Well put, Jacqui. Look at your list - four of the top five issues are economic. Cost of living, the economy, housing, unemployment. The fifth is health, which comes down to funding.

A referendum on MMP touches none of them, and that's the point. When the numbers that matter are moving the wrong way, the surest move is to change the subject to something that isn't on the scoreboard at all.

The electoral system didn't cause the 11-year-high unemployment. Coalition friction didn't either. Those came from economic choices. Picking a fight about the voting system fixes none of them. It just fills the news cycle with something other than the record.