Fiame stares down her corrupt party

Back in January, Samoan cabinet minister La’auli Leuatea Schmidt was charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice. When he refused to resign, samoan prime minister Fiame Naomi Mata'afa sacked him - triggering a political crisis. Because a majority of her political party felt that she should have not just kept him in office, but protected him from being charged in the first place - and felt so strongly about it that they voted to throw her out of the party and then attempted to have her thrown out parliament and removed as prime minister under anti-party-hopping legislation. Since then Fiame has sacked half her cabinet for disloyalty, and there has been speculation that her government would collapse, forcing early elections.

But it seems that FAST has blinked. Because when a confidence vote was finally held in parliament, they voted for Fiame, rather than rolling her. I guess they were really afraid of elections after all (Samoa's constitution explicitly permits a PM toppled in a confidence vote to call an election, unlike Aotearoa, where calling an early election requires the confidence of the House).

Meanwhile, you have to wonder what went wrong when a party which ran on an explicit platform of ending HRPP abuses and corruption now wants to behave in exactly the same way. You can now see which MPs actually believe that: the ones who have stayed loayl to Fiame. As for the rest, I guess we just have to hope that Samoans will throw those corrupt arseholes in the trash where they belong.

Member's Day

Today is a Member's Day, and a significant one: it should finally see the passage of Teanau Tuiono's Citizenship (Western Samoa) (Restoration) Amendment Bill. While the bill is an ugly compromise which is a long way from proper redress for the government's past crimes (oh that's a familiar story), it will help, and I will be glad to see it pass.

With the main event out of the way, there will be the committee stage of Rima Nakhle's Corrections (Victim Protection) Amendment Bill, followed by the first readings of Julie Anne Genter's Income Tax (Clean Transport FBT Exclusion) Amendment Bill and Greg Fleming's Crimes (Increased Penalties for Slavery Offences) Amendment Bill. If the House moves quickly, it may make a start on Catherine Wedd's Pae Ora (Healthy Futures) (3 Day Postnatal Stay) Amendment Bill. There should be a ballot for two bills tomorrow.

One cheer for the Samoan citizenship bill

Back in April, Teanau Tuiono's member's bill to undo a historic crime and restore citizenship to Samoans stripped of it by Muldoon unexpectedly passed its first reading and was sent to select committee. That committee has now reported back. But while the headline is that it has unanimously recommended that the bill proceed, that masks a very ugly compromise.

The purpose of the bill was to undo Muldoon's historic crime. Lest anyone forget, in 1982 the UK Privy Council - then our highest court, because colonialism - ruled that Samoans born in Samoa between 1924 and 1949 were and always had been New Zealand citizens (and therefore could not be deported). Muldoon's response was to pass a law - under urgency of course - stripping them of that citizenship, unless they were presently in New Zealand. Tuiono's bill was meant to undo that: not just the effect, but also erase the infamous law from the statute book. While its effects would continue, but be ameliorated by a grant as of right, that evil law declaring Samoans to never have been citizens would be gone.

But that was a bridge too far for the political establishment. So instead, a bill aimed at erasing a crime will now perpetuate it, by explicitly retaining Muldoon's racist law while amending it to add the grant provision and a reference to it. The citizenship gained will very explicitly only apply from when it was granted (rather than being recognised as having always been held and never removed), and unlike "normal" citizenship, won't be able to be (and, more importantly for the government, will not have been) passed on to children born outside Aotearoa. Its explicitly called a "citizenship of special nature" for Samoans; a second class of citizenship, if you will. And of course New Zealand can't be expected to make even this limited restitution for our crimes for free, so every single person who wants this second-class citizenship will have to pay for the privilege - albeit at the reduced price of $204.40. The Department of Internal Affairs has to cover its costs, you know! But given the number of surviving victims - maybe 3,400 still alive - the amount of money is utterly trivial to the government: less than a million dollars. They could simply appropriate it and cover the costs as a goodwill gesture. But like full, uninterrupted citizenship, even that was apparently too much for the racists in Parliament.

Both the Greens and Labour wanted the bill to go further, repealing Muldoon's racist law (the diplomatically important section 7 could simply have been moved to the Citizenship Act, where it belongs), eliminating fees, and extending eligibility to descendents born before Samoa became independent in 1962. But NZ First, whose support provides a majority for the bill, said no. The resulting compromise is an improvement on the current situation - some people will have a form of citizenship recognised! Huzzah! - but its also ugly, nasty, and petty. Rather like NZ First, really. It is a long way from what we ought to do, or what submitters expected. About the best that can be said for it is that its something that can be improved upon in future. And that's... not enough.

