Referendum File 2: Can They Be Trusted?
Reading between the lines of the latest email update from the Campaign for Democracy (previously "The Kiwi Campaign for Democracy"), it is clear that the petition to bring in binding referendums has hit the brick wall of public apathy to this issue. The petition question reads,
“Should Parliament be required to pass legislation that implements the majority result of a citizens initiated referendum where that result supports a law change?”
The question was approved by the Clerk of Parliament on 17 December, 2009. One year from the initiation of a citizens initiated referendum, the signatures will be required and will be counted by the Clerk's office. The office has a period of three months in which to do this. If the number is found to be insufficient (10% of the voting population, approx. 300,000), the Clerk will allow an additional three months for signatures to be collected, and then re-submitted. Tack on a further three months for the Clerk to tally up the new total, and hey... it's September 2011 already. Two months out from New Zealand's general election.
The update, put out by Larry Baldock (also leader of the Kiwi Party) states,
Yes, it has been a while since you heard from me [Larry Baldock] and the Camapaign4Democracy. Winter is over and the weather much more conducive to signature collecting. Many thanks to those who have faithfully been sending in a few signed petition sheets over the last few months... Please send in any completed forms to P.O Box 9228 Greerton, Tauranga 3142 and I will be able to give an update on totals in the next update."
It sounds like Baldock wants to pull in the last few signatures in the five or six weeks he has left, and then submit them to Parliament, making a public statement about the number collected, and how significant it is to the issue of whether NZ should adopt binding CIRs or not.
The question then is, will he leave it at that and say - "we got 20 or 30,000 signatures calling for binding CIR - the Govt. should act on this... The Kiwi Party is the only party that will introduce a bill which would bring in binding CIR" - or will he attempt to somehow pull in another 270,000 signatures in the extra six months he knows is up his sleeve?
Click here for more info and articles on the Kiwi Party and the referendum.
Andy, this is not down to just apathy. Binding-Referendum is just a plain-stupid concept, and the cause in N.Z is not helped by the guy fronting the thing. In Switzerland the public are sick of continual referendums and only bother turning-out when a major subject comes-up, not drivel like ‘the tax on aviation fuel’. Referendum allow single issue groups to hijack the democratic process aided and abetted by a public that can’t be bothered to give-up a Saturday morning to vote-on ‘nothings’ like what is allowed to be placed on-top of churches. The Referendum process in N.Z as proposed would soon be a mockery How much of a mockery? Well it wouldn’t take too long for a 'no tax on beer' campaign sponsored by breweries. One of last referendums held in Switzerland, championed by animal rights groups, was to allocate cats, dogs, horses and hamsters their own lawyers in cruelty cases! Nice idea, I’m a libertarian, but it is a proven failure on a practical level. Surely you can accept direct democracy such as binding-referendums don’t work given what happens in Switzerland? Cheers. Paul.
ReplyDeleteI know it's not down to just apathy, and agree that binding referendums are (pretty much always) a bad thing.
ReplyDeletesounds slightly Orwellian ....
ReplyDelete