If Referendums Aren’t Binding What Is the Point?

Call me cynical, but it seems to me that our political history has shown us that referendums are nothing more than a tool in a government’s toolbox. If the will of the people matches the intentions of the government then they can claim they are giving the public what they want: a veneer of democracy, if you will. When the results of referendums do not match the intentions of the government, however, it is no loss for the government because they are not legally binding.

The cannabis referendum is a case in point as the government is not going to meekly surrender to the will of the people on this one. Not when there is so much lucrative revenue to be made by feeding the nation’s habit.

Pro-cannabis commentator Damien Grant wants the PM to ignore the cannabis referendum because he claims that it is “the right thing to do”.

He points out that New Zealand has a history of referendums being ignored.

Never mind. The referendum result presents this government with the opportunity to do something that many past governments have done: ignore the results.

John Key happily defied the wishes of a 2012 referendum when he sold off shares in a range of state-owned utilities, just as he previously ignored a 2009 vote to allow parents to hit their children. We have a happy tradition of discarding referendum results.

Thanks to the lockdowns destroying our economy, Jacinda Ardern is going to be looking for ways to raise revenue and cut expenditure. The kill Granny referendum has given her carte blanche to save money on palliative care as she can justify it as being the will of the people. After all, it is much cheaper to kill ill people than it is to care for them. I can see the new slogan now, “You have to kill to be kind.”

There is far too much filthy lucre in drug dealing for Ardern to listen to the will of the people on cannabis. All she has to do is mumble about how close it was and how there isn’t a strong enough mandate. The Labour party’s mandate, however, is huge and Ardern is going to be sorely tempted to make use of that political capital.

Referendums are like when Mum and Dad ask the children where they would like to go out for dinner. When the kids choose the restaurant that the parents wanted to go to they say yes. When they don’t, the parents have the power of veto. Referendums are an expensive and pointless exercise to give the public the illusion that they have power and choice on important issues.