Gary Judd KC: “Two-ticks National”

Wisdom or dogmatic stupidity?

Václav Havel was the last president of Czechoslovakia (1989-1992) and the first president of the Czech Republic (1993-2003). He died in 2011. Before entering politics, he was a playwright, dissident, and leading figure in the Velvet Revolution that ended communist rule. Regarded as a symbol of democracy and human rights, he was arguably the country’s most recognized political figure worldwide. [en.wikipedia.org], [britannica.com]

Gary Judd KC: A Sacred Trust Betrayed

Judicial independence and the reliance on tikanga in New Zealand courts

In A Story is Not Enough — Witchcraft and all that, I explained why there is justification for thinking that we, or some of us at any rate, do witchcraft. It reflects how low those who exercise power have come that even Parliament has attributed human personality to rivers and mountains.

Gary Judd KC: A Story Is Not Enough

Witchcraft and all that

In A Halfling’s View, The Tyranny of a Good Story, subtitled “In praise of guides who can prove what they say — and against the fashion that pretends it doesn’t matter,” retired Judge David Harvey contrasts An account you can check, or an account you must swallow. He says:

Strip away the sentiment and the choice is stark.

Gary Judd KC: Mumbo-jumbo and all that

The Mullahs of Mumbo-jumbo advance the cause of racist superiority

The New Zealand Law Society (NZLS), in partnership with its provider of continuing education is advertising “Tikanga and the law”. Interestingly enough, in a Freudian slip, the advertisement betrays the reality, that tikanga is not law. It says, “hear firsthand perspectives from those working at the intersection of tikanga and the law.”

The advertisement treats tikanga as something distinct from law while promoting its use in lawyers’ professional and ethical decision-making. It forms part of a wider NZLS programme that risks turning ideological precepts into professional obligations.

Gary Judd KC: Judicial Power, Democratic Accountability, and the Smith Case

The Climate Change Response (Tort Liability) Amendment Bill received its third reading on 18 August and has now passed into law. It amends the Climate Change Response Act 2002 to bar tort liability for emissions‑related climate change effects, including for cases already before the courts. This directly affects the Smith v Fonterra litigation, preventing the tort claims from proceeding. A Law Association submission when the Bill was before the Select Committee was critical of some aspects of the Bill. That submission was subjected to careful examination by Peter Watts KC in an article published in the Association’s LawNews.

Gary Judd KC: More Misconduct by Stuart Nash

Realpolitik in operation: Nash ceases to be NZF candidate

My article of May 26, 2026, Stuart Nash, Cabinet Confidentiality, and Winston Peters’ Standards Has Misconduct Stopped Mattering: or is it another case of amnesia? ended this way:

Gary Judd KC: Inflation - the struggle for simplicity

Why the Reserve Bank must distinguish monetary inflation from supply shocks

This morning I heard Auckland Chamber of Commerce chief executive Simon Bridges describing the dire state of the Auckland economy. He put part of the blame on the Reserve Bank’s signal that interest rates may need to rise in response to increasing prices. His point was that the immediate cause of the latest price pressure was not excessive domestic demand, but a spike in fuel prices caused by disruption to Middle East oil supplies.

Gary Judd KC: The Issue Raised by the Army Orders

Army Orders and the State’s Duty of Neutrality

This morning The Law Association of New Zealand’s LawNews published an earlier version of the following article, prompted by Alex Penk’s How Army orders sparked debate on religious freedom protections under BORA published by LawNews last Thursday. I commend Penk’s article to you, as it contains more about what the Army has been up.

The Army orders raise a serious issue under s13 of the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act because they appear to require personnel to engage with, or at least affirm the significance of, a particular religious or cosmological framework under threat of discipline.

Gary Judd KC: Inclusion of UNDRIP in India FreeTrade Agreement

Oral submissions to the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee

This morning I made oral submissions. I had 5 minutes to support my own submission (Part 1). I received instructions from Hobsons Pledge and had 10 minutes to present on its behalf (Part 2). Below are the notes I used. There were no questions after Part 1, but there were questions after Part 2 from the chairman National MP Tim van de Molen, and from ACT MP Laura McClure.

Gary Judd KC: India FTA - The Sting Beneath the Sting

Cabinet Said Stop. The India FTA Says Go

In The Sting in the India Trade Deal A Constitutional Trojan Horse: advancing change through political stealth, I examined the inclusion of clause 13.2.2a in the India FTA. That clause states:

Gary Judd KC: Stuart Nash, Cabinet Confidentiality, and Winston Peters’ Standards

Has Misconduct Stopped Mattering: or is it another case of amnesia?

Lord Peter Mandelson, former UK Cabinet Minister and dismissed UK Ambassador to Washington DC, and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, the former Prince Andrew and sometime UK trade envoy, were both arrested earlier this year on suspicion of committing the offence of misconduct in public office. Both have been released on bail. Neither has yet been charged. Neither may be charged. The common feature of the charges is the alleged sharing of sensitive government information they received in official capacities.

