Referendum result: Cannabis legalisation abandoned by Government, Greens won’t concede defeat
Little, speaking to reporters shortly after the results were announced, said it was a “pretty convincing” result for both referendums, that “means that it is highly unlikely that those results will be overturned”.
He said the Government would no longer progress decriminalisation efforts, as it had with changes to Misuse of Drugs Act in 2019, when the ability for police officers to use discretion in cases of drug possession was placed into law.
“The electorate has spoken, they are uncomfortable with greater legalisation, and I would interpret it as [also] decriminalisation of recreational cannabis,” Little said.
“The New Zealand electorate is not ready for that, and I think we have to respect that.”
NO!
With all due fucking respect Andy. NO!
51% shouldn’t be able to criminalise the other 49% – that’s not democracy that’s majoritarianism!
National didn’t flinch selling assets despite 67% voting against yet here you are ruling out any change and pretending what is looking like a razor thin win or loss is a fucking mandate to keep the status quo!
What’s the point of a mandate if you refuse to use it?
National sold assets despite 67% referendum saying no, Labour can choose to end a racist drug law, or not end a racist drug law!
Andrew, you have an obligation to listen not shut down the debate!
What was the point of voting Labour if all you do is pacify your new National voters?
This doesn’t end here, if Labour are seriously going to refuse to end a racist drug law and make that decision their first step as a new majority Government, that will be used to rain hellfire on you for 3 years.
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Damn right brother. About the same % voted for Cannabis reform as did vote for Mr Little’s party and he’s got the chutzpah to say the electorate has spoken! While our people and rangitahi are still gonna be preyed on and penalised for a bastardised Cannabis law the same law makers are going to continue to allow alcohol – which causes far more harm – to be peddled to our people by the plethora of filthy liquor stores that plague the brown parts of town. Double standards.
Exactly without being Racist new migrants are using new bottle stores (which have doubled in number since 2010) as a means to abuse their own people . So yes all these new stores are opening in the poorer parts of town, whether black brown or white it doesn’t matter and nothing is being done about limiting their number.
In christchurch alone just about every suburb a
has access to at least four liquor stores within a couple of kilometers and councils have no legitimate means to limit their numbers. SO YES IT IS DOUBLE STANDARD . Allowing the current black market to exist without an alternative is disgusting and for Andrew to put his head in the sand is even more disgusting.
Lobby groups and that terrible word: Donations?
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/ross-meurant-the-case-for-decriminalisation/DO3J7EI6CYH5A3GILOD4PZB52Y/
I call Bullshit, unless you can prove it with the stats to back up what your insinuating.
So no personal responsibility at all enters your summation?
Interesting how this once great Union defender, now looms as the great defender of GCSB spies incorporated.
They say: Power corrupts? Just joking.
This was a non binding referendum as well Andrew, the government could flick the switch on legalisation tomorrow if they choose, and they should. It’s funny that as a proportion of New Zealanders, six times more people voted to legalise cannabis than they did for the death cult gun nut ACT Party. We’re going backwards without progressive reform Andrew.
What’s funny about your spiel is that ACT are the most progressive party in parliament.
Defenders of feminist free speech, civil rights and the right to euthanasia.
The Greens are too busy denouncing anything that isn’t the same color as their belly button lint, and Labour couldn’t organize a root in a newly legalized brothel.
Even from opposition ACT is achieving more progressive policy.
I’m happy and I’m sad.
I’m happy because thanks to the most stupidest of the stupids who voted against decriminalising pot, those small ignored communities struggling to pay for electricity and food still have a profitable commodity to sell once wrapped in tinfoil.
I’m sad because I must breath the same air as the terminally brainless 50% of what pretends to be humans who ignored compelling evidence in favour of cannabis. They ignored Portugal’s brilliant strategies to recreational drug use and its dangers/delights and ignored the fact that cannabis is a Gods send to those who are in pain and they ignored the embarrassing irony of it now being ok to be culled from an expensive health care system by a twerking rogerphile while people can’t smoke pot for fun and comfort. Today is another one of those days when I feel ashamed and embarrassed to be an AO/NZ’er for no other reason than for the company I must keep.
re andrew little… OMG SOooooooo surprised ! I mean, who’d would a thought it? A lawyer pulling his little diddle out his fly and parading around with it. ” Here’s me, here’s my diddle and here’s my ego. I’m awesome right? What do you think of me? Awesome right? Fuck yeah, I’m awesome ! Look? See? Here’s my diddle and everything. ”
How difficult would it be to become a Portuguese citizen I wonder?
