{"id":113,"date":"2025-02-27T17:30:00","date_gmt":"2025-02-27T04:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/petesi.me\/?p=113"},"modified":"2025-11-14T02:31:48","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T13:31:48","slug":"a-four-year-term","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/petesi.me\/index.php\/2025\/02\/27\/a-four-year-term\/","title":{"rendered":"A four year term?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Almost every day it\u2019s like \u201cidiot government does idiot thing\u201d, but this really takes the cake. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rnz.co.nz\/news\/political\/543151\/four-year-parliamentary-term-legislation-to-be-introduced-would-go-to-referendum\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.rnz.co.nz\/news\/political\/543151\/four-year-parliamentary-term-legislation-to-be-introduced-would-go-to-referendum\">The proposal for a four year term<\/a> in New Zealand is a retrograde step that is not healthy for our democracy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I was against this when Labour floated it and I\u2019m against it now that National is advancing legislation for a referendum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Efficiency shouldn\u2019t be the primary motivator. After all, the most efficient government would be a dictatorship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I don\u2019t want my opportunities for democratic participation to be reduced. This proposal would do that. It is at its core anti-democratic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We don\u2019t have a system of checks and balances in place in New Zealand. There is no veto option for a head of state, there is no upper chamber, there is no supreme law the courts can apply to strike down unjust laws.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Parliament\u2019s rule is absolute and it can already bypass normal processes under urgency to enact its programmes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Elections every three years serve as a good safeguard against complacency and bad law in an otherwise fairly lax constitutional environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If there were other safeguards in place, I\u2019d reconsider. But given how powerful Parliament is in New Zealand\u2019s system I am strongly against this measure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Almost every day it\u2019s like \u201cidiot government does idiot thing\u201d, but this really takes the cake. The proposal for a four year term in New Zealand is a retrograde step that is not healthy for our democracy. I was against this when Labour floated it and I\u2019m against it now that National is advancing legislation &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/petesi.me\/index.php\/2025\/02\/27\/a-four-year-term\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;A four year term?&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/petesi.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/petesi.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/petesi.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/petesi.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/petesi.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/petesi.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":163,"href":"https:\/\/petesi.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113\/revisions\/163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/petesi.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/petesi.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/petesi.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}