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Term of office

Forget four-year terms—too-big-to-fail business has already rendered democracy a façade
Act now and Aotearoa could own Democracy Day 2021

Act now and Aotearoa could own Democracy Day 2021

With Donald Trump’s best prospects now being immediate resignation and prompt a Mike Pence pardon, the United States’ flawed democracy might now survive long enough to face redemption. Shy seven weeks, it is 20 years from the United States election that…

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25% less democracy doesn’t equate to 25% less can-kicking

25% less democracy doesn’t equate to 25% less can-kicking

Blamed for everything from the lack of climate-action mobilisation to the lack of a capital gains tax, to the failure to raise the retirement age, the three-year parliamentary term—it is persistently opined—must go. Evidence for the efficacy of longer parliamentary terms….

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stv bicentennial morphs into march-stealing breakfast

stv bicentennial morphs into march-stealing breakfast

Unless it is Christmas, and it’s on the 25th, there is not good time in December to hold an event. Having said that, Mahurangi Action is in the sublimely salubrious company of the Birmingham Society for Literary and Scientific Improvement in having…

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agm tagged to 14 November town-hall talk

agm tagged to 14 November town-hall talk

To save dragging some of the same folk out twice in one month, Mahurangi Action is tagging its annual general meeting to next month’s Warkworth Town Hall Talk. This is not to suggest that the society is permanently abandoning its salubrious tradition of meeting at…

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You say you want a constitution and less democracy

You say you want a constitution and less democracy

What’s good for doctors of medicine, it would appear, doesn’t apply to doctors of law. The imperative to first do no harm is being violated in the latest proposal by Dr Andrew Butler and Sir Geoffrey Palmer qc, for a codified constitution for Aotearoa. In their second book together…

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Sixth of the best to keep them honest

Sixth of the best to keep them honest

The sixth point of the Chartist’s six-point plan is sublimely simple. To counter parliamentary corruption and bought elections, simply hold far more frequent elections, so that, with the many times more voters called for in the first point: ‘…no purse could…

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Four-year term terminal for turnout long-term

Four-year term terminal for turnout long-term

The need for Aotearoa to have a codified constitution is self-evident. Despite that, the initiative of constitutional lawyer Dr Andrew Butler and former prime minister Sir Geoffrey Palmer, launched in August, has failed to fire up a nation-wide discussion in the mainstream…

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