Nau mai, haere mai.

New Zealand is about to hold its tenth MMP election on October 14. It’s becoming easier to forget – and impossible to remember for younger voters – just what a different political world we lived in under the first-past-the-post system.

Today’s diverse and wholly more representative parliament would have been virtually impossible without electoral reform. Central to the relatively monochrome and male nature of that bygone era was the disproportionate influence farmers wielded through a handful of marginal rural electorates.

That power structure began breaking down before MMP arrived, of course. As Hugh Campbell writes in a fascinating analysis of rural politics, Britain joining the EU in the 1970s and the impact of Rogernomics in the 1980s both weakened the old farmer alliance. But the coming election may well prove its epitaph.

The rise of the Groundswell lobby, and the ACT Party’s inroads into National’s traditional rural heartland, are clear signs of a genuine realignment of farmer ideologies. But as Campbell argues, it also means the farming sector – and the country – may find it harder to negotiate and manage inevitable change.

There’s more election analysis here and on our homepage, and we’ll be publishing up to and on election night itself. Until next week, mā te wā.