Dialogue: Stalinists firmly put in their place

By GARTH GEORGE

There's as much chance of a New Zealand politician saying "Sorry, we made a mistake" as there is of an Australian test batsman walking, even when everyone on the ground - except the aurally and visually challenged umpire - knows he's been caught behind.

But it is good to see that institutions and individuals have begun to fight back against the erosion of citizens' rights which the autocratic socialists of the Clark cabinet seem determined to hasten.

How satisfying it was to see the Government back down on the infamous media-gagging amendment to the Electoral Act. How encouraging it was earlier to see the media, determinedly led by Herald editor-in-chief Gavin Ellis, flex their muscles and tell the Government to back off or else.

That the media had to do so owes more to the lack of political savvy of some members of this Administration - notably the dangerous Margaret Wilson - than it does to their Stalinist philosophy of the wielding of power.

Surely anyone with half a brain could have foreseen that if the amendment became law, the media would simply shut out politicians in the lead-up to an election. And since publicity is as important to politicians as the air they breathe, Ms Wilson's typically snide move was sure to backfire.

How good it is to see the Business Roundtable telling the Government to back off from dismissing the Privy Council as our ultimate court of appeal.

This is just critically important, too, because as long as people like Ms Wilson are in a position to dictate, there will always be a danger that the Government will load our High Court and Court of Appeal with judges known to hold the same left-wing liberal views as themselves.

Just as it has loaded the Human Rights Commission with politically correct twits who wouldn't know a human right if it bit them on their bums, and appointed limp-wristed censors who wouldn't recognise an obscenity if it spat in their eyes.

In this campaign at least, more power to the Business Roundtable and I hope it has the courage to continue to bring increasing pressure to bear on those who would deny us the services of probably the most highly respected court in the world.

Just in case you missed it, let me reprint for you the closing sentences of the editorial in the Weekend Herald: "The proposed reintroduction of criminal libel, along with the draconian penalties, is a blatant attempt to stifle both the media and robust debate.

"What it says about this Government is that it cherishes control and conformity. George Orwell summed it up: 'The underlying motive of many socialists is simply a hypertrophied sense of order. The present state of affairs offends them not because it causes misery, still less because it makes freedom impossible, but because it is untidy; what they desire is to reduce the world to something resembling a chessboard."'

And, I might add, a chessboard upon which we the citizens are simply pawns to be moved about at the whim of those who see themselves as the knights, bishops, queens and kings of a ruling elite.

The Government is riddled with them. Take tunnel-visioned Education Minister Trevor Mallard's closing of Auckland Metropolitan College on the somewhat hilarious ground - considering his handling of the education vote so far - that "it is a fundamental right of all students to receive a quality education".

It would never occur to Mr Mallard - to whom lateral thinking would probably cause severe disorientation and vertigo - that there will always be students who want no part of what he might define as "quality education" and for whom alternative programmes must be provided.

Judging by the testimonials I have read, the Metropolitan College was succeeding with some youngsters where all other educational institutions had failed. In such a tough situation, it was inevitable that such successes were few.

But that is no reason to close the place down, any more than it would be a reason to close down an alcohol and drug treatment centre because only a handful of addicts ever get sober or clean. In both cases, just one hopeless young life turned around makes it all worthwhile.

Then there's dim-witted George Hawkins, whose interfering, ham-fisted administration of the police portfolio has betrayed one of the sacred duties of Government - the provision of a well-staffed, well-equipped, proud police force to protect the majority from the villainy of the few.

And, of course, there's the biggest betrayal of a sacred duty of them all - Helen Clark's decision to castrate the Defence Force by scrapping the Air Force's air combat wing.

Now that's what I call a mistake.

* garth_george@nzherald.co.nz