Unanimous decision

“New Zealand’s parliament voted unanimously in September to pass the Canterbury Earthquake Response and Recovery Act (CERRA), which gives government ministers the power to override almost any law in the country’s statute books,” Tom Peters writes for the World Socialist Web Site. “Both the government and opposition asserted that the sweeping powers were needed to provide assistance to the city of Christchurch and the surrounding Canterbury region, which was hit by a destructive 7.1 magnitude earthquake on September 4. But the Act does not provide any additional funding or assistance for the disaster victims, many of whom are living in badly damaged houses and have received little or no government assistance. Rather, this anti-democratic legislation concentrates wide powers in the hands of ministers and their unelected advisers.”