The Vote For Change Campaign is blaming the lack of public debate for the public's (apparent) decision to keep MMP. But whose fault is that? To point out the obvious, a debate requires more than one participant. And Vote For Change were mostly silent. Nationwide, their "campaign" seems to have been limited to a few newspaper ads in Auckland. In Palmerston North, we never saw them. They had no activists, no flyers, no billboards, and when the local media went looking for a spokesperson to quote in an article on the referendum, they couldn't find one.
People don't become aware of your cause by magic. You need to speak up for it. Vote For Change effectively abandoned the field. That was great for our democracy, but it seems a little sad of them to whine about it afterwards.