So, its one cheer for Teanau Tuiono and his bill. I'm sure this is the best he can do at the moment with the Parliament we've got, but no-one should pretend that this is decent, or honourable, or enough. Like everything else happening this term, the next government will have to fix this. Fortunately, Labour has publicly committed to a position. Now we have to hold them to it.

Drawn

A ballot for three Member's Bills was held today, and the following bills were drawn:

• Human Rights (Prohibition of Discrimination on Grounds of Gender Identity or Expression, and Variations of Sex Characteristics) Amendment Bill (Elizabeth Kerekere)
• Medicines (Exemption for Authorised Prescribers) Amendment Bill (Penny Simmonds)
• Restoring Citizenship Removed By Citizenship (Western Samoa) Act 1982 Bill (Teanau Tuiono)

So bills to ensure explicit protection for trans people and right one of Aotearoa's great historic wrongs have been drawn. Unfortunately, they'll be voted on by the next Parliament, not this one, which (on current polling) means a lower chance of passing.

There were 69 bills in the ballot today.

Hoist by his own petard

In 2017, in response to being criticised by anonymous bloggers, then-Samoan Prime Minister Tuila'epa Sa'ilele Malielegaoi restored the archaic colonial offence of criminal libel to Samoa's statute book, ramming it through parliament in under an hour. Now, he's being prosecuted under his own law [paywalled]:

Police have perused a file on a defamation complaint against the Opposition Leader and forwarded it to the Attorney General’s Office for review, as it has recommended the veteran politician be charged.

[...]

Police Commissioner Auapaau Logoitino Filipo said the investigation has been completed and referred to the Attorney General’s Office for review, when contacted by the Samoa Observer on Wednesday.

He confirmed that there are recommendations to press charges but it is subject to a review by the Attorney General’s Office.

But enjoyment at seeing a failed tyrant hoist by his own petard aside, this is bullshit. Defamation should not be a criminal offence. And that's even clearer when you look at what Tuila'epa is accused of:

Tuilaepa had accused Olo of ignoring Government policy and Treasury Instructions on the purchase of Government official vehicles when making purchases in Australia.

He claimed the Minister could have bought the vehicle locally at a discount price.

"Politician criticises other politician and accuses them of lying" is not something that should ever be any business of police. Samoa's new government should repeal Tuila'epa's law.

Undoing Muldoon's crime

A little over 40 years ago, Falema'i Lesa won her appeal before the Privy Council, which ruled that she - and every other Samoan born under New Zealand colonial rule - was a New Zealand citizen. Then-Prime Minister Rob Muldoon didn't like that, so he had an urgent law passed stripping citizenship from all Samoans outside New Zealand. It has been called "New Zealand's most racist immigration law", and it is a permanent stain on our relations with Samoa.

And now the Greens are planning to fix it. Green MP Teanau Tuiono had a Restoring Citizenship Removed By Citizenship (Western Samoa) Act 1982 Bill in the ballot this morning. The bill isn't online yet, so I'm not sure about the fiddly bits, but if it does what it says on the label and reverses Muldoon's racist law, then it will remove a stain from our history. The Greens have an open letter in support of the bill; you can sign it here.

A WTF moment in Samoa

In a democracy, laws are made by elected politicians. But apparently not in Samoa, where a highly controversial law was changed unilaterally by an HRPP cabal after it had been passed and signed:

A parliamentary inquiry into anomalies discovered in constitutional amendments linked to the operations of the Land and Titles Court has recommended charges against those responsible.

A Special Inquiry Committee report highlighted those it claimed were behind the amendments, which resulted in changes being made to the Act of Parliament without due processes, who “appeared to have breached” Standing Orders and Revision and Publication Act 2008.

In one of the four main recommendations by the Committee, the report stated that the matter should be referred to the Office of the Attorney General, and the Ministry of Police to press relevant charges against those involved.

The report points the finger at the President of the Land and Titles Court and the former Attorney General, who each demanded changes after the law had been passed and signed, and the former Clerk of the Legislative Assembly, who had it recalled for changes. The changes - which had not been approved by parliament, and were well beyond mere typos - were made to a constitutional amendment, effectively bypassing the amendment process and supermajority requirement. And one of the results has been to completely bork the law, effectively disabling the Land and Titles Court (existing judges can only hear old cases, and new judges cannot be appointed).

