«
»

National nukes nukes

June 22nd, 2004 at 10:07 pm by David Farrar

National has announced that it will not make any changes to the anti-nuclear legislation, without a referendum.

This is of course no surprise, as Don Brash has been saying for ages that National would make a change only if there was a referendum or by way of explicit election mandate. Goodness knows how a decision not to change your policy is now seen as a flip-flop but according to TVNZ it is.

So why would National choose a referendum route over an explcit election mandate? Two main reasons in my mind. The first is that once in office, one would want to talk to allies to see if the Creech solution would help improve relations. If it will not, then not much point in prceeding further.

The second and more important is that any change needs to be durable and preferably bipartisan. Only a referendum could do that. The one thing the US wants even less than the status quo,is having their ship visits become a regular election issue where they are in, out, in, out etc.

Now some partisan hacks will scream and rant that National will in fact go ahead and change the law anyway, without a referendum. This is of course lunatic raving as anyone of intelligence can work out.

Does anyone really really sensibly think Don Brash having made an explicit, no room for misunderstanding, commitment to make no change without a referendum, would then go ahead and change the law, knowing it would doom him to one term in office. It would not achieve any benefits at all (as such a law change would not survive the government) and only piss off even your own supporters for having broken your word.

Related posts:

  1. Another idiotic headline
  2. Electoral Act fiddling
  3. MMP Referenda
  4. State Funding of Political Parties
No tag for this post.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 22nd, 2004 at 10:07 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

4 Responses to “National nukes nukes”

  1. GPT Says:
    June 23rd, 2004 at 7:19 pm

    Agree that there is not much room for movement but don’t expect Labour and co to NOT play the nuke issue. Besides a referendum of “Do you support closer relations with the US” could be enough for a mandate!

    I still believe, that no matter what positive points there are (and you make a couple) this was nothing short of a cop out. The Creech report was commissioned to provide some suggestions on a way forward – essentially recognising the fact that most National members do not support a policy which is extremely popular. It seems pretty clear that caucus remains split down politics v common sense lines, and rightly or wrongly, Brash has been left wide open for flip flop calls. In the grand scheme it is a pretty minor ball drop but for mine it is the first time that Don has not come across as a decisive leader.

    Vote: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0 You need to be logged in to vote
  2. Chris Says:
    June 23rd, 2004 at 10:25 pm

    People didn’t think Bolger had the guts to keep the surtax either…

    Vote: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0 You need to be logged in to vote
  3. Jordan Carter Says:
    June 24th, 2004 at 11:09 pm

    Nice to see National adopting Labour policy in this area too… ;)

    Jordan

    Vote: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0 You need to be logged in to vote
  4. David Farrar Says:
    June 24th, 2004 at 11:44 pm

    All parties have learnt from the surtax issue. That is why you will never have a party again act like that.

    Vote: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0 You need to be logged in to vote
«
»