Constitutional Conversations: Geoffrey Palmer Talks to Kim Hill on National Radio, 1994–2001

This book collects the best of nearly nine years of regular broadcasts on National Radio's Nine to Noon programme hosted by Kim Hill.

The broadcasts were designed so that people could better appreciate how the New Zealand government works, how the constitutional system is structured, how the courts function, how parliament operates, and how the executive government makes decisions. Geoffrey Palmer and Kim Hill discussed contemporary events as they occurred, putting them in context and relating them to the constitutional framework and the system of government as a whole.

Key questions included: How do the institutions of government function? How is policy made? How should the institutions of government be structured? One of the features of our constitutional arrangements that is of eternal fascination is the fact that they change all the time. In the period covered by these broadcasts, the New Zealand government system changed profoundly, and the most profound change was the introduction of the Mixed Member Proportional voting system. Also discussed were issues such as the rule of law and what that might mean in the New Zealand community, the Treaty of Waitangi, and the arguments for a written constitution. This book provides a learned, accessible, and frequently provocative guide to some of the key questions facing New Zealand at the start of the 21st century.