POLL: Which voting system do you prefer?

[shrub]

Anything with a List should be thrown away immediately.

Why? If a party is clever they can use their list to bring specialist skills and knowledge (business, economics, law etc) into their caucus which means that they're not all charming baby kissers with nice smiles.

[Mental Trousers]

Why? If a party is clever they can use their list to bring specialist skills and knowledge (business, economics, law etc) into their caucus which means that they're not all charming baby kissers with nice smiles.

Being an Electorate MP means you're responsible to your electorate, have a duty to be available to them and help them out. Being on a list means he doesn't have to talk to the peasants.

That's exactly why. MP's not responsible to voters and who didn't actually get voted in (think Sue Bradford - who the hell would actually vote her in) are not a good thing. Doesn't matter what they bring to the Government, they're not responsible to anyone except their own caucus, who happen to be somewhat biased because they're the ones that put those list MP's in there in the first place.

[oneofsix]

That's exactly why. MP's not responsible to voters and who didn't actually get voted in (think Sue Bradford - who the hell would actually vote her in) are not a good thing. Doesn't matter what they bring to the Government, they're not responsible to anyone except their own caucus, who happen to be somewhat biased because they're the ones that put those list MP's in there in the first place.

Didn't notice the electorate MPs under FPP given much of a flying fork about the electorate. Their job was to win the seat for the party not to represent the people of the electorate. And if they were really good party peoples they would get 'promoted' to a save party seat.
With MMP you get to chose the party you like even if you do have to put up with their list selections and to choose who you think will best represent your electorate separately. The electorate vote works on a localised FPP system.
Reckon you should be allowed to rank the members on the list for the party you are voting for and use STP for the electorate selection to give it more proportionality.
But lets be real the pollys aren't going to easily let us have a system that works for us so we have to make small steps forward and not go backwards until we get what we need.

[shrub]

That's exactly why. MP's not responsible to voters and who didn't actually get voted in (think Sue Bradford - who the hell would actually vote her in) are not a good thing. Doesn't matter what they bring to the Government, they're not responsible to anyone except their own caucus, who happen to be somewhat biased because they're the ones that put those list MP's in there in the first place.

I can see where you're coming from, and in that past with some parties that was a problem - I think back to Alamein Kopu or Winston Peter's wide boys in 96 - they really supported your position. Today I think most parties would rather have the best people for the job in caucus because at the end of the day nobody wants to carry dead wood and most pollies work bloody hard and 60 - 70 hour weeks are normal. And there are some very sharp people on all sides in parliament, so people who can't quite foot it in the debating chamber and the select committee get pretty well slashed and burned by the opposing pollies which makes it hard to get what you want. You also need to have a very carefully selected group that work well together and have complimentary skills - Act have shown what happens when you don't.

I think the process of selecting list members is probably the only real weakness in list MPs, and maybe that needs to be reviewed.

Personally I can't see why anyone would vote for Jerry Brownlee as he is a fat, lazy, incompetent and stupid twat; yet he gets voted in year after year, so the electoral system isn't flawless.

[shrub]

Reckon you should be allowed to rank the members on the list for the party you are voting for and use STP for the electorate selection to give it more proportionality.

That would work, and is kind of what the Greens do by having the list placings decided by the party members. The only drawback is you need to be a member but I am a member of all the major parties, so that's not difficult.