Well, not exactly. But their impetus that led them into Parliament on the back of the fraudulent Three Strikes legislation is exposed as irrelevant. So is revealed, that single issues that capture public fear or animosity can and do set the political landscape beyond their single point. With the 3 Strikes legislation NZ was given some ACT MPs who before their Parliamentary terms had finished would be exposed for fraudulent behaviour. Instead of being given a good law that delivered on its promise the public were sold a duck, along with that they got an MP that would need to resign and another that would have to repay misused funds that when asked of that MP, Hide, if it was good for the public that he had chosen to take his then girlfriend on an overseas publicly funded trip, responded 'that it was good for him.' Yes indeed. It was also good for David Garret whose carefully researched proposed 3 Strike Legislation, along with the backing of McVicar and the nod of Simon Power, and popularised hoardings elevated Act into power and an 'easy' ticket for Power's party to ensure they had a compliant coalition partner if things got tight on numbers.
For McVicar it must have been the realisation of the political power he craved, never realising that his decision to remain silent that the author of the legislation Garret was already on his second strike, which Hide and McVicar ruled as not necessary to tell the public, would be exactly that which came to come back to bite them on the arse. Additionally, it remains evident that most likely it led to the decision of Power to end his Parliamentary career, or perhaps he was encouraged by the impact it would be seen to have made on the credibility of the Government. Of course Power's departure was not before he repealed laws that were working and made serious attacks on the freedoms of NZers. His intention was to remove rights in favour of an all powerful state, an elite. When he finally left office he spoke about the possible need for independent inquiries into the injustices that feature in our legal system and which he said were 'deeply troubling' or something similar. Perhaps, not realising or being too arrogant to care that when he was intent on changing laws left, right and centre it was within his power, indeed his obligation as a law maker, to put right things that were 'deeply troubling' within the Justice system.
However, for the bare bones of the once lauded 3 Strikes laws we now see it as a failure, a fraudulent failure. Kim Workman has spoken out about the actual progress of the Law and quoted that anybody that believes that it is a success should speak to the Government's Chief Science Adviser, or the Ministry of Justice. The core group to which the legislation was meant to impact upon showed a little over 25% had even heard of the legislation, and none understood how it actually worked. Hello, that's a zero impact. Blinking brilliant.
But fear not, Crusher Collins, whose crusher legislation has so far failed to crush a single car, was able to 'confirm' that 'it does work, because of the comments that police and Corrections are getting from prisoners' she said. Hello again, the departments own statistics don't confirm that it works, the Chief Science Advisor, but Crusher knows that it does because anonymous people told her that it does by quoting, yes, the crims themselves who don't understand it. Well folks can be comforted by that when the Minister of Police who is down on crims, tough on them, uses anecdotal evidence apparently supplied by the most credible source of all, the crims themselves. Life must be tough for a bullshitting politician, particularly those that chose to deceive and frighten the public to ensure they're elected. But what of honesty? What of the critical need to unite and empower the people with truth? We now see truth and compassion lose to political expedience and lust for power.
Though perhaps the information that we see now as the real truth is something which can be learnt from, something proverbial about which truth shall endure, and liars who corrupt it are no better than those they lie about to condemn, steal from or influence. As this Parliament rises for the elections not less that a handful of liars have been removed, or decided to leave, before the people judge them of their honesty while the dear Minister of Police supports her case with the veracity of criminals as McVicar and Hide limp away.
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