ACT: A great idea for councils, from the Labour Party

The Labour Party constitution contains a real gem. We doubt Willie ‘democracy has changed’ Jackson has read his party’s constitution, but here it is:

“All political authority comes from the people by democratic means, including universal suffrage, regular and free elections with a secret ballot.”

It is the first principle in their Party Constitution, and we couldn’t have said it better ourselves. If democracy means anything, it’s that the majority can vote the bastards out.

Democracy amounts to an anonymous, bloodless, pink slip for bad leaders. How much better would the world be if the Russians or Iranis could send their leaders one?

The old Labour Party would never have let a Council stack decision-making committees with unelected people, then give them voting rights to outvote the elected members. The old Labour Party had people who’d gone half way around the world and risked their lives to stop that sort of thing.

Somewhere along the line they lost their way. Somewhere between Roger Douglas and Jacinda Ardern, perhaps around the time of Helen Clark, when the Local Government Act was passed, in 2002.

That Act says, in Section 31 of Schedule 7: “The members of a committee or subcommittee may, but need not be, elected members of the local authority…” In other words, you can stack a committee. Originally the idea was to get, say, an Accountant on an audit committee.

Now the Far North District Council is stacking its various committees with iwi representatives who can vote, diluting the power of those elected and creating a new political order. Some are elected, subject to regular and free elections with a secret ballot, others appointed because of their background. It is anti democracy.

What if you don’t like this? Here’s what happens:

The first ever image in Free Press, but we you need to see it.

This protest is organised for when the Council will debate appointing Māori representatives to a committee en masse. A mass haka, a ritual whose historic significance is to intimidate before a war will be brought to a place of debate.

The people attending are told ‘our sovereign voice is being challenged yet again by systemic racism.’ There’s lots there.

‘Our’ sovereign voice means Māori sovereign voice. The words appear beside ‘toitū te iwi Māori,’ ‘sustain the Māori people.’ ‘Our’ means our race.

It says Māori people have their ‘sovereign voice’ challenged. But how? All people in the Far North who are 18 or over have the right to vote. They elect Councillors who speak for them and if they don’t like it they can vote them out.

It seems that’s not enough. They need to somehow influence what happens inside besides voting. Having made it an us vs. them racial issue, the poster says the Māori sovereign voice is being challenged by ‘systemic racism.’

You’re either with us or against us, and if you’re not with us you’re racist. Imagine gathering people outside a building by telling them some of the people inside are against them because of their race, that those people are racist.

Sounds like something the media would see as important and send a few cameras, right? Don’t hold your breath.

ACT Local Councillor Davina Smolders is a New Zealand hero. She has stood alone asking hard questions of the Far North District Council, and so far got the Minister for Local Government to ‘engage’ with the Council (with a little help from ACT).

There is a simpler solution. Only people who are elected can vote. ACT MP Cameron Luxton has a Members Bill to amend Section 31, and do just that. Unfortunately Local Government Minister Simon Watts said it wasn’t a priority to adopt Cameron's Local Government (Restoring Democratic Integrity) Amendment Bill.

Nobody who is not subject to regular and free elections by secret ballot should ever wield political power, on that we agree with old Labour.