ABSTRACT

Royal Commissions and Commissions of Inquiry fall broadly into two types — commissions designed to investigate, to ascertain facts, particularly after a serious accident or similar occurrence, and commissions designed to assist in policy formation. Occasionally a Royal Commission, or Commission of Inquiry, does the unexpected when outcomes do not follow a government’s optimum desired path. Mixed Member Proportional was the term devised by the Royal Commission to describe the type of system used in the Federal Republic of Germany, a mixed, or additional member type electoral system. Constitutional matters had never been mainstream interests in the Labour Party, so the Royal Commission idea was regarded as useful at best and relatively harmless at worst. The Royal Commission’s report had not only had the effect of helping to place the principle of electoral reform conspicuously before the public, if not on the political agenda, it had also resolved an important problem of confusion.