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Bridled Power: New Zealand Government under MMP by G. Palmer & M. Palmer (Book Review) [1998] JSPL 4; (1998) 2 Journal of South Pacific Law

BOOK REVIEW

BY ROBERT EARLY

LECTURER
PACIFIC LANGUAGES UNIT
UNIVERITY OF THE SOUTH PACIFIC

Title: Bridled power: New Zealand government under MMP

Author: Palmer, G. & Palmer, M.

Published by Oxford University Press: Auckland (1997)

ISBN: 0-19-558326-4

pp: 340 plus ix

August 1998 was a month of turmoil in New Zealand (NZ) politics. The 22-month old National Party – New Zealand First Party coalition, always an unlikely pairing of political enemies, dissolved. The Prime Minister and leader of the National Party, Mrs Shipley, dismissed her Deputy Prime Minister, Mr Winston Peters, the leader of New Zealand First, which then itself disintegrated into two factions. This domestic crisis made it impossible for the Prime Minister to attend the 1998 South Pacific Forum which was held in Kiribati. With just 44 seats in the 120 seat legislature, the National Party needed the support of independent members and other small parties to continue in office. As this review is being written, on the 8^th September 1998, I have one ear tuned to Radio New Zealand, and Mrs Shipley’s minority government has just received a 62-58 confidence vote in Parliament.

Such unheard of turmoil is fallout from major changes to the parliamentary electoral system voted for in a 1993 referendum, with 54% of a somewhat undecided populace in favour (p. 11). The new system, implemented in the 1996 general election, is a mixed-member proportional (MMP) system: 60 of the 120 seats in Parliament are for general constituency members, 5 seats are for Maori constituency members, and the remaining seats are shared between the parties such that the total number of seats a party has is in proportion to its share of each voter’s second party vote. The political implications of this electoral reform are matched by significant changes in the way Parliament and government will operate to create law and to administer the country.

Bridled Power is a first-class handbook detailing these developments. Although published in 1997, the book was written before the first MMP government of 1996, so it necessarily adopts a prospective outlook. It admits to being speculative in places (p. 16), even somewhat premature: "How far MMP will change the system can be judged only after we have had some experience with it" (p. 308), but it is still an excellent contribution. It is introductory yet comprehensive, detailed and technical yet full of interest. The authors are clearly well-placed to write about NZ government and politics: Geoffrey Palmer is a former NZ Prime Minister and long-time legal academic and practitioner, and Matthew Palmer is a lawyer in the highest ranks of the public service. A hint that they make up a father-and-son team is given on p. vii.

The authors consider that "the dominant theme of this book has been the changes ... wrought by the introduction of the new electoral system, MMP" (p. 308). Certainly, the impact of MMP is assessed wherever relevant, but the strength and value of the book also lies in it being a highly readable overview of the total system of government and administration of NZ. The reader is guided through all levels of the government of the country, especially in the context of the major changes in the NZ public and private sectors of recent times. MMP is more recent, but during the 1980s the Treaty of Waitangi found new status, and widespread reforms of the state sector involved the corporatisation and often, subsequent privatisation, of what used to be essential public services and state assets. This book helps the reader locate the role of government and the law within the paradigm of new administrative structures like SOEs (state-owned enterprises) and CHEs (Crown health enterprises).

The NZ citizen is in mind, and non-specialist readers who want to learn about law and political power in NZ will find the book very accessible. Indeed, some sections could be very useful in educational contexts, such as Chapter 13 which deals with avenues of complaint available beyond the courts. It gives a survey of the role of the Ombudsmen, Police Complaints Authority, Human Rights Commission, Race Relations Conciliator, Privacy Commissioner, and other independent bodies dealing with health and disability, the environment, and children.

No doubt this book, which appeared in earlier editions as Unbridled Power?, is already an important resource for students of constitutional law and political science, as well as the wider political and legal community. It now appears in substantial revision with the new title, and will gain an enhanced role as a key text on the polity and governance of NZ. Students of political systems will appreciate the way the book highlights important distinctives of NZ’s version of Westminster government, e.g. with regard to the extensive role of parliamentary select committees (p. 138). How the select committee system evolves in the new parliamentary environment is one of the fascinating issues raised by MMP (p. 141).

The book evidences a wider philosophical theme as well. With experience at the highest levels, the authors are widely concerned about "the coercive power of the state in a civilised society" (p. 276). Before MMP, "parliamentary sovereignty was effectively wielded by the Cabinet-the executive" (p. 128), and NZ had a "combative adversary style of politics in which...effort [was] wasted in perpetual party conflict and constant electioneering" (p. 130). Also, the Westminster system as it existed was deficient in some regards: it had "a systematic bias in favour of a single party obtaining a majority of parliamentary seats" (p. 7), and towards having a single party only in opposition (p. 24). Since 1954, every government in NZ was actually voted for by fewer than half of all voters, and some had less voter support than the party in opposition (p. 11). No-confidence motions had no prospect of success, and "the governing party and its Cabinet directly dominated the executive and legislature, and could overrule...the judiciary". NZ had the "most streamlined executive decision-making machine in the democratic world" (p. 3), which led to a "dangerous concentration of powers in the central government" (pp. 9-10).

The authors now champion MMP as bringing this era to an end. MMP will produce a system "more encouraging of democratic representation and dialogue" (p. viii) with a government that "will be more democratic and more accountable than before" (p. 3). The constitutional power of Parliament will be "revitalised by MMP" (p. 128), and "MMP will usher in a new approach in which bargaining and co-operation replaces confrontation"