Kia ora Minister I am very disappointed to hear reports that United Future will be supporting the government’s proposal to passing validating legislation for election spending under urgency tomorrow. I ask that you reconsider your party’s support for urgency. I share your concerns about the Auditor-General’s report and the way it effectively re-writes the rules after the spending took place (see my comments on: http://www.laws179.blogspot.com/). My view is that the parties have a credible basis for arguing that their understand of the rules should be preserved and should not be required to repay the money. However, passing this type of legislation under urgency is unnecessary and anti-democratic. We do not have draft legislation or copies of the advice on which it is based. Or time to assess the legitimacy of the legislation. There is no need to circumvent the usual democratic checks and balance. If the rationale for the legislation is robust, it will survive scrutiny anyway. I am particularly concerned that expediting this type of legislation will undermine the citizens’ trust in Parliament. I ask that you reconsider. Regards
16 October 2006
Validating legislation: emails to United Future and NZ First
Below is a copy of my email to Peter Dunne and Winston Peters:
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2 comments:
Touching :)
But you can see the political imperative Labour is operating under here.
So long as they repay there is little public interest in the laws passed to ensure that no further disputes can arise over previous spending or future spending. This will allow Parliament to recast the rules in a less partisan atmosphere next year where immediate partisan advantages will be tempered with mutual self interest.
You can't be too hard on them - the option is between supporting the legislation and holding a new election...
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