Is it an outrageous abuse of fundamental democratic principles, or an essential power for coherent and stable government? Take your pick. Bill English's declaration that the Government will veto Sue Moroney's paid parental leave bill has outraged Opposition parties who think they have the numbers in Parliament to pass the legislation - see Newswire's Parental leave veto upsets Labour and Greens and TVNZ's Government plan to veto bill undemocratic - Labour.
Leftwing blogger Martyn Bradbury is typically incensed: 'This is the first time in modern political history that the minority have over ruled the majority in our house, it is a moment where the democratic empowerment of majority rule will be overturned by the minority' - see: Government to veto parliamentary majority - welcome to casual fascism.
In the comments Chris Trotter begs to differ, saying that voting on the budget is also part of our democratic process and is essential for a government to function: 'The reason the Executive is able to exercise a veto over legislation like Sue Moroney's PMB is quite simple - and actually quite democratic. Under our Westminster-based constitution the Crown (i.e. the Cabinet) asks Parliament to appropriate a specified amount of money for the purposes of governing the realm. This is the exercise we call The Budget. If it wants more money from the people, it must seek a further appropriation. The veto exists to prevent Parliament from legislating for an increase in expenditure (in this case 12 more weeks of PPL) without, at the same time, appropriating the money to offset it. Only the Government gets to spend money - not Parliament. Parliament's role is to vote money (in the form of taxes, duties and dividends) to the Crown and monitor the way the Crown uses it. The Government, in turn, cannot function unless it has a majority of MPs willing to vote for it's Budget. And we, the people, get to elect the MPs. That's the way our democracy works'.
This is a view shared by Andrew Geddis on Morning Report (listen here), although Geddis agrees that the early announcement of the veto before the bill is even debated is unusual. But blogger No Right Turn, has a different view (backed up with historical detail) in The financial veto and the constitution, and Gordon Campbell says the move 'is about political management, not financial management'.
Peter Dunne, and potentially the Maori Party, appear to be having their cake and eating it too in that case - voting for the budget while at the same time voting for legislation outside of the budget. A more honest approach would have been for National to make the vote one of confidence in the government, forcing their support partners to make the hard call.
In her article, Paid parental leave veto disappoints, Danya Levy reports that Dunne has some hope that the government may change its mind by the time the veto is actually used: 'A lot of water can move under the bridge in that time, there can be very strong public submissions in favour of the bill that created an overwhelming sense it should proceed or the public could strongly opposed to it'. Claire Trevett also thinks this is possible - see her interesting analysis of the Government's motivations and tactics in vetoing the bill: Early veto call keeps hopes in check.