PS.
Action Point.
https://www.actionpoint.org.nz/the-alcohol-industry-in-new-zealand
“There are two major supermarket chains in New Zealand: Woolworth New Zealand (184 Countdown stores, 62 Fresh Choice and Supervalue stores) and Foodstuffs (140 New World stores, >50 PaknSave stores, 240 Four Square stores).
Amount of alcoholic beverages we drink
Because a tax is placed on all alcohol beverages, every 3 months (when the amount of tax paid on alcohol is released) we can see how much alcohol is available for consumption in New Zealand and how much is exported. From the domestic figures released by Statistics New Zealand, in the year 2019:
• 490.8 million litres of alcoholic drinks were available for domestic consumption:
◦ 297.8 million litres of beer,
◦ 108.3 million litres of wine,
◦ 84.8 million litres of spirits and spirit-based drinks.
Imagine the damage that could be inflicted on the fabulous alcohol industry if we all just smoked pot and ate icecreams instead.
I am not a wowser but no longer abuse my body with alcohol and regret I ever was introduced to the drinking culture. I took decades to free myself.
At one stage Labour regulated advertising of alcohol but National revoked that. Investor profit may be affected so fuck the livers and brains of the nation and dependency created in teenagers.
So I voted against criminaliszation relying on any new laws and govt action to protect teenagers brains from the damage done by weed and alcohol.
Closing your eyes to the increased psychosis directly caused by weed altering growing brains is either a matter of ignorance, misinformation of selfish irresponsibility.
Protecting our young from brain damage and unhelpful and spiteful criminal charges, can be done surely if resources are applied. Education, professional healthcare and community understanding may be a big programme but saving our kids / grandkids is surely far ahead of hedonism and profit for a few.
One last thing. I fail to understand how this debacle is racist?
I’d understand fascist but racist..? Nope. Don’t get it.
Please enlighten me?
Very simple our so called Pakeha countrymen when caught with cannabis get let off with a smack on the hand and a warning ( I have experience of this as it happened to my flatmate) If your are brown it is automatic off to court you go no questions asked or answered . if that is not racist what is.
Yep. Happens all the time.
Geoff heaps of people I know around this area (80% Maori, East Coast) have been caught with weed and it’s ignored by the police. If you are speaking from personal experience does it suggest the rules are applied differently in different areas?
Yeah, difference is size of Maori pop. …plus amount of diversity (race/age) in the local/regional police. Some Police regions are whiter/older Police than others.
The police go lightly on people just possessing, or obviously just growing for themselves – I think that’s been publicly stated, their official focus is on health education and so on – hence surreal dialogues about sending social workers to “incidents” in South Auckland, when someone is running amok with a weapon, and speaking in tongues.
no they don’t prosecution rates have stayed the same. This is a myth.
Ben – Apropos of my previous comment : I didn’t mean to imply that the cops dialogue about sending social workers into dangerous situations, it’s online others who do that – with suggestions to cut NZ police funding every time that something untoward happens over in America – sorry, I’m a bit rattled in case Davidson gets to be Minister of Race Relations – she frightens me.
Me too!
I’ve known for many years -from direct dealing with him- that Andrew Little is a cowardly, mendacious, manipulative arsehole, and everything that he says and does keeps confirming it.
Lol….well personally I did not like it when Annette King had to relinquish her safe seat for him…..and she was a very effective older woman politician and spokesperson and Minister of Health
(this is how older women get sidelined)
This can been seen with the way he has handled Pike River. He was in charge of the union that should have kept them safe but praised the mine owners then when it suits he spends money going back in the mine to get Winston on side and spends nearly double the original budget
Prime Minister John Key promised to recover the men in the days following the tragedy.
This was a lie.
Just one of his hundreds of lies.
Maybe one day you will wake up and realize what you have been sold and what you have received are two very different things Martyn. Labour are not transformational and never will be. Especially now that Ardern has a majority thanks to usually National voters.
Yep exactly why Labour lost my Party vote in 2017.
Labour are nothing but neo liberal assholes in drag.
Yep exactly why Labour lost my Party vote in 2017.
Labour are nothing but neo liberal assholes in drag.
