So we have the government taking an eleventh hour attempt to reverse the somewhat inconvenient truth that the Supreme Court case had implications of questioning every case before the courts and deeming the illegal the usage of covert police cameras.
We had legal experts, ex PMs, and other commentators submitting to the select committee that it is a gross misuse of powers to be retrospectively changing a law to overturn the decision of the highest court in the land.
Sure, the 'retrospective' clause had to be taken out in the watered down version that Labour would swallow, but this does not stop it being an attempt by the police, via the government, to change the laws to hide the fact that they have been knowingly using illegal covert surveillance techniques for some time.
To try to rush it through under urgency during the RWC, when most people are entranced by the hype surrounding the cup (small c, as its not the vessel Christ fucking drank from its a sporting trophy!)
is a media savvy and cynical of the government, and typical of the tactics employed by Key and his croonies. Paying to be on Letterman, how embarrassing. If you have to pay someone to have sex its a pretty sad state on your attractiveness.... analogy should be clear. Bringing the election forward a transparently brazen attempt to divert any deep and lengthy political debate.
Rugby dominated the news hours on the crucial select committee period of 28 sept - 3 oct, as they knew it would. The chipping away at civil liberties took a back seat to Dan Carters tragedy.
It would be nice if people realised the irony, hte tragedy of a country so ensconsed in its first orgy of patriotism, when silver fern and NZ flags hang from the window of every house in the country, that they failed to see a fundamental human right being attacked from the highest level possible.
Surely the Supreme Court, established in 2003 to replace the antiquated vestige from the monarchy-loving colonial days - the Privy council. Why indeed should the highest court in the land be sat in the mother country, half a world away. A valid decision to establish the Supreme Court then. But when, as in the Anzac flag burner Morse acquitted of her protest against Afghanistan (http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10723958)
the new legal entity at the apex of NZ's justice system comes down on the side of the subversive, the underdog, the "radical", indeed the so called "PC brigade" and 'non-patriotic' protestors... well that is when and exactly when the conservative old guard says "hang on lets reverse that decision". And we protest, and Labour delays, but eventually signs. Shame on you Labour for caving in. They may not have got the extra three votes, stalemate would have been a better situation in respect of supposed inherent freedoms of democracy.
The protesters in Wall Street this week carried banners reading "This is what democracy looks like."
So what does NZ's democracy look like? A flag spinning in the spring breeze proudly proclaiming the best rugby team in the world, and a government that will covertly attempt to subvert the proper channels of justice in order to justify the illegal activities of its police force.
Covert surveillance, overt patriotism, and a dearth of intelligent debate around a government unilaterally reversing a well-considered decision of the highest court in the land that evidence was gatherer illegally.
Is the threat NZ faces from "terror cells" greater than the threat from a corrupt and bullying government?
Well as long as we win the rugby no one will care all that much .... or will they? Are we a naive antipodean nation of rugger lovers, or a civilised and media savvy bunch that won't have the wool pulled over our eyes by a former currency trader's excuse for a government attempting to subvert justice to achieve their own ends? The flags are waving, on Brooklyn bridge protests and suburban NZ front lawns. Different flags, different folks.
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