(As for criminal charges, the obvious one is forgery: "mak[ing] a false document [in this case, one altered without authorisation - I/S], knowing it to be false, with the intent that it in any way be used or acted upon... as genuine". But proving that those responsible knew they were not authorised to make the changes, rather than being merely utterly arrogant or incompetent, might be tricky).

This is appalling, and it raises serious questions about the quality of governance and democracy in Samoa under the HRPP. But it also raises a more pressing question: how many other times has this happened? They're going to have to re-check everything now, just to make sure nothing else has been slipped through without legislative consent.

Game over for the HRPP

Since its election loss earlier this year, Samoa's Human Rights Protection Party has been pinning its hopes on the upcoming by-elections to regain power. That was a pretty forlorn hope - with 18 seats, they would have had to win all seven by-elections and have two additional women appointed to gain a majority - but now it is over. The Supreme Court ruled today that the HRPP's candidate for Falealupo was ineligible, meaning that the FAST candidate will be elected unopposed and the government will have 27 seats. And that means that the HRPP cannot win a majority now even if they win every remaining by-election and have the maximum number of women appointed (which, as one of their candidates is a woman, would be one).

So, the HRPP are not just going to regain power next week. They lost. Now they'd better get used to that fact.

Samoa's opposition should be sworn in

On Monday, in response to a refusal by HRPP MPs to accept the proper process for being sworn in, Samoa's speaker banned them from parliament. Because they'd also called for a mob, he took the unprecedented step of banning the public too.

These decisions were reasonable at the time. MPs are not allowed to sit and vote until they have been sworn in, and the HRPP's refusal to accept the process effectively made them strangers and not entitled to be present. Their threat to disrupt parliament justified prohibiting their entry. But after Tuesday, the HRPP apparently accepted that they needed to follow the proper process, removing any justification for the ban. Despite this, the speaker continued to prohibit their entry, and at one stage the police threatened to remove them by force. The idea that elected representatives wanting to be sworn in can be barred from doing so by riot police is monstrous, and a mockery of democracy.

The HRPP have now gone to court over the issue, and the supreme court is holding an urgent hearing. So far the court has issued an interim order prohibiting the speaker from taking any measures affecting the HRPP MP's membership of parliament, stopping him from simply declaring their seats vacant. The fact that this was seen as necessary shows a significant distrust of the speaker and the government by the courts, and says a lot about how toxic and arbitrary Samoan politics has become as a result of Tuilaepa and his constitutional crisis.

There will apparently be a ruling later today, and I fully expect the court to order the speaker to stop being a dick and swear in the opposition MPs. While the constitution is silent on the matter (because it seems obvious), the idea that elected MPs would not be allowed to take their seats is simply monstrous and cannot stand in a democracy. And the fact that FAST is even trying to argue it is discreditable and gets their government off to a very bad start. If they want to bring change to Samoa, they should start by ending the HRPP's undemocratic practices and abuse of parliamentary procedure, not by continuing them.

Update: And just minutes after I posted this, the court delivered the expected ruling, ordering that HRPP MPs be sworn in ASAP. I wonder if those who attempted to undermine the judiciary by accusing it of bias will eat their words now?

Childish bullshit continues in Samoa

Samoa's parliament will sit tomorrow, for the first time since it was sworn in in May. But that first sitting only included FAST party MPs. As for the HRPP, they will not be allowed to attend tomorrow.

The context here is that the HRPP - or at least the tyrant Tuilaepa - is refusing to be sworn in by the legitimately elected Speaker, insisting instead on either a whole new state opening and re-swearing of the Speaker and all MPs, or that they be sworn in by the head of state in violation of standing orders. The Speaker is insisting that standing orders be obeyed - in particular the requirement that no MP can sit or vote in the house until they have been sworn in. The obvious solution is for HRPP members to turn up and be sworn in as required, but that would mean accepting the authority of the courts and the legitimacy of the government which threw him out of office, which appears to be too much for Tuilaepa's inflated ego to handle.

