Sowing Dragon's Teeth

Sowing discord: In Greek mythology Cadmus, the bringer of civilisation, slew the dragon that guarded the sacred spring of the war god, Ares. Athena, Goddess of Wisdom, bade Cadmus sow the dragon's teeth and up sprang the spartoi - an army of ferocious warriors. Painting by Maxfield Parrish

FROM A STRICTLY POLITICAL PERSPECTIVE the details of the Government’s innocuous-sounding Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Bill don’t matter. The numbers on the floor of the House have already been assembled to secure its First Reading, and once that crucial first hurdle has been cleared the news media will rapidly lose interest. The Parliamentary Press Gallery, in particular, is likely to assume (quite rightly) that if Labour doesn’t oppose the Bill at its First Reading it’s not going to oppose the Bill at all. And if Labour doesn’t oppose this bill it is absolutely certain to become law.

Tactically-speaking, the Labour Opposition’s indulgent attitude towards the repeal and replacement of its costly (in terms of the Maori Vote) Foreshore & Seabed Act is a huge mistake. It’s own supporters will be outraged at Labour’s facilitation of what is likely to prove this country’s most significant privatisation of public property. And it is difficult to conceive of an issue more likely to divide conservative voters than the National Government’s apparent willingness to award thousands of square kilometres of New Zealand’s coastline and territorial sea to a multitude of Maori tribes and sub-tribes.

By highlighting the Bill’s most controversial aspects – most particularly its failure to retain the current legislation’s guarantee of free public access to the seashore – the Opposition could drive a mighty wedge into National’s electoral base. To date, Labour’s spokesperson, David Parker, has limited himself to making a virtue of his party’s refusal to "play the race card". Exactly how many New Zealanders end up thanking him for it remains to be seen.

The Bill’s opponents will, of course, get their moment in the sun at the Select Committee hearings on the Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Bill. The media coverage of their submissions is, however, highly unlikely to be either extensive or sympathetic. Most of the news media remains strongly supportive of the Key Government and it is not about to undercut National’s poll-ratings by dispassionately analysing the legislation’s dire implications for the future economic and social well-being of New Zealand.

Were the legislation being introduced by Labour the media’s attitude would likely be very different. Ironically, such blatant partisanship would, on this occasion, be in the public interest. But, by sanctioning only the most cursory and politically sympathetic reportage of the Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Bill the media is going to sell its readers, listeners and viewers short. In their myopic determination to protect "their" government, New Zealand’s media bosses will shirk their all-important duty to inform the citizenry of a direct threat to its rights.

Because, as the eminent New Zealand economist, Professor Roger Bowden, puts it: "In the present context, the [Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Bill] will effectively have the status of a constitutional change for the country. The Bill satisfies two of the classical tests for an uncodified constitution such as New Zealand’s: it creates property rights, and it cannot be easily reversed."

Once again, Labour’s abdication of political responsibility is baffling. A measure of such vital importance to the nation’s future should not be passed without the active consent of the electorate (in the form of either an unequivocal electoral mandate or referendum). That National is not availing itself of these alternatives, intending, rather, to secure the passage of the legislation in advance of next year’s general election by using the votes of members elected on explicit promises to keep the foreshore and seabed in public hands, is something Labour should feel constitutionally obliged to oppose. At the very least, it should be making the case for the passage of the Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Bill to be delayed until after the voters have delivered their verdict on its merits through the ballot-box.

That Labour shows no signs of doing this can only mean one of two things: either it is tactically inept; or, it secretly fears the judgement of the electorate on this issue. If it’s the latter, we are faced – as was the case with Sue Bradford’s anti-smacking bill – with a measure massively deficient in popular support, but which the Labour caucus is going to vote for anyway on the grounds that its moral judgement is superior to that of the electorate’s.

In other words, Labour is planning to do what John Key did in relation to Section 59: preserve its social-liberal credentials by piggy-backing on it’s rival’s determination to pass an unpopular measure no-matter-what. No doubt they're calculating that such a show of bi-partisan support will leave their MPs unscathed; Maori voters in a more forgiving frame of mind; and their extra-parliamentary opponents with nowhere to go.

Perhaps. But every time the two major political parties behave in this way they dramatically increase the levels of anger and alienation in the broader electorate. Worse still, they engender a sense of betrayal, and the conviction that there is indeed such a thing as "the political class" – an arrogant and self-congratulatory elite with nothing but contempt for the opinions and aspirations of ordinary people.

It staggers me that this political class does not appear to understand that, by swelling the ranks of those who feel alienated and betrayed by their country’s nominally democratic political system, they are placing the rights of all citizens – and most especially those belonging to ethnic minorities – in grave danger.

Those who cast their vote in favour of the Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Bill will be casting dragon’s teeth into political soil already richly fertilised by the reek of earlier betrayals. And when, in true mythic style, these seeds of the dragon’s mouth call forth a harvest of angry political spartoi utterly unresponsive to reason or pity, then the suddenly powerless and personally vulnerable members of New Zealand’s political class will have no one to blame but themselves.