That's Democracy?
Excluding submissions and engaging the mob.
The landed
And the wealthy
And the pious
And the healthy
And the straight ones
And the pale ones
And we only mean the male ones!
If you're all of the above, then you're ok!
As we build a new tomorrow here today!
Lyrics Glenn Slater and Allan Menken.
Ah, Democracy - can you smell it?
It's presently a sulphurous odour, just like home, and I don’t think it’s supposed to be like this…
It’s almost surreal at this point. Are you telling me we’ve been through this whole hideous exercise of debating the Treaty Principles Bill, through the largest protests ever seen outside of our parliament, through doing all we can to encourage people to write submissions, and now you’re not even going to read them all because you haven’t got time? That’s unacceptable, anyway you look at it.
The whole country has been beholden to David Seymour’s nasty little bill, with the Prime Minister’s lack of backbone and integrity on full display. The same people who scream about free speech now say they won’t read what others have poured out in frustration against what is happening to their country. It’s not bloody good enough.
From the RNZ article:
“Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has doubled down on allowing submissions on the Treaty Principles Bill to be excluded, and David Seymour agrees - saying it's important to meet their timing commitments.
That's despite warnings from legal scholars the move sets a precedent that could erode democratic participation.”
Dear reader, I had to walk away for a moment and calm down after reading that.
The heartache that has been caused by this pointless process, whose only purpose is to inflame anti-Māori sentiment - and they’re worried about how long it takes?
It’s a disgrace after hundreds of thousands of people, many of whom I’m sure had never made a submission before, took the time to say, “Hell no - not in my country. We have a treaty, we’re better for it, and we’ll honour it.”
Academics have raised concerns about the precedent being set with submissions that were made correctly on time not even being considered and the impact of this on the public’s trust in and willingness to engage in our democratic processes - a disenfranchisement that I’m sure concerns Messrs Luxon and Seymour, not one jot.
Labour MP Tracey McLellan, who is on the Select Committee, said, “We were never keen for this bill to come to the House in the first place—and when we said there should be a shortened period, that was to spare people from having to go through the process. The government didn't agree to that.
"Given they've already had to go through that process, the least the government can do is eat what they ordered.”
Yesterday, Luxon said, “Look, we've been overwhelmed by the number of submissions. The positions on the Treaty Principles Bill are well known on all sides of that debate and what's important now is to actually wrap it up and actually move it forward.”
This from the man who chose to put our nation through a non-bottom-line item of the ACT party rather than simply saying “no” as anyone fit to lead Aotearoa would’ve.
When Luxon was asked if he thought this could undermine our democratic process, he said, “Sure, and that's a decision for the select committee under Parliamentary law; it's not for the prime minister to make.”
Is there anything this man will take responsibility for, any semblance of the buck stopping in his vicinity?
It doesn’t appear so. Is there anyone with a backbone on the government benches? How about the author of this sad chapter in our nation’s history, Mr Seymour - what did he reckon, given his prior enthusiasm for everyone having their say?
“Look, we've got a commitment to get it back this month, and I think it's important that we keep our commitments. Obviously, we didn't expect so much interest, but what that's really told me is that people genuinely are interested in this topic.”
Erm, you think it’s important we keep our commitments, and you didn’t expect so much interest? I don’t think those words are true.
I’m pretty sure you did; that’s why you pushed for it. Reporters questioned Seymour about his claimed timeline commitment, but he wouldn’t answer questions about that, and there doesn’t seem to be any record of such a convenient and arbitrary finish line.
Seymour also failed to take responsibility. This seems to be a bit of a theme with him: he creates a debacle and then turns away to the next thing he can wreck with his ever-present “What, Me Worry?” grin, like the one in this headline from last night.
Chlöe Swarbrick said they had been screening “immense numbers of death threats and abuse” directed at MP Benjamin Doyle and their whānau.
I’m not going to discuss the content of Benjamin’s social media posts; that isn’t the point here; the death threats are and the way this perceived controversy has been used to stir up hatred. Mind you, I would say there appears to be a massive double standard at play.
In a Facebook post about the threats, Seymour said, “The shoe is on the other foot. Despite their anti-police virtue-signalling, as soon as the silver spoon socialists of the Greens feel like they might be victims themselves, they get the police involved.”
What a bizarre piece of logic: because Tamatha Paul has the courage to ask challenging questions about our policing, the party that I imagine receives significantly more death threats per MP than any other should not avail themselves of the police when people are threatening to kill them.
How very like Seymour, who squeals like bacon whenever anyone says something mean about him or his colleagues, to make light of the threats against the Green MP despite the fact that I imagine a good proportion of them probably come from the horrid army of hateful cellar dwellers who support him.
I posted about David’s suggestion with the comment, “Maybe we could start a GoFundMe and hire the Mongrel Mob to have a little word with Seymour and help him see the errors in his ways… Who’s in?”
Erin pointed out this was like using a sledgehammer to open a peanut, saying, “Don't need the Mongrel Mob. My neighbour, little ole lady from Liverpool, can handle this one.” Those Liverpool Kisses can be quite effective in a tough love sense.
Actually, this has given me an idea. If we’re not going to consider all of the Treaty Principles Bill submissions because we don’t have time for justice, then why not decide things the old-fashioned way - trial by combat?
On one side, a group of gang members wielding various garden implements against Seymour’s army of incels, who are armed with speeches about free speech, ironically, considering their apparent disinterest in the reading of submissions, along with another on the topic of Māori Privilege that the gang members can ponder before delivering their rebuttal- not through words, but with the tools at their disposal.
To be clear, I don’t wish violence on anyone; on the left, we tell jokes and make submissions, and on the right - sometimes, they send death threats and choose how much democracy is just right.
Many of my posts, like this one, are paywall-free, so everyone can read them. If you’d like to support this kōrero, you can subscribe for $8 per month or $80 per year. Have a good day, all of you lovely people. 🙂 You’re most welcome to share this.
Even if you don’t normally watch the video at the end, you might enjoy the one today.
I know people who wrote their submissions by hand and sent them in. And thousands of others who took the time to write their submission on the parliament website, even though it crashed with the volume of people wanting to have their say. For many, it would have been the first time they had ever made a submission and now they’ve been told their effort and views don’t count. WTF did Luxon, Seymour and Peters think was going to happen? That we would all shut up like little mice ? Meanwhile I’ve been keeping an eye on Dem Cory Booker who has now been speaking for more than 21 hours in the US Senate against Trump’s agenda. This afternoon in NZ we will have our general debate, where speaking is limited to five minutes and we will have the usual smart arse responses from government benches. Our only recourse atm is having a say on bills and the government has just shit all over the 200,000 who took the time and effort to make a submission.
This waste of space says no to everything - to hospitals and schools and disabled people and hungry kids - then says yes to trashing a parliamentary process, which strikes at the heart of our democracy. I say this to him: F___K YOU!