If you've been following councils around the country lately, you'll be aware of Benedict Ong from the Dunedin City Council and Ray Chung from the Wellington City Council. Both are making nuisances of themselves, which is why they're in the news.
Benedict, for repeatedly receiving council emails and then immediately forwarding them to multiple journalists and leaking the information; and Ray Chung, for getting himself to the scene of a missing person during a flooding event in Wellington when he shouldn't have been there, and then telling porkies, or what looked a lot like porkies afterwards, about why he was there.
Now, Ben McNulty, the Wellington Deputy Mayor, is so frustrated by this nonsense that he's proposing tougher sanctions for councillors like this to deal with what he calls "almost existential threats to democracy" caused by councillors leaking sensitive information.
Ben hasn't said specifically what powers he wants but whatever it is he's proposing, I don't like it.
Because while I have no love for the antics of Benedict Ong, Ray Chung or anybody like that, I respect the fact that both of them were democratically elected. They are just as entitled to council information and council access as the most well-behaved councillors.
And if we start dreaming up ways to punish wayward councillors we don't like, we may find those very same rules being used against good councillors we do like if the wayward ones gain a majority.
Whatever punishment we concoct is a punishment that can be weaponised against enemies.
There is already a perfectly good punishment for councillors who misbehave and push things too far. It is the loss of office at the next election.
Democracy already has a built-in punishment. We do not need another one.
Heather du Plessis-Allan is a journalist and radio broadcaster who hosts Newstalk ZB's weekday Drive-Time Show – where this article was sourced.
3 comments:
I agree.
One of the takeaways of living through the Ardern government era was the drive to punish dissenters. That is people they didn't like, which was ironic for activists who like dissent. I note Ben McNulty is from that side of the political street and although I'm sure he's not pleased with anyone else's activism, it's a hideous go to for the left to employ to silence critics and questioning of them.
Activism is mostly annoying, disruptive nearly always absurd in its foundation and outcomes and it's an ego soother for its practitioners. And destructive.
But as you say, voters in Wellington can, ironically whilst democracies one person one vote continues before Labour end that with co-governance, rid themselves of Ray Chung in a little over 3 years. And that's all that is needed.
Holding someone to account only every three years is ridiculous. There needs to be a quick form of punishment for leaking confidential information. An automatic stand-down for 3 to 6 months handed down by a disciplinary committee would be one way to go.
There is, of course, a remedy for "leaked" confidential information: Make ALL communication to and from elected people open to scrutiny.
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