These days there seems broad
agreement that democracy is a system of governance where power and civic
responsibility are, ideally, exercised directly by all citizens.
Unfortunately the practice is
different. The people typically exercise their power through elected representatives
who belong to parties and are either in Government or Opposition.
Before I go any further let me
make it clear I do not belong to any political party, and nor am I exercising
any judgement on various political party policies. My comment is simply raising
the question of whether the current model of government is an effective use of
the array of people who put themselves forward in the best interests of NZ Inc.
The majority of members of
parliament are backbenchers who are not in cabinet or state ministers and are,
for all intents and purposes rubber stamps, who must obey their parliamentary
whips (appropriate choice of word) and leaders with respect of how they vote.
That means, if an MP has a personal view on a matter they must subsume that and
‘follow the leader’. To do otherwise is to commit political suicide.
Franklin experienced that
first hand in the past over the issue of our community being chopped up into
bits and farmed out to other local bodies. The community had made it clear how
they felt but the MP was required to vote with the party against community
wishes.
In essence, the system also
marginalises constituents whose MPs are in the ruling part(ies), Government MPs
do not get enough opportunity to stand up and truly represent the interests of
their respective constituencies. Ironically, their opposition counterparts get
far more leeway.
Workplace culture is a
powerful force that will see the business strategic plan either succeed or
fail, no matter how good the strategy is. Culture is the high velocity oil that
helps the finely tuned engine achieve peak performance.
When
the report of the Parliamentary inquiry into bullying (Parliamentary Culture) was
released, the Speaker said “The stressful, 24/7 nature of parliamentary work
that was typically marked by power imbalances and immense loyalty made it open
to bullying and harassment behaviour”.
Commentary
after the release of the report referred to politics being ‘robust’ hence the bullying
culture. I understand the word ‘Robust’ to
mean, strong and healthy, vigorous. The report described anything but healthy,
with a quote from an interview noted in the report of inquiry summing up the
true meaning pretty well, “Just because it’s politics and people are passionate
doesn’t mean any of us can behave like arseholes....”
We
have 120 MPs who are, ostensibly, elected by us (directly or through party
votes) to represent us in the best interests of NZ Inc. However, once they
reach parliament they are obligated to follow party political dogma and if they
contemplate any dissention they are ‘whipped’ into line. And the whole culture
of the environment in which they work is toxic.
Such
a culture and practice would not be tolerated in corporate environments which
pride themselves as Great Places to Work.
First published in the Franklin County News Thursday 4th July 2019
