Category: Constitutional Reform
If you once forfeit the confidence of your fellow citizens, you can never regain their respect and esteem. It is true that you may fool all of the people some of the time; you can even fool some of the people all of the time; but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time. - Abraham Lincoln
Over 25 years ago, in 1985, a former member of the Communist Party, Geoff McDonald, with a lifetime spent in the Labour and Trade Union movements, wrote the first of three books, Shadows Over New Zealand, on defence, land rights and multiculturalism. It was followed by The Kiwis Fight Back , giving additional evidence of what he noted as a psychological war being waged against New Zealanders, particularly in the attempt to use the accusation of racism as a useful and dishonest tool to intimidate the majority - with so-called “indigenous rights” being an important part of the neo-Marxist agenda for weakening legitimate government. His analysis embraced the decline in education standards - in particular the evidence for the need to get back to teaching the basics by traditional methods; the Left’s takeover of the supposedly green conservation movement; the implications of the then proposed Bill of Rights; the threat to ANZUS, the dangers of neutrality; the damaging nature of United Nations policies as they affect New Zealand; and the danger presented to us as a free country by the Communist-controlled push for countries to be persuaded (and essentially forced) to surrender sovereignty to a world controlling government.
It can be argued that the announced referendum on MMP, to be held in conjunction with the 2011 general election, is one of the most important constitutional reforms undertaken by any New Zealand Government. Yet, while there is “lofty” talk about the need for public consultation – “We want to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to have their say on this significant constitutional issue” – it is clear that the government is not serious about public input.[1]
No one pretends that if the mixed-member proportional voting system (MMP) is thrown out by public referendum New Zealand’s constitutional woes will be over.
New Zealand has a lot to be proud of but there are some aspects of life ‘down under’ that we would prefer not to mention. Near the top of that list is racism.
There was a poem which my mother had learnt off by heart as a girl and portions of which she could long remember and recite to us. It was, I later discovered, Whittier’s Barbara Frietchie, and it tells of a true episode in the American Civil War when Confederate forces, occupying a town in the north, decreed on pain of death that all Union flags in the town should be taken down.
The The Prime Minister has announced that the Government is planning to hold the long-awaited referendum on our MMP (Mixed Member Proportional) electoral system before or at the same time as the 2011 general election. This was a National Party election promise based on the widely held view that voters were going to be given a chance to review MMP after a suitable trial period.
In May, Justice Minister Simon Power explained to the United Nations that the new National-led Government intends to sign the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.[1] The problem for New Zealand is that this is being done without a mandate from the public. If people really understood exactly what the declaration proposes, they would reject it outright, as the Labour Government did - to their credit - in 2007.
There is a difference of opinion between the Prime Minister and the Minister of Maori Affairs, Mr Peter Sharples, over New Zealand’s possible endorsement of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Mr Sharples believes that we have agreed to sign the document; the Prime Minister, I am happy to say, says it is still too early to say that we will.
Last week a controversial review of Labour’s 2004 foreshore and seabed legislation was published. It recommended that the Act be repealed so that Maori can take up their customary rights to the foreshore and seabed – or be compensated for them.
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