Who is in charge of our military?

The Defence Force is planning a 21-gun salute on Waitangi Day. But apparently this isn't a reminder of their colonial role in subjugating Māori; instead its a "traditional" celebration of the accession of their foreign monarch, which coincidentally falls on our national day.

Pretty obviously, someone needs to tell them to stop: guns have no place on Waitangi Day. You'd think that would be the job of defence Minister Peeni Henare. But apparently not:

The Minister of Defence's office referred Stuff to the New Zealand Defence Force as this was an “operational” matter.

Bullshit. Who NZDF celebrates is a matter of policy, and it is the Minister's job to decide that policy. If the Minister doesn't think so, then that raises questions of who is actually in charge of our military. And if the answer isn't "the Minister" (who is democratically elected and accountable to Parliament, and through them, to us), then maybe we shouldn't have a military at all.

The racist Herald

Yesterday was Waitangi Day, and to celebrate it the New Zealand Herald stuck a white-power logo on its front page and declared itself to be a "protest-free zone".



[Photo by @AniOBrien; I'm stealing The Standard's copy until Flickr solves its security-certificate problem]

As I pointed out yesterday, this is pretty much par for the course for the Herald. The newspaper was founded by a racist to promote the theft of Maori land. And I expect there's a rich vein to be mined in Papers Past and in more recent archives digging up their history of racism.

But there's another issue here. The Herald purports to be our "newspaper of record", and yet it has taken an editorial decision to erase one side of our national debate about who we are as a country completely from the conversation. That's deeply troubling for our democracy and a failure of their duty as a media organisation. Its also quite likely a breach of basic press standards, notably those of balance and non-discrimination. If you'd like to do something about that, you can complain to the press Council here.

Member's Day

Today is a Member's Day. But while everyone is looking forward to the second reading vote on marriage equality, its just not going to happen.

why? Because yesterday the Finance and Expenditure Committee released its report [PDF] on the Budget Policy Statement 2013 and Treasury's December 2012 HYEFU. This takes priority over all other business on the Order paper, so Parliament will spend most of this afternoon debating it (rather han merely one hour on the General Debate). And following that there's a third reading debate (up to two hours) on a local bill, and the committee stage of Chris Auchinvole's Habeas Corpus Amendment Bill (no set time limit), and an hour on David Clark's Mondayisation bill before we even start on marriage equality. If we're lucky, the House will get started on the debate - but I don't expect them to finish it or vote. Instead, we're looking at a vote on the 27th, and hopefully the committee stage on April 17.

What veto?

So, National has admitted the reality that the Holidays (Full Recognition of Waitangi Day and ANZAC Day) Amendment Bill is going to pass despite its opposition - and magnanimously declared that it won't veto it. To which my response is "what veto"?

Standing Order 321 gives the government the power to overrule Parliament if a bill would have "more than a minor impact" on its aggregate finances or a single vote. I've discussed the origins and dubious post-MMP constitutionality of this clause here, but beyond the objection on principle (Parliament legislates and appropriates, and the executive should just have to lump it on the rare occasions when it overrules them), it would also be drawing a very long bow indeed to claim that this bill would have any effect on the government's finances at all. Yes, public servants would benefit from this law - but the government is paying them anyway for the day regardless of whether they work or not, so where's the financial impact?

National seems to be trying to claim a power it simply does not have. Its in keeping with their autocratic, authoritarian style - but hardly with our constitution.

Shearer on Waitangi Day

Another year, another Waitangi Day, and another call from Labour leader David Shearer for the day to be about "celebration" rather than reflection. As I noted when he did this last year, this is basically a call for us to deny our history, to forget the wrongs that were (and still are being) done. Its a demand that Maori shut the fuck up and stop ruining "our" (meaning "not their") day, a dogwhistle to rednecks and lazy Pakeha who just don't want to think about where "their" wealth came from.

I thought that David Shearer was a better man than that. Sadly, it seems I was mistaken.

(As for his idea of Waitangi Day honours, that's actually a good one. It would be an important step in repatriating the honours system and stripping it of its feudal roots. And it is far more appropriate that we honour people on our national day, rather than the nominal birthday of a foreign monarch).

