Reform
Because it is not supreme law, the constitution is in theory comparatively easy to reform, requiring only a majority of Members of Parliament to amend it, as illustrated by the abolition of the Legislative Council in 1950.
Certain aspects of the constitution are entrenched, after a fashion. Section 268 of the Electoral Act declares that the law governing the maximum term of Parliament (itself part of the Constitution Act), along with certain provisions of the Electoral Act relating to the redistribution of electoral boundaries, the voting age, and the secret ballot, may only be altered either by three-quarters of the entire membership of the House of Representatives, or by a majority of valid votes in a popular referendum. Section 268 itself is not protected by this provision, so a government could legally repeal Section 268 and go on to alter the entrenched portions of law, both with a mere simple majority in Parliament. However, the entrenchment provision has enjoyed longstanding bipartisan support, and the electoral consequences of using a legal loophole to alter an entrenched provision would likely be severe.
Further, and even though not subject to legislative entrenchment, material change to other aspects of the constitution is unlikely to occur absent broad-based support, either through broad legislative agreement or by referendum.
Read more about this topic: Constitution Of New Zealand
Other articles related to "reform":
88, Unlock Democracy and the Electoral Reform Society ... and 2003 Independent Commissions were formed to look into electoral reform ... currently brings together those groups advocating reform ...
... A note about spelling when used to describe something which is physically formed again, such as re-casting it in a mold/mould, or a band that gets back together, the proper term is re-form (with a hyphen), not "reform". ...
... prominence in the campaign for political reform in the early nineteenth century, with Thomas Attwood and the Birmingham Political Union bringing the ... Lord Durham, who drafted the act, wrote that "the country owed Reform to Birmingham, and its salvation from revolution" ... the platform for his successful campaign for the Second Reform Act of 1867, which extended voting rights to the urban working class ...
... A reform movement began in the mid-18th century ... Although the Whig party was ambivalent in its attitude to reform, some Whig leaders like Fox and Earl Grey raised the issue many times, but nothing was achieved in the face of Tory resistance ... Between 1815 and 1832 pressure for reform mounted steadily ...
Famous quotes containing the word reform:
“... the opportunity offered by life to women is far in excess of any offered to men. To be the inspiration is more than to be the tool. To create the world, a greater thing than to reform it.”
—Alice Foote MacDougall (1867–1945)
“You have to make more noise than anybody else, you have to make yourself more obtrusive than anybody else, you have to fill all the papers more than anybody else, in fact you have to be there all the time and see that they do not snow you under, if you are really going to get your reform realized.”
—Emmeline Pankhurst (1858–1928)
“Letters are above all useful as a means of expressing the ideal self; and no other method of communication is quite so good for this purpose.... In letters we can reform without practice, beg without humiliation, snip and shape embarrassing experiences to the measure of our own desires....”
—Elizabeth Hardwick (b. 1916)