14 November 2011
NZ business favours first-past-the-post
Business owners in New Zealand believe that the first-past-the-post voting system would have the most positive impact on
the economy, according to the latest research from Grant Thornton’s International Business Report (IBR).
Fifty-four percent of those surveyed favoured this form of voting system compared with 18% for Mixed Member Proportional
representation, 8% for Single Transferable Vote and 4% for Preferential Vote. Ten per cent said they were not concerned
by the voting system.
Peter Sherwin, Partner Grant Thornton New Zealand, based in Wellington, said that the findings of the survey were
reinforced by comments made by clients on the subject.
“I have discussed this survey with several clients and they were quite unified in their comments and observations. When
MMP was first introduced, it was decided that there needed to be an increase in the number of members of Parliament to
ensure that MMP worked.
“Unfortunately, the consensus among those that I talked with and other observations indicates that the increase in the
number of politicians has not seen a lift in quality. In fact, there is a group of politicians who sit in parliament who
are hardly seen. There is also concern, that because of the list system, members get into Parliament who have never had
to go through an election.
“And then there are those that come in on the list and midway through a term they change parties,” he said.
Sherwin said that one of the biggest concerns amongst the small to medium sized business owners was the lack of business
background and knowledge amongst MPs.
“There are a number of MPs who do not have any business experience, especially those who have spent a life time in
employment and have no understanding of the pressures business owners face in operating their business and maintaining
employment in this challenging economic environment.
“Thankfully we have a business-friendly government otherwise some business owners believe they may have gone to the
wall.”
Sherwin said that a suggestion that came through strongly was that the 5% threshold for list votes was too low.
“There is a belief that this should be up to 10% as a way of possibly limiting the number of inexperienced people who
make their way into parliament. The same for parties that might win a seat. For them to be able to bring more people
into parliament, they should also need to capture up to 10% of the vote as well,” he said.
Notes
The Grant Thornton International Business Report (IBR) provides insight into the views and expectations of over 11,000
businesses per year across 39 economies. This unique survey draws upon 19 years of trend data for most European
participants and nine years for many non-European economies. For more information, please visit: www.internationalbusinessreport.com.
Data collection
The research is carried out primarily by telephone interview lasting approximately 15 minutes with the exception of
Japan (postal), Philippines and Armenia (face to face), mainland China and India (mixture of face-to-face and telephone)
where cultural differences dictate a tailored approach. Telephone interviews enable Grant Thornton International to
conduct the exact number of recommended interviews and to be certain that the most appropriate individuals are
interviewed in an organisation which meets the profile criteria.
Data collection is managed by Grant Thornton International's core research partner - Experian. Questionnaires are
translated into local languages with each participating country
having the option to ask a small number of country specific questions in addition to the core questionnaire. From 2011,
fieldwork takes place on a quarterly basis every quarter with fieldwork lasting approximately one month and a half.
Sample
IBR is a survey of medium to large privately held businesses*. The data for this release are drawn from interviews with 2,721 businesses across the globe conducted in
August/September 2011.
The target respondents are chief executive officers, managing directors, chairmen or other senior executives (title
dependent on what is most appropriate for the individual country) from 39 economies primarily across five sectors:
manufacturing (25 per cent), services (25 per cent), retail (15 per cent) and construction (10 per cent) with the
remaining 25 per cent spread across all sectors.
Locally, the sample tends to cover the sectors mentioned previously, with some countries being able to have local valid
data for specific sectors or regions when the sample size is large enough.
Group/regionEconomies included in IBRAsia-Pacific (APAC)Australia, Hong Kong, India, Japan, China (mainland), Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand,
VietnamAssociation of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, VietnamBRIC Brazil, Russia, India, China (mainland)European Union (EU) Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden, United KingdomG7 Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, United Kingdom,
United States of AmericaLatin America Argentina, Brazil, Chile, MexicoNordic Denmark, Finland, SwedenNorth AmericaCanada, United States of AmericaOtherArmenia, Botswana, Georgia, South Africa, Switzerland, Turkey, United Arab Emirates
*some counties may include a small proportion of listed businesses in their sample when reporting locally.
ENDS