Remembering that Adern is a Blairite, as in Tony B Liar, I agree. This phony Labour government is just as phony as every other phony Labour government…Labour in name only
OCTOBER 30, 2020
The Orwellian Ironies of the So-Called Labour Party
BY TONY MCKENNA
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is one of the most ghoulish figures in the annals of ambition and mass-murder. In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the Scottish thane was slowly and mentally unravelled by the fact that he had directly and physically participated in the crime which would lead to his damnation, but Blair’s civilised, manicured fingers have known only privilege and never violence, so I imagine the hundreds of thousands of dead Iraqis probably don’t trouble him that much. I imagine they are not really real to him at all, in fact. Rather, they are non-entities – props in the theatre of his ugly, hideous, grinning ambition and his preening sense of himself as a really important player on the stage of history.
For his services to the powerful, Blair has toured internationally, making speeches to a global elite which rewards him to the tune of millions. His property portfolio and business interests make of him one of the richest men in the world. He is invited on programme after programme in the guise of a venerable elder statesman, he was appointed ‘Peace Envoy’ to the Middle East – but all such attempts to sanitise his image, to unbloody him, are doomed to failure.
For the true monument to his politics will always be the thousands upon thousands of lonely, unmarked graves he has left in his wake. As Halloween approaches – the festival of the macabre and sinister – one can’t help but wonder if humanity will ever escape his sickening, peg-toothed grin.
Jeremy Bernard Corbyn opposed the wars that Blair helped instigate. For years he lingered on the backbenches, happy to remain in the shadows, devoid of personal ambition, muddling about with local people, taking part in community initiatives. One of these happened in 1987, when Islington Council gave planning permission to destroy and build over a historic Jewish cemetery. Jeremy Corbyn campaigned against this move, and eventually it was defeated. The leader of the council who had initiated such a plan was someone named Margaret Hodge.
When Corbyn found himself somewhat unexpectedly thrust into the limelight, he continued campaigning for many of the same grassroots issues. He highlighted the plight of ordinary people, whether they be immigrants from other countries or British people who were struggling while a government of three-toed, Bullingdon-bred, aristocratic millionaires gleefully harrumphed and hurrahed as they took a match to each and every form of legislation designed to give some slim measure of protection to the poor and the vulnerable. And Corbyn spoke out against the desperate persecution of the Palestinians by the Israeli state, he highlighted the atrocities of the Saudi war machine, and the hypocrisy of those in government who oiled it with their greasy funds.
One of these men has now been suspended from the Labour Party. It reflects the Orwellian nature of this institution that the suspension of a war criminal of unlimited wealth and ambition is considered unthinkable, yet the suspension of someone of who tried to help safeguard and uplift the poorest in our society is considered to be an astute and necessary move. The hallmark of justice being done. But perhaps the most Orwellian thing about the Labour Party as it now stands, is that the word ‘Labour’ even appears in the title.
https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/10/30/the-orwellian-ironies-of-the-so-called-labour-party/
John A Lee was kicked out of the NZ Labour party for writing a critique of democracy within the Party.
Worth a slow read.
https://teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/4l8/lee-john-alfred-alexander
Labour at that stage had a strong progressive socialist backbone kept alive by an outspoken well read faction which was not enjoyed by the Parliamentary party leaders in spite of the credit Labour gained for the socialist inspired policies and energy from that backbone.
“Lee’s greatest influence came from his continuing spate of journalism, for he articulated an indictment of Labour as a despotic machine, hostile to democratic values, and victim of an unholy alliance of greedy unionism with corrupt politicians”
What we do not see with the Labour Party in 2020 is an outspoken backbone with a good understanding of socialism as a modifier to neoliberal capitalism.
That is sorely needed and little progress can be expected without a strong socialist understanding to push leaders to effective action.
Being nice to each other won’t do it.
John W Yes. It would possibly only take one Norman Kirk or John A Lee type person to do it again, but at the moment there seems to be nobody there.
Lee was authentic because of where he came from. I have “Children of the Poor”, after reading it long ago. He was criticised by Labour people for writing it, and for “exposing” his family. This copy, from the Sallies, had the last word in the book deleted. It took me weeks to track it down. The word is, “…thief.” That final sentence, “ For the law was after a boy, and the boy was a thief”, is followed by hand written notes which, alas, have been twinked out, and I’ve not been able to decipher them. The book was stamped as coming from the prison service library. Very poignant.
Lee’s incredible passionate dedication prefacing , “Children of the Poor” speaks in a way which no politician does, or would dare to today. The closest perhaps were Ardern’s “child povidy”, but being nice isn’t going to fix that either.
I have a rare copy of Lees little soft backed stapled together speech/publication on the debt finance system
He was not scared of laying the slavery we live under , right out in the open with fact and figure and a forceful frank explanation of what was being done to NZ.
