Save us from the Excesses of Government

The government has rushed through legislation that affects a third of the country's citizens and appointing a Minister, constrained by Cabinet collective responsibility, to chair the select committee of the second 'Auckland Bill' . This latest assault on local democracy is just the most recent indication that New Zealand requires stronger protection against the excesses of government. Most substantial world democracies, regardless of the form of its head of state have constitutional safeguards to protect the people from the government. These safeguards include; an upper house, written constitution, substantial separation of powers or an empowered supreme court. New Zealand has none of these protections.

I am not advocating a return to the days when the government was responsible to the governor rather than the House of Representatives. But the line is now so blurred between the House and the Crown, and the Head of State and the Prime Minister that there are now only political constraints upon the Government. I thought that MMP would provide enough of a restraint but this has been eroded by of most the small parties being captured by the government. Our (unwritten) constitutional conventions can be amended solely by Cabinet. Even entrenchment of NZ's electoral legislation can be removed by fifty percent plus one MP.

Only the United Kingdom, Israel, and New Zealand do not have a written constitution. Recent events have convinced me it is time that the NZ people had the debate and decided upon the safeguard of a written constitution, for all our sakes.
Dr. Grant Gillon,