EFB is a crock, National is a saver of face

Fran O'Sullivan discusses the pros and cons of actions taken by Labour and National over the EFB.

She asks the question

What is this Labour Government so frightened of that it seeks to restrain the rights of others to open debate on the policies it introduces, or vigorously protest its actions?

From there,

How else do third party interests, which could range from teachers, doctors to business people, get their message across when the major party in power makes a practice of ramming through legislation without appropriate public consultation?

Rightly put. Non-consultation on such matters of import is most un-democratic and smacks of looking after your own corrupt patch. I would then expect any of the Opposition to be extremely vocal on these matters. But alas no, they are protecting their own patches. Making noise where it suits, without digging too far. National, for instance,

has contested the Electoral Finance bill point by point, but does not vigorously probe legislation where it judges a robust stance might impact on its own electoral chances next year.

It seems that the cost of the climate change legislation being foisted upon us, based on very shonky science, is about to hit us extremely hard in the pocket in the initial implementation phases. Any noise from the Opposition?

Hell no,

National knows this but it will not probe the detail nor even expose the obvious flaws in background policy work because it fears that might jeopardise its chance of making a deal with the Greens if it needs to to hold power after next year's election.

and,

Nor will National politicians raise their voices against NZ First and its leader Winston Peters' more pungent anti-foreigner sallies in case it spoils their chances of forging a post-election deal to get into power.

Also, whilst making a lot of noise about the political interference in the Public Service, there will not be much digging into the underlying policies - National will need the same wishy-washy policies if they ever get to sit on the Treasury benches again.

Both sides are as corrupt and morally bankrupt as each other. Labour more so of late, but then they are all bottom feeding politicians selling their souls looking for their next paypacket and unfortunately we expect nothing more.