I have noticed over the years that the descriptions and explanations of Lees courageous stands have been modified to relegate him as obstacle and attack his life and role in bringing NZ out of the depression in the face of fierce opposition from abroad.
History get rewritten by the conquerors.
+100…Brilliant !
…but Tony Blair always looks tortured to me, a facade of a man who can never escape the morality of what he has done…a war criminal trying to pretend to be a moral paradigm…but fooling no one .
Corbyn a genuinely moral man has been sacrificed
Replace Bowen Street with a yellow brick road. Shiny red shoes for Jacinda – tho’ such may be Paula’s style…
The govt need to find the courage to push ahead with decriminalisation, as hard and as fast as they can. It is the law itself that should be on trial.
Right on Kheala.
Public groundswell is needed to push Little and his minders.
Surely our hopeless journalist fraternity can muster courage to push this platform.
Decriminalisation – who looses.
But that must be coupled with a much stronger and more active program of information and education to keep our youth undamaged health wise.
Yes, a complete health-focused reset for all children would be excellent.
The outcome will be easy to predict if Little proceeds along the reactionary path, and continue the persecution of people who aren’t criminals…. A national, or ACT party government in 2023… This is utter cowardice from Little, and those of us who care about our fellow kiwis will never forgive him, or his party if they turn their backs on what has proven beyond doubt, to be the most sensible, and forward thinking approach to the issue of why people turn to addictive drugs to avoid their reality… In fact, as a lifelong Labour voter, who could never bring himself to actually vote for the criminals of the Nationalist party, or the corporate whores of ACT, my only real choice now, is to go back overseas, where common sense tends to prevail over short sighted stupidity… We may as well have let the tories have another go at raping the economy to death.. This is a show of support for the Columbian drug cartels currently flooding NZ with high grade methylamphetamine. Disgusting, shameful, reactionary cowardice.. I respected the work he did in the first term, but this utterance has cost him all of that capital…
Stefan
You mention cartels?
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/ross-meurant-the-case-for-decriminalisation/DO3J7EI6CYH5A3GILOD4PZB52Y/
I’ll have to get my head around how someone not seeing things your way is a coward.
Yeah, we wanted to show we were a really mature country by doing the cannabis thing. Prove that we were adults. The number of childish responses I’ve seen and heard show prove we’re not.
Andrew knows that this law causes immense hurt and harm to many families and communities, to many of the most vulnerable people in Aotearoa. He knows that it ties up resources that should be being used for curbing actual crime. Resources including funding allocated to police for dealing with problems such as Meths, domestic violence and other violent crimes. Resources including police manpower and time, including all the unnecessary paperwork involved. Resources including the $100,000 p/a per person for those who are imprisoned.
Andrew know that this law leads to further crime and devastation of families as they are ground down and ripped apart. The destructive, divisive and discriminatory effects are intergenerational, and become self-perpetuating. Children are the ultimate victims of this abominable law.
Saying, “Well, yes, I know what’s right, but my hands are tied” is BS! Now is the time to find and show the courage that he found when he stepped aside for a young woman to replace him as leader of Labour. The consequences of his actions or inactions will be massive, as they were three years ago.
Juts for once I agree wholeheartedly. Labour of course took up this to referendum no doubt because they did not have the conviction to follow through without one. Indeed if they were so obsessed about majority rules why did they no hold a referendum on the TPPA? Its a toxic piece of so called trade policy that should have been voted upon by all Kiwi’s. in the end they passed that one so fast i thought their backsides were on fire.
So to those who say they are on the left why the f**k do you insist on voting for Labour? Can anyone still see anything remotely left leaning about them? I’ll add too what does that say about your so called left wing credentials as a voter?
We need an actual Democratic Socialist party to left of Labour.
LOL Little is simply a national HERO! Why on earth would any one want to smoke cannabis? The moment you use tobacco, cannabis, alcohol or any form of habitual substance you have submitted yourself to slavery, control by over-lords enslaving you to finance their opulent lifestyle. Common celebrate your independence and freedom and don’t entrap yourself to pompous over-lords manipulating you to belief this will be good for society. Think, use your grey matter, break out off the corrupt thought bubble you live in to think you need this rubbish to enjoy life!
Not dissimilar to euthanasia. Surely, based on the latter logic and the fact that NZ have legalized abortion, why not celebrate suicide? Don’t deny people the freedom of choice, it is their body and their right to choose. Well that is the logic we use for euthanasia and abortion, why not apply it to suicide. I am sure NZ will now bring back the death penalty, simply the humane thing to do, grant them what they bestowed on others.
