Suffrage Day tomorrow: How would Kate have voted?

Campaign for MMP said that if Kate Sheppard were alive today, she would be backing MMP at the upcoming referendum.

“MMP is the fairest voting system on offer this referendum, a system where from Bluff to Kaitaia, everyone’s vote counts equally,” Campaign for MMP spokesperson Sandra Grey said, on the eve of Suffrage Day tomorrow.

“Others systems on offer like First Past the Post see hundreds of thousands of votes wasted. Like the votes of a National Party supporter in a safe Labour area, Labour supporters in National areas, and supporters of smaller parties also.”

“But beyond that, MMP has brought in Parliaments that look more like us.”

List MPs in the current Parliament included farmers, trade experts, physicians, principals, business owners, authors, educators, accountants, chief executives, civil servants, teachers, company directors and barristers, Sandra Grey said.

“And of course we have seen greater numbers of women, and representatives of more ethnic groups under MMP,” she said.

Sandra Grey said that 100 years after suffragists won the right to vote, New Zealand’s decision in 1993 to back MMP was a good one for women, and last year the Campaign released a report discussing the better representation for women MMP had brought in.

She said that the Campaign’s recent YouTube clip Women and MMP highlighted these benefits for a new generation of voters.

“Kate Sheppard and others fought for the vote because they believed women had a right to political equality. On suffrage day tomorrow, we should remember that effort, and commit to making sure we don’t take a step backwards by letting go of our MMP system.”

Ends.

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