We’re winning – keep submitting

The plan was to rush the Rotorua bill through hearings and Parliament before 1 June so that they could end equality of suffrage for the Rotorua District Council in time for this year’s elections.

They even had already scheduled oral submissions to start this week, thinking they only had a few score to get through.

But around 10,000 people have made a written submission against this awful bill (despite almost zero coverage in the media), and I understand around 2,500 of you have asked to speak to your submissions. This has made it impossible to ram it through, and they have conceded this by extending the written submission deadline to Wed 04 May. So you can still submit at the link above, or through Protect Your Vote. The Government has realised how bad a look it is to try and ram through such a massive change in a fortnight. People power is winning.

Graeme Edgeler has done an excellent submission against the bill here. Graham Adams has covered it on The Platform and Paul Goldsmith has written in the Herald:

In Ukraine, people are giving their lives to defend what freedoms they have to determine their own destiny.

One of the core principles of our democracy is one person, one vote. That we, as New Zealanders, are all treated the same. Our individual votes have equal power in deciding who governs the country and in decisions affecting our lives.

Astoundingly, this principle is currently under assault by the Labour Party, led by Jacinda Ardern.

Tamati Coffey, a Labour List MP based in Rotorua, has introduced a Local Bill for the Rotorua District Council that seeks to throw out the one person, one vote principle, as it is enshrined in the Local Electoral Act.

This is what we need every person to know. Labour no longer support one person, one vote. They are trying to legislate an end to equality of suffrage in New Zealand.

We need to stop this bill, and then stop them trying to do it again.