High Handed Arrogance

Self Righteous Storm Troopers

We have a couple of examples this past week of high handed arrogance on the part of the government of New Zealand.  The two matters in question are completely unrelated.  Yet, both betray a culture of gross arrogance.  

The first instance was Jacinda Ardern's "captain's call" to stop any new oil and gas exploration in New Zealand.  This is a decision of monumental stupidity.  It is an ideologically extreme act.  It has been done in response to a Greenpeace petition.  The eco-idiots are running the asylum.

Here is David Farrar's summary of why this decision was taken and the way it was done show bad faith and reckless arrogance.

Why the decision on oil and gas exploration was bad faith

Let’s have a look at how flawed the decision on oil and gas exploration was. First of all, is this something that was party policy?

Labour – did not say they would do it
NZFIRST – actively promoted themselves as champion of oil and gas
Greens – were in favour of a ban

So this was not Labour Party policy before the election. Labour did not campaign on doing this. They kept it a secret as they knew they’d lose vote if they had told people before hand.

How about the coalition negotiations? Was this something they had to agree to in order to form a Government?

No. This was not in the coalition agreement.


So how did this major policy change come about? Due to a Greenpeace petition! Yes, that’s right.

The Government just made a decision with zero consultation with the public or industry.

A major policy change (especially one to close down an entire industry) would normally be consulted on. The Government might produce a discussion document, then a consultation document and or draft policy. You get feedback. You allow people to make submission. You weigh up the pros and cons.

They did none of this.

They did not tell people before the election they would do this.

They did not consult on this.

So this is why people should be angry. Not just because it is a bad policy. But it is a bad faith policy. Thousands of people will lose their jobs, and they didn’t even get a chance to have their say. They may have even voted for Labour, never thinking that the moment they were in power they would implement a policy banning their industry – that was not in their manifesto, and was not in their coalition agreement.

Here is the second example of bad faith and reckless arrogance.

 What is going on at Immigration NZ?

Immigration officers stormed into Mark Middleton's workplace, accused him of living here illegally, and put him in a cell at the Wellington police station.  He's been told he's an overstayer and served a deportation order.

I know we hear these stories a lot, but honestly, this one seems over the top.  This is a man busy minding his own business, a family man, who came to New Zealand as a 4-year-old boy with his English parents. He's been here 56 years.

He is the sole breadwinner for his family, his only claim to infamy is that as the stepfather of murdered schoolgirl Karla Cardno, he threatened to kill the man who raped, tortured and buried her alive, if he was ever released from jail.  That was 17 years ago. For that threat he was given a suspended sentence.   It was argued at the time that he was suffering from chronic grief.

His only other 'crime' is that he left NZ for a family holiday to Fiji in 1986, and when he re-entered the country, did not have valid re-entry permission.  He was supposed to clear up his immigration status, he didn't know that, and he never did. Boom, off to jail we go - 32 years later. Middleton described the Immigration officers as "very, very hostile", he said the process was "dehumanising".

He's also concerned about the stress of all this on his family.  I'm not surprised. Surely they've been through enough?  Each year, they face the parole hearing of the man who killed their child, imagine that stress for the mother alone?

Whatever the grounds for Immigration NZ's concerns, I can't understand why they had to barge into his place of work, make a scene, and whip him off to jail?  Some of our worst criminals don't even get that kind of brutal treatment.

Our justice system is weighted very much in the favour of the rights of criminals, they are afforded far more courtesy than this - so why was this heavy handed approach used here?  How could this not have been dealt with via a phone call? An email? An after-hours visit to his home?

Mark Middleton's lawyer is pleading for the Government to live up to its claim to be compassionate, and overturn the deportation order.  He's asked Associate Immigration Minister Kris Faafoi to step in. But according to the department, due process must run its course. He has two weeks to appeal the decision but his lawyer says deportation orders are hard work to overturn due to the serious nature of them.

He's also now unable to work, due to not having a work visa, so the family's sole breadwinner is unable to provide for them.  I hope for two things here: One, that this is fixed quickly, the deportation order overturned and a lesson learned in how not to treat people, and two, that the process eventually includes an apology from Immigration NZ, for being so unnecessarily callous and heavy handed.  [Kate Hawkesby, NZ Herald]

Different government departments.  Different issues.  Same arrogance and recklessness.  We figure that if this continues voters will be lining up six months before the next election to boot out the arrogant bully boys.