The Facts About Binding Referendums

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An Open Letter To New Zealand

It’s our choice - REAL Democracy or an elected Dictatorship?
by Steve Baron

Are you one of the New Zealanders our politicians think aren’t intelligent or informed enough to make decisions on important issues that affect us all? Issues like GE, abortion, prostitution, tougher prison sentences, immigration, abolishing the Privy Council, euthanasia, smacking your children, extreme taxation, smoking or fishing quotas. We should all have a say on contentious issues like these, when we feel governments have lost touch with what the majority of New Zealanders want. Aren’t you tired of politicians forcing their own ideological political and moral beliefs on us without a mandate or majority support of voters?

For over a year now BCIR.org.nz has been campaigning vigorously to make Citizens Initiated Referendums BINDING on the government so that New Zealanders can hold governments accountable for their actions (or inactions). It’s ridiculous that we only get a say every three years, while in between elections the government has a free rein to run the country like a dictatorship. Without BCIR it makes no difference which party we elect, because they know they aren’t accountable to voters. They don’t stick to their promises because they don’t have to! With BCIR they will have to!

The Swiss system of BCIR has been tried and proven effective for over 130 years, with an average of three to four referendums a year. It is an obvious way to put checks and balances on our governments. By contrast, New Zealand’s Citizens Initiated Referenda Act was passed in 1993, but at the eleventh hour the National Party government of the day made them non-binding. Now most agree they aren’t worth the paper they’re written on. Governments simply ignore them time and again.

We have collected 20,209 signatures on our petition. We plan to present this to Parliament shortly, calling for the Citizens Initiated Referenda Act 1993 to be changed to make referendums BINDING. This will be a petition that the government will ignore at its peril, knowing that New Zealanders are backing BCIR - and only voting for those candidates and parties who publicly support it. In order to help bring the issue forward, Jonathan Eisen and I have compiled a new book called People Power: How to make the government listen to YOU, for a change. It’s about to go to press so if you care about the future of our country, get a copy and read it.

So what can you and I do? We need your help NOW, and we appeal to YOU to call, write or email our Members of Parliament, as well as local newspapers. This is so easy to do, with the simple click of a button on our website at www.BCIR.org.nz. Put pressure on our MP’s for a real democracy just like they have in Switzerland. Tell them that you’ll ONLY be voting for candidates and parties that endorse BCIR. For too long we have accepted the status quo.

Will you be one of those who does something or will you just sit and complain that politicians won’t listen and there’s nothing we can do about it? Because if that’s what the majority of New Zealanders think, then that’s what we will get - nothing! We can bring about change just as we pressed for MMP and got it. But as with MMP, we must demand it.

If you don’t like the decisions past and present governments have made for us then this is your chance to do something about it. Throw off your apathy because what will New Zealand be like in another 10 years without BCIR? Just imagine if the voice of the people actually counted on important issues, rather than continuing to leave our future to the whims of politicians!

Please note that we do not support any political party or any religious type group. We have no hidden agenda whatsoever. We simply want New Zealand to be the best it can be, and our politicians to be accountable to the people they are supposed to be representing.

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