A complicating factor is that Samoa's standing orders require MPs to attend, and allow them to be unseated if they fail to attend for three successive days (something Tuilaepa was attempting to weaponise pre-election when opposition MPs were skipping two days in a row to campaign). Its unclear how this applies to unsworn MPs, but there's a possibility that if they refuse to be sworn in, the HRPP MPs could all be unseated and have to face by-elections. Which would of course go straight to court, and rightly so. In the past the Samoan courts have been reluctant to allow elected MPs to be unseated for trivial reasons, or in ways which appear to be an abuse of power, and I'd expect a high degree of scrutiny on any such decision. It is highly unlikely that any day where MPs hae not been provided the opportunity to be sworn in would count. And the contradiction between members being required to attend but unsworn members being forbidden to gives plenty of scope for the courts to overturn any purported ousting (though they might do so by ordering MPs to attend to be sworn in, which is probably not what Tuilaepa wants).

A second complicating factor is that Tuilaepa has called for a mob to attend tomorrow. Oh joy.

It would be nice if Samoa got a real opposition which accepted its loss and embraced its new role as a way of demonstrating its fitness for power in the future. Instead, their leader continues to engage in this childish bullshit. What's surprising is that his party continues to put up with him.

A final result in Samoa

Samoa's Supreme Court determined the last election petition today, resulting in HRPP MP Loau Keneti Sio retaining his seat. Four other HRPP MPs have been unseated by election petitions, and three have resigned as part of settlements, giving a final election result of FAST 26 — HRPP 18.

Of course, that's not the last word: there will still be seven by-elections, plus the possible appointment of additional women under the 10% quota. But for the moment at least FAST has a secure majority, and they will retain it unless the HRPP wins every by-election and has one (but only one) of them won by a woman. Given the precision of the result required, that seems unlikely, even assuming the last five months of HRPP antics haven't caused voters to change their minds.

Democracy wins in Samoa

Over three months ago Samoa had an election, in which the people voted out the incumbent Human Rights Protection Party and voted in the opposition FAST Party. The incumbent Human Rights Protection Party ignored the results and clung to power, hoping to get their patsy head of state to call another election they could then fix. But on Friday afternoon, their plan came tumbling down, with the Court of Appeal ruling that FAST was the government, and had been since their impromptu swearing-in ceremony back in May. The ruling left the HRPP with nowhere to legally go - there's no appeal, no wiggle room, and no way even to delay things further using the patsy head of state (he can only act on advice, and advice from the old regime is pretty explicitly no longer valid). And so they've finally blinked: the tyrant Tuilaepa started packing up his office over the weekend, admitted defeat last night, and has just given a concession speech to supporters. The new government will formally take power tomorrow, and parliament is scheduled to finally meet on wednesday.

So there's actually a happy ending: the Samoan judiciary actually stared down an attempted executive coup, and forced the results of elections to be respected. And they managed it because both the former government and the Samoan people had enough respect for the rule of law that any attempt to fire them or retain power in the face of a clear ruling of illegality just wasn't going to stick. And because they didn't have an army to fuck things up or give the regime the option of just ruling by force.

There's still unfinished business though. The FAST government has talked about constitutional amendments to plug the gaps exploited by the HRPP to attempt to cling to power, and there'll probably be a referendum on those at some point (since I don't imagine the HRPP will vote for them). And there needs to be a clearout of regime loyalists. The attorney-general has already said she is resigning, and good riddance - she's destroyed her credibility, utterly poisoned her relationship with the judiciary, and made her position with the new government untenable by being an utter patsy of the HRPP. The head of state also needs to go: the court has been clear that he has repeatedly overstepped the constitutional mark and acting in bad faith throughout this. Though his term expires next year, so if he doesn't resign before then, he can simply not be reappointed. But above all, after this debacle Tuilaepa the tyrant needs to resign from parliament and exit politics forever. And hopefully, there'll be people in his party trying to convince him of that right now.

Samoa's women's quota: Have I missed something?

(Narrator voice: Yes, yes I did. See correction at the bottom)

Another election petition was finalised in Samoa today, seeing the first finding of an illegal practice against a FAST candidate (a party roadshow made a customary gift - koha in NZ terms - during a period where these are forbidden). She wasn't disqualified - it was an illegal practice, not a corrupt one - but before I learned that I wondered whether this would affect the operation of Samoa's women's quota. And that rabbit-hole got interesting.

