An independent review will deliver transparency reforms first, followed by any changes to political funding and the voting age in 2026.
The Government has unveiled its plans to overhaul the country’s electoral laws, with targeted changes for the next election followed by a sweeping review of potential reforms.
However, there are no signs of a quick fix for overseas New Zealanders who could lose their voting rights due to the country’s rigid borders under Covid-19.
Labour’s plans for a shake-up of the MMP system and other parts of the Electoral Act gained prominence in the wake of the party’s crushing victory at last year’s election, while government partner the Greens have previously pushed for the lowering of the five percent threshold among other changes.
Now, Justice Minister Kris Faafoi has announced a review of the country’s electoral law ahead of the 2026 general election, with an independent panel to report back by 2023.
“While we have a world-class electoral system, times are changing and the Electoral Act needs to continue to move with them,” Faafoi said.
“Much has changed since the 1950s but most of our electoral rules haven’t. We want to make election rules clearer and fairer to build more trust in the system and better support people to exercise their right to vote.”
The review would look at the voting age and overseas voting, the funding of political parties, the length of the parliamentary term, and the Electoral Commission’s recommendations for MMP reform among other issues.
However, explicitly excluded from its scope are online voting, any alternatives to MMP, the future of the Māori seats, local electoral law, and “fundamental constitutional change” such as becoming a republic.
No quick moves on overseas voting rights
Faafoi said the Government still needed to put together a review panel, which would report back by late 2023 with recommendations for change.
He would consult with all parliamentary party leaders and Parliament’s justice committee on the review’s terms of reference before they were finalised, as the Government wanted broad, non-partisan support for any changes.
He was also writing to Māori organisations, youth groups, universities and the Law Society to seek nominations for the review panel.
While that wider work was underway, Faafoi said some rules could be improved before the next election in 2023.
He specifically mentioned improving the transparency of political donations “to make it easier to see where the money is coming from”, along with making it easier for voters to move between the Māori electoral roll and the general roll (a change which can only occur every five to six years at present).
However, Faafoi made no mention of addressing the voting rights of overseas New Zealanders, despite the NZ Herald reporting that tens of thousands could be disenfranchised before the next election.
As the Herald reported, current laws require New Zealanders living overseas to have visited the country at least once within the last three years to be able to vote in an election (or once in the last year for permanent residents) – a requirement made considerably more difficult by the MIQ quota system currently in operation.
