I was in Wellington today, but I was able to stop past the joint United Future - Green - Maori Party - ACT press conference in which they announced the formation of a joint coalition to repeal New Zealand's sedition laws. All four parties are concerned about the law's impact on freedom of speech and the ability of people to criticise the government. And all are united in their desire to see it repealed as quickly as possible. I think Keith Locke said it best; "we shouldn't have thoughtcrime on our statute books" (amusingly, after explaining that sedition criminalised "exciting disaffection" against the government, and that "every day in Parliament we do just that", he felt the need to proclaim his support for the government. Clearly he's worried about prosecution...)
Both Peter Dunne and Heather Roy said that this was a good sign that MMP is working - and I agree. When the Greens and United Future can agree on something, its almost certainly a sensible idea. And when ACT and the Maori Party can join them in finding common ground, I'd have thought that makes it pretty much a no-brainer. There's support from right across the political spectrum for repeal, and a majority in Parliament if anyone wants it. The question now is which of the major parties will step up and put forward a bill.
DPF has more on the press conference here.
If you want to withdraw this then I'll forgive you for saying it:
ReplyDelete"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."
From: http://norightturn.blogspot.com/2007/04/sedition-reactions.html
Gooner
Good for you Idsy! HURRAH!!!
ReplyDeleteI'll save the second bouquet for when it passes though, but really truly, you have done a very good thing with all your work on this, and today's press conference is proof that sooner rather than later you will be successful :-)
Gooner: I'm very happy to admit I was wrong in this case.
ReplyDeleteSpan: Actually, I had nothing to do with it (well, other than plugging the issue, doing the research everybody uses, and talking to a few people last year). I only heard about it because a friendly journalist told me. DPF had suggested forming a lobby group to push for repeal, but the politicians beat us to it!
You're forgiven then!
ReplyDeleteCheers
gooner