Samoa's constitution requires that a minimum of 10% of parliament be women, with additional MPs appointed if not enough are elected. It has been established by recent court rulings that that (presently) means six women, and that appointments are made after all election petitions and resulting byelections are resolved (and that parliament can sit before that). Section 44(1B) of Samoa's constitution says that the (unsuccessful) candidates with the highest number of votes are appointed. According to the final election results, the top five unsuccessful candidates were:

• Toomata Norah Leota (FAST) (780 votes)
• Gatoloaifaana Amataga Alesana-Gidlow (HRPP) (555 votes)
• Ali'imalemanu Alofa Tuuau (HRPP) (464 votes)
• Lolomatauama Eseta Mataituli (FAST) (292 votes)
• Atuatasi Katifa Bryce (FAST) (244 votes)

(Note that following the resignation of Leota Tima Leavai there are now only four female MPs. There are a bunch of byelections to be determined, which may see women elected or poll well, but on the present numbers, assuming nothing changes that seems to mean Leota and Gidlow would be appointed, with no change in the balance of power).

On 20 April, after these results came out, Samoa's head of state purported to appoint Ali'imalemanu Alofa Tuuau as an additional member. That appointment was later thrown out by the courts, but on the basis that it was made at the wrong time. Meanwhile, I'm left wondering why the third highest-polling unsuccessful candidate was appointed in the first place. Have I missed something?

Correction: And the thing I missed: the clause saying "“Highest number of votes” means the percentage of the total valid votes in a constituency polled by a woman candidate" (which I guess is because Samoan electorates are not equal-sized). So Tuuau has 464 / 1159 votes = 40%, Leota 780 / 2200 votes = 35%, and Gidlow 555 / 1669 votes = 33%, and Tuuau and Leota are first to be appointed if nothing changes.

Running for the exits

Today is another key date in the ongoing Samoan constitutional crisis, with the HRPP-stacked Judicial Service Commission meeting to determine whether to suspend the Chief Justice. Not for any actual misconduct, but essentially because the HRPP doesn't like the decisions he (and other judges) have made. A suspension would only be temporary, until parliament sits, and the HRPP won't be able to actually sack him unless they can rig new elections to engineer themselves a two-thirds majority. But it would publicly threaten other judges - back us or we will suspend you too - and disrupt the ability of the court to continue to hear cases. And the latter may be all that's required for the HRPP to cling to power.

OTOH, its also clear that Tuilaepa's attempted coup is not supported by his own MPs. Yesterday, another three HRPP MP's resigned rather than fight election petitions, bringing the total to six - a quarter of his caucus. Two of those - Leota Tima Leavai and Aiono Afaese Toleafoa - have also agreed not to contest the resulting byelection, while in a third case - former Education Minister Loau Keneti Sio - their FAST opponent agreed not to stand, leading to speculation he plans to change sides and run for FAST. While the reasons for each resignation will differ - Leota is a lawyer and will lose her livelihood if the petition against her succeeds, others may fear being banned from office - the message is clear: Tuilaepa's MPs aren't willing to take any risks for him. Instead, they're running for the exits. And taking Tuilaepa's tenuous claim of an uncertain outcome with them.

As of today, the numbers stand at FAST 26, HRPP 17 (two other HRPP MPs have had their elections voided for corruption). If parliament was allowed to meet, it is crystal clear what the outcome of any vote would be and who would hold its confidence. Which is of course why the regime won't let it happen. There are currently eight byelections lined up (and potentially more to come), and the HRPP has to win every single one of them just to stay in the game. Which seems like a tall order when your own candidates are quitting or switching sides.

Samoa's dictator drops the mask

Last week, Samoa's Supreme Court attempted to end its ongoing constitutional crisis, ordering parliament to meet within a week so that a government could be elected and "the business of the nation can proceed". On Sunday night, the day before the deadline expired, the head of state decided to defy the court, and purported to defer parliament's sitting until August. The court has not yet responded, and the head of state is immune from civil and criminal prosecution anyway, but it looks like there's now going to be an explicit confrontation, rather than the easy, democratic solution the court has been striving for.

Meanwhile, the HRPP, in the aftermath of the court (provisionally) ruling that the May 24th "swearing in ceremony" was unconstitutional and void has escalated again, lodging a criminal complaint against FAST MPs, alleging that they had:

consistently incited members of the public to be hostile, violent and to rise up against the Government of Samoa and calls for charges be brought against him.

Leala'ilepule also said FAST leadership presented themselves as the new and official Government of Samoa.

