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Speaker 1: Begins.

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Speaker 2: So actually that David Semo was making the case for

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Speaker 2: a New Zealand adopting a four year parliamentary term. It's

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Speaker 2: part of the coalition agreement, he says. If you're worried

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Speaker 2: about that giving the government too much power, he says,

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Speaker 2: in exchange, select committees will be organized differently to make

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Speaker 2: sure that the opposition always has a majority at the

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Speaker 2: Select Committee, which doesn't occur at the moment. It's understood

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Speaker 2: the government will soon introduce legislation that will put the

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Speaker 2: issue to a referendum. There's own lots to unpack here.

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Speaker 2: Political commentator Peter Dunn is with me.

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Speaker 1: Hello Peter, Hello Andrew.

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Speaker 2: Four year turn a good idea.

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Speaker 1: Well, I'm personally in favor. I always have been for

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Speaker 1: one simple reason. At the moment, with the three year term,

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Speaker 1: you really get about two years of effective government, the

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Speaker 1: first six months for settling in in the last six

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Speaker 1: months of battling down for the hatchet. So a four

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Speaker 1: year term would give you a three year run at least,

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Speaker 1: which makes it easier I think for implementing long term

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Speaker 1: policy changes. I don't have the same propensity to chop

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Speaker 1: and change every election.

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Speaker 2: So look, our part can actually push through legislation quickly

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Speaker 2: and not to have been criticized about the lack of scrutiny.

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Speaker 2: But should we really remove the three year check in

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Speaker 2: with the voters?

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Speaker 1: Well, it depends. I mean, some people say three years

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Speaker 1: is too long for a bad government, but too short

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Speaker 1: for a good government. But if you look around the world,

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Speaker 1: you know, most countries have been moving to a four

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Speaker 1: year term. In Britain it's five, In Ireland, I think

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Speaker 1: it's four, Australia it's got four years. In a number

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Speaker 1: of the states. Presidential term in america's four, So you know,

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Speaker 1: I think we're a bit of an outlier at three.

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Speaker 1: But I think the additional year would just give a

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Speaker 1: bit more stability and focus to government that wouldn't always

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Speaker 1: be sort of chopping and changing because the next election

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Speaker 1: was just around the corner.

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Speaker 2: And David wants to change the Select Committees, which at

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Speaker 2: the moment they have more governmental members and opposition members.

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Speaker 2: He wants to give opposition the majority on Select committees

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Speaker 2: as a as a check in Balas good idea or

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Speaker 2: bad weird, I think.

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Speaker 1: That's a really good idea. Actually, when I was a minister,

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Speaker 1: I dealt with situations where I had the Select committee

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Speaker 1: looking at my legislation had an opposition majority or an

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Speaker 1: opposition chair, and I actually found that that they work

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Speaker 1: probably more constructively because they were constant they had They

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Speaker 1: weren't this jet to sort of cause mayhem. They were

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Speaker 1: there to do a good job. So I think giving

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Speaker 1: a majority on select committees to the opposition is a

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Speaker 1: good idea. It would be a good check and a

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Speaker 1: good balance. But it would also make the opposition lead

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Speaker 1: to act responsibly because I think the public will see

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Speaker 1: through if they just saw that as a way to

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Speaker 1: disrupt stop.

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Speaker 2: Everything, Yeah, and then we'll end out in a level

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Speaker 2: of stasis and stagnation and just sitting there going nowhere.

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Speaker 1: Yeahah, of course, I think it's a good idea.

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Speaker 2: So my final question is it's going to a referendum.

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Speaker 2: I think that's appropriate because the people should say because

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Speaker 2: it's the people's system, it's the people's votes, et cetera,

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Speaker 2: blah blah blah. But I think it's such a big

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Speaker 2: constitutional change it should be a supermajority, a seventy five

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Speaker 2: percent majority to get this so that we're all on

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Speaker 2: the same page. What do you think of that?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, well, it certainly it should be decided by a referendum,

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Speaker 1: because for the reasons you've set out a supermajority, whether

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Speaker 1: it's seventy five five percent or sixty percent or something,

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Speaker 1: I think it is a point worth considering. One of

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Speaker 1: the controversies you remember about MMP was that the final

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Speaker 1: vote was passed something by I think it was fifty

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Speaker 1: four percent, and people said that was a bit too close.

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Speaker 1: So I think some sort of a safeguard there to

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Speaker 1: make sure that whatever the outcome, it was clearcut would

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Speaker 1: be appropriate.

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Speaker 2: Very good, Peter Dunn, always a pleasure to speak with.

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Speaker 2: You have yourself a great weekend.

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