Better Democracy
Better Democracy is a non-partisan lobby group in New Zealand, formed with the objective of bringing about binding citizens initiated referendums as a form of direct democracy (New Zealand has allowed for non-binding citizens initiated referendums since 1993). The group was founded by Steve Baron in 2003 and originally known as Voters' Voice.
Petition
Steve Baron applied to the Clerk of the House of Representatives in April 2003 for a petition under the Citizens Initiated Referenda Act 1993 for a referendum to make citizens initiated referendums binding on the government. 20,209 signatures were collected, well below the requirement of 10% of the voting population.
Along with Jonathan Eisen, Steve Baron was editor of the book People Power: How to make the government listen to you, for a change. He also stood as an independent candidate in Pakuranga in 2005, coming third which surprised many pundits.
The New Zealand First Party has since officially endorsed binding referendums, although it did not pursue the issue during its former confidence and supply agreement with Labour. The small Direct Democracy Party also advocates for binding referendums as does Democrats for Social Credit. However, New Zealand First is no longer represented in Parliament, the Direct Democracy Party did not stand candidates in the New Zealand general election, 2008, and Democrats for Social Credit are electorally insignificant.
Prominent supporters
The group's website lists a number of prominent supporters:
- Christine Fletcher, former Mayor of Auckland and former MP
- Roger Kerr, former chairman of the New Zealand Business Roundtable
- David Lange, deceased former Prime Minister of New Zealand
- Michael Laws, former Mayor of Wanganui, former MP and talkback host
- Garth McVicar, chairman of the Sensible Sentencing Trust
- Winston Peters, leader of the New Zealand First Party
- Graham Stairmand, President of the Grey Power Federation
- Ian Wishart, editor of Investigate magazine