Voters don't deserve more under-hand campaigns or self-serving legislation
National never did say whether or not any of its members were involved in the dirty tricks leafleting and advertising
campaign conducted in the Wigram electorate in the final week of last year's election campaign.
That campaign was a disappointing and under-hand one because the pamphlets and ads were misleading and, more
importantly, because no one at the time knew who was behind them and so therefore there was no way of engaging the
campaigners openly or to promote meaningful debate.
Democratic participation can only be enriched if there is a free flow of ideas and everyone knows who is promoting which
set of ideas. Voters deserve to hear directly from candidates and parties themselves what they stand for and what they
believe in and why.
The very expensive campaign of misinformation in Wigram, which included newspaper advertisements in the Christchurch
Star, were "authorized" by a non-person in an empty house. That sort of behaviour is morally wrong, disrespectful to
voters and should never happen again.
But legislation as proposed by Helen Clark to ban well-funded dishonest campaigns? That will have to include political
parties. This is as silly an idea as refusing to pay back money that rightfully belongs to the public. And on that
subject. I sat on the Parliamentary Committee that set the rules on spending. Parties were well aware what was
permissible. There was no ambiguity. Prisons are full of people who can’t distinguish between their money and that of
others.
But the fundamentalists are reported to say they'll do it again
On Monday, the Exclusive Brethren were reported by some media to be saying that they would wage another campaign in
2008.
All democrats welcome any group's participation in the democratic process, but the question surely is: Why doesn't this
fundamentalist religious group stand candidates and put up a Party List?
That would be the moral and honest thing to do.
They could campaign for whatever they like: That all women's heads should be covered; that evolution is an evil, secular
conspiracy; that God created the Earth in six days and that the globe is flat. In a representative democracy, everyone
has the right to promote their values, their hopes and their proposed strategies for the country - and citizens get to
vote for what they want and that public will is in turn represented in Parliament.
Progressive-minded people should welcome the Exclusive Brethren into the democratic arena. Unlike National, progressives
should not propose excluding people that aren't "mainstream". But as democrats, progressives would only hope that the
Religious Right do the moral and honourable thing and stand in their own name and have their candidates accountable for
the platform and assertions contained in their leaflets and advertisements.
The NZ bank that National/ACT said would fail takes the big one
A reader tells me that I should have congratulated the New Zealand-owned bank which Nat/ACT said would never fly: It is
the supreme winner of the 2006 Sunday Star-Times Cannex Banking Awards.
Reducing alcohol-related harm to young people
How depressing to see Labour's associate "health" Minister quoted in all the media in the past seven days saying that it
isn't "realistic" to raise the alcohol purchasing age to 20 years, as North America did after experiencing , like New
Zealand, the deleterious health and social effects of lowering that buying age.
Why doesn't he outline the public health benefits that he has witnessed, that the Ministry of Health has empirically
measured, since the alcohol purchasing age was cut thanks to the critical votes of Labour M.P.s in the dying days of the
last Nat-led coalition? He doesn't, because there are none.
The arguments that M.P.s use to let the alcohol lobby off the hook are pathetic.
The families and the communities that suffer some of the worst health and social effects of the inappropriate alcohol
purchasing age, which in reality means that 15 and 16 year olds are too often getting away with buying alcohol at their
local corner dairy, are modest and lower income families. When Labour was a young and principled party, there would have
been no contest - it would have been 100% in favour of protecting families and young people from the liquor lobby –
early Labour would not have used Blairite weasel words that we get dished out on important issues which are potentially
controversial. Where's the leadership?
I hope that the National Drug Foundation's www.20years.org.nz/ website will soon start listing M.P.s' voting intentions
on the Bill that I introduced to Parliament last year. Keep a close eye out on those leaders who claim to be
pro-families - National's Don Brash, United's Peter Dunne and ACT's Rod Hide: Last year I recall they were all against
families on this, the most important law and order and drug issue in our society by far.
Hopefully, they have listened to some of the advice of people who actually work in this field and made their
representations to the select committee.
Middle East film festival opens in Christchurch on Thursday
To help break down the barriers between people, the Palm Date Film Festival/Cultural Awareness Trust is showing what
look to be some great Middle Eastern/North African movies in Christchurch over the coming week starting on Thursday with
the showing of the Lebanese hit Bosta with proceeds from the screening of Bosta going to assist victims of the
humanitarian and ecological crisis in that country. Shows are at Regent on Worcester.
ENDS