Posts by Brent Jackson
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Ben Wilson wrote:
So I can only conclude that wasted votes are an intended consequence of the current system.
Not really. The Royal Commission report recommended a threshold of 4% (now 5%) to avoid a large number of small parties in parliament
2.163 There is a danger that a proliferation of small parties in the House would detract from, rather than enhance, the effectiveness of Parliament by fragmenting the Opposition and thus decrease its ability to counter and debate Government moves. However MMP avoids this danger in that the 4% threshold would generally mean that no parties with fewer than 5 MPs would be represented in the House.
(Unfortunately - or fortunately depending on your point of view - the threshold exception for parties gaining an electorate seat put paid to that last sentence).
I wonder if having no threshold would lead to a plethora of parties standing for election.
It always amazes me the number of parties that register for the election, and the obvious effort that some of them go through in order to try and get people to vote for them (see the party lists) , when it is blatantly obvious that they'll never get anywhere near the 5% threshold. (Are they so reality-averse that they think they can ?).
Imagine if there was no threshold, so about 0.8% would be enough to get a seat (about 20,000 votes) ? How many hundreds more people would think that this was a possibility and set up a party to try to get into Parliament ?
Still, I personally think the threshold is too high, and abhor party politics (all parliamentary votes should be conscience votes).
Cheers,
Brent. -
Oooo! I've managed to think of another place that has great customer service. Tyreworx Grey Lynn. They also go out of their way to help out. Some examples : Went in with a car I'd just bought that had Mag nuts on, and the seller had lost the socket for them. After checking them, and making some enquiries, they said it was unlikely that it'd be possible to get the socket for them. They then sent a good 20 minutes getting them off for me (including having to drill one of them to bits to get it off), and gave me four old wheel nuts to replace them. When I asked how much, they replied it was all part of the service, and sent me on my way.
Actually, I just remembered Target Road tyres (I'm on a roll now :-). Went in there once and the owner apologised that it'd be quarter of an hour before he could help me out 'cos he had a mercy dash to perform. He headed off to fit one of his wheels to the car of an Asian woman (with poor english a toddler and a baby), so she could drive it in and they could fix the puncture (which they duly did). They then only accepted the $10 for the puncture repair, even though the woman wanted to pay them more.
I guess both of these stories highlight how NZ has changed in the last 20 years. These would be typical for many businesses back then, but in these days of user pays, acts like these are noticeable. (I always think "It's great to find these old-fashioned businesses" - maybe I just don't have enough dealings with owner-operators ...)
Cheers,
Brent. -
stephen walker wrote :
i suggest halving it AND only giving an exemption for parties that win TWO electorates.
I was thinking along the same lines myself.
Also, are there anything problems with avoiding overhangs by reducing the total number of seats available by the seats that would otherwise overhang, so that there is always only 120 MPs ? Might be some tricky (or iterative) processes involved, but I am sure it'd be possible : Calculate seats proportionally per party from the 120 available for those parties exceeding the threshold. Any parties that received more Electorate seats than their proportional allotment is assigned those seats, and the 120 is reduced by that amount, and then proportionally distributed amongst the remaining parties.
Makes things tidier, I think.
Cheers,
Brent. -
When we were staying at a "Room with a View" in Vanuatu, we had a 5:30am check-in for our flight home. The proprietor, Justine, already had a car full to take to the airport, and couldn't make two trips, so she gave us 1000vt to pay for a taxi.
Hey, I also really liked the way the Customs man said, as he handed back the passport, "Welcome home, Brent" - made me feel real glad to be home.
Cheers,
Brent. -
I found my 39th birthday to be a rather dour affair because I was only 1 year off being officially old ... but by the time I actually turned 40 I was well over it, and had a very enjoyable birthday !
Wrt lying about ones age : when I lived in the UK I was phoning around for Car Insurance a month before my birthday, so I gave my age as one year older than I was. I obviously convinced myself I was that age, because the following year, when applying for a Czech VISA, it asked for both age and DoB, and I noticed that they didn't add up - so I sort of missed out on being 23, but have experienced the joy of finding out that you are 1 year younger than you think you are.
Cheers,
Brent -
Morgan Nichol wrote:
How is it that TVNZ make this (really bloody simple, let's be honest) stuff look so hard? Bad CMS?
