Written By: - Date published: 10:55 am, September 21st, 2011 - 44 comments
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?
Written By: - Date published: 10:33 am, August 17th, 2011 - 88 comments
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.
Written By: - Date published: 11:50 pm, December 11th, 2010 - 30 comments
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…
Written By: - Date published: 12:35 pm, October 28th, 2010 - 95 comments
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.
Written By: - Date published: 6:53 am, October 19th, 2009 - 15 comments
The current National led government clearly regards the processes of democracy is an inconvenience to which it must pay lip service, but nothing more. The first signs appeared very early, with repeated abuse of the mechanism of urgency. This got to the point that even their fans at The Herald were moved to rebuke them: …
Written By: - Date published: 3:11 pm, May 29th, 2009 - 16 comments
There was much wailing and gnashing of teeth from the right when Labour and the Greens filibustered the other week to draw the public’s attention to the supercity bill being rammed through Parliament. ‘Think of the cost”, they cried, which makes me wonder why they don’t propose getting rid of Parliament altogether to save a …
Written By: - Date published: 2:24 pm, December 11th, 2008 - 7 comments
Audrey Young writes on her blog that National would do well to heed the opinion of the Human Rights Commission who have today spoken out against National’s decision to rush through a number of pieces of important legislation under urgency – denying them proper scrutiny. She points out that this is the very same Commission National …
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