BLOG: The Child Discipline Referendum
The farce surrounding the child discipline law citizens initiated referendum threatens to bring the whole referendum process into disrepute.
I think citizens initiated referenda are a good idea as either a safety valve for community feeling on a particular issue, or as a way of testing public feeling on a matter that falls outside the normal pattern of political debate.
But to be credible, the questions posed have to be impartial, not loaded. And our record to date in this regard has been woeful. The very first CIR (which about 88% of those bothering to vote supported) asked that the numbers of professional fire fighters not be reduced. What it really meant was that the then government’s fire service restructuring programme be stopped. At the end of the process, not only did the restructuring proceed as planned, but the number of professional fire fighters actually increased by about three, thus meeting the referendum’s request, but clearly not the intent of those behind it. I know, because I was the Minister responsible at the time.
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