Wellington (Wednesday, 29 October 2025)
– New Zealand’s three-year parliamentary term is too short
for effective government and the country needs more MPs to
keep politicians accessible to voters, according to new
research examining 30 years of MMP in New
Zealand.
“MMP has delivered fairer and more
representative parliaments, but it’s time for an
upgrade,” says Nick Clark, Senior Fellow at The New
Zealand Initiative and author of the report.
“By
the time a government finds its feet and starts implementing
policy, it is already thinking about the next election,”
Clark says. “A four-year term would give governments time
to develop coherent long-term policies.”
The
research also reveals New Zealand’s Parliament is
undersized. At 120 MPs, it is about 30 percent smaller than
international benchmarks suggest it should be.
His
report, MMP After 30 Years: Time for Electoral
Reform?, examines constitutional issues, MMP design
features, and voting procedures, drawing on New Zealand and
international experience.
The report’s
recommendations are bold:
- Extend the
parliamentary term to four years with stronger select
committees to maintain accountability, increase Parliament
from 120 to 170 MPs and cut the Cabinet from 20 to 15
ministers. - The report also tackles technical fixes.
It proposes abolishing overhang seats – a problem that
recently inflated Germany’s parliament to 736 members and
lowering the party vote threshold to 3.5-4%.
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The
2023 election exposed serious problems in the system. More
than 600,000 special votes took three weeks to count,
delaying government formation and undermining public
confidence. Clark’s reforms would prevent similar
delays.
Parliament is already considering some
changes, with Bills before the House to enable a four-year
term and address vote-counting problems.
“These
reforms aren’t about radical redesign,” Clark says. “They’re
about updating a system that has served us well but now
needs modernising for 21st century realities. After 30
years, we know what works and what
doesn’t.”