Reported back

The Transport and Industrial Relations Committee has reported back on David Clark's Holidays (Full Recognition of Waitangi Day and ANZAC Day) Amendment Bill, with the National majority recommending it not be passed. The reason? Unfortunately, they don't actually give one, speaking only of vague "negative effects" outweighing positive ones. But we all know why: because the business community which National so obediently serves are arseholes who oppose any extension of public holidays. Just look at how they reacted to the extension of annual leave...

The bill will now go back before the House, where its fate will be in the hands of Peter Dunne. Will he vote for it or not? The whole country will be watching - and ready to hold him accountable at the ballot box if he doesn't.

Passed

David Clark's Holidays (Full Recognition of Waitangi Day and ANZAC Day) Amendment Bill has just passed its first reading 61-60 and been sent to the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee. This is a victory, but its not the war; there's still a second reading, committee stage and third reading before it becomes law. And at any of those Peter Dunne could be bought off, or the Maori party have an unexpected failure of proxying to stop the bill from passing.

The immediate threat is the select committee stage, where the government will try and abuse its majority to delay or sabotage the bill and prevent it from getting a fair hearing. Its important to let the fuckers know we are watching them, and its important to submit on the bill, to show there is public support. I'll be posting details on how to do that when they go up on the Parliamentary website.

An admission

The drawing of David Clark's Holidays (Full Recognition of Waitangi Day and Anzac Day) Amendment Bill from the ballot today has produced this admission from John Key:

Prime Minister John Key said the National Party caucus would have to discuss whether to support a law change.

"When it was an issue last year I said I'd get some advice on it, I haven't actually seen that advice yet,'' he said.

Translation: "when it was an issue last year, I lied by pretending to care, in the hope it would go away".

Lets not let him get away with that this time.

Drawn

A ballot for two member's bills was held today and the following bills were drawn:

• Holidays (Full Recognition of Waitangi Day and Anzac Day) Amendment Bill (David Clark)
• Joint Family Homes Repeal Bill (Simon O'Connor)

O'Connor's bill has previously been covered in "In the ballot" here. Clark's bill is about Mondayising public holidays.

There were 40 bills in the ballot today, including several new ones, so I'll hopefully be doing an "In the ballot" post covering them soon. There's also a facility for MPs to promote and publicise their bills through the parliamentary website, which allows them to publicly indicate support; hopefully we'll see it being used a lot this term.

Shearer panders to rednecks

Yesterday was Waitangi Day, which saw the usual scenes of protest at Te Tii Marae. Like most kiwis, I took the day off, and enjoyed my holiday. But one thing I think that is worth commenting about in the aftermath is David Shearer's calls for the day to be "a time for celebration" and free of politics. On the latter point, given the nature of our country's founding, and our government's subsequent failure to adhere to the deal, its hard to see how the day can be about anything else. And against that background, calls for rah-rah patriotism and an end to protest are simply an attempt to deny our history and a demand for Maori to STFU.

But Maori aren't going to shut up, and nor should they. The government signed a deal. They broke it. They're still breaking it. Expecting people to take this meekly and in silence so you don't have to think about what sort of a nation we are and where all that lovely farmland came from is expecting far too much.

If Shearer really wants Waitangi Day to be a day of celebration, he should be working to give us something to actually celebrate, by ensuring that there is full redress for past grievances and strong mechanisms (such as an enforceable Treaty clause in the BORA) to prevent new ones from occurring. Absent that, he's simply pandering to rednecks. I was hoping he'd be better than that, that he wouldn't go through the same Pagani/Trotter "let's try racism (because it worked for Brash)!" strategy. Sadly, it seems I was wrong.

Waitangi Day Honours

The government has used the opportunity of Waitangi Day to honour four people with additional membership in the Order of New Zealand. I'm not actually that interested in who they are or the merits of their appointment (which someone will no doubt want to argue over) - but rather the symbolism involved. And on that front, I think it is a marvellous move, and one I hope to see repeated and expanded on. After all, isn't it so much more appropriate that we honour New Zealanders on our day, rather than the (nominal) birthday of a far-off Englishwoman?

Hopefully we'll see Waitangi Day honours become a permanant fixture, and another mark of our independence from Britain.