"Probably among the worst toxins you can inject into the democratic constitution of a trusting people ... "

 

Cartoon by Nick Kim

"'NEWSTALK ZB, Opinion: Constitutional law expert and former Prime Minister Geoffrey Palmer takes a deep, concerned look at the risks this Government is taking with hasty law changes.'

"Pretty rich coming from the man [right] responsible for s9 of the State Owned Enterprises Act, with its stupid reliance on undefined ‘principles.' It launched the courts into inventing their partnership metaphor for the Treaty. Lange raged to me in 1994 that Sir Geoffrey had assured him s9 was just ‘comfort’ to settle down iwi leaders. ‘It doesn’t have real legal effect’. 

"I’m not aware of any apology from Sir Geoffrey for this grotesque error. Or even hindsight repudiation to limit the damage. 

"Probably among the worst toxins you can inject into the democratic constitution of a trusting people in a trust-based egalitarian law-abiding society, with an extraordinary level of intermarriage and other evidence of respectful race relations. 

"Setting lawyers free to make law instead of applying it. Enabling corrupt bullies to trash property rights (incidentally negating Article 2). And empowering courts and bureaucrats to exploit undefined (therefore unlimited) race privilege to trump equality before the law."

~ Stephen Franks on Twitter