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Janine McVeagh's avatar

Mine was one of the 23,000 submissions on the bill - a week near Christmas in which I think I wrote 4 or 5 submissions on all the bad laws being proposed. Like almost all of them, it was probably unread by a human and airily dismissed by the Evil One as having nothing substantive to contribute. One of the chilling things he says that is that a future government won't be able to undo it - they would be sued by those corporations if they did. Under that law. Please do spread this far and wide.

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Judy McDonald's avatar

Again, please make this shareable. This bill has been snuck in under the radar right from the beginning, and it's hard not to suspect that the Treaty Principles Bill was a mere smokescreen to deflect attention from this monstrosity. If passed, it exposes New Zealand to the full force of crippling legal action from any big business that wants to exploit our resources (and presumably our workers). It must be stopped.

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Bryan Bruce's avatar

Thanks Judy it's free to read

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Dugald's avatar

Thank you Bryan. Please keep us up with progress on when submissions become available. The blatant ideology is both shocking and worrysome.

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Melanie Nelson's avatar

It really is Dugald. Great you are planning to make a submission

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Dugald's avatar

I most definitely shall. Did it for the treaty principles bill too. Seem to be getting more appalled and politically active the older I get. Don’t believe that all oldies are for Winston!

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Melanie Nelson's avatar

Even those that are for Winston should be asking him not to support this Bill any further!

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Amy Williams's avatar

Thanks for asking for that, I was getting confused previously because I missed the first window and need to know when I can submit too, after I understand it all a wee bit more fully.

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Colin Cherrie's avatar

Very worrying that this is where we're now at ... about to sell out the heart and soul of the Nation, all to merely increase Oversea Corporations profit margins.

Equally worrying is Luxon's nonchalant attitude towards this Bill being processed. Is this Bill his pay-off for his Ego's Quest for Power? Only support Te Tiriti Bill from going so far, but in return to and for Seymour's favour, be completely ho-hum as to whether or not this RS Bill passes?

Moreso worrying is the normalisation of everything seemingly now being rushed through "Under Urgency".... sneak everything through before anyone notices, and to now be doing it continually ... go figure.

To my naive thinking, "Under Urgency" should only apply when in time of crisis, such as natural disaster, war-time ...

certainly not as a cheap political stunt to quickly pass a Bill knowing that it'll be unpopular, or get questioned too much if there's too much input into said Bills if the proper channels are used.

Who is allowing all this "Under Urgency" stuff to happen, and who are doing nothing to stopping it from happening?

Why do we even bother having a People's Government now when the People are excluded from it?

When did my local MP, my representative in Parliament, last visit or call me to ask my opinions on various things that Government could pass, things that will affect my life? I can tell you when ... NEVER ! !

Fake MP's pretending to represent me and my thoughts/opinions in Parliament, and they have absolutely no idea on what I'm thinking, nor are they interested.

My local MP wouldn't even know I existed, so how do they then represent me?

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Liz Francis's avatar

Very good points. Urgency is NOT democracy.

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Dugald's avatar

Great comment Colin. This bulldozering and wrecking ball approach to “governing” is having a devastating effect on our democratic processes. It looks a lot like what’s happening in a certain country north-east of us.

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Keith Simes's avatar

RSB is the Axis Network entrenching private benefits over public good. It supplements two other Acts from earlier neoliberal governments, the Reserve Bank Act and Fiscal Responsibility Act that have put the economic dogma in front of humanity in the government’s decision making. Be afraid, very afraid

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Liz Francis's avatar

Didn't this govt start by undermining funding of humanities education in favour of commerce and science? Reflects inability (or unwillingness) to think outside the commercial square

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Gaylene Middleton's avatar

Thank you Bryan, I am afraid too. I am reading George Monbiot and Peter Hutchison's 'Invisible Doctrine: The Secret History of Neoliberalism'. I had almost thought that Neoliberalism was on the wane with Grant Robertson's Wellbeing Budget. But it is rearing its head again, with a vengeance, with this Coalition Government. I think this Coalition is Neoliberalism par Excellence. How can we extricate our country from this soul destroying system ?

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Bryan Bruce's avatar

One lever of many levers we voters could use is strategic voting. It would only take something like 4500 voters in Epsom and Tamaki to hold their noses and vote National and ACT would lose their influence in parliament.

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Annette Le Cren's avatar

Yes please Bryan make this article shareable and keep us in the loop when it's submission time. I think we won't be given many days to write these knowing Seymour's unbelievable sneaky behaviour. He's now so close to get his nasty piece of work through which would probably make him a very happy man. 😔

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Sue's avatar

The words 'devious' & 'weasel' kept coming to mind while reading this. (And I apologise to weasels everwhere.)

This govt barely even bothers with the thinnest of camouflage for their agenda these days; they are there to make sure that the wealthy become even wealthier, at the expense of everyone else.

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Antony Leonard Davis's avatar

only 500 sleeps till election?, and will any of the politicians raise their heads from the trough long enough to look around?

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Rachel Rose's avatar

Thank you Melanie (and Bryan) for your tireless work in this space.

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Sandy Boyd's avatar

This is truly alarming. Seymour is going to leave a dreadful legacy. I hope that one legacy he will leave is that Kiwis ensure this is the LAST time a libertarian is voted in to any possible position of power. The sets of beliefs they have are atrocious- I was attacked over breakfast once by a (former friend) libertarian who took umbrage at my diet choices because they believed them to be both "pointless" and "anti-trade". I've been to rallies where libertarians have shown up to attack (and I mean attack) the detail and miss the point. So utterly dogmatic to the absolute with no room for debate.

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janetmace.bradbury's avatar

Sleeping? It will keep me awake at night!! Grrrrr!

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Marlies Dorrestein's avatar

Yes, the prospect of this bill becoming law is truly nightmare material..

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Alfred E's avatar

Thank you Brian for the explicit examples of how this bill could operate if it is passed into law as it helps in the understanding of the insidiousness of it. D Seymour and Act, (and indeed C Luxon and National and W Peters and NZ First by their complicity) are truly underhanded, double-speaking and hypercritical.

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T J Homan's avatar

Ditto to keeping us informed when submissions open and what points we should consider we can't just submit that "big business" wins. Thanks

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Gloria Sharp's avatar

Submitting again on this piece of trash. You paint a horrific picture Bryan. Retribution will be sweet in due course we pray.

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Logan Muller's avatar

Bryan, is this reversible under another Govt? I suppose yes … but asking the question

Thanks

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Bryan Bruce's avatar

My understanding is yes , but once legislation like this is passed it can be hard to unravel.

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Logan Muller's avatar

Yeah because so many big companies have their claws into our resources and it would mean breaking contracts at great cost. I hope the next Govt does it and pays the exit fees as the long tiers cost will make the short term

exit fees look minimal. NACT taught us how to break contracts eh 😊 ferries.

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