The New Zealand Senate Option: An Acceptable Second Chamber Model?

Since the abolition of New Zealand’s Legislative Council in 1951 there has been the occasional call for the reintroduction of a second chamber in Parliament. But anyone attempting to do so is faced with the challenge of devising an acceptable model. One that can perform the traditional checks and balances function of a second chamber and one that is also conceptually acceptable to New Zealand society. This was the task the National Government set itself in 1992 when it promoted the creation of a Senate as a counter-proposal to proportional representation.