Doing anything under urgency ought to require a supermajority in Parliament of at least 70-75%. So it's only used in situations of genuine urgency, and not as a way for the government of the day to ram through unpopular legislation without the proper democratic process.

(2/2)

#PolicyNZ

Third, and perhaps most ambitious, we need to involve young people in co-designing online regulation policy. *And* anything we might want to pitch as replacements for DataFarming platforms.

They need to feel that any independent online services they move to belong to them, so they feel like they belong there. While also feeling supported by older people, who they trust to manage and modify their DIY social network services as the need arises.

(5/?)

#PolicyNZ #TechRegulation #SocialMedia

Seems to me we need a constitutional structure that explicitly protects local democracy from Parliamentary shitfuckery. Te Tiriti and He Whakaputanga do that, if you understand enough Te Reo Māori to read the versions agreed to and signed by rangatira. But it's got to be clear to everyone now that they are too vulnerable to motivated misinterpretation to do it alone.

(4/?)

#PolicyNZ #NZPolitics

(2/?)

The solution to this kind of antidemocratic shitfuckery is a written constitution that Parliament can't amend by simple majority (or ideally, at all). One that obliges Parliament to respect;

1) fundamental human rights, encoded in a constitutional document, including the rights encoded in He Whakaputanga and Te Tiriti o Waitangi

#PolicyNZ

So what would the Strypey party propose? I think our food regulations offer some policy models we could apply, in 3 ways.

First, food products have to list their ingredients. Maybe media services ought to as well?

If media entities present themselves as news outlets (or even news-like), maybe they should be held to basic journalistic standards? If necessary, by a regulator who can use the power of law to make media outlets label themselves accurately based on what they carry.

(4/?)

#PolicyNZ

Maybe Aotearoa needs a written constitution that recognises the right of natural born citizens to vote in general elections, regardless of where in the world we go, and for how long?

Maybe citizens in general, but in that case the constitution would also need to set a high bar for obtaining citizenships. To prevent votes being handed out to billionaires like Peter Thief who don't even live here and have no interest in the wellbeing of the people or environment of Aotearoa.

(10/10)

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Or maybe we look at which professions and trades are chronically short of workers, and fully fund a certain number of places in the courses that train them?

The obvious counterargument is, what if they go overseas when they qualify, and never come back? The fees-free policy could include a quid-pro-quo, say, 1 year of fees-free study for every 5 years worked in Aotearoa. Or 3 years worked in a rural area that struggles to attract sufficient professionals and tradespeople.

(7/?)

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Fees-free tertiary study is a bandaid on a system that needs a full body cast. But if we're going to go back to fees-free, maybe it needs to be more targeted?

Say, a certain number of fully-funded tertiary places for each high school that serves a working class community. Which students at each school compete for, if there are more candidates than places. Either with academic performance, or some other demonstration of aptitude that society would benefit from nourishing.

(6/?)

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So if there is a media regulator empowered by the state, it needs to be very carefully designed. Its power constrained and tightly focused. Its purpose, structure and operations regularly reviewed. Ideally by a review board including representatives from media entities and civil society orgs (eg Better Public Media, InternetNZ), as well as Parliamentarians.

We need to pressure the government to put this new body in place as part of abolishing the #BSA. Not after, maybe never.

(7/7)

#PolicyNZ

All of this talk about pushing the age up further is ludicrous. If anything the retirement age ought to be brought back to 60. Why?

1) Gen X is a significantly smaller cohort than our parents

2) We haven't benefited from the cradle to the grave welfare system Boomers' parents bequeathed them, and which political leaders have spent decades burning in the engines of wealth concentration

3) As a result we probably won't live as long on average as Boomers. Particularly Māori

(2/2)

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