democracyNew Zealand elects its officials and runs its national government by a democratic system called Mixed-Member Parliament. People cast two votes: their Party Vote and their MP Vote. 51 of the 120 seats of Parliament are determined by the Party Vote, and this is tallied by raw percentages. It takes at least 5% of all votes to secure a party’s first seat, so if a party gets 6% of the vote, that’s six seats, plus the original secured seat, so that’s 7 seats in Parliament, not bad for a minor party. These Members of Parliament (or MPs) are then listed in order of importance by the party, so that the most important (i.e. the Prime Minister, in the case of the winning party) get in first, and then on down the list.
The country is divided into 62 electorates, with an additional 7 spots reserved for Māori MPs. So people vote for their preferred MP in their electorate, and thus, we’ve got the 120 seats of Parliament, the Prime Minister among them. Parliament is more powerful than either the judicial or executive branch here, so this vote actually determines who runs the country.
The current Prime Minister (Helen Clark of the Labour Party) is allowed to set the date for the election, within a period of a couple of months, and eight weeks’ notice is given, constituting a comparatively short election season. The lead changed between the two main parties, Labour (slightly to the left) and National (more conservative), with every poll, often with multiple polls contradicting, so by all accounts, it was to be a tight race. Furthermore, just to throw a wrench into the system, a third party, New Zealand First, offered to ally itself with whomever got the most votes, so adding those to the mix could actually determine the winner, rather than just support one.
This year’s election was down and dirty, with many parties (there are eight worth mentioning: National, Labour, New Zealand First, the Green Party, Jim Anderton’s Progressive, ACT, United Future New Zealand, and Destiny) jockeying around, forming pseudo-coalitions with each other, trying to stay in existence for the next election. Some speculate that this year’s low turnout (a paltry 75% of eligible voters voted) was due to the extensive negative ad campaign run by National. As Marco, Dan, and I tuned in to TV3 for election coverage, we saw a commentator’s show that was highly relaxed, and highly amusing, with short spoofs of all the party leaders, the occasional jibe at Helen Clark, Don Brash (leader of the National Party), or Winston Peters (leader of NZ First, a charismatic man who wins the undecided vote by telling people what they want to hear, based on current issues. This year was illegal Iraqi immigrants to NZ, stealing jobs away from the honest, hard-working Kiwi). After much laughter, and a decidedly casual style of coverage, John Campbell—New Zealand’s equivalent of Ted Koppel or Peter Jennings—explained the Election Night Drinking Game, which meant that if he or any of his fellow commentators said any key phrases (like “Let’s cut in to--”), the people watching at home had to take a shot of something alcoholic. Luckily, they did not partake on the air.
At the end of the night, Labour led in one of the tightest races ever, with 40.5% of the party vote, National not far behind at 39.5%. With the special votes (sort of like absentee ballots) taking another two weeks to count, at this point it’s still technically anyone’s game, although Clark and Labour are already in talks with coalitions to form the next government. All in all, a close race, and a great example to see a different kind of democracy.
Thanks to Jane Gunn-Lewis, Arcadia’s program director, for her notes on the election.
Continuing the journey through the Catlins. The day lovely, the scenery breathtaking, we wended our way towards Curio Bay, a beach that’s home to an ancient petrified forest.
The beach was rocky—I had no idea what to expect in terms of a petrified forest, but I couldn’t see a tree anywhere.
We spread out in a somewhat confused search for petrified trees. Over on the left, I’ve decided that if I can’t take a normal-looking picture, I’ll try to look heroic. I’m not quite sure I pulled it off.
Finally, I spot some oddly straight and narrow striations in the rock we were walking all over. The beach itself was the petrified forest! Some of the trees must have been enormous from the looks of things. It’s difficult to capture that sort of thing meaningfully on film, so Dan took a picture of a smaller rock that once was made of wood.
