By Grant Fleming
AFTER the political partner swapping of the last three years, many of us are left asking the question: is our current
system truly democratic? M-Pact a non-partisan group advocating greater accountability and transparency in politics
believes not.
The South Island-based group believes MPs should be made more directly accountable to their constituents through an
employment-style contract. If MPs broke this contract their constituents would then have the ability to dismiss them.
Spokesperson Joe Rificci says the public is fed up with politicians who campaign on a particular platform then once in
power go back on their promises.
“People are disgusted by politics to the point where they are actually turned off to vote,” he says.
“MPs must help to inform people. They must constantly find out what the majority of constituents want and take that back
to parliament.”
Under the contract advocated by M-Pact, MPs would distribute regular newsletters to their electorate informing them of
the current issues before parliament. They would then hold public meetings so that these issues could be discussed.
Polling booths would be permanently set up in a few public places as well as via the internet and on important issues an
electorate wide referendum would be held in order to truly ascertain the wishes of constituents. In this way, M-Pact
believes, more accurate representation could be ensured.
Rificci says that at present “party politics are a big part of the problem”. He is critical of MPs who toe the
ideological line of their parties rather than truly representing the views of the majority of their constituents.
The system M-Pact advocates, he says, is a citizen initiated model that would truly give people “grass roots control”
over what happens in NZ. At the moment M-Pact is based in the South Island but it’s looking to establish citizen groups
in as many electorates around NZ as possible. •M-Pact: www.m-pact.org.nz
ends