As a result of the National-ACT coalition agreement, the Government is advancing an ACT Party ‘strengthening democracy’ policy through the following 2 bills:
- Term of Parliament (Enabling 4-year Term) Legislation Amendment Bill; and
- Referendums Framework Bill.
4-year Term Bill
The stated purpose of the 4-year Term Bill is to help improve lawmaking by allowing a newly elected Government to extend the parliamentary term from 3 years to 4 – but only if the majority of members of subject select committees are from opposition parties. If passed, the law would only take effect if New Zealanders agree to it via a referendum, most likely held at the 2026 general election.
In our submission on this bill, Trust Democracy argues it should be withdrawn. We are not aware of evidence that a longer term and changes to the membership of select committees would improve lawmaking. In fact, it is easy to imagine ways in which the ability of these committees to hold the government to account – and to contribute to better lawmaking – could be subverted.
Referendums Framework Bill
To enable the referendum on the 4-year Term (and potentially other referendums), the Referendums Framework Bill sets out how referendums are to be run. This is necessary because referendums – a direct democracy mechanism – have been used, until recently, only occasionally in New Zealand. Each one has required special enabling legislation as referendums have not been a standard feature of our electoral representative democracy.
In our submission on this bill, Trust Democracy recommends its withdrawal pending further policy development. As we will explore at our ‘More Referenda, Better Democracy?’ event, referendums are not without problems. Instead of using the legal framework for the 2015-2016 flag referendums, we suggest drawing on international practice and evidence to develop a more robust framework – one that addresses issues such as voter knowledge and manipulation using innovations from deliberative democracy.
Focus on making our democratic system more robust
As outlined in our 4-year Term Bill submission, Trust Democracy sees these bills as part of an agenda not to ‘strengthen democracy’ but to further concentrate power in the hands of the Prime Minister and Cabinet – at the expense of future parliaments, local government, Māori, civil society and voters.
We call for a different focus: one that would make our democratic system more robust and address issues such as public trust in Parliament and government effectiveness in the face of social and environmental change. Among a raft of suggestions in our submissions, many of which align with those of Prof Jonathan Boston, perhaps our most radical is for an additional Parliamentary house based on sortition to complement our elected House of Representatives.
Upcoming ‘More Referenda, Better Democracy?’ event
Want to explore referenda issues and ways to improve them with Associate Professor Matheson Russell? Register to join us at our AGM on 12 May 2025 in Wellington or via Zoom. We welcome non-members!
