Direct Democracy & Electronic Elections

In 2014 a video produced by democracy campaigner Steve Baron was first screened seeking the introduction of Internet voting and ensuring that governments implement the outcomes of citizen’s Initiated referendums. The documentary titled, New Zealand’s Democratic Deficit, raises issues about many other aspects of the New Zealand political system and the facade hiding what actually happens in Parliament.

It looks at the quality of political leadership and the flagrant disregard for political processes, the lack of a codified Constitution, the fallacy of entrenched laws, the dilemma of ‘conscience votes’ and the abuse of the ‘urgency’ process. It features a segment on New Zealand’s “Hall of Shame” which highlights the dark side of numerous past and present Members of Parliament.
While most New Zealanders probably believe we live in a democratic society, many now realise that we give our politicians too much power with the only check and balance being an election every few years. This simply isn’t satisfactory in a modern well informed society which deserves more say over issues that directly affect their lives. New Zealanders right across the political spectrum know there’s a problem with their political system but just haven’t been made aware of what the solution is, until now.

It’s time we took a deep and thoughtful look at our very weak political system and made much needed changes. Do we really need 120 MPs, of which 100 most people have never heard of until they "Jamie-lee Ross" out of Parliament.

This documentary leads the viewer to consider powerful tools New Zealanders can use to resolve this democratic deficit—direct democracy, the Swiss based system of binding citizens’ initiated referendums, veto referendums and recall referendums which have held the Swiss political system in high regard by many political scientists around the world for over 140 years. The traditional model of political debate produces a corrosive and divisive effect on society, we need to focus on what is acceptable governance for the majority of citizens without the need to perpetuate the archaic and infantile traditions of parliament which deserve to be consigned to the dustbin of historical colonial failures.

With blockchain promoting the way we consider our financial future, isn't it time for this technology to be adapted to create a secure verifiable method of confirming our online voter identity? The sovereign citizens of New Zealand need to claim back their inalienable right to determine our future without the traditional political hate speech & bullying which, as occurred in the USA recently, this leads to chaos and division amongst the citizens rather than fostering a culture that adopts a method of governance based upon a representative and accurate consensus of opinion.