ROGER PARTRIDGE: The Crown versus The People: Reclaiming New Zealand’s democratic story
Turn on the news and you will hear endless references to the Crown: “Crown obligations,” “Crown land,” “Crown Treaty settlements.” Politicians make decisions “on behalf of the Crown.” Courts issue rulings about what “the Crown” must do.
Yet ask Kiwis what this “Crown” actually is, and many will give blank stares.
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Zoran Rakovic: Thin Wedge of Reform: Why Independent MPs May Save New Zealand’s Democracy from Its Party Captors
A critical essay arguing that political parties undermine true democracy in NZ and promoting independent MPs as a reformative force under MMP.
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Roger Partridge: When “Forfeited to the Crown” Means “Returned to the Defendant”
When Parliament says gang insignia “is forfeited to the Crown,” citizens are entitled to assume those words mean what they say. Yet on 11 August the District Court ruled otherwise. Judge Lance Rowe directed that a Mongrel Mob vest, seized under the Government’s new Gangs Act 2024 and forfeited following a guilty plea, should nevertheless be returned to its owner, Andrew “Andy” Leef.
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Roger Partridge: Who Makes the Law? Reining in the Supreme Court
Recent decisions from New Zealand’s Supreme Court have sparked widespread alarm. They show a court that has misunderstood its role and overstepped its bounds. The Court’s approach raises a very serious question for voters: Just who makes the law in New Zealand? Is it democratically elected politicians or unaccountable judges?
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Roger Partridge: Supreme Court matters: constitutional predators or constitutional guardians?
When a constitutional law professor warns of “dangerous foes” threatening New Zealand’s legal system, you might expect concern about genuinely destabilising forces – political interference with judicial independence, or threats to the rule of law itself.
You would be wrong.
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Zoran Rakovic: Tick-Tock Tikanga: The Perverse Core of Bicultural Legality
What happens when tikanga Māori becomes binding law but only some may interpret it? This piece challenges the legitimacy of biculturalism in NZ’s legal system.
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Zoran Rakovic: Your Rates, Their Treaty: How Local Democracy Was Quietly Rewritten
Are Māori wards lawful? This article examines how local councils unlawfully carry Crown Treaty duties—reshaping democracy under legal error.
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Zoran Rakovic: Co-Governance or Co-Dependence? The Broken Logic of Treaty "Partnership"
Can Māori be at the same time equal partners to the Crown and its protected beneficiaries? This commentary exposes the contradiction at the heart of the Treaty "partnership" claim.
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Zoran Rakovic: Te Tiriti Obligations Quietly Shifted Into the Backyards of Private Citizens
Opinion on why New Zealand’s Crown cannot legally transfer its Te Tiriti o Waitangi obligations to private landowners under section 6 of the RMA.
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Elizabeth Rata: Democracy’s Three Pillars and Partial Loyalty
Democracy’s Pillars
The pillars are:
The citizenix – the individual who bears political and legal rights – not the racialised group member.
The state – the governing infrastructure of parliament, systems of law, education, health and so on, regulator of public resources such as water, foreshore and seabed, flora and fauna, radio waves.
The nation – at once a geographic entity and a symbol of a unified though historically diverse people who muddle along together in liberal civil society.
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