PARLIAMENT IS SITTING TODAY ‘UNDER URGENCY’ TO FORCE THROUGH A NUMBER OF CONTROVERSIAL LAWS WHICH WILL HAVE A SIGNIFICANT EFFECT ON THE RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS OF ALL NEW ZEALANDERS.

In a video posted today on YouTube, independent journalist Chantelle Baker exposes the undemocratic move by Labour, using the excuse of Queen Elizabeth II’s death 10 weeks ago to take advantage of so-called ‘urgency procedures’.

‘Parliament is currently sitting under urgency’ – they say because of the Queen’s death, but what it really means, and Labour has done this multiple times, the last time they did it was with the ‘traffic lights’ system and rushing through that legislation, they also did it with pushing through the Maori Wards Bill.’

Labour currently have a clear majority in the House.

‘They call something under ‘urgency’ so it can bypass the normal process, including the Select Committee.’

Urgency also means that parliament has to remain sitting until the laws are passed.

‘What’s happened during this last couple of days in the news? The 16 year olds got the right to vote according to the Supreme Court. That Bill has not passed through parliament – you need 75%. The odds of that going through is quite small. But, what it has done is that it’s lead all the media to focus on one topic, and it’s distracted everybody.’

‘But that’s not the problem. The problem is this huge amount of legislation that Labour are looking at to rush through in the next week.’

‘There are 24 Bills they are looking to pass, but these are the ones I consider the most concerning:

• 3 Waters
• Digital Identity Trust Framework
• Organic Produce and Production Bill
• Clean Vehicles Bill
• Healthy Home Standards
• Dairy Restructuring Act – ie. Fonterra Restructuring
• Climate Change Response
• Firearms Amendment Bill

‘That’s just some of the 24 they are passing right now.

Baker also spoke of Facebook censorship, with the social media giant working hand-in-glove with Labour to remove content at the government’s behest in a clear violation of the right to free speech.

‘Facebook are working with the government through a portal to take content they don’t like down from the platform.

‘A number of videos have been taken down, which didn’t break any guidelines but they just ‘wiped them anyway, with no notes, no marks against our page, they just wiped them, and it does make me question if that portal’s being used on our page.’