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Saturday, January 27, 2024

Ken Lomax: Democracy in New Zealand is dead, or is it just very terminal?

We had an election in October 2023, but you would hardly know it.

Recent events (and many before) have highlighted that the political left has deeply infiltrated those organisations that are supposed to be truly independent and neutral, such as our media and the public service.

Last week our new Minister for Social Housing found out, through a journalist who had previously entered an OIA request, that a significant number of social housing was vacant, including some for over 4 months. Surely, this should have been part of the briefing the incoming Minister should have received from the Ministry soon after he was appointed. Why was this not done?

This on top of the vipers and snakes left for the Minister of Finance to find out about after the formation of the Coalition, despite legislation having been in place for a long time that this information should have been made freely available to the incoming Minister.

Most recently are the news media reports that a Ministry of Justice briefing paper regarding proposals to clarify the Treaty “Principles” has been leaked. Firstly to the Maori Party and then to the media.

The headline on Newshub (19/1/2024) screamed: “Outrage nationwide over leaked draft Treaty principle”.

On first look I thought it would be a story about the failure of a “supposedly politically independent” public servant to carry out their job properly and not leaked Ministry papers. But, Oh no! It is a story about the supposed outrage over the content of the said paper which is a draft of what the population elected the new government to do. The story fails to mention that a majority of voters voted for such policies by voting the new government into power. There was no secrecy about what ACT was bringing to the table. A page on the ACT website has had the details of their proposed Treaty Principles for a very long time—maybe a year or more.

Where are the stories about the search for the person(s) who leaked the draft document and their employment termination?

How much more malfeasance are we going to see from our public servants white-anting the democratically elected government? How much more are we going to see mainstream media putting the boot into the new government as often as possible?

Where are the stories about the failures of the public service bureaucracy to be politically neutral while working their jobs? Where are the stories about how the last government hurriedly pushed so many laws through under urgency in the last few weeks of power, when the democratic convention is to only do urgent things? Where are the stories about the previous government entering into last-minute contracts with no way for the new government to cancel them except at great expense? Where are the stories about how the new government has set out detailed coalition plans, a 100-day plan and they are bloody well getting on with the job as quickly as possible?

How many more stories are we going to hear about that indicate left-wing public servants are failing to work with the democratically elected government?

Where is our democracy? Has it died or is it just terminal?

Ken Lomax is an older New Zealander/part Maori who has become extremely concerned about this nation over the last few years, especially issues regarding civil liberties, free speech, co-governance and concerns about whether we are truly a democracy anymore.

3 comments:

robert Arthur said...

Radio NZ certainly has not recognised the Post Maorification age. They carry on with a disproportionte number of maori presenters and with subjective pro maori interviewsin the Dunop/Forbes traditon (ie recent interview od Seymour). Prgranmmes are shaded to present colonists in poor light and maori in good. Examples ae the programme about Frederick Maning, and that about Te Rauparaha.

Anonymous said...

Governments (Corporations) and Democracies are systems of enslavement, put in place to benefit the few at the expense of the many. They no longer represent or work in the best interests of ‘We the People’. (If they ever did)

It has morphed into Governments of the Government, by the Government and for the Government, or more accurately the Corporation.

Government policy is dictated by bankers and elitists, who are anything but representatives of the people.

A politician’s job is not to write law, fund public services with taxes or influence people to be better versions of themselves, as we are led to believe.

No, their job is to ensure they meet their 'corporations obligations' to its international trading partners by influencing the public to meet those obligations for them. They are debtors who encourage others to be debtors with them for “safety”.

Politics is just Corporate-funded Parliament Theatre.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous given that current PM is ex - corporate but leading a team voted in with a significant majority and mandate, it will be interesting to see how this reveals itself.

There is no doubt that corporate influence is significant and covert but they do not always get it right. Think the do gooder mentality of the numerous corporates who promoted the Voice in Australia and how that all fell flat on its face.

In NZ it would be good to see even a little corporate respect for the masses eg the removal of the absurd te reo Maori signs in supermarkets or te reo on petrol pumps. What a joke. Anachronism on its head.