New 'waka-jumping' legislation has been introduced to Parliament, designed to ensure MPs who resign from a political party can't stay on in the House as independents or members of another party. The bill is part of the coalition deal between Labour and New Zealand First. The practice is also known as party-hopping and some past examples of MPs who left their party but stayed on in Parliament include Peter Dunne, Jim Anderton, several New Zealand First MPs in the late 1990s and a slew of National MPs in the early to mid '90s.The National Party isn't keen on the proposed legislation - its leader Bill English tells Susie Ferguson it puts too much power in the hands of party leaders.
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