Dunne on the Constitution
ACT Leader Richard Prebble said today in response to United Party leader, Peter Dunne's statement that his party will
support government legislation to declare Mr Duynhoven an MP, that if so, will United be moving an amendment to also
declare Kelly Chal (the United list MP who was elected last election only to be disqualified) is also an MP?
"If it is "common sense" as Mr Dunne says, to rewrite the law to benefit one MP, why not another? Or has the United
Party now abandoned its former MP?
"There is no doubt that the Labour government could have processed Kelly Chal's citizenship before the election, but
they chose not to. "Id be interested to know why Mr Dunne thinks the law should be different for the Labour Party than
for the United Party.
Mr Dunne's claim that there's no need for a by-election because it's a safe seat is an argument not to hold an election
in any safe seat.
"The Electoral Act is part of the constitution of New Zealand. We have no written constitution and Mr Dunne is
colluding with the government in a very dangerous precedent. Every time there is something that is inconvenient to the
government according to Mr Dunne, it's just "common sense" to ignore the constitution, and without any consultation,
under urgency, pass a retrospective law. There's a name for countries like that. They're called police states," said Mr
Prebble.