Graeme Reeves: Call An Early Election

The Government has lost the trust and confidence of the electorate and should call an early election.

There is a doctrine under employment law which is analogist to the situation confronting the Labour Government.

Under employment law when there is a loss of trust and  confidence in the relationship between and employer and an employee, caused by the behaviour of an employee, there are grounds for a justifiable dismissal.

That is because trust and confidence goes to the core of the relationship and without it there is no longer a viable relationship.

The 6^th Labour Government led by Jacinda Ardern is not only incompetent but also deceitful. 

The Prime Minister campaigned and assured the New Zealand electorate that Her Government would be both competent and transparent.

Her Government has failed spectacularly on both counts.

Child Poverty has not decreased and is set to escalate as our mismanaged economy heads into a recession.

Affordable housing has eluded her and as interest rates soar housing will become even less affordable.

For example:

Access to mental health has worsened.

Access to primary and secondary health care has plumbed new depths.

Education is in a mess with large numbers of students exiting the system.

Violent crime is out of control.

The economic outlook is bleak as we head into a self-induced recession.

The rule of Law is under threat.

New taxes have been introduced contrary to a commitment not to introduce any new taxes.

This is not an exhaustive list.

In addition, without the consent of the people of New Zealand the Government has embarked on an unheralded and unprecedented surreptitious destruction of New Zealand’s constitution by conferring disproportionate power on an unelected minority ethnic group based on a fallacious interpretation of the Treaty of Waitangi which incorrectly holds that the Treaty created an equal partnership (50/50) between Maori, however defined, and non- Maori.

All of this activity being based on the recommendation contained in the He Puapua report secretly commissioned by the Government and kept secret from the people of New Zealand.

Perhaps the straw which has broken the camel’s back were the events of last week when under urgency the Government, in collusion with the Greens, inserted a clause into the Water Services Entities Bill by way of an SOP (supplementary order paper) with the intention of entrenching an ordinary statute by imposing a 60% vote in the house to repeal it, in flagrant disregard for the rule that no government can bind a successive government except in extraordinary circumstances mainly relating to electoral law.

Even the hither to silent academics have been awoken from their torpor to oppose this carnage of New Zealand’s constitution.

All of the above suggests to me the New Zealand electorate has finally lost its trust and confidence in the 6^th Labour Government.

The Government should immediately announce that it recognises that it has lost the trust and confidence of the New Zealand electorate and that it will call an early election in the first quarter of 2023, and simultaneously announce that it will not pass any further non supply related legislation until it has had its mandate renewed by the people of New Zealand in a general election.

Graeme Reeves is a lawyer and former National MP.