Help us pick a name
In the United States they have this quaint habit of calling their bills any name they like such as the Patriot Act or the Can Spam Act. This is part of the wider political battle over labelling (Estate Tax called a Death Tax). In NZ we saw the Section 59 bill almost universally called the anti-smacking bill (including by Sue Bradford by press release when she launched it).
Well a group of us think the benignly named Electoral Financing Bill needs a name that better describes it. But we can’t decide amongst ourselves, so I want your help in suggesting names, and/or indicating which names you most like. I might then even run a poll of say five finalists to pick the preferred name.
Suggested names to date are:
- The Gag My Critics Bill
- The Block the Knockers Bill
- The Muzzle My Enemies Bill
- The Freedom From Expression Bill
- The Criticism Prevention Bill
- The Alternative Opinion Prevention Bill
- The Election Theft No.2 Bill
- The Helengrad Gag
- Helen’s Gag
- Helen’s Muzzle
- The Red Muzzle
- The Red Gag
- The Shut Down Dissent Bill
- The Shut Down Democracy Bill
- The Labour Party Corruption Validation Bill
- The Labour Party Preservation Bill
- The Freedom from Criticism Bill
- The Helen Clark Preservation Bill
- The Helen Clark PM for Life Bill
- The Democratic Rights Amendment Bill
- The Anti-Democracy Bill
- The Democracy Amendment Bill
- The Stamp Out Democracy Bill
- The Death of Democracy Bill
- The Frankly Fijian Bill
- Entrench the Goverment Bill
- No Power to the People Bill
- Bill of Rights Amendment Bill
None of these names are endorsed at this stage. As I said let’s try and get views on the best, and then have a poll to select the best name. Something not too extreme, but that gets the point across.
To save time, nothing which mentions Mugabe or has any German connotations. Yes the Bill is a massive attack on free speech, but no it isn’t the end of civilisation as we know it!