referenda

If you haven't been living under a rock, you may be aware that there has been a petition for a referendum for the repeal of the Prostitution Reform Act, fronted by two United Future MP's. To be successful, the petition had to get 273,000 signatures - 10 percent of the electoral roll. It failed by 70 000, as I predicted it would some time back. Still, 200 000 is a pretty good effort.

Here's an update as to the progress of the Act

I would have thought that if people felt so strongly against decrimnalising prostitution that they would voice concerns before the vote was taken, including contacting their MP and making submissions to the select committee on the issue. Why are more people having their say after the vote? Did 200 000 people contact their MP in opposition to the bill or did they awaken from their apathy and sign the petition after hearing about it in churches and on Radio Rhema? If there was such a strong feeling about the legislation surely the time to express your view is before the final reading, not after it.

Then again, if there was a referendum, most people would, I guess, repeal the Prostitution Act - and perhaps the Civil Union Act, the Treaty of Waitangi, and the lowering of the drinking age - and if there was a law banning smacking in the home, that too.

Now the call has come out for a citizens initiated referenda threshold to be five percent of the electoral roll. Some people would take offence if just one in 20 eligible voters were to have their day at the ballot box to get legislation overturned just because that minority did not like it, particuarly when that minority against an Act didn't do too much to oppose it in such numbers before it was enacted.

Then again, the minority would say that it was a minority that initiated the Prostitution Act in the first place. A minority of two: Tim Barnett and Catherine Healy, to be precise.

But what do you think of the idea of a five percent threshold for a citizens initiated referendum at the next election, aside from the fact that five percent is the threshold for MMP representation? Good idea, or not?