When unelected officials dominate the local democratic process

• Bryce Edwards writes – 

Dysfunction and dissatisfaction appear to pervade many local government councils at the moment. Increasingly, the blame for this is accumulating around the role of the bureaucracy – the unelected officials and consultants, who stand accused of overstepping their mark and becoming the real decision-makers in local democracy.

In numerous councils around the country, elected councillors complain that the council officials, and often their council’s chief executive, have usurped the power to make decisions or at least come to dominate the elected councillors in their decision-making. This is a fundamental problem for the principles of democracy, in which the bureaucracy is supposed to serve those with the elected mandate.

The censors who’ll save us from ourselves… yeah right!

• Nick Hanne writes –

There’s a common malady suffered by bureaucracies the world over. They wish to save us from ourselves. Sadly, NZ officials are no less prone to exhibiting symptoms of this occupational condition.

Observe, for instance, the reaction from certain public figures to the news the Department of Internal Affairs has abandoned the formation of a new online super regulator. Without the new state entity criminal activity, according to these critics, we’ll now have free rein on the internet.

YVONNE VAN DONGEN: So proud

Ratepayers might well ask why they are subsidising people who peddle the lie that it is possible to be born in the wrong body and people can change sex. The preponderance of events advertising as ‘queer’ is a gender ideology red flag.

• Yvonne Van Dongen writes – 

It being Pride Month, my local library is holding a pronoun badge-making workshop all February.

Bonkers though this may be, it is marginally less disturbing than rainbow rhyme time for children featuring queer songs, stories and games at another library or drag queen bingo showcasing the giant in womanface known as Trinity Ice last seen monstering women at the Let Women Speak event in Albert Park last year.

MIKE GRIMSHAW: It’s about critiquing power, stupid!…

Or the societal necessity to support (yet critique) Academic Freedom and Free Speech.

• Mike Grimshaw writes –

The other day I attended the Free Speech Union AGM and was on the Academic Freedom panel. It was an interesting experience because while I am a committed supporter of Free Speech and Academic Freedom, in many ways this was a field trip into communities who see the world quite differently to how I do. That in itself is not an issue because central to both free speech and academic freedom is the central necessity of allowing and protecting a true diversity of opinions, beliefs, and attitudes.

I am old enough to remember when the opponents of free speech and academic freedom were seen to be the forces of the right, both socially and politically. It was conservative attitudes, laws, values, and communities that sought to implement and maintain limitations on free speech and to oppose and constrain academic freedom.

STEPHEN FRANKS: Press seek to publicly shame doctor – we must push back

The following is a message sent yesterday from lawyer Stephen Franks on behalf of the Free Speech Union.

I don’t like to interrupt first thing Monday morning, but we’ve just become aware of a case where we think immediate and overwhelming attention could help turn the tide. It involves someone I’ve long followed on Twitter with the handle @MomoStJohn.

I followed Momo because of tweets that seemed reassuringly well-informed on issues raised by anti-vaxxers and others suspicious of conventional medicine. There were also many sensible comments and corrections in debates about the collapse of morale and service capacity in our health system. I’ve just learned that she is a senior practitioner and is employed by Te Whatu Ora.

CHRIS TROTTER: The demonstration effect

 

 

She’ll Be Back! A fortnight out from the General Election, with early voting already underway, it is difficult to think of any person the Labour Government would be less likely to welcome than Posie Parker.

 

• Chris Trotter writes – 

WHAT HAPPENED IN AUCKLAND on Saturday, 25 March 2023, revealed the power of officially-sanctioned protest. That power was demonstrated to even greater effect the following day in Wellington.

 

New Zealanders are blessedly unfamiliar with this type of politics, which is more commonly associated with authoritarian regimes such as Viktor Orban’s Hungary, or Nicolás Maduro’s Venezuela. Nevertheless, the mass demonstrations against Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull (aka “Posie Parker”) strongly backed by government ministers and the state-owned media, revealed just how potent a weapon the mass mobilisation of sympathetic citizens by official, or quasi-official, forces backed up by the news media, can be.   

Many academics are nervous about saying what they think – but they should be okay if what they say is mana-enhancing

ACT MP James McDowall alerted us to new research showing an ominous level of apprehension among Kiwi academics about speaking freely at New Zealand universities.  He said this highlights the urgent need for his Member’s Bill, which requires tertiary education institutions to protect freedom of expression.

Curia research, commissioned by the Free Speech Union, found almost half of the academics who responded are concerned about raising differing perspectives or discussing issues related to gender and sex and half don’t feel free to debate or discuss Treaty issues.

McDowall acknowledged that tertiary education institutions are required by the Education Act 1989 and the Bill of Rights Act 1990 to uphold academic freedom and freedom of expression.

But universities have barred speakers and cancelled events citing ‘mental harm’ to students.

“Essentially, there are no consequences if an institution actively inhibits freedom of expression without legitimate cause.”

His Bill requires tertiary education institutions to protect freedom of expression, including the issuing of codes of practice that set out the procedures students and staff should follow to uphold freedom of expression, and by ensuring that the requirements of codes of practice are met.