As flawed as they often are, select committees were the old traditional and time honoured way of making a submission as a member of the public – and voting person – but its been under attack not just in this term of government – but decades ago.
Indeed select committees are the only opportunity for a member of the public to make their views known.
In late January 2025, “Newsroom” journalist Marc Daalder wrote an article titled “Government smashes record for laws passed without select committee scrutiny.”
The subtitle was “The Government has forced more legislation all the way through Parliament under urgency in its first 400 days than any since at least 1987.”
Of course 1987 was when the 4th Labour government known as “Rogernomics”, was showing utter disdain for the people who had elected them in 1984. Public assets were sold to corporate bedfellows with no reference to the public who owned them.
Timely
Newsroom’s article just five weeks ago, was very timely. Yet the main stream media seemed to give it no acknowledgement.
What is alarming is that the present coalition parties, when in opposition, decried the 2017 -2023 Labour government’s disrespect and at times bypassing of select committees and the people’s right to input, is now hypocritically compiling an even more tarnished attitude towards vital democracy as pointed out by Newsroom’s Marc Daalder.
But then the Labour government, virtually in coalition with the Maori and Green Parties, passed ’traffic light’ covid legislation with no select committee.
There was zero public input.
Having no select committee for new law, had probably happened before as National’s PM John Key carried out some covert operations such as sending Maori MP Pita Sharples to the UN to sign an indigenous pact.
There’s nothing wrong with the action – if Key had sought the “okay” from the public. But he didn’t.
ECan Debacle
Among a number, of anti-democratic misdemeanours, one action by the National Key government was totally unprecedented.
Ironically on April Fool’s Day 2010, the then Minister for the Environment Nick Smith and PM John Key and government MPs pushed through Parliament, a bill which sacked the democratically elected Environment Canterbury (ECan) council and replaced it with hand-picked sycophantic state commissioners.
The move outraged the Law Society Rule of Law Committee which denounced the ECan Act as “repugnant” to the Rule of Law. Most were appalled.
But National’s PM John Key and Environment Minister Nick Smith were unfazed.
Labour’s anti-firearm law following the March 15, 2019 mosque shooting by a visiting Australian terrorist who inexplicably was granted a firearms licence and the right to purchase weapons and ammunition, was highly undemocratic.
It did go to select committee but it was farcical.
No Credibility
According to reports there were some 12,000 submissions, but the Jacinda Ardern led government, backed by National, rammed it through in a few days, thus defying credibility and integrity.
The law abiding firearm owning public were targeted by the law while criminals and gangs reportedly became better armed (illegally) by under-the-table sales.
MPs need a stern rebuke for their disrespect for democracy and it’s been happening for too long and worse still it’s growing in frequency as Marc Daalder’s article adeptly points out. The coalition government is glaringly guilty.
MPs need reminding they are public servants – not masters or mistresses of the people.
The erosion of democracy is starting to plumb dark depths.
Voters should go to election meetings and in question time express their anger to current MP and candidates.
The erosion of democracy affects every aspect of life besides the environment and outdoors.
And NZ knighted the likes of Ardern, Key, Roger Douglas of “Rogernomics” notoriety!
They should be stripped of their knighthoods fior the damage they did to democracy.
Democracy no longer exists in modern day politics. Leadership requires listening to the people, and if there’s one thing our politicians lack, it’s leadership.
Yes a crying shame as mostly when ever they Legislate these days it either costs us Mugs our money or our Freedom ! Also doing dodgy Free Trade deals with NO MANDATE ? we should NOT be doing an FTA deal with India until they sort out their serious corruption & scams !! A local small family firm in Marlborough, that exported mega bucks worth of produce for India & NEVER got a full payment ? got ROOKED for Thousands $$ ! PM Luxon & Tod McClay along with their Public Servants haven’t done their homework & our Kiwi Democracy is well out of the Window.
The cartoon at bottom says how select committees operate today, thanks to deceitful MPs.
New Zealand governments have used legislative urgency for decades to bypass standard parliamentary procedures, extend sitting hours, and fast-track laws without public select committee scrutiny. This practice, embedded in Parliament’s Standing Orders, has been utilised across different eras by both National and Labour-led administrations.
As far back as 1970s–1980s, Prime Minister Robert Muldoon heavily relied on fast-tracking and urgency to push through large-scale “Think Big” economic projects and limit legislative debate.The governmebnt under Lange, Shipley, Bolger and Key all were guiltry.
A Victoria University research said “Most troublingly, there have been periods since MMP was introduced when governments used urgency to avoid select committee scrutiny far too often, and without evidence of adequate justification.”
What we see here in New Zealand .. is there is no such thing as a “good government”.
Just the lesser of evils.
It’s true, our immediate past government (led by Jacinda Ardern, with her cronies Chris Hipkins and Grant Robertson) was truly evil, leaving our country with tens of billions of wasteful taxpayer debt (something like a doubling of public debt).
But all governments seem to follow their own agendas.
They are not supposed to.
All decisions should truly be made in the nation’s best interests.
Democracy should be upheld, at all costs.
And all situations should be managed in the best interests of the people .. from a big picture perspective.
Successive governments act as if they must think we’re stupid.
(The problem being, so many people tend to behave as if they actually are …)
It’s galling to feel the affects of policies referenced above. My house was badly damaged in the 2011 earthquakes and we rebuilt on the site within the planning rules of the time but both National and Labour later conspired to order all tier one cities in New Zealand to adopt high density planning rules that could allow 3 houses to be built one site and up to 12 meters high stripping adjacent homes of sunlight and privacy. My new property was included in such a zone, so I sold up and moved from the city to peace and quiet adjacent to a golf course in a lovely town. Enter Jones and Bishop who introduced the fast-track legislation and when the golf course got into financial strife was sold to developers who want to use the fast-track legislation to change the golf course recreational zoning to residential zoning and build 1,000 homes on it. The legislation provides a pathway for developers to by-pass the normal change of use process where residents get the opportunity to submit on their neighbourhood. 16,000 petitioners have signed a petition against the developer being able to use the fast-track legislation to by-pass the local body planning rules which National and New Zealand First should heed in this election year. But both examples reflect poor democracy.