27 March 2013

University report highlights ‘democracy deficit’ in New Zealand

A report into constraints on democratic public debate experienced in the community and voluntary sector has found that political control and influence in New Zealand is not just about the party in government.

The findings of the overdue report – authored by Victoria University academics Dr Sandra Grey and Dr Charles Sedgwick and released for the first time yesterday – are based on a 2009 survey responded to by 153 non-government organisations and shine an unfavourable light on both National and Labour governments.

One in three respondents indicated that public debate had been stifled under both Labour-led and National-led governments over the decade 1999-2009. Indicators given by respondents included:

• governments that ignore referenda,
• negative behavior of elected representatives and public servants alike that has a silencing effect on the voice of civil society (from a punitive and blaming political culture through to interventions to block information that isn’t aligned to the government of the day),
• along with the creep effect of a contractual environment that creates a climate of fear, as well as active gagging, around biting that hand that provides funding.

Comments in the full report included criticism of former PM Helen Clark for playing down the role of NGOs in media statements during the last Labour government, and an observation of current PM John Key’s behaviour as “someone who has a view on all issues already highly formed”.

One respondent’s perception of Labour had been a filtering of “dictatorial attitudes down through government”, while under National there was a perceived resistance from Ministers to engage with stakeholders or to receive dissenters.

Scepticism about consultation processes as being too-little too-late, too prefigured or simply ignored was widespread, with a lack of willingness from public servants to collaborate to make consultation more productive being the greatest source of concern. This is in line with the type of ongoing concerns that saw the Office of the Ombudsman open an investigation yesterday into the Ministry of Education's handling of school closures and mergers.

Overall the report reveals a gradual, negative erosion of the independence of the community and voluntary sector to the point where the sector, due to a variety of reasons, is struggling to critique the nation’s political leaders and their policies.

Dr Grey and Dr Sedgwick acknowledged that while “speaking up in unforgiving times is never easy… it is more important, now than ever before, to illustrate how governments are constraining, cajoling and capturing the voice of the community and voluntary sector”. They noted their report has mirrored similar results to research undertaken in Australia.

Questions raised at the launch of the report put a focus on the diminished ability of private sector media to act as a democratic watchdog, along with concerns that the visibility of academics prepared to speak truth to power has also been in retreat – meaning that collective advocacy is less enabled because of what might be termed a crisis of courage.

See also: www.guardian.co.uk/society/2013/jan/22/charities-public-policy-funding-fears

ENDS

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