Dunne on the Constitution

ACT Leader Richard Prebble said today in response to United Party leader, Peter Dunne's statement that his party will support government legislation to declare Mr Duynhoven an MP, that if so, will United be moving an amendment to also declare Kelly Chal (the United list MP who was elected last election only to be disqualified) is also an MP?

"If it is "common sense" as Mr Dunne says, to rewrite the law to benefit one MP, why not another? Or has the United Party now abandoned its former MP?

"There is no doubt that the Labour government could have processed Kelly Chal's citizenship before the election, but they chose not to. "Id be interested to know why Mr Dunne thinks the law should be different for the Labour Party than for the United Party.

Mr Dunne's claim that there's no need for a by-election because it's a safe seat is an argument not to hold an election in any safe seat.

"The Electoral Act is part of the constitution of New Zealand. We have no written constitution and Mr Dunne is colluding with the government in a very dangerous precedent. Every time there is something that is inconvenient to the government according to Mr Dunne, it's just "common sense" to ignore the constitution, and without any consultation, under urgency, pass a retrospective law. There's a name for countries like that. They're called police states," said Mr Prebble.

© Scoop Media