12 Nov 2011

Goff says Labour would stop 'rort' of MMP

6:21 pm on 12 November 2011

Labour Party leader Phil Goff says if his party is elected to government it will ensure that the "rorting" of MMP will be done away with.

National Party leader John Key and ACT's Epsom candidate John Banks met on Friday to signal to National supporters that they should give their electorate vote to Mr Banks.

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That will increase ACT's chances of winning the seat and remaining in Parliament, providing National with a useful ally in any post-election deals.

During campaigning in the South Auckland suburb of Otara on Saturday, Mr Goff said National is propping up a party so that it has MPs it would not otherwise be entitled to.

"People see a system being rorted - but my advice is that if we vote for MMP, then it will be reviewed.

"If there's a Labour Government, we'll take that rort out the system. You'll have to get five percent to get more seats than simply the electorate seat that you win - that stops the rort."

Mr Goff says people do not want ACT back in Parliament.

No regrets about meeting - Key

While campaigning in Palmerston North on Saturday, John Key said he has no regrets about meeting with Mr Banks and National wanted to make its intentions in Epsom clear to voters.

"We think it's for the people of Epsom to decide, but we are making it quite clear that if they decide to vote tactically, we're fine with that."

Mr Key says if the Labour Party does not like the way MMP works, then it should vote against it in the referendum on MMP.

MMP referendum

The referendum will be held on election day on 26 November. If more than half choose to keep MMP, the system will be reviewed. The results will released in December.

If MMP is rejected, Parliament will decide whether to hold another referendum in 2014 to choose between MMP and the most popular alternative system.

The other choices are: First Past the Post, Preferential Voting, Single Transferrable Vote and Supplementary Member.