Here are the good folk on the Independent Constitutional Review team. They’re not in on the con
The Independent Constitutional Review has been established by the New Zealand Centre for Political Research in response to the Maori Party’s plan to replace our constitution with one based on the Treaty of Waitangi to give the tribal elite supreme power in New Zealand.
but they’re on to it! Please sign the Declaration of Equality.
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David Round Independent Constitutional Review Panel Chairman Law Lecturer, Canterbury University; NZCPR Associate David Round teaches constitutional law at the University of Canterbury and is author of "Truth or Treaty? Commonsense Questions about the Treaty of Waitangi". |
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Associate Professor Elizabeth Rata Deputy Head of School of Critical Studies in Education, Auckland University. Dr Rata is a sociologist of education specialising in the relationship between education and society. She is Editor of Pacific-Asian Education, Leader of the Knowledge and Education Research Group, a member of a European Union International Research Staff Exchange Scheme, and a former Fulbright Senior Scholar to Georgetown University, Washington D.C. She is the author of numerous books. |
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Professor Martin Devlin (ONZM) Professor Emeritus, Massey University Professor Devlin has a distinguished career in the fields of education – in business, management, entrepreneurship, and corporate governance – in the private business sector, and in the NZ Army. He was appointed an Officer in the NZ Order of Merit, ONZM, in the Queens Birthday honours in 2011 for services to education. He is a fifth generation New Zealander. |
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Professor James Allan Garrick Professor of Law, University of Queensland The Garrick Professor of Law at the University of Queensland, Professor Allan is a member of the Mont Perelin Society, an author and commentator. Canadian born, he practised law in Canada and at the Bar in London before teaching law in Hong Kong, New Zealand and Australia. He has worked at the Cornell Law School in the US and at the Dalhousie Law School in Canada where he was the 2004 Bertha Wilson Visiting Professor in Human Rights |
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Mike Butler NZCPR Associate Mike Butler is a property investor and manager. He is author of "The First Colonist — The life and times of Samuel Deighton 1821-1900", a former contract writer for the New World Encyclopedia, and he was the chief sub-editor of the Hawke’s Bay Herald-Tribune between 1986 and 1999. |
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Dr Muriel Newman Convenor of the Independent Constitutional Review NZCPR Founder and Director Muriel Newman established the public policy think tank, the New Zealand Centre for Political Research, in 2005 after nine years as a Member of Parliament. Her background is in business and education. She currently serves as a director of a childrens’ trust. |
All those Credentials!
Absolute democracy is as great a threat to justice and freedom as any other totalitarian form of government.
The Mandate of the majority is a good way to determine who governs, yet it is thoroughly unsatisfactory in determining how they govern or what law they generate.
There must be principles of justice which any proposed law must comply… not merely the fact that a majority in parliament want that law enacted.
This is what the rule of law means.
This Independent Constitutional Review Team appreciate this in respect to racial equality before the Law. ie they want a constitutional restraint which forbids parliament making race based laws.
Yet this is only one of the necessary restraints on parliamentary power.
There are many others, which include such things as Private property, self defense, and Personal freedom, yet we don’t hear anything from these guys about these other essentials.
Muriel Newman has a history of speaking out against such things as the persecution of Cigarette smokers, yet we don’t see anything about this type of abuse of power from this ‘independent group’.
“My main concern is the amount of focus on the treaty.
There is almost nothing being debated about what other protections a proper constitution ought to embody to keep political agendas in check.
I am fully supportive of what is being done to end Waitangi Racism and ensure racial equality before the law, yet without looking at the ways parliament grants favoritism, and encroaches upon liberty, and things which are matters of personal responsibility, and not the proper duties of Government, even if we get rid of Racial separatism, we will still end up with a obese and heavy handed State.
http://blog.eternalvigilance.me/2013/01/state-of-confusion-the-rule-of-law-vs-the-mandate-of-the-majority-new-zealands-constitutional-crisis/