Mapp Report - 23 November 2007
www.waynemapp.co.nz
The Mapp
Report
MUZZLING THE PEOPLE –
LABOUR’S
PLAN FOR ELECTION YEAR
The High Priestess of Common Sense; a new role for the Minister of Justice, in charge of the Electoral Finance Bill. Legislators and judges will be saved so much trouble; don’t worry too much about tricky bits of the law, or poorly drafted legislation – just take recourse to the law of common sense and it will all be sorted.
Common sense law – yeah
right!
At least law students of the future won’t
have to struggle through cases of a hundred or more pages.
The job of judges will be a breeze. Forget the hard bits;
just refer to the law of common sense.
Now that the Labour Government has dispensed with the pesky principle that neither the Minister of Justice nor the Attorney General need legal training, Parliament won’t need to sit so often wrestling with complicated law – the first principle of the constitution will be the law of common sense.
It is just a pity that they are still stuck with an Electoral Finance Bill of 158 clauses that even the Electoral Commissioner, traditionally one of Labours favourites, has described as almost impossible to interpret.
Stifling debate
Annette King
continues to make it up as she goes – what else would one
expect from the Minister of Common Sense? She now thinks
that any politician who talks about what a future Parliament
could do, is electioneering, and must be caught by the Bill.
For instance if I say after 1 January 2008, that National
would repeal the Electoral Finance Act, in a speech or
article (like this one) then that is electioneering and will
be caught by the $20,000 limit. It will make for a very
dull election year.
Stopping free
speech
But that is exactly Labour’s plan. They
don’t want anyone to discuss politics next year, and
heaven forbid actually talking about changing the
government. If you do, it all has to be added up, accounted
for – and probably stopped. Of course, Labour will say
they don’t want to stop free speech; they only want to
stop paid speech. But paper is not free, halls are not
free, megaphones and sound systems are not free. So
anything that is said about virtually any law or policy that
might need changing, will be caught.
Draconian
restrictions
The Bill is draconian. It is full of
new untried and untested concepts. Every third year (just
coincidentally election year) it is going to be hard to talk
about the issue, the election, and about changing
governments.
And Minister, the Law of Common Sense will not save you from the judgment of the people.
23 NOVEMBER 2007
EVENTS
Monday
3 December
12.30pm - 2pm
SuperBlues meeting
Come and join Wayne Mapp
for
Christmas Cake and Sherry
Guide Hall,
Auburn Street, Takapuna
There is a small cover charge of $5.
Please contact the office on 486 0005 or e-mail office@waynemapp.co.nz
Dr
Wayne Mapp
For more information on National visit
www.national.org.nz
To join the conversation with John
Key visit www.johnkey.co.nz
Visit my
website for more information at: www.waynemapp.co.nz
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