Kerre Woodham: "I'm all for a four-year term"

Kerre Woodham Mornings Podcast

It looks like there's going to be a referendum after all.

Not the one that David Seymour wants, but a referendum on whether the four-year political term should be legislated. We've got three years at the moment.

For years, people have been saying it's too short and now in National's coalition agreement with both ACT and NZ First, there are provisions to introduce legislation extending the political term.

Yesterday, the Prime Minister said the issue could well be put to the electorate at the next election in a referendum. He said it's a commitment each party made to one another, and although work on legislation around a four-year term hadn't kicked off yet as there were other priorities right now, Christopher Luxon said it will come onto the radar fairly shortly.

They wouldn't have to do that much work.

I mean, it's been looked at time and time again by a number of parties of both hues. And I wouldn't have thought it would be that difficult to extend the term one year.

For the record, New Zealand has one of the world's shortest parliamentary terms and it is commonly said and understood that governments spend the first of their three years acclimatising, second is getting down to business, third year at campaigning. Another actual year of hard work would be a bonus.

I'm all for a four-year term.

And in effect, because we voters like to be fair players, we give party’s six years, even if they've been a bit rubbish after the first three years. Only once since 1960 has a government failed to win a second term and that was the third Labour government led by Bill Rowling.

Although you'd have to say it was touch and go whether the 6th Labour government would have got another term under Jacinda Ardern. Hard to know, but in October 2019, one year before the election, Labour was down 9.2% in the polls, National was up 6.5. At that poll, a year out from the election, the Greens could have kept Labour in power, but certainly Labour's false promises were coming home to roost, so we’ll never know along came Covid, the rest is history.

So, a four-year term to me makes sense.

One year to get used to it, two years of actually understanding the mechanics and the levers that need to be pushed and pulled to make stuff happen, fourth year campaigning.

I would actually like to see too, the opposition parties, given a yearly report card.

We can all measure what the Coalition Government has said, has promised. We're going to reduce the victims of crime by 30,000. We're going to make sure the potholes are fixed straight away, and these are our targets. So we can measure whatever government is in power, they've made promises, we can see that hasn't happened. What's going on here?

I would love to see that with opposition parties too, because it still sticks in my craw when Chris Hipkins said, we weren't really ready to govern.

Nine years in opposition and you're not ready to govern?

Nine years of being paid by the taxpayer to do what? To do what?

If you're not ready to govern, what in the name of all that is holy were you doing?

All very well and good to say that you're trying to find a new leader, but you've still got people who are in charge of portfolios, who should be passionate about those portfolios, who should have spent those nine years, provided they were reelected, saying here this is what needs to be done. These are the priorities right now. This is what we can do, this is what we can't and I would love to see the opposition parties given a report card after every year to show that they are there for a reason that they are opposing, that they are doing the work that's required to keep the government of the day on its toes, held to account, and so that when the time comes, they are actually ready to govern.

I don't think that's unreasonable.

I'd really like to see an account of the work that they have done throughout the year paid for by the taxpayer. I don't think it's unreasonable to say, well, what value have we got for our money while you have been in Opposition.

Not unreasonable.

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