The UK Law Commission in making recommendations for law reform in this area, described the offence:

Gary Judd KC: Myth, Memory and the BNZ

Winston should be ashamed

In his column in The Telegraph published on 19 May, “Deluded Labour will never let go of its EU fantasy,” Tom Harris said, “Such is how myths are made in modern Britain. Europhilia is similar to Thatcherphobia – it’s less about actual policies and empirical evidence than about feelings, and the less you remember about it, the stronger you feel.”

I made a note of it because the subordination of historical fact to feelings is so relevant to contemporary New Zealand and Tom Harris’ expression neatly captures the way passage of time and appeal to emotion may result in apparently serious pronouncements being evidence of sheer lunacy.

Such was Winston Peter’s solemn pledge that New Zealand First policy would include buying back the BNZ.

Gary Judd KC: Submission to the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee on the New Zealand....

Submission to the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee on the New Zealand - India Free Trade Agreement

Voters are entitled to be angry

Submissions on the FTA closed at midnight last night. In the nick of time, I lodged a submission which largely follows The Sting in the India Trade Deal. It also added this:

Gary Judd KC: The Sting in the India Trade Deal

A Constitutional Trojan Horse: advancing change through political stealth

Trade Minister Hon Todd McClay has announced that the New Zealand-India free trade agreement has been signed and that the formal parliamentary treaty scrutiny process is now under way. The full text of the agreement is now public and has been referred to Parliament’s Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee for examination.

Gary Judd KC: Dare to be a Daniel

Dare to be a Daniel

Dare to stand alone

Dare to have a purpose firm

Dare to make it known

So runs the refrain in a nineteenth century hymn inspired by the biblical story in the Book of Daniel, of a Jewish captive in Babylon (a region compromising parts of present-day Iraq and Syria, with the city of Babylon about 85 km south of today’s Baghdad). According to the account Daniel’s rivals tricked Babylonian King Darius into signing a decree that forbade praying to anyone but King Darius. Despite knowing the penalty was death, Daniel went home and prayed three times a day with his windows open toward Jerusalem, as was his custom. He was thrown into a den of lions, but God “shut the lions’ mouths,” and he was found unharmed the next morning. Furious, Darius had the conspirators “cast … into the den of lions, them, their children, and their wives; and the lions had the mastery of them, and brake all their bones in pieces or ever they came at the bottom of the den.”

Gary Judd KC: Human rights - are they real?

Or are they just a gift of the government?

Roy, a commenter on my Lessons from Iran, says there is no such thing as human rights: “Human rights are given and allowed by Governments.”

This introduces a deep philosophical/legal question with profound implications. If Roy is right, it means that the Iranian people do not have the right to life or liberty because the government of Iran has not given and allowed them to have those rights. By way of an opposite example, it also means that New Zealanders have those rights only because the government has given them to us or allowed us to have them.

Gary Judd KC: Lessons from Iran

The dangers of appeasement

There are lessons to be learned from what has happened to and in Iran. Without doubt there is more to be learned, and more will become apparent in the days, weeks, months, and years to come. One such lesson has been taught through history but is forgotten more often than remembered.

Appeasement, the attempt to avoid conflict and to maintain or restore peace, may sometimes be a virtue but is frequently capitulation to evil actors. Those who have the power but, for whatever reason, lack the inclination to stand up for what is right often find that visions of peace are a mere illusion or fabrication of the mind. They may find that the goodwill they thought to buy through appeasement is rewarded with aggression and the sacrifice of innocent victims to the whims of persons of authoritarian temperament who now have totalitarian power.

Gary Judd KC: National could signal its support for democracy

It could join ACT and NZ First to abolish the Maori electoral seats

This is a companion piece to my just-published Ghettoizing the mind. Both were stimulated by Dr Muriel Newman’s feature article, The Future of the Maori Seats in which she carefully marshalled nearly all the reasons why they should be gone. She also introduced as a guest commentary an address given by Hon Bill English in 2003: Address to the National Press Club Breakfast 24 July 2003.

Gary Judd KC: Institutional neutrality compromised

Clerk of the House has disqualified himself

David Martin Wilson is the 14th Clerk of the New Zealand House of Representatives. He has held the position since 2015. It is about time he was shown the door.

I have just written

Gary Judd KC: Maori seats foster self-ghettoisation

Dr Muriel Newman’s feature article for 24 February, The Future of the Maori Seats, summarises why they should have been abolished long ago. There is another reason which I don’t recall having seen: the Maori seats encourage self-ghettoisation.

I came across the terms “ghettoise” and “ghettoisation” a few days ago, in THE END OF WOKE: How the Culture War Went Too Far and What to Expect from the Counter-Revolution where Andrew Doyle writes: