The Herald is reporting on yet another reporting from the ATLAS-network-linked "New Zealand" Initiative, this one complaining of a creep towards judicial supremacy, and calling for the powers of judges to interpret the law to be reined in. It seems that the billionaires who fund ATLAS and its local collaborators want to be sure they get what they pay for when they buy politicians, and don't want judges souring the deal or interfering with corporate power, even when the law requires that they do so. Hence the short-sighted enthusiasm for arbitrary executive despotism. Meanwhile, for people who aren't billionaires or shilling from them, and who actually live in Aotearoa and pay attention to our democracy, its clear that we need more judicial power, not less.
The most obvious reason for that is the current government, whose naked corruption is exactly the sort of thing judges were invented to prosecute. But beyond that, there are also long-term reasons. Parliament has been a terrible guardian of our human rights. It does not even pretend to do the job properly. Remember Hilary Calvert's absurd third-reading speech on the prisoner disenfranchisement law? That's the standard of "care" our politicians bring to our laws. That abdication of responsibility produced a constitutional backlash: the first ever declaration of inconsistency, and a law requiring Parliament to formally take notice of them. But that law did not fix the problem: the current government is ignoring formal declarations of inconsistency, and Parliament is still routinely passing laws which violate human rights. And now the present lot are taking that attitude and applying it to te Tiriti as well, on the weird belief that their private coalition agreement amongst themselves trumps the foundation of our constitution and state legitimacy. Which is in turn inviting a constitutional backlash in that area as well...
Again and again our parliament has shown that they cannot be trusted to make laws responsibly. Our judges, OTOH, seem to be responsible custodians. They take their duties seriously, provide real reasons for their decisions (which are in turn tested and scrutinised by others), and unlike politicians, have not institutionalised bribery as part of their culture. The balance of power between legislature and judiciary is a slider we can move. And the sheer irresponsibility and corruption of the former is inviting voters to shift it further towards the "judicial" end. And when we do, the present advocates of "parliamentary supremacy" will have no-one to blame for it but themselves.
