For many years we have argued against developing a written Constitution for New Zealand, in part because the idea that the left-wing fundamentalists would effectively write the document, with a little help from the United Nations, was a frightful prospect.
We preferred the approach that if it were not broke, we should not bother to try to fix it.
New Zealand is a peculiar western democracy. It follows the Westminster system, which invests significant power in the Executive. The Prime Minister effectively controls both the Parliament and the Executive. There is no limit (beyond the ballot box) to prime ministerial tenure. However, all other Westminster democracies have checks and balances which New Zealand does not. The most common is a bicameral legislature, which effectively dilutes the legislative control of the Prime Minister. New Zealand has a unicameral legislature which means that it is vulnerable to abuse.
None of this is fatal, provided all political parties follow critical conventions which protect the integrity of the governmental system itself.
Helen Clark and her inner cabal has done more than any other Prime Minister, surpassing even Robert Muldoon, to tear this thin constitutional fabric apart. Once torn, it is almost impossible to repair.
Blogger David Farrar has documented some of Clark's most egregious breaches of constitutional conventions:
- No consultation on quasi-judicial appointments such as Human Rights Commissioners
- Retrospectively amending the Electoral Act to protect a Minister who vacated his seat
- Shattering the bipartisan consensus on electoral law reform
- Continuing to make significant appointments to government bodies within the final 90 days
- Attacking independent officers who try to hold them to account such as the Auditor-General, Chief Electoral Officer and Serious Fraud Office Director
- And now announcing a $150 billion bank deposit guarantee four weeks before an election, and refusing to let officials brief the Opposition
- Politicization of the police force;
- Granting favours to wealthy people in exchange for money (otherwise known as taking bribes);
- Systematic politicization of the public service;
- Riding roughshod over parliamentary conventions, such as no longer requiring that Ministers of the Crown answer parliamentary questions, merely “address” them;
- Constructive (that is, illegal) dismissal of out-of-favour senior public servants, such as the Police Commissioner;
- Ad hoc changes to overseas investment rules during a lawful bid by an overseas pension fund for Auckland Airport, using executive powers that did not exist;
- Deliberately excluding Treasury and preventing it from doing its constituted duty because it would give advice that the Minister of Finance would not like—and on, and on, and on.
Our wish list would be for far more checks and balances upon executive power. A second legislative chamber is essential. Constitutional protection for the Cabinet Manual, and the involvement of the judiciary in its development and alteration would be vital. Greater powers of judicial impeachment would be salutary. Limits upon MP's parliamentary tenure would be preferable.
If we do not take these steps now, the next time New Zealand is afflicted with a velvet gloved radical, in the ilk of Helen Clark, the damage will be greater still. Without radical remedial action, it is unlikely that the gaping breaches wrought by Clark will ever be repaired.
So, we at Contra Celsum join the ranks of those who have come to believe that we need to proceed to develop a written constitution for the protection of our liberties and the fragile fabric of our governmental system.
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