So, claiming truthfully to have won an election and asking that the government obey the constitution and allow parliament to meet so there is no doubt as to who holds its confidence is inciting violence against the regime. That's some China-level bullshit right there. But it gets worse, because from the Samoa Observer article [paywalled], that second bit appears to be a treason charge:

“F.A.S.T. leaders continued to [allegedly] act as through they were the legally appointed Government of Samoa and have purposely used the force of media [and] live announcements to attempt the overthrow of the Government of Samoa," Leala said.

Like New Zealand's, Samoa's treason law (s40 here) requires the use of actual violence. The idea that media and public statements would qualify is absolutely laughable, and I expect it to be laughed out of court (if it even gets that far). But it does show us explicitly what the HRPP thinks of democracy and democratic advocacy, and its a very ugly picture. When a party in a democracy attempts to have its opponents charged with treason for peaceful advocacy, it is clear that they are no longer committed to democracy.

(As for the "inciting violence" claim, the charge here seems to be s41, "Inciting to hostility". This explicitly requires "circumstances where there is a present risk of lawlessness, violence or disorder in Samoa". It is left as an exercise for the reader to determine whether such circumstances exist anywhere outside the tyrant Tuilaepa's imagination).

Can the courts save Samoa?

On Monday, Samoa's Supreme Court attempted to end the country's ongoing constitutional crisis, ordering parliament to sit within seven days so a government could be elected. The order was backed by an explicit threats that obstruction would be treated as contempt of court and result in the court recognising the FAST Party's outdoor swearing-in ceremony as legal, effectively making them the government. Last night, "caretaker" Prime Minister Tuila'epa Sa'ilele Malielegaoi gave his response: fuck the court:

The caretaker Prime Minister, Tuilaepa Dr. Sailele Malielegaoi, says he will defy court order to convene Parliament, despite the judiciary warning anyone who stood in the way of its ruling could face criminal penalties.

The announcement, made by Tuilaepa on Wednesday evening, also suggests that the nation's long power crisis is far from over as he continued to reject out of hand a decision from the court that the Parliament must convene so that the nation can proceed with the business of Govenment.

A defiant Tuilaepa warned the judiciary was overreaching its powers and seeking to limit his own, saying that one arm of Government should not "like Hitler" seek to assert its authority over another.

Tuilaepa has instead insisted that Parliament can only be "properly constituted" after petitions, by-elections, and the invoking (if necessary) of a requirement that a minimum of six women M.P.s be present in Parliament.

[The Court of Appeal has explicitly ruled that the latter is false, and noted in its most recent ruling that an insistence that all members be present "would allow a minority to prevent meetings of the Assembly". But then, from the HRPP's perspective, that's the whole point, because the moment the Assembly meets, they get voted out and their power and salaries and perks end].

So what happens next? It seems that unless Tuilaepa changes his mind, or the head of state and clerk of parliament simply ignore him and obey the court's order (they are after all the people whose presence is required), there will be an explicit confrontation. The police have so far signalled their obedience to the courts and the rule of law, but its unclear whether that will actually extend to physically dragging Tuilaepa and his recalcitrant ministers from their offices and to jail for contempt. But the HRPP seems to be doing everything possible to back themselves into a corner and force that outcome.

The end of the legal road for the HRPP

Three months ago Samoa had an election, in which the people voted out the incumbent Human Rights Protection Party and voted in the opposition FAST Party. The HRPP ignored the results, attempted to appoint another MP, then when that was ruled illegal by the courts, simply refused to let Parliament meet, triggering a full-on constitutional crisis. There's been a lot of legal back-and-forth since then, as well as an election petition which has removed any doubt as to FAST's majority, but there have been two significant decisions in the last few days which mean that the HRPP has hit the end of the legal road. In the first, delivered on Friday, the Court of Appeal clarified an earlier ruling to make it clear that parliament could convene before all election petitions and by-elections were resolved. And in the second, delivered today, it ordered parliament to sit within seven days, and that any attempt to interfere with this would constitute contempt of court.

