The attacks on Parliament’s Speaker Trevor Mallard by National’s Chris Bishop and ACT leader David Seymour, were simply party politics. They know full well that the Speaker has sole jurisdiction over Parliament and its grounds.
I’ve been a huge critic from the outset of the government’s hermit kingdom policy which ostensibly lies at the root of this protest. But not so Bishop and Seymour, with their fingers to the wind, who did the memory of Neville Chamberlain proud with their appeasement support of those policies at the time.
Now with a huge mood change across the nation and the gilt-edge certainty of a landslide change of government in the next election, they’re speaking up.
Mallard was 100% correct to give the protesters notice to leave when they began impeding Parliament, hurling abuse at the public and blocking the city streets. They’re mostly riff-raff spouting nonsense and displaying offensive and threatening signs. They’ve destroyed the huge Parliament grounds. Their tents are illegal.
I was attacked on this Blog last week for abandoning my libertarian beliefs, I have not. As said, I’ve openly criticised the government’s ill-considered hermit kingdom approach from the outset.
But libertarianism should not be confused with anarchy. To the contrary, it accepts the need for some rules failing which we descend into chaos. I can’t choose to drive on the right hand side or not pay taxes just because I sometimes disagree with how they’re spent.
If anything Mallard can be criticised for being too soft with his good humoured, imaginative music approach. So too with the sprinklers which was a device not to harm the riff-raff but to drive them away.
I await in vain for messis Seymour and Bishop to tell us how they would handle the illegal and damaging situation prevailing in the city. For my part I’d be tempted to opt for Macron’s tear gas approach if in the government’s shoes, but that’s not the New Zealand way.