Category: Guest Posts
Once we get a written constitution, a higher law which binds parliament itself, there will be no stopping judges as they interpret it as they please. The entire argument for a written constitution is an attempt to remove matters from parliament’s’ authority and hand them over to judges.
How long will New Zealand voters tolerate under-investment in all other public services to accommodate massive over-investments in the ambition of some politicians to ‘lead the world’ in Climate Policy?
The last eight months have seen 3,000 more deaths than expected – an unfolding disaster. Over 1,000 are unrelated to COVID-19. Health authorities and politicians should face more scrutiny over the causes of these unexplained excess deaths - especially as they are concentrated in age groups eligible for boosters.
The most depressing feature of Fire and Fury was that amongst its repeated warnings about threats to democracy it never once mentioned the elephant in the room — namely Ardern’s government steadily undermining democracy by threading a radical view of the Treaty as a 50:50 partnership with iwi throughout legislation with absolutely no mandate
More likely, is that LGNZ has become an integral part of the government’s strategy to promote the implementation of He Pua Pua and the so called “partnership” principles of the Treaty of Waitangi - notwithstanding that they are a factual and jurisprudential nonsense. If this so, then LGNZ should stop its media spin and make a clean breast of it to its members and the public.
What emerges over the next few days promises to be a master-class in the art of dismissing, diminishing and disparaging an individual who has had the temerity to breach the iron law of omerta which governs the practice of party politics.
Regrettably, in today’s New Zealand there are people who, putting racism under new management and rejecting equality before the law, advance race-based co-governance as a serious proposition for New Zealand’s future. Now, public health, drinking water, sewage, storm water, local body governance, aspects of resource management and so on. Tomorrow, who knows?
Tribalism and democracy are incompatible. We can’t have both. If we wish to keep New Zealand as a liberal democratic nation then, as we derive our citizen rights from the nation-state, so we have a duty to ensure that the nation-state which awards those rights, remains democratic and able to do so.
Escalating power prices and frequent shortages seem to be inevitable. If the government takes prompt and effective action, the magnitude can be mitigated. If the government continues its blind pursuit of “carbon zero” increasing economic damage will force it to abandon the policy.
The most likely long-term outcome of the 3Waters reform is that the assumed cost and capital efficiencies will not materialise, due to a cumbersome governance structure subservient to cultural interests. The water reform is a high-risk proposition, with much higher risks that that faced by the 67 local authorities individually.
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