A TALE OF TWO ELECTIONS

As it draws to an end I’ve been thinking about how a 20 year look back on Election 2014 might read to whānau hapū and iwi in 2034. And now that Kim Dotcom's Moment of Truth event has ended, I’ve written two possible retrospectives.

Both are pitched from the point of view of our uri who will be voting in 2034. But each has different endings, and only one holds any hope for our collective good.

RETROSPECTIVE 1:  As Election 2034 begins, we take a look back at Election 2014 and what has happened since then to politics, journalism and voting in New Zealand.  

In researching this retrospective, we found that today’s under-30s can hardly believe a New Zealand Prime Minister and Cabinet once used this country's external spy agency to conduct mass surveillance on its own citizens, and used tax paid parliamentary staff and budgets to advance their own personal interests and settle private scores. 

They also find it incredible that news outlets were once allowed to be politically partisan, and that journalists and reporters were permitted to imitate and ‘repeat’ rather than investigate and report.

Most notable tor today's under-30s is that in 2014 the majority of their parents and grandparents didn’t care about any of that and voted the sitting government back in, in spite of numerous corruption allegations against it.

Finally we found the above patterns of behaviour contributed to the findings of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Political Corruption; and it was the enactment of those findings which established the written constitutional framework and anti-political corruption measures we all now take for granted. 

Central to this remarkable political turnaround was the steadfast persistence in 2014 of authors and reporters like Nicky Hager and Glenn Greenwald on the Dirty Politics story line.  In the end this retrospective could not have been written without them.

RETROSPECTIVE 2:  As Election 2034 begins, we take a look back at Election 2014 and what has happened since then to politics, journalism and voting in New Zealand. 

In researching this retrospective, we found government Ministerial performance has vastly improved now that the Prime Minister and his Cabinet are able to legitimately protect themselves against mischievous allegations of corruption by invoking the ‘my office is me / not me’ defence under the Organised Crime and Anti-Corruption Act.

We also found that news outlets remain fiercely protective of their hard won right to be politically partisan, and of their journalists’ and reporters’ right to ‘repeat’ rather than report.

Most notably we found that most New Zealanders now happily and openly admit they don’t care about dirty politics, and it doesn’t affect how they vote.

Finally we found the above patterns of behaviour contributed to the findings of the Commission of Inquiry into Political Corruption that there was no political corruption in this country; and it was those findings that led to the perpetual enshrinement in law of our non-written constitutional framework.

Central to this remarkable political stability has been the staunch dismissal by mainstream media since 2014 of all stories about dirty politics.   In the end this retrospective could not have been written without them.

TODAY'S CHOICE:   Bob Marley had it right whanau; me pōti tātou kia panga atu ngā tāngata porohewa roirirori.