Reactions to the Law Commission's recommendation that the archaic law of sedition be repealed:
- Government: Law Commission report on sedition tabled
- Greens: Sedition laws belong in the dustbin of history
- Dunne: Sedition laws fifty years past their used-by date
We'll see where the ground really lies once the government has responded in October, but with the Greens and United Future on side (and the Maori Party backing repeal as well), the prospects for repeal are good. Meanwhile, you have to ask where ACT - "the liberal party" - is on this. But once again, it seems the only freedom they really care about is the freedom of the rich not to pay taxes.
Meanwhile, echoing some of DPF's mouth-breathing commenters, the Monarchist League is calling for the law to be retained on the grounds that
if the West does not uphold its values and protect its institutions from physical and verbal attack, it is paving the way for the proponents of sharia law to have their way with us infidels because Islam is active in promoting its way of life & death in liberal democracies where everything is acceptable.
So we should fatally undermine our freedom of speech in order to protect against an illusory "threat" that exists only in the fevered imaginations of a bigoted few. All I can say is roll on repeal, and roll on the Republic...
Ah yes, the monarchists...
ReplyDeleteThat sentence is somewhat deficient in commas - maybe I should offer some of mine to the Monarchist League.
ReplyDelete,,,,,,,,,,,,,
I find it interesting how elderly right wingers lack the ability to write coherent English. Maybe traditional kiwi education wasn't what it's claimed to be?
James: what regime? The "threat" exists only in the mind of Islamophobes. And, as the Law Commission report pointed out, to the extent that it is real, can be dealt with under existing legislation anyway.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, if these are the spokespeople for monarchism in New Zealand, it seems it is no longer a respectable political position.
i/s is right. the threat to this country of a mythologised "islamic extremism" is a flight of fancy.
ReplyDeletefrankly i'm more afraid of loosing my freedoms to nutters wanting to restrict individual rights in the name of "security".
you know, to defend us from a threat that doesn't actually exist in new zealand.
Where did the whole sedition protecting us from Islam thing come from? It seems entirely out of the blue, I certinly hope that its all just a reaction to that 1 posters seriously deluded comment.
ReplyDeleteIt's quite obvious that the Dunedin publican's offer to exchange petrol for beer (for which he was charged with sedition) is a subtle way to lure the good students of Otago into islamist terrorism.
ReplyDeleteThey give up their traditional beer and get (no doubt middle eat produced) petrol in exchange - which they can then use for liquid bombs and the like.
I'd have thought it would be obvious that it's only our sedition laws that stop the student body of Otago converting in mass into a crazed islamist mob..
"Where did the whole sedition protecting us from Islam thing come from?"
ReplyDeletenope. unfortunately it's a roundabout way of ensuring that "the good guys" have the right to free speech, while "the bad guys" are committing sedition.
in other words, "we believe in free speech, unless you're talking about something we disagree with".
it also means you can condemn 'leftists' as being unpatriotic when they seek to defend free speech for everyone (i.e. because they're islamic sympathisers).
Che: pretty much. But its also an expression of the fears of the sorts of people who comment on kiwiBlog or are (now) the leading spokespeople for monarchism in New Zealand: fear of diversity, fear of difference, and fear of change. And of course an outdated conception of New Zealand which is exclusively white, christian, and British, rather than a multicultural, secular, Pacific nation.
ReplyDelete"leading spokespeople for monarchism in New Zealand: fear of diversity, fear of difference, and fear of change."
ReplyDeletegood thing they're dying out.
"Meanwhile, you have to ask where ACT - "the liberal party" - is on this."
ReplyDeleteI'd rather Act choose better fights like The Waterfront Stadium, Rates and its Regulatory Responsibility Bill. Sedition is hardly a sexy vote-catching topic for Rodney to campaign on.
Translation: "The only freedom ACT cares about is the freedom of the rich not to pay taxes".
ReplyDeleteQuod erat demonstrandum.
Well look at this - the Republican Movement has come out in favour of abolishing sedition. Fancy that.
ReplyDeleteActually I believe the ACT policy on the stadium was to build something at Carlaw Park. Apparently when Rodney was asked if he thought it ok to confiscate the property rights of the site's owners he said yes.
ReplyDeleteRugby trumps propertarianism, you see!