Speed of government

MMP appears to have done one good thing, its slows down government. According to an article in the National Business Review,

At the beginning of the 1993 National government, the executive took 20 sitting days on average to pass a bill. The 1996 National-New Zealand First government enacted new laws in an average of 34 days.

When Labour took power in a minority coalition with the Alliance in 1999, that time ballooned out to 66 days.

Bills also spend more time at select committee being scrutinised, despite time limits being put on the process to avoid bills being lost behind desks.

Consequently, the number of laws being made has dropped under MMP by about a third each year.

Governments can still pass important legislation as in the past and, similarly, screeds of unimportant legislation. The point is not that MMP governments cannot govern but they cannot govern by blitzkrieg.

This has to be a good thing. Our freedom is being taken away at a slower rate. But how can we stopped it being taken away completely?

While they maybe passing laws more slowly there is no obvious evidence that the quality of law has improved. Just think of the Electoral Finance Bill as an example. As Eric Crampton put it

... this is very bad legislation - so bad that, even after amendment,the New Zealand Law Society wants it scrapped. This is amazing. When law is badly drafted, it's the lawyers that profit by the resulting court battles. Lawyers from Chapman Tripp warn that the courts may well decide the next election - they expect court action. Legislation has to be shockingly bad before we'd expect lawyers to say it should be scrapped entirely, but that's what they've done. Even the Electoral Commission, who has to give advice on compliance with the legislation, is reported to have thrown up its hands: it can't make heads or tails of the legislation either, and so can't provide advice.

So progress, if unintended progress, has been made on the speed front, but there is still much to do on the quality of legislation front and more to do on the speed of passing front.

(HT: Not PC)