Danrnton v Clark case dropped

NZPA reports that the Darnton v Clark case has formally been dropped, because Labour’s retrospective validating legislation has wiped the case out.

It is a centuries old principle that one does not wipe out a current lawsuit by retrospectively amending the law. In this case the constitutional outrage is even stronger because the lawsuit was not against the Crown but against the actual Labour MPs. They personally stood to benefit from the wiping out the lawsuit.

During the committee stage of the validating legislation, an amendment was put up to specifically exempt the Darnton v Clark lawsuit, from being affected by the legislation. Labour and its mates voted against this amendment. If they had accepted the amendment, then the validating legislation would have been far less of an issue.

Come the next election I hope to organise a team of people to attend every meet the candidates meeting of every incumbent Labour MP and ask at every meeting whether they think it is appropriate for MPs to legislate to defeat lawsuits against them in a personal capacity, and that isn’t this a constitutional outrage much worse than anything Muldoon ever did.

It was a classic case of Labour MPs putting themselves above the law. The lawsuit was going to cause political damage to them (the High Court supporting the Auditor-General’s ruling would have blown away their claims that the Auditor-General got it wrong) so they used their role as lawmakers to defeat the lawsuit.

NZ First and United Future also voted against the amendment to allow the lawsuit to proceed. Messrs Dunne and Peters should expect lots of questions about this also.