable stop smoking programmes and more focus on cardio vascular disease and diabetes.

As he left the Rural Women New Zealand office complete with a  pair of Corporate Aftersocks, Mr Ryall thanked Rural Women New Zealand  “for all that you do”.