Westminster model of democracy outdated

These days there seems broad agreement that democracy is a system of governance where power and civic responsibility are, ideally, exercised directly by all citizens.

Unfortunately the practice is different. The people typically exercise their power through elected representatives who belong to parties and are either in Government or Opposition.

Before I go any further let me make it clear I do not belong to any political party, and nor am I exercising any judgement on various political party policies. My comment is simply raising the question of whether the current model of government is an effective use of the array of people who put themselves forward in the best interests of NZ Inc.

The majority of members of parliament are backbenchers who are not in cabinet or state ministers and are, for all intents and purposes rubber stamps, who must obey their parliamentary whips (appropriate choice of word) and leaders with respect of how they vote. That means, if an MP has a personal view on a matter they must subsume that and ‘follow the leader’. To do otherwise is to commit political suicide.

Franklin experienced that first hand in the past over the issue of our community being chopped up into bits and farmed out to other local bodies. The community had made it clear how they felt but the MP was required to vote with the party against community wishes.

In essence, the system also marginalises constituents whose MPs are in the ruling part(ies), Government MPs do not get enough opportunity to stand up and truly represent the interests of their respective constituencies. Ironically, their opposition counterparts get far more leeway.

Workplace culture is a powerful force that will see the business strategic plan either succeed or fail, no matter how good the strategy is. Culture is the high velocity oil that helps the finely tuned engine achieve peak performance.

When the report of the Parliamentary inquiry into bullying (Parliamentary Culture) was released, the Speaker said “The stressful, 24/7 nature of parliamentary work that was typically marked by power imbalances and immense loyalty made it open to bullying and harassment behaviour”.

Commentary after the release of the report referred to politics being ‘robust’ hence the bullying culture.  I understand the word ‘Robust’ to mean, strong and healthy, vigorous. The report described anything but healthy, with a quote from an interview noted in the report of inquiry summing up the true meaning pretty well, “Just because it’s politics and people are passionate doesn’t mean any of us can behave like arseholes....”

We have 120 MPs who are, ostensibly, elected by us (directly or through party votes) to represent us in the best interests of NZ Inc. However, once they reach parliament they are obligated to follow party political dogma and if they contemplate any dissention they are ‘whipped’ into line. And the whole culture of the environment in which they work is toxic.

Such a culture and practice would not be tolerated in corporate environments which pride themselves as Great Places to Work.

 

First published in the Franklin County News Thursday 4th July 2019