Paddy Gower at TV3 reveals Lord Ashcroft, billionaire Tory donor and International Democratic Union treasurer, has come to talk to Key again. Just discussed politics generally, said Key. Politics yes, generally no. Ashcroft’s interests are now devoted to polling and blog communication, and he is very interested in our election. Having seen Cameron miss out on a majority, he’ll want to help Key to one here.
The threat of invoking defamation is a standard tactic to intimidate those who can’t afford the legals bills to shut their mouths. Such […]
The Nats most recent attack on democracy – the Video Camera Surveillance (Temporary Measures) Bill – was outrageous in many ways. It was almost universally condemned, and now Labour has secured significant concessions.
Out of the blue, John Boscawen has announced he is withdrawing from ACT’s list. It’s an odd departure from an odd man. ‘Family reasons’ is the line. Not exactly creative. Is the real reason National’s ‘fixit’ Bill? Boscawen is a true believer in ACT’s libertarian principles and doesn’t do compromise. Was being asked to sign a retrospective blank cheque the final straw?
Labour looks almost certain to oppose the Nats’ ‘fixit’ bill. The draft goes far further than previously thought. It doesn’t just try to suspend the effect of a specific Supreme Court decision in a violation of the separation of powers, it gives Police the power to spy on you without a warrant. Chris Finlayson should resign for even proposing such a heinous law.
Your Police knowingly acted illegally to spy on your fellow citizens. No-one’s saying those being surveilled are angels. It’s not about them. It’s about whether the agents of the State, who are ultimately meant to be your agents, should be allowed to act illegally. Should the ends justify the means or do we believe in the rule of law as the only way to constrain those with power from abusing it?
Eighteen months ago, in what can only be described as a coup, the government disestablished the democratically-elected Environment Canterbury and replaced it with a clique of hand-picked dictators. Nick Smith says that the percentage of resource consents being processed on time has skyrocketed but is that thanks to the dictatorship?
I/S at No Right Turn writes about the government’s continued abuse of Urgency. This week, they’re going to slam 11 laws through the House, ignoring basic democratic steps like the select committee stage that let the public have a say. The worst part though, is a Bill that they are refusing to name and plan to rush through all stages in a couple of days.
Some inspiration as Monday morning looms.
This is what National have been doing since they came to power, systematically stealing our democracy, from the super city in Auckland, to Ecan in Canterbury.
They have been corporatising and centralising New Zealand.
The Nats are obviously worried about public reaction to the recent revelations on the role of the SAS in Afghanistan. And as is usually the case when they feel threatened by a story, the Nats are striking out, trying to discredit or intimidate the source.
Next time some righties are protesting in Queen St, will the government call out an army LAV to clear a path for my car so I can go about my lawful business without being blocked by protesters? Or do only foreign multinationals have this government at their beck and call?
The Herald reports that National party blogger David Farrar and Grant Robertson have spoken out against the government’s misuse of urgency and its bypassing of the select committee process.
Ironically the call comes as the government jams more bad legislation through under the cover of urgency.
Update: bollocks. Clayton Cosgrove has announced Labour will vote for CERA “even though we have grave concerns”. He then spent 10 minutes whining how Brownlee had lied to Labour repeatedly during this process and wasn’t to be trusted. He warned Brownlee he would be accountable if CERA stuffs up. Brownlee responded “so will you”. Labour wonders why it is stuck in National’s shadow unable to get traction – It’s decisions like this one.
Just before the second Christchurch earthquake, Gerry Brownlee was being criticised for the lack of progress in recovery. People suggested what was needed was an independent commissioner to lead the rebuilding – an ‘earthquake Tsar’. Brownlee responded “the last Tsar got shot“. Now, the new CERA law makes Brownlee our Tsar in a very literal sense.
Over at No Right Turn, I/S has written a useful summary of the government’s plan for new emergency legislation for Christchurch. It gives the minister largely unfettered powers with only limited rights of appeal for affected citizens. The mindset behind this legislation is that Gerry Brownlee and his developer mates know best.
More bad news for Gerry Brownlee today. No Right Turn has had confirmation that Gerry Brownlee makes his ‘policy’ up as he goes without seeking competent advice. This must be more than slightly terrifying to the people of Christchurch because Brownlee is currently their dictator by legislation in the rebuilding effort. His bulldozing ineptness is not just confined to buildings but is endemic to everything he does.
On a day when I’ve heard of 3 smaller businesses shutting down due to National’s economy, Big Business too is waking up to the flaws in National’s ways. The push through, don’t consult, override the wishes of the people mentality even chafes the corporates when it’s not in their favour.
The Nats regard parliamentary process as an inconvenience to which they must pay lip service, but nothing more. They started as soon as they took office, with repeated abuse of urgency. The current disgraceful process over the foreshore & seabed legislation is just the latest instalment.
