by Cimino | 22 Sep 2017 | Nuclear power, Youth voting
If the local Kids Voting result is any indication, New Zealand’s youthquake is going to visit most damage on National. Mahurangi College students, their Kids Voting coordinator has reported, gave the Labour Party a clear majority: 35% versus the National Party’s 23%....
by Cimino | 1 Sep 2017 | Climate action, Election turnout, Youth voting
There’s no reason to imagine Aotearoa will be spared its youthquake. In the United Kingdom, it was a 68-year-old Labour Party leader, Jeremy Corbyn, who triggered the tremor. The quake unleashed by the youth-adjacent Jacinda Ardern, who has just rocked the polls to a...
by Cimino | 21 Aug 2017 | Concurrent elections, Direct democracy, MMP, Online, Parliament, Youth voting
As with the America’s CupWhether apocryphal or otherwise, and whether ‘Your Majesty, I regret to report, there is no second’, or “Ma’am, there is no second” the response to Queen Victoria beautifully sums up the cruel reality of two-party politics., coming second...
by Cimino | 9 Aug 2017 | Four waters, Local, Local board, Regional governance, Representation, Warkworth
Twin tweaks to conquer local-democracy deficit Status quo would be the less satisfactory option. Corner to corner, the Rodney Local Board area stretches 86 kilometres—a 165-kilometre, 2-hour drive by road, plus at least an hour’s walk at either end. In the context of...
by Cimino | 7 Apr 2017 | Local, Representation
Representing hundreds and thousands On average, each of Auckland region’s part-time local board politicians represents 9500 people. But a report prepared for Auckland Council argues for the number of local boards and local board members to be halved, which would...
by Cimino | 7 Jan 2017 | Democracy index, Direct democracy, Global democracy, MMP, STV
Make direct democracy smart democracy Professor David Altman wrote the book on it. Academics know it as direct democracy; Australians, bless ’em, mostly as plebiscites; New Zealanders as referendumsor New Zealanders, when confronted by a microphone: referenda....
