Posts by Matthew Poole
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Legal Beagle: Coalition of Losers, in reply to BenWilson,
While a slower moving system is less inclined to radical bad changes, it’s also less inclined to radical good changes.
In NZ's case, most of what's been radical has been of very, very arguable benefit, especially when it's been shoved through under urgency.
I guess my biggest concern with how things are run here is that governments can (and do) misuse urgency to avoid public consultation. I have no real objection to budgets being passed under urgency, but the current lot in particular have used urgency for any number of things that ought properly to have been subjected to public consultation and debate. In the absence of a law (easily repealed under urgency!) to restrict the use of urgency, an upper house is the best option I can see for enforcing unavoidable consultation requirements.
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Legal Beagle: Coalition of Losers, in reply to Graeme Edgeler,
I never knew that Geoffrey Palmer was known as “Piggy”. Learn something new …. etc.
(I’m pretty sure it’s a line from “Unbridled Power”, but am open to a reference.)
Speaking of learning something new. I'd heard the line as attributed to Muldoon, not to Palmer, but the all-knowing Google informs me that it is indeed from Unbridled Power.
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Legal Beagle: Coalition of Losers, in reply to Keir Leslie,
And, er, would an upper house actually lead to substantively better policy outcomes?
No, possibly not. But if constituted sufficiently separately from the lower house it would put an end to using urgency to avoid having to answer awkward questions from those uppity voters about why you're introducing measures that have been demonstrated as worthless, or less, overseas. We could no longer be "the fastest legislature in the West", as Piggy once famously put it; being a status that has not changed with MMP.
Forcing public consultation at least should improve the quality of legislation, if not the policy thinking behind it. Not going the British route of a hereditary UH, or the US route of such stark divide that politics is only barely short of civil war, would help. Those are the bicameral legislatures about which we hear the most, and their systems are both broken.
The Aussies seem to be doing OK with their bicameral system. -
Hard News: I'm not a "f***ing cyclist".…, in reply to Matthew Poole,
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/4575902/Killed-rider-didn-t-feel-safe-in-Wellington
Be nice if Granny gave this some coverage, but I've not seen even a snippet so I'm not holding my breath.
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Legal Beagle: Coalition of Losers, in reply to Graeme Edgeler,
e.g. staggered elections, or half-Maori as Jim Bolger suggested etc
Staggered elections is a must for an upper house, if only to avoid being of the same proportions as the lower house. Half the UH every general election, maybe, or even a third. Long terms is a good way to avoid the short-termism that we see at present.
How would half the UH being Maori work? Small UH and half are elected by the Maori roll?
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Legal Beagle: Coalition of Losers, in reply to Graeme Edgeler,
A bicameral legislature with proportional representation seems like the best possible check on parliamentary excess. An effective upper house would've put paid to National ramming through changes to education, employment and sentencing legislation under urgency and with near-immediate effect.
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Hard News: I'm not a "f***ing cyclist".…, in reply to Sam F,
Thanks Sam. I'd not actually met him, which in some ways is worse.
My brother came across the crash as he was returning home after dropping another guest off, and they pronounced Ben at the roadside while he was still there. So it was fortunate in that the police had an immediate ID and a path straight into the family without having to make it the midnight knock on the door, but really not a good way to end one's night.
As if I needed any reminder of my vulnerability as a cyclist, too.
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Hard News: Floating the idea, in reply to Joshua Arbury,
Yeah, but roads are vital to our economic performance. Or something.
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And the latest one is my sister-in-law's brother. A cyclist so cautious that he changed his batteries before leaving their place to head for home, because the light was starting to dim.
Apparently he'd said previously that Wellington drivers don't give cyclists much room, something that Auckland drivers are finally starting to do. Shame it took multiple fatalities for it to happen, though, and hopefully it won't take several more for drivers in other centres to get the message.
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Hard News: Holiday Open Thread 2:…, in reply to Grant McDougall,
So both Broad and Pope are jumping before they’re pushed. It’ll be interesting to see if the new Chief Commissioner implents many of the report’s recommendations. I’ve a horrible feeling things won’t change much, though.
Broad's resignation was announced at the end of June, long before the report came out. Pope's resignation is a little less clear.
The rank is Commissioner, not Chief Commissioner. And it's hard to tell. The new Commissioner is respected in the ranks, which is not necessarily true of Broad and may make it easier for him to "encourage" cultural changes of such a sweeping nature. That he's been out of the country for much of the period where all this has shaken free of the tree also means he lacks the baggage that attaches to Broad and the rest of the very senior residents of "Bullshit Castle".