In June of 2008, Charles Chauvel presented a paper to the Australasian Study of Parliament Group at Parliament House in Brisbane, the Capital of Queensland.

The conference brought together various academics, commentators and politicians and interest groups to discuss issues related to assemblies and parliaments in the Australasian region.

Charles was asked to present a paper that investigated the representative nature of New Zealand’s parliament. Charles decided to focus on the representative changes that can be seen in the Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) system that operates within New Zealand.

Before the shift to MMP in 1996, New Zealand could not claim great diversity in its legislature. The first past the post (FPP) system resulted in fewer ethnicities, sexual minorities and women being represented in Parliament.

In his paper Charles discussed the dissatisfaction within the electorate that this FFP system created. Along with a need for increased representation, there were also strong calls for a fairer, more effective and legitimate parliamentary system.

With the introduction of MMP, positive changes in representation were seen. Charles noted that New Zealand now fares better than other countries, when it comes to representation for Women, Maori, Asians and Pacific Islanders, sexual minorities and political ideologies.

In 2006, of the 121 MPs in Parliament, 32% were women; 17% identified as Maori; 3% identified as being of Pacific origin; around 5% identified as gay or lesbian New Zealanders and just under 2% identified as Asian.

The shift to MMP did not immediately make the New Zealand parliament completely representative. But Charles argued that its implementation has paved the way for increased representation of all New Zealanders within Parliament, and politics more generally.