It’s been revealed that the Government, having decided against dedicated Maori seats on the supercity council, gave appointed Maori advisers votes on council committees under its supercity legislation. That’s just unacceptable, we can’t have appointees voting equally to democratically-elected council members.
In 1951, New Zealand temporarily became a police state. Civil liberties were curtailed, freedom of speech denied, and the Government used force against its own citizens. This film tells the story of the infamous lockout of waterside workers and the nationwide strike which followed. The film won Best Documentary and John Bates was named Best Director, Documentary, at the 2002 New Zealand Television Awards.
National, under the direction of Gerry Brownlee, continue to abuse parliamentary procedure and make bad law. They tried to ram 12 bills through on Thursday, resulting in them sitting under urgency until Saturday night. There is no proper oversight, no thinking through the possible problems with bills, and far too little chance for the public to have their say. We have procedure for a reason…
John Armstrong pulls no punches on the constitutional review, the second time in recent history that he has called the government a disgrace. Add it to the ever growing list of outrageous behaviour from the Nats. Is this the worst government for democracy in the history of NZ?
Paul Quinn’s appalling Electoral (Disqualification of Sentenced Prisoners) Amendment Act passed last night with the support of just two parties – ACT and National. We’ve talked about why this law is so bad in the past. The Attorney-General agreed it is an unjustified breach of our human rights. Why did ACT, the supposed ‘Liberal Party’ vote for it?
You not only can expect to be spied on more after an overhaul of the SIS, but you sure as hell shouldn’t be […]
A reader responds, pretty curtly, to John Key’s wholly inadequate explanation for why the select committee hearings on extending the SIS’s already broad powers will be secret. “It won’t be in the public interest to have it open, for a whole bunch of reasons I don’t want to go into,” Just doesn’t cut it.
In developing their replacement for the EFA the Nats have decided to limit what lobby groups can spend on election campaigning — despite strongly objecting to limits in 2008. Interesting how the responsibilities of government mean that the Nats have to repudiate so much of their irresponsible opposition rhetoric! But some of their spinsters are still stuck in the past…
CERRA, Ecan Abolition, the Supercity Acts, the Hobbit Enabling Act, Water Privatisation, Fire at Will, the Murray McCully Empowering Act… the list of laws, all passed under Urgency, that take rights off New Zealanders and give more powers to the government is endless. Now, the Police are being empowered to take DNA from anyone they arrest.
National’s handling of the Auckland SuperCity process was profoundly undemocratic in a multitude of ways. Thank goodness, and the common sense of Aucklanders, that a “Labour Mayor from South Auckland” was elected to sort out at least some of the resulting mess. Len Brown has pledged to hold talks on dedicated Maori seats on the Council. It’s great to see that Brown is open to correcting National’s injustice on this matter.
Today, the Hobbit Enabling Act will be slammed through Parliament by National removing the right of employees working in the film industry to get employment rights if their contract calls them a contractor. It’s the latest in a series of anti-democratic laws that show National is the party of big business, not democracy and ordinary Kiwis.
When one of the first truly social democratic governments was elected in North America it was attacked viciously from all sides. Read further if you want to know the lengths business, private media, the police, landlords, and lobbyists went to undermine the Rae Government in Ontario, Canada. There are lessons for New Zealand.
The capitalist elite is anti-democratic to its core. The Canterbury Earthquake Response and Recovery Act (CERRA) is being held up as business’s ideal form of government. Ex-National staffer Richard Long says that Gerry Brownlee should use his CERRA powers to ‘sort out’ a slew of other ‘problems’. We should never have trusted them with this power.
John Key really does say some extraordinary things when he’s trying to placate the media, and often it works because journos are bamboozled into accepting what he says as fact. Yesterday, he defended the Canterbury Earthquake Response and Recovery Act saying the Governor-General tests the appropriateness of each CERRA law. Dead wrong.
The Dompost has joined the chorus of outrage over CERRA (The Gerry Brownlee Enabling Act). Parliament got it badly, badly wrong in signing away its powers but it’s not too late to make things right. The Greens are calling for a review. Labour should join them.
When National announced it would create an ‘Environmental Protection Agency’ and a short-cut resource consent process for projects of ‘national significance’, the implications were clear. The new agency and process would be used to override local opposition. Sure enough, that’s what’s happening with Waterview.
The Herald’s editorial today is a strong rebuke of National’s anti-democratic power grabs. Close on the heels of CERRA is the World Cup Empowering Act, giving unfettered powers to ministers that they don’t need. The Herald’s opposition shows, again, how badly wrong Labour and the Greens got it when they voted for CERRA.
