If there were a single word to describe this Labour Government then it probably would be ‘unlawful’. Wednesday saw yet another example of unlawful behaviour from the Government, along with the Speaker Adrian Rurawhe, both dancing on the head of a pin in order to avoid Meka Whaitiri being bundled out of Parliament as required by the law.
Meka Whaitiri will remain an MP, Speaker Adrian Rurawhe has ruled, after facing another round of questions about whether she’d accidentally resigned as an MP altogether.
Rurawhe also said he could not release the communication he received from Whaitiri. He said it would break confidentiality MPs expected the Speaker to uphold, but he added nothing was stopping Whaitiri from releasing the messages.
Stuff has asked Whaitiri and Te Pati Maori if they would release the communications. Neither Maori Party co-leader, nor Whaitiri, who Rurawhe said would be considered an “independent MP” in the House, appeared during the debate on Thursday.
Rurawhe reaffirmed Whaitiri’s position on Thursday, after a second round of questioning about why the “waka jumping” provision didn’t apply to her. In 2018, Parliament introduced a law which was meant to stop MPs defecting without triggering a by-election.
He said Whaitiri could stay in Parliament, and be considered an independent MP, as the process for being ousted was very specific, and he said it had not been met.
Announcing her defection on Wednesday, Whaitiri said: “This morning I have officially notified the Speaker I have resigned from the New Zealand Labour Party and have joined Te Pati Maori.”
Had she sent a letter to the Speaker, stating she’d “resigned” as a Labour MP and wants to be considered a Maori Party MP, then public law expert Dr Dean Knight said she’d need to contest a by-election under the updated Electoral Integrity Act.
Despite Whaitiri’s public statement, Rurawhe said: “I have not received any letter of resignation, signed or unsigned.”
He added, “Like you all, I have seen media coverage saying the honourable Meka Whaitiri intended to leave one party to join another. But those statements themselves do not cause the member’s seat to become vacant.”
Stuff
We now have a farcical situation where Meka Whaitiri is supposedly three MPs; a Labour Party MP, a Maori Party MP and an Independent MP – all at the same time!
The Speaker should release all correspondence he has had with Whaitiri and the Labour and Maori parties on this issue. By refusing, and relying on Whaitiri to release them, he just makes this a joke on all of New Zealand. Whether she is still an MP should not be something decided behind closed doors with no sunlight. Release the correspondence and let us see for ourselves what she wrote.
It makes the law, such as it is, a joke too. But the law has never stopped this Labour Government and its agents from acting illegally.
They broke the law with the first lockdown. The Police knew it, Crown Law knew it, the Solicitor-General knew it and the Government knew it, but they did it anyway. Then they sought to hide the fact and attacked me and Barry Soper when we leaked the Crown Law advice, trying to say that the advice wasn’t what it was.
Then they broke the law with the vaccine mandates. Then again with MIQ quarantines, and denying citizens entry to New Zealand.
The Police acted unlawfully during the Wellington protest at Parliament, and all that was swept under the carpet.
This Government expects the rest of us to obey the law but they never seem to obey those same laws themselves.
Now they are contorting themselves to provide an electoral stitch-up designed to strengthen their position ahead of the election and that of their putative coalition partner, the Maori Party. This is all part of the subterfuge to hide the bloodless coup currently underway in New Zealand to replace, not just the rule of law, but also the basic premise of democracy, in order to force us all into a handover of power to a tribal elite and in the process abrogate our parliamentary democracy in order to install tribalist and separatist rule across the land.
These latest shenanigans just prove that this Government is unlawful in intent and in actions.
It rather raises the question though, why should we follow the law when our government can’t or won’t?
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