What really pisses me off is they put up a handy "Are you having a problem viewing our video?" link to a nice form to fill out describing the problem - but they NEVER send anything back to you. No helpful hints, no suggestions, nothing. Zilch, zero, nada. Makes you feel like a stupid prat for being dumb enough to fill it out 3 times in the hope that someone would actually help.
The Windows Media Files have stopped working for me now. They want me to install Windows Media Player 11, but that doesn't exist for Windows2000. WMP9 just displays a blank screen and says "Done" on the bottom bar. (Perhaps the "You have been" is missing from the left ...).
The Podcasts are all 1 byte files which (unsurprisingly) don't do anything.
So, its only slow old Youtube that actually gets the job done - unfortunately, no newsmash, so sometimes you don't know what the panel's talking about.
(Firefox 3.0.3, Windows 2000 SP4, if anyone has any ideas to help ...)
Cheers,
Brent. -
Glenn Pearce wrote:
I suspect if you were about to enter high school now it would be Western Springs College that your parents would be fighting to get you into.....
Weird. I went to Seddon High School (as WSC was then known), at the same time as David and my experiences were not very different - however, the Europeans weren't picked on too much, because the Tongans and Samoans fought each other most of the time (King Cobras vs the Headhunters (I think)). The principal was distant, and the deputy principal was a sadist (it seems that this was a job requirement in the 70's and 80's).
Rugby was very much part of the culture. There was many a second year 5th, and/or 6th former who was only in school because the first XV wanted their skills.
I managed to have a bit of kudos by being in the 1st XI hockey team from 3rd form on (we only managed to scrape together a single team), since going onto the field to play a team sport armed with sticks was seen as a pretty brave move by the rugby players.
Paul Campbell wrote :
We knuckled under and worked together to crack this bursary thing - I'm pretty sure we all passed - everyone else who'd been accredited slagged off and went to the beach - still being 16 I couldn't just hare of to Uni - instead I went in to 7th form - and slagged off for an entire year, even occasionally went to the beach, sat bursary again and got a lower score in most subjects ....
That's similar to my story to, except that I knew I was going for bursary from half way through the year. I did okay (B Bursary) considering I'd hardly covered any of the syllabus. I then had a ball in the 7th form, the most enjoyable year of my school life, and only got an A bursary at the end of it (though my scores would've gotten a Scholarship the year before or the following year, for some bizarre reason it wasn't enough my year).
Stephen Walker wrote:
and all-year-round shorts from day one until the end of 7th form.
At least at Seddon we got to wear longs in the middle term from the 5th form on.
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To me it seems that Labour is throwing this election away by insanely supporting Winnie when it appears that he is corrupt. I cannot fathom why they are going to such lengths to support him.
Now I have totally run out of parties to vote for ...
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It would be nice for kids to be able to apply for it from age 12, but I guess that opens the door to parents being able to brow-beat their children into voting a certain way.
However, considering that at age 16 one can enter into a (supposedly) life-long commitment, legally create people, be jailed for "life", and drive a lethal weapon on the public roads, I would've thought being able to vote was a far less serious right.
Cheers,
Brent. -
Mikaere Curtis wrote :
Denise Roche is the Greens candidate for Auckland Central. She's also on the Auckland City Council, representing the Hauraki Gulf ward.
We're running a Party Vote campaign. We stand in electorates because that's the most effective way of engaging with voters during an election campaign, not because we think we can win the electorate.
Gareth Ward wrote :
Thanks Mikaere. I'm looking to get a little more "engaged" in my decision for local representation this year - sounds like the Greens won't be of any use to me in that task.
On the contrary! I am keen to try to convince half of the Labour voters in Auckland Central to vote for the Green Party candidate instead of Tizard. It makes no difference to Labour in terms of seats, but if the Greens get an electorate seat they don't have to worry about the 5% threshold. (Although I wish Labour would not stand a candidate in some seat (eg Mt Albert) and ask people to vote for the Green Candidate in order to assure that the Greens are in the next parliament).
In terms of local representation, the way I figure it, the Labour and National candidates are highly likely to get in anyway from the list, so getting a candidate for another party in as well, has got to improve Auckland's representation.
Besides, a candidate that only got in because of the electorate vote, is going to be much more responsive to the electorate than one who would've got in on the list anyway.
Looking at the last election's results (eg Auckland Central) gives you an idea whether there is a possible third choice in your electorate.