This is the end of the legal road for the HRPP. They've been trying to prevent parliament from meeting because on the current numbers, the "caretaker" Prime Minister Tuilaepa will be voted out and their regime will end (they've even been willing to do this at the cost of creating a budget crisis and government shutdown). But now there's an explicit order, applying to the head of state, the former Speaker, the Clerk, the Attorney-General, and all the other people who have worked for two months to frustrate democracy. And its backed not just by a threat to find people in contempt, but an explicit threat that the court will decide that FAST's swearing-in ceremony was valid and lawful and that they are therefore the legal government if those people don't do their jobs, let parliament meet, and allow them to be sworn in properly ASAP. There seems to be nowhere for the HRPP to hide anymore: they either obey the court, or become criminals. The worry is that, even with that threat, its unclear which option they will choose.

A long-overdue apology

The New Zealand government is going to formally apologise for the "dawn raids" which targeted Pacific peoples in the 1970's. Good. Terrorising people on the basis of their race was wrong and something which should be a lasting shame to New Zealand. But there's another wrong they need to apologise for, and that is Muldoon's law stripping Samoans of their New Zealand citizenship. This law was immoral, racist, and wrong; it needs to be repealed, people's citizenship restored, the victims compensated, and measures put in place to allow their descendents to claim citizenship by descent should they choose to do so.

Poisoning the well in Samoa

Samoa's Court of Appeal (which is actually the other half of its Supreme Court) will be hearing the appeal on the women's quota on Monday, with a decision due on Wednesday or Thursday. The decision would end any pretended uncertainty about the constitutionality of parliament or who has a majority, and the caretaker regime has apparently promised to respect it. So its quite surprising to see their Attorney-General attempting to have all the judges disqualified:

The office also applied for the disqualification of the presiding judges, “given their potential conflicts of interest and potential favouritism”, a press release from the attorney-general said.

“All four cases between FAST [party] and the Government all went against the Government and favoured FAST ... there is now substantive evidence before our office that is questioning the appearance of impartiality and integrity of the judiciary presiding over this matter,” the attorney-general said.

Alternatively, perhaps the regime lost all those cases because their arguments were weak and their position tenuous? But obviously, that can't be it...

The HRPP's solution is for the case to be heard by overseas judges, who they will appoint. Which will of course take time to recruit, leaving the regime in power. And since in the regime's opinion parliament cannot possibly be convened until this case has been heard, no-one will be able to vote them out. Its just a further example of their attempts to use process to frustrate both democracy and the courts. But its also a clear setup for them to refuse to accept any decision which does not go their way. Which is the real underlying problem here: a government which refuses to accept the judgement of the courts, or more importantly the judgement of the people.

Lessons from Samoa

Samoa's parliament was meant to meet this morning, on the last possible day following their elections in April, to swear in MPs, elect a Speaker, and demonstrate where confidence lies. Instead, the HRPP's former Speaker - who retired at the election and is no longer an MP - took the keys and locked the new parliament out of the building. This is expected to be used by the HRPP as "justification" for new elections: "parliament couldn't meet (because we stopped it), a government couldn't form (because we refused to recognise it), so time for the people to correct their error and endorse us again".

There are no doubt lawyers arguing in the Supreme Court right now to get an explicit order upholding the constitutional requirement that parliament meet today (or just to determine who is Speaker and how far their power under the Legislative Assembly Powers and Privileges Ordinance 1960 extends). Based on the court's previous rulings, there's some hope for a peaceful and democratic outcome. OTOH, with the former government simply refusing to accept the results of elections and nakedly defying court orders, that may be too much to hope for.

What lessons can we draw from this? People often say that New Zealand needs a written constitution (as if our Constitution Act and BORA and other legislation didn't exist), or at the least, that we should nail down more of the current "unwritten" powers in statute to prevent abuses. I support the latter position, because its always useful to know what the rules are. But that's exactly what Samoa did - their constitution eliminated the reserve powers, and specifically enumerated the head of states powers to call and dismiss parliament and the circumstances in which that could happen. And none of that helped. The problem in Samoa isn't that constitutional powers are unclear, giving scope for disagreement, but that the HRPP are wilfully ignoring them, and ignoring the courts when they do their duty to interpret the constitution.

What ultimately protects democracy is not just clear constitutions - that helps, but the USA is a perpetual counterexample - but politicians actually being democrats, and respecting democracy and the rule of law. Samoa's problem is that the HRPP, or at least its leadership, don't (and this has been clear for a while, with their constant attempts to prevent other parties from forming to challenge them, and to bring the judiciary under their thumb). Instead, Tuilaepa is basicly a Pacific Trump. And once that poison is in your system, you need to excise it quickly, before it infects everything. Hopefully Samoa is up to the job.