Recommendations for a fairer, clearer, and more accessible electoral system

E te Minita, tēnā koe

It is with pleasure that we submit the final report of He Arotake Pōtitanga Motuhake – the Independent Electoral Review.

Regular, free, and fair elections are a fundamental part of Aotearoa New Zealand’s democracy. It has been a privilege for the Panel to be tasked with the once-in-a-generation opportunity of reviewing the laws that govern our electoral system.

Because elections are inherently political, we have particularly wanted to ensure we undertook our task independently. In doing so, we have been guided by a principled approach to our objectives, which we inherited from the 1986 Royal Commission on the Electoral System.

Since we started our work in mid-2022, we have been heartened by and so grateful to the many New Zealanders who have engaged with us, offering the review their insights, ideas and expertise. They have represented all walks of life – including all the parliamentary parties represented in the last parliament, academics, community and professional organisations, civil society organisations, and many individuals.

While these New Zealanders represented a diverse range of views, almost all agreed that many parts of Aotearoa New Zealand’s electoral system are working well. However, they were also clear that there is room for improvement to ensure that our electoral law is fit for the future.

Having looked at previous reviews of our electoral system, at research, and at international models and experience, we agree.

The strength of our democracy comes predominantly from our people. Political participation is a fundamental right, and we’ve come a long way since Aotearoa New Zealand’s first election to ensure people can exercise those rights. But challenges remain.

COVID-19 has shown that we need an electoral system that can withstand unprecedented disruptions. We know that trust in government can be eroded when disinformation takes hold or when people think that influence can be bought. And past breaches of te Tiriti o Waitangi / the Treaty of Waitangi, including in the electoral system, have left a lasting legacy on Māori political participation.

The review allowed us to take a step back and look at our electoral law as a whole. Our electoral system needs to be robust to thrive in the face of challenges we are seeing to democracy at home and worldwide, and piecemeal change won’t deliver what we need. The changes we’ve recommended, taken together as a package, will significantly improve the strength and resilience of our electoral system.

The central thread running through our recommendations is our vision to make the electoral system fairer, clearer and more accessible so that as many people as possible can take part in it.

Making our electoral system fairer is one way we think more New Zealanders can be encouraged to take part in our elections. Getting a “fair go” is an idea that resonates with New Zealanders. We’ve found several areas where our current laws could be fairer, including ensuring the way seats in parliament are won more closely reflects the number of votes each party gets, expanding who is eligible to vote and stand as a candidate, and improving public confidence in elections and supporting a fair contest of ideas by making the rules for political financing and election campaigns fairer and more transparent.

We think there are also places where our electoral system can go further to support more New Zealanders to vote. As well as addressing barriers to participation that still exist for different communities, we think initiatives like civics and citizenship education, as well as community-led outreach and education, could make a real difference in encouraging voter participation and supporting people to make informed choices.

Finally, we think making our electoral law clearer and more accessible will make it easier for voters, parties and candidates to participate in our elections. Rewriting and modernising the Electoral Act will bring it into the 21st century and make it easier to understand, implement and keep updated.

We also need to ensure our electoral law upholds te Tiriti o Waitangi / the Treaty of Waitangi. These are just some of the areas we touch on in this report. Our suite of recommendations – more than 100 in total – represents our collective view and is the result of balancing competing rights and principles. Together, the recommendations form a package that we believe would help to remedy inequities, remove barriers, and future-proof our electoral system for future generations.

The review has been a significant undertaking. I extend my sincere thanks to all those who have been involved in delivering this report, including our submitters and those we met with. We would particularly like to thank our dedicated secretariat, who provided invaluable assistance throughout the review: Emily Douglas, Carl Blackmun, Jo Dinsdale, Leigh Huffine, Emma McCann, Kathleen Robertson, Anna Moore-Jones and Georgia Whelan.

I also want to acknowledge the tireless efforts of my fellow Panel members.

We present this report to you with a sense of optimism, in the knowledge that the improvements we recommend will build on the strengths of our current electoral system and see it do better into the future. We expect electoral law to keep evolving to meet the needs of our changing society, allowing space for more voices and for future innovation. We have been honoured to contribute to the conversation; it is now over to others, particularly the government, to continue it.