Friday, January 14, 2005
Timing is everything
Sometimes it's not what is said, but when it is said. That could be the case with Don Brash's call for more referenda on issues of national importance, particularly moral and constitutional ones. There's nothing new in what he says -- others with greater credentials have said the same in the past, but without getting any traction. One senses that maybe this time the call will strike a greater chord with the public, perhaps because it was preceded at Christmas by an editorial in The Heraldasking whether middle New Zealand was becoming fed up with the government's social engineering, but didn't know how to make its voice heard.
Two of the contentious pieces of legislation pointed to by Brash were the Prostitution Reform Act and the Civil Union Act, both babies of MP Tim Barnett. The best that Barnett could do in response to Brash was to suggest that referendums are another form of "mob rule".
So now we know what the Labour party thinks of democracy!
Sometimes it's not what is said, but when it is said. That could be the case with Don Brash's call for more referenda on issues of national importance, particularly moral and constitutional ones. There's nothing new in what he says -- others with greater credentials have said the same in the past, but without getting any traction. One senses that maybe this time the call will strike a greater chord with the public, perhaps because it was preceded at Christmas by an editorial in The Heraldasking whether middle New Zealand was becoming fed up with the government's social engineering, but didn't know how to make its voice heard.
Two of the contentious pieces of legislation pointed to by Brash were the Prostitution Reform Act and the Civil Union Act, both babies of MP Tim Barnett. The best that Barnett could do in response to Brash was to suggest that referendums are another form of "mob rule".
So now we know what the Labour party thinks of democracy!
