Canterbury Earthquake Bill: Blog Reaction

Dean Knight: Canterbury Earthquake Response And Recovery Bill: Constitutionally Outrageous

It may not be politic to say this, but the Canterbury Earthquake Response and Recovery Bill is a constitutional outrage. A quick read show that it grants extreme Executive power – unbridled and effectively unchecked – in a way that has the potential to undermine our very democratic foundations. More>>

ALSO:

• LAWS 179: Elephants and the law: Canterbury Earthquake Response and Recovery Bill: some examples
• LAWS 179: Elephants and the law: Canterbury Earthquake Response and Recovery Bill: The Law Commission's blueprint on emergency powers
• LAWS 179: Elephants and the law: Canterbury Earthquake Response and Recovery Bill: a democratically consistent alternative

Andrew Geddis: The Law Of Necessity

At the risk of voicing a commonplace sentiment, Canterbury's earthquake and its aftermath was A Bad Thing to have happen. Furthermore, the response to date of government both local and central has been admirable...

Yet even so, the Canterbury Earthquake Response and Recovery Bill rushed through the House and into law in but a single day gives me a case of the screaming collywobbles. More>>

ALSO:

• Canterbury's earthquake is worse than an infestation of zombies ...

Graeme Edgeler: He is Henry the Eighth, he is

I haven't time to prepare a post of my usual consideration (or length), before the House of Representatives passes the Canterbury Earthquake Response and Recovery Bill through all stages under extreme urgency, but I felt impelled to say something before it passed, rather than after. The in-depth analysis will hopefully follow from many quarters in the coming days – probably not from me in any organised form – but I will perhaps start with a couple of questions:
1. why does the Government – without first going to Parliament – need the power to unilaterally decide that murder isn't a crime in Auckland to assist with the reconstruction of Christchurch?
2. why, if the Government did decide that murder shouldn't be a crime in Auckland, should this obviously and stupidly unreasonable decision not be able to be over-turned by a Court? More>>

No Right Turn: We Are Now (in Theory) A Dictatorship

Earlier tonight, in a unanimous vote, Parliament made us a dictatorship. While Parliament still exists, it is meaningless. We are now under the rule of a single tyrant: Gerry Brownlee, the Minister for Canterbury Earthquake Recovery.

Oh, not in practice, of course. But in form. The Canterbury Earthquake Response and Recovery Bill, passed unanimously less than an hour ago, gives Brownlee the power to repeal or modify practically any law on our statute book, without even having to refer to Cabinet, let alone Parliament. More>>

Offsetting Behaviour: Emergency Powers

INTERIOR: CORUSCANT, MAIN SENATE CHAMBER - EVENINGWELLINGTON, THE BEEHIVE - AFTERNOON

JAR JAR GERRY BROWNLEE stands in his pod before the chamber, as it floats in the middle of the taking up a

vast space. JAR JAR: BROWNLEE: In response to the direct threat tothe Republic Christchurch mesa propose that the SenateParliament give immediately emergency powers to the Supreme Chancellor Governor in Council ... More>>

ALSO:

• Technically we could be seen as a dictatorship | Kiwiblog

Steven Price: Oh My God

Let me add my voice to the flabbergasted reactions of some constitutional experts to the Earthquake Response and Recovery Act. It reads like a far-fetched doom-laden Public Law exam problem. And now it’s law. We’ve just appointed three Ministers as Kings. More>>

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