The Sunday Long Read

Shamocracy

Shamocracy

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When the history of the 2023 to 2026 National,ACT and NZ First Coalition government is written, it will surely be marked as a period when our democratic way of life in New Zealand was put most at risk. For while Ministers like David Seymour pay lip service to the importance of discussion and debate their behaviour betrays the fact they cannot abide criticism.

In its first 100 days, the coalition cut off public consultation in parliament by declaring urgency eight times to pass 61 stages of 21 different bills, 13 of which were passed entirely under urgency. Typically, the average number of bills passed under urgency across an entire parliamentary term is 10.

The coalition has effectively reduced the number of troublesome questions about the damage we might be doing to our environment by introducing Fast Track legislation which, in all likelihood, will allow projects, such as offshore sea bed mining by Australian Trans Tasman Resources or Canadian owned OceaniaGold’s desire to dig a motorway sized tunnel under a Kauri forest, to by-pass the Environment Court.

It has hobbled The Public Service by putting the fear of unemployment into those who remain and taking a leaf from the Trump Supreme Court playbook the right-wing Coalition has just stacked the Waitangi Tribunal with user friendly faces.

Why?

I suggest you really don’t have to look any further than the scathing reports the Tribunal has released on many of the coalition’s policies, ranging from the disestablishment of Te Aka Whai Ora (the Māori Health Authority) to the Treaty Principles Bill, which they have bravely done in the face of criticism from coalition ministers - especially those from ACT and NZ First - who convinced Christopher Luxon to include in the coalition agreement that the Government would “Amend the Waitangi Tribunal legislation to refocus the scope, purpose, and nature of its inquiries back to the original intent of that legislation”.

So, the first thing that happened was that former ACT leader Richard Prebble was appointed to the Tribunal along with Insurance broker Ken Williamson. Then, last Friday, half the Tribunals members were replaced with appointees such as former NZ First MP Ron Mark.

Those whose warrants have not been renewed include three of the country’s highly regarded experts in mātauranga Maori, namely Professor Linda Tuhiwai Smith, Professor Tom Roa and Professor Rawinia Higgins.

Smith is a distinguished professor at Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi; Roa is a reo Māori and tikanga expert at Waikato University; and Higgins is a Māori language commissioner and chairperson at Te Taura Whiri i te reo Māori, and deputy vice- Māori at Te Herenga Waka - Victoria University of Wellington

While it is true the other members of the Tribunal who retain their warrants and the new members joining them do, at face value, cast a wider political net, never-the-less it seems to me that National’s Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka would not be making these substanial changes if the Tribunal had not been so damning in its criticism of ACT’s proposed Treaty Principle legislation - the underlying agenda of which is to stop Treaty considerations getting in the way of overseas based companies doing whatever profit making venture they want to exploit the resources of our country.

How did it come to this?

As with many simple questions the answer is complex, but here are a few factors that come to mind.

1. Given the mandate for transformational change in their 2020 landslide victory Labour failed to capitalise on that promise. Yes you can argue the Covid epidemic got in the way, but it often takes a crisis to usher in economic and social change. The Covid epidemic could have been such a moment, but Labour let it slip away. Why? Because at heart they are still a neoliberal party that believes, in ordinary times, the government should not be involved in the marketplace.

The result? Disillusioned left-wing voters, many of whom just stayed home at the last election.

2. Labour, like the Democrats in the USA , are no longer connecting with non-university educated New Zealanders in the way they once did. According to the Electoral Commission site 33% of Māori didn’t vote and 22% Pakeha didn’t vote at the last election. The left need to work harder on convincing these non-voters that not voting is in fact a vote for the parties that you really don’t want in power because they will make your life more miserable than it is already.

3. Our MMP system of votingis problematic in that it allows minority parties to gain a disproportionate level power, as we see in our current government. The Single Transferable vote system, as they have in Australia and where voting is compulsory, tends to counteract the kind of tail- wagging- the- dog Coaltion we are currently witnessing.

4. Money and Influence.

The National Party raised an unprecedented $2.3 million from 24 major donors in 2022, marking a significant boost to their campaign resources. The ACT Party secured $1.1 million in large donations during the same period. In contrast, the incumbent Labour Party garnered $150,000, including a $50,000 contribution from the family of Les Mills gym owner Phillip Mills. The Green Party benefited from $122,000 through tithes from its co-leaders, while the New Zealand First party received a $35,000 donation from Tom Bowker.

While raising lots of money doesn’t guarantee your party will win an election– it sure helps!

5. Spineless Leadership

Not with-standing all of the above one of the reasons I think our democracy is in trouble is the self- interested leadership of Prime Minister Christopher Luxon.

Take for example the upcoming Waitangi Day Celebrations. The unique thing about our nation is the Treaty signed between the Crown and indigenous Māori at Waitangi in 1840. It’s an agreement considered so important that it’s significance is marked by a National holiday.

And yet , Luxon has announced he won’t be attending Waitangi to represent the Crown. It’s not a good call because not only will protests follow him wherever he goes, it’s am insulting decision that will fuel the racial divisiveness I our country. A strong leader faces up to difficult situations. Governor Hobson fronted for the original meeting at Waitangi he didn’t just send his clerk to do the honours.

So where is the hope?

For me it is in the huge protest against the Fast Track legislation we witnessed last year and in the enormous Hikoi calling out the Treaty Principles Bill.

We need to wake up as many of our friends and whanau to the fact that we are living in a Shamocracy and unite to claim back our country for the benefit of the many not the few.

If we want to end austerity budgets and the politics and economics of selfishness that is neoliberalism, if we want to have more government control over our housing market and financial houses as it once did, if we want to have a country built on the principle of fairness where every child gets the chance to be the best they can be, then we need to organise , openly protest and make our voices heard in the run up to the 2026 election.

Because if we allow this current Coalition to rule for a further three year term , then the rich will have well and truly captured our democracy.

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