Precedent
This kind of upgrade has been done before. The path is proven. Here are just a few cogent examples:
New Zealand's own Reserve Bank and NZ Super Fund both continue to survive changes of government because they were designed with independence, statutory mandates, and public accountability built in from the start. The same logic applies here and now.
Accident Compensation (ACC) — introduced by one government, maintained by all subsequent governments across fifty years of political change. The scheme's structure — universal, no-fault, publicly funded — made reversal politically costly enough that no government has attempted it. Cross-cycle durability achieved through design, not agreement.
The United Kingdom's Climate Change Act 2008 passed with near-unanimous cross-party support and has survived multiple governments of opposing stripes — because it created independent accountability structures that made reversal politically costly. New Zealand's Zero Carbon Act followed the same model.
Finland, consistently the world's happiest and best-governed small nation, builds long-range national foresight into its parliamentary committee structure as a matter of routine. The Netherlands has managed water and coastal risk across centuries and dozens of governments through institutions that sit above the electoral cycle by design.
Ireland's Citizens' Assembly demonstrated that when citizens are given good independent information and a structured process, they reach durable conclusions on problems that had defeated politicians for decades. Japan has run long-horizon futures exercises at government level that have shaped infrastructure and demographic policy across administrations.
In wartime, such as World War II, democracies have routinely formed cross-party structures to deal with problems that could not wait for the next election. The question is not whether it can be done. It is whether we are willing to build the peacetime equivalent before the next crisis makes it unavoidable.
New Zealand has upgraded Parliamentary governance before. It just needs doing again.
These kinds of upgrades work, because they are designed from the ground-up to benefit the public in general, voters and politicians. See our page Next Steps in Democracies: