Posts by Nick Russell
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I don't think there is much chance now of this Government making any sort of effort to explain or promote a law reform proposal. They have decided instead to do their famous impression of that gif where Homer Simpson disappears into the hedge. Just like they did with the capital gains tax proposal. i suspect the best we can hope for now is that we get the same outcome. The Government does nothing to persuade the public, leaving others to fill the vacuum with arguments good and bad (mostly bad). Then it declares there isn't enough of a popular consensus to justify introducing a Bill.
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It seems a bit of a stretch to argue that the proposed reform will somehow narrow the scope of prohibited speech. If you can draw a distinction between speech which is offensive enough to "excite hostility" but is not offensive enough to "stir up hatred", then hats off to you. But I can't really see any distinction at all.
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I can't help but notice how closely the Ministry of Health's scheme for medicinal cannabis seems to resemble the same Ministry's scheme for administrating the Psychoactive Substances Act. A regime which purports to exist for the purpose of regulating a lawful activity is functionally indistinguishable from an outright ban. And the model for legalised cannabis proposed for the referendum looked suspiciously similar. Too many barriers, too much expense, and (surprise surprise) nothing and nobody is ever quite good enough to get through it all. So how the Minister can stand there with a straight face and claim that he expected a different result is beyond me. There's a name for doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.
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Regarding the decriminalisation argument - it is interesting to see there has been some research. But fundamentally, the whole argument about criminalisation disproportionately affecting Maori is a bit of a category error in this context. Maori suffer disproportionately from the illegality of cannabis because the Police are more likely to prosecute them. That's a problem with systemic racism in the Police. Making cannabis legal won't actually make that racism go away. Granted it will give the Police one less opportunity to behave in a discriminatory way. But you'd have to be pretty naive to think legalisation will result in lower rates of convictions or imprisonment for Maori.
And I say this as someone who is voting yes...
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Susied (from the verb "to Susie) - to be the subject of an intense and vigorous interview by someone far, far smarter than you.
Celebrates a national icon and is also a refreshing celebration of the importance of the media in a functioning democracy. I'm not in the habit of praising Simon Bridges, but I heartily appreciate this contribution to the English language.
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Hard News: The Cannabis Legalisation and…, in reply to Mike Chiles,
Yes, and vice versa of course for Labour voters who really don't want cannabis legalised. I wonder how many people will actually cast their votes on this basis? My pick is, not many. It certainly hasn't helped the Greens in the past. I am pretty confident that National will have focus-grouped and polled this issue intensively before deciding to come out so aggressively against it. Maybe they hope to pick up some NZ First voters too.
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All of this would be fine the Government had actually passed the legislation and the referendum was going to be a binding one after which the new legislation would come into force. But it isn't. And it seems pretty likely at least for the time being that National will just cancel the entire exercise if it forms the Government after the next election.
So - there is a very real probability that a lot of people are going to invest their time, money and energy into something that won't happen at all.
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Speaker: Extinction Rebellion is not a…, in reply to Sue Boyde,
Sue - so what? Every activist always says they are only interested in the truth. It's hardly a defining characteristic But you can tell the truth without stopping trains or preventing people from getting to work. It's almost as if XR is more interested in the disruption than the truth of its message.
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Speaker: Extinction Rebellion is not a…, in reply to Russell Brown,
Yeah. It might not be a religion or a cult but its members share the characteristic of believing that they know best and that they have an obligation impose that certainty on everyone else, with or without their consent.
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I don't think we should be getting our hopes up too much about the referendum. The Government's responses to the Tax Working Group and the Welfare Expert Advisory Group have really helped to redefine the word "underwhelming" without accomplishing much else. So the outcome here may be equally lukewarm.