Idea: Thirty years ago, when New Zealand was debating replacing its then First-Past-the-Post electoral system with a Mixed Member Proportional system, one of the key arguments put forward by the right-wing Better Government Campaign against change (in many senses a forerunner of the Act Party) was tail-wagging It was one of the dogs. They warned that it would be very easy for smaller parties to disrupt the functioning of government by using their numerical strength (especially as part of a governing arrangement) to disproportionately influence events as a price for their wider support. They argued that not only would this be bad for the process of government, it would also be undemocratic.

Today, that warning has come home to roost. The Act’s tail-wagging Treaty Principles Bill is exactly the kind of situation its 1990s predecessors warned would do much harm if the country adopted the MMP, or any form of proportional representation. But this irony seems likely to have little impact on the Act Party today.