Boycott this democratic fraud

The Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee has called for submissions on Andrew Little's tyrannical Terrorism Suppression (Control Orders) Bill. Normally I encourage participation in the democratic process. I am not doing so in this case. Instead, I encourage all of you to boycott this submissions process, and to post publicly or email your MP to say that you are doing so and why. Why? Because the submission period is less than a week: until November 10. And people may remember that we've been here before.

Last time the government tried to ram through legislation on this topic - John Key's Countering Terrorist Fighters Legislation Bill, I encouraged people in good faith to submit on it. Several did. I found out afterwards that the committee didn't even bother reading the submissions, and that the entire process was simply a stitch-up. I and the people I had encouraged to submit had wasted our time and might as well have not bothered.

In short: a submission period this short is simply a fraud, designed to lend a veneer of democracy to tyranny. I refuse to participate in it, or lend my reputation to perpetrate it. They fooled me once, but I won't be fooled again.

Is there anything useful you can do as an alternative? Not at the moment. Like I said, its a stitch up, and it will be rammed through no matter what we think. The most we can do is express our anger, our disgust, and our distrust of a system which acts like this. But remember this at election time. We need to take our democracy back. And that means de-selecting or de-electing every MP who supports this bill. They will no longer protect our rights, so they all need to go.