Posts by Rich of Observationz
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OnPoint: Budget 2013: Bringing Down the…, in reply to Idiot Savant,
I also suspect that one day there'll be an overseas court challenge to NZ student loan repayments, whereby the expat and their lawyers will try and characterize the repayments as being a tax on non-residents foreign income (and thus unenforcable in the foreign state) rather than a civil debt. Changing the rules as part of government budgets would tend to reinforce this.
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Logically majority <= consensus <= unanimity
I'd suggest that Banks and Dunne obviously don't support the suggested change, and if National doesn't either, we don't get to 'majority' so the issue of 'consensus' doesn't arise.
National are of course being disingenuous in suggesting that they aren't progressing the measure because of lack of consensus. But would it be any worse if they introduced a bill, supported it to second reading and then voted it down? (A Labour or Green member could introduce a private members bill to put this to the test..)
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Legal Beagle: On Consensus, in reply to Steven Peters,
Well, isn't the point of democracy that we aren't ruled by appointed experts in a statutory commission? Such commissions can recommend things, but if a majority in parliament doesn't want them (let alone a supermajority) they don't happen.
Of course, it would be more honest for National (and possibly Labour) to state that they don't see the changes as in their interests and won't support them, rather than weaseling out.
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It's not a very effective gerrymander though, given that there are no coat-tailed MPs in the current parliament and there might be none in the next (nor did any parties get 4-5% support).
What might happen after the next election could be this - where NZF and Craig just miss threshold leaving a Labour/Green government elected on a record low Labour vote, to predictable if misplaced outrage from the right.
Maybe the tea-party tendency in NACT actually favour this sort of outcome?
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Legal Beagle: On Consensus, in reply to tony j ricketts,
That's the 27th Amendment, which I believe holds the record for the longest ever time taken to pass a legislative measure - 203 years.
The US also has a (legislative) rule that sets the presidential salary above the vice-president's, and mandates the VP's renumeration as the cap on all other public employees. No seven-figure government salaries for them.
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Anyways, I suspect a referendum on tweaks to MMP might risk a record low turnout, and would also be putting quite a lot of influence with the unelected Electoral Commission in choosing the 4%/no coat-taiing option vs the status quo.
I'd actually favour a new constitutional settlement on a basis that:
- fair voting is a human right, and any system adopted, however popular, must meet this requirement
- the core of the electoral system should be entrenched in the constitution and only changeable with difficulty -
I think National's real position is:
- we have done the numbers and feel that the (admittedly miniscule) chances of ACT or Dunne getting a second MP outweigh the increased likelihood of having Winston in the next parliament, and that we might be able to buy him anyway should that be a problem. The prospects for Colin Craig have not really been considered.
That sounds kinda unprincipled, so the "no consensus" concept provides a convenient figleaf.
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Hard News: SpinCity, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
She's a fairly respected expert. Try finding one who *hasn't* had an interested party as a client (legal academics, I guess). Also, it's a clear and ancient principle of parliamentary sovereignty that a government can't bind its successors.
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Hard News: SpinCity, in reply to Tim Darlington,
Public transport, education, healthcare, sewers, that kind of thing.
I don't see how facilitating people to practice holding a plate and a glass of cheap wine one-handed while swapping business cards is essential infrastructure.
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Prosecutions and decent fine or two, and you have to suspect everyone would fall into line fairly quickly
Or they'd greet potential donors with a: "Donation? Well thanks old boy, but frankly we tend to avoid those nowadays, too much paperwork. Here, I'll leave you the details for the Business Roundtable - they'll be sure to put your money to good use"