Norman Russel: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeNorman Russel: General Debate[Sitting date: 21 August 2013. Volume:692;Page:12676. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Dr RUSSEL NORMAN (Co-Leader—Green):This Government is engaged in a consistent attack on basic democratic rights. It is a Muldoonist-type Government which is something I said back in June. Since then pretty much a week does not go by without proving me to be right.I think it was very useful thatThe Economist gave an editorial about democracy andmajoritarianism in June this year. I quote fromThe Economist  which said: “Majoritarianism—the credo of an expanding group of elected but autocratic rulers around the world which holds that electoral might always makes you right—is not true democracy”. It is one of the fundamental principles of this Government that all it needs to do is get a single-vote majority in this House and it can ram through anything whether it is asset sales against the will of the vast majority or whether it is mass surveillance under Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) legislation which the Government will be attempting to pass this afternoon. A single-vote majority is enough for it to force that legislation through.Butmajoritarianism the idea that “electoral might makes you always right” is not true democracy asThe Economistpointed out. Independent courts and free media are a critical part of that and yet this Government has consistently attacked those basic democratic rights and freedoms. Think about the Prime Minister’s response to the Human Rights Commission when the Human Rights Commission dared to threaten the Government’s GCSB legislation. The Prime Minister threatened to cut its funding. That is the reality of modern-day democracy in New Zealand. The Prime Minister said: “If you disagree with me I’ll cut your funding.”Think about the Henry inquiry. The Prime Minister’s inquiry went after the records of journalists’ movements in this building. The Prime Minister’s inquiry went after Ministers’ email records and got them. The Prime Minister’s inquiry went after journalists’ records and got them. This is the kind of Government that we have. It is engaged in consistent attacks on democratic rights and principles.Think about the right to access the courts. In a deep democracy a resilient democracy people would have the right to go to court to challenge the lawfulness of the Government’s actions. This Government is consistently removing your right to go to court to challenge them. If you think about the carers’ bill that was purposely put in place so that those people can no longer go to the courts to challenge whether the Government is acting in a lawful manner. The independent judiciary has not been abolished by John Key; he has simply made it inaccessible to the citizens so that they can no longer get there.The Government has done a similar thing with the Environmental Protection Authority—or really the “Environmental Pollution Authority”. It has removed the right to access the Environment Court. Instead problems end up at the Environmental Protection Authority which simply rubber-stamps it all. Think about the Government’s actions in Canterbury—and this was before the earthquake—when it removed the right of Cantabrians to elect their regional council. The reason it removed that right was that the elected regional council was doing too much to protect the environment and wasinsufficiently pro-irrigation. That was the reason why John Key removed democracy for the people in Christchurch and Canterbury.Think about the Government’s actions in removing the right to protest at sea—the Anadarko amendment. That was an amendment that came after Simon Bridges’ meeting with the oil industry. That is removing people’s right to protest at sea. Think about the history of nuclear-free New Zealand. How did we end up with a nuclear-free New Zealand? It was because of people like that protesting at sea against the US submarines and frigates that were visiting our country. The Government is consistently and persistently attacking basic democratic rights like the right to protest.Think about the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations. The Government is refusing to release the text or any information about New Zealand’s position to the New Zealand public even though that information is being made available to the other Governments with which New Zealand is negotiating. Those other Governments know more about the negotiating position of the New Zealand Government than New Zealand citizens themselves.Think about the MMP review. MMP won in the referendum and there was supposed to be an independent review by an independent umpire the Electoral Commission. The commission came back with a series of recommendations. The National Party and John Key rejected every single one of them for purely partisan political reasons—because it did not suit them to actually improve MMP as was recommended by the independent umpire.And of course then we come to the GCSB legislation. This legislation enables the GCSB to engage in mass surveillance of New Zealanders. The Government pushed it through under urgency and this afternoon it will try to push it through again. This Government has a consistent approach. It attacks democratic rights at every turn.