Letter to the Editor, Thursday June 2, 2016

Long-dead concepts

Angela Herbert-Graves (May 17) has learnt a lot about long-dead concepts of sovereignty, even quoting a 1569 Frenchman who called it perpetual power over citizens ... to which after immortal God we owe all things." She goes on about it seeking "to accommodate the long disputed interests of the nobility, the church and the 'lower classes,'" with "the monarch, or alternatively the 'monarch in Parliament,' which had absolute authority and dominion over the land and its peoples. It was that culturally-defined notion of constitutional authority which the Crown brought to Aotearoa after 1840."

This is a blatant falsehood. Moreover, even saying our country's true name clearly chokes in her throat and demonstrates her bias. Her 'Aotearoa' appears nowhere in the Treaty of Waitangi, and was not recognised by either Britisher or Maori.

It must surprise her to know that effective sovereignty has continued to evolve, even to the present day. Following a hard-fought civil war in the 1640s, the British people successfully disposed of the supposed "divine right" of their foolish King Charles I, and the "absolute authority" with which Henry VIII had ruled was disposed of forever. The power of elected representatives - the House of Commons - was increasingly affirmed with the first reform of the constituency in 1832, and a progression until full adult franchise was attained in 1928.

It was in this real spirit of progress that New Zealand became British in 1840, initially as an extension of the colony of New South Wales.

There has been constitutional evolution in New Zealand since, of course, adult male Maori actually getting the vote several years ahead of all others. The last trace of appointed rather than elected members came with the abolition in 1950 of the Legislative Council by the National government of Sid Holland. The most significant recent step was adoption of MMP for election to the House of Representatives.

The well-thought proposals of the Royal Commission to abolish special Maori seats, deemed redundant, was disregarded by Parliament, and the ridiculous 'coat-tailing provision' included to the detriment of true proportionality.

It is only by meddling on both these counts that Marama Fox is an MP today, effectively wielding the balance of power.

Notwithstanding these imperfections, we have as good a constitutional system in New Zealand as anywhere in the world. Witness the long-drawn-out and almost farcical process through which Americans must choose their next chief executive. Ours can be changed by a simple vote in Parliament.

Herbert-Graves' description of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy might be of some academic interest, but its relevance to New Zealand is as remote as the Bolivian constitution, ridiculously advocated by our recent ill-conceived Constitutional Review Panel.

It has been a long and gradual process to eliminate the last traces of special privilege and appointment, not election, to political office. Yet now we have the insidious drive for appointment of unelected members to local bodies solely on account of their ancestry in part, flying in the face of what it has taken so long to achieve.

Our democracy is a precious possession, and we allow meddling with it at our cost. As some philosopher somewhere said, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." Those wise words we forget at our peril.

Bruce Moon
Nelson