Recently John Key pulled off his cleverest move since becoming Prime Minister. By announcing that he would not be swayed in his policy by a negative outcome in the current referendum and that he did not care about the outcome, he successfully put the idea in many peoples heads that the referendum was a costly waste of time and energy. Nothing could be further from the truth. Of course, John Key wants a good outcome from the referendum - and for him, a good outcome is not a yes vote, but rather a low turnout. If he can convince the public that the vast majority do not care one way or the other about asset sales, he will appear to have won the day. Binding or not, a large negative vote would be a defeat for his - not because it would stop the asset sales, but because it would show that there is a groundswell of opposition to his governments policies. Not only would this make his policies look bad, but it would likely have an impact on any voters who are not committed one way or the other about their vote in next years elections. A low vote and perception of its pointlessness would have a further adverse effect - it would discourage other people from launching petitions for further referenda, adversely affecting the right of the general population to have a greater say in the way they want the country to be heading. This referendum is not a costly waste of time and energy - binding or not, it is an important way of showing whether or not we, the people, think the government is heading in the right direction.
Posted on: Tue, 26 Nov 2013 06:23:43 +0000
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