Four-year term of government: how would it work?

Thursday, 27 February 2025

The Government has agreed to introduce legislation that will enable a four-year term of Parliament subject to a referendum

The government is introducing legislation that could see the term of parliament extended to four years, but there is a catch - a government would need to hand more power over to the opposition.

The bill is based off a David Seymour member’s bill drafted back in 2021. ACT won support for the policy during coalition negotiations, though the commitment is only to support the bill to a select committee.

“Both the National-ACT and National-New Zealand First coalition agreements include supporting a bill to select committee. At this stage, no decisions have been made on whether this Bill will proceed beyond this,” Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith said.

Who wants it?

In principle there is broad support for a four year term.

“I think people want a more mature democracy. They want stability, they’re sick of policies chopping and changing, they want more mature debate about how we solve our problems as a country. They feel we’re not getting those things at the moment,” Seymour said.

“I believe a four-year term will help us solve our problems as a country, come up with better solutions that are better debated therefore last longer.”

David Seymour wants a four year parliamentary term.

The term of Parliament can only be changed through majority support in a referendum or what’s known as a super-majority - 75% of MPs supporting a bill. In this case, the government is opting for the referendum option.

“Given the constitutional significance of the term of Parliament, this change would be subject to the outcome of a binding referendum,' Goldsmith said.

“I’m in favour of a four year term, and I think that a referendum is the appropriate way to gain a policy mandate for that country,” Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said.

Labour leader Chris Hipkins also favours a four year term to slow down law-making.

Politicians are often frustrated with how much can be done within a three year term, and there is criticism this has led to hasty law making without due consideration.

“You sort of spend a year getting settled in half a year in election campaign so your three years term is really a less than two-year term,” Seymour said.

“There’s about 170 countries in the world with some sort of Parliament and we are one of 9 that has a three year term, most of the Australian states have moved from three years to four.”

“I think sometimes Parliament should slow down. And I think a four-year term would actually allow parliament to slow down a bit, the government of the day to slow down a bit and make sure that they're doing things properly, rather than them doing them in a hurry. So they've got something to show at the next election,” Hipkins said.

How would it work?

It’s not as simple as extending the term.

The way the bill is currently drafted, the standard would be for a parliament to last three years, but there would be the option for a government to extend it to four if it met certain conditions.

Those conditions would include handing more power over to opposition parties to chair select committees, to act as an extra check on the executive.

Seymour points to the Epidemic Response Committee, set up at the peak of the pandemic and chaired by then opposition leader, Simon Bridges, as an example of a select committee led by opposition MPs which added extra scrutiny to the parliamentary process.

Under the proposed new legislation, a government would have three months to decide whether they want a four year term and pass a resolution confirming that they had met a proportionality clause which showed the select committees were stacked with MPs who didn’t belong to governing parties.

That’s where Hipkins’ support wavers.

“I think that's something that we want to work through. I mean, that seems a bit of a convoluted way of doing things.“

Electoral Law Expert Graeme Edgeler agrees.

“Not even knowing before the election what type of Parliament we're voting for, that just seems a recipe for confusion.”

Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is open to fine tuning the bill through the select committee process and setting a simpler question for a referendum: three or four years?

“It may well be that a much simpler arrangement is just to have a choice simply between a three and a four year term and so we’re very much open to that.”

When could we get a four year term?

Goldsmith didn’t rule out the possibility of a referendum at the 2026 election, though if the referendum was successful it wouldn’t take effect until at least the 2029 election.

“This is not an endorsement of one government or another. It won’t come into effect for a long time if it does. So it’s far enough away that I don’t think anyone really knows who would be the first government to have a four year term,” Seymour said.