A little noticed incident shows that to the New Zealand National Party, democracy is something to be endured and tolerated, but also something to be dismissed if it gets in the way of corporate interests.
Agriculture Minister David Carter said of the National Party-led Government’s usurping of democracy in Canterbury, "I would have thought what happened recently with Environment Canterbury would be a signal to all regional councils to work a bit more constructively with their farmer stakeholders."
What Carter revealed is that the reason the National-led Government usurped democracy in Canterbury is that it didn’t do as farmers dictated. Don’t like cow shit in you water? Tough! Clearly the National Party thinks cow shit in the water is more important than democracy.
The National Party has desperately tried to spin their usurpation of democracy as being “necessary” when the evidence clearly shows it was only done to advance the interests of farmers. That begs the question: What else will offend the National Party enough to cause them to end democracy? Are ANY of use safe?
2 comments:
Sheesh! I used to live not far from the Waitaki River down there, and I can nderstand that there are some pretty strong feelings on both sides of the debate which really slows things down if you're trying to push an initiative through, but that's pretty worrying.
You're right, and water issues always stir strong passions. Quite honestly, I don't know which side is right about the water management issues in Canterbury, but that's not really the point: The National Party-led government's willingness to usurp democracy just because it doesn't like what democracy delivers is despicable.
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