NZ wake up, think, beware what you are being fed in die media!! It is a fake utopia!
A very norrow, consevative, I’ll informed point of view, I guess we should all stick with religion, the opium of the working classes.
LOL, is that your flavor? Keep smoking it, what ever works for you. I prefer freedom!
Your idea of freedom is supporting the incarceration of citizens for what is a outdated, backward looking law that near half of voters don’t support and nor do the Police. or the Prime Minister.cheers
People using cannabis are bonded slaves to the drug lords, even worse than incarceration, the latter might relief them from a life of bondage and shame. True freedom is freedom of choice, freedom from any form of drug dependency resulting in bondage! Break free! liberate yourself! from the slave masters. You have a choice use it wisely.
Dependence on weed may have nothing to do with drug lords. The stuff is grown widely.
Education is needed at many levels it seems.
Andrew Little was a union rep for miners, and had a close friend killed in a motor accident, so he has two excellent reasons to support the referendum result: to keep cannabis stupor from affecting safety in the work place and on the roads. He also advocated for voting rights to reopen for inmates serving three years or less on their sentences.
It’s clear now that the only truly progressive options are the Greens and TOP. If this is a sign of how Labour wants to govern, pandering to the “soft National” vote.. then they’ve lost my vote for good.
Yes, totally gutless, Labour no balls. If that’s it for the foreseeable future I will vote Greens in the next election so Labour will have to make a decision instead of sitting on the fence and nursing the centre vote. What’s the point of being in power if they a too dam frightened to use that power. For a so called transitional government, it’s just more of the same , governance by polling to ensure re election. Extremely disappointed.
When almost 50% of the population have voted for full legalised recreational use of cannabis, then far more than 50% comprehend the urgent need for decriminalisation.
So, if Andrew is saying, “No further measures will be taken” (at all?) then he sounds like a kid saying, “You didn’t give me everything I wanted, so you’re not getting any of what is needed”.
That is confused thinking on your part, Andrew. Take another look at it. Think a little more clearly and more deeply. Then, please act on this, for the sake of the future for everyone in Aotearoa.
Just before the election we were told by Andrew Little that the govt was going to deal to any misinformation during the referendum, and then did nothing.
Subsequently Family First with over a million dollars in donations spread their mistruths with every newspaper they could, hitched a ride on any media vehicle possible, and then went and visited every church they could around the country from Cape Rianga to Bluff spreading their lies.
Meanwhile the Drug Foundation had $300k.
Then came revelations that the Scientologists from the US had become involved and again our govt did nothing.
To me this just says that Labour didnt actually want this legal. The current vote is 46%, after the specials it might pass but the percentage is going to increase, is that a voter base Labour is willing to ignore because if so they may as well call this their last round.
Fuckin Andrew! You dumb c
https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=u8BDt5UB5v4
The cannabis referendum shows nearly half the voters want legal regulated recreational cannabis.
1 for every weak little prohibition enabling idiot – an ageing, diminishing demographic.
Why are you all surprised – it’s been well signposted that this government is CENTRE. Outdoor pizza ovens and jet skis are far more important that progressive change as they have your vote already.
Now song along – “Everything is awesome!”
I voted for the drug not to be legalized but even to me the closeness of the vote would indicate nearly half the country want a change in the current law . It is letting nearly 50%of the people down to not do anything but I honestly feel this will be the start of many let downs in store for those that gave Labour such a definate vote of confidence and with it the oppetunity to make a difference. I will read comments on this platform over the next 3 years to see if I am right. I hope for the countries sake I am wrong
Well Trev, the alternative was National government and only 27 % of the country wanted to go down that backward path.
I love the smell of citizen anger, especially only a week after a once popular party comprehensively wins an election.
Welcome to hell bitches, no honeymoon for you karma time it is.
And the christian right knows that after stealing lollies from children
makes it is as popular as ever
Good work boys! Enjoy your results!
I get that Labour are terrified of alienating conservative voters, but I’d have thought that the same corporatism that impels them to continue rubber-stamping fraudulent work permits for slave fishermen would have had them establish a dope industry complete with high taxes and a dysfunctional monitoring bureaucracy. They say the economy is in trouble after all. I never win betting on Labour – they don’t have a plan, only Brownian motion.
In 2017, 36% of New Zealanders voted for Labour and they took that as a mandate to form a Government & rule the country. Yet in 2020, 46% of New Zealanders vote to legalise cannabis and Labour says the people have spoken & we now have no plans to change the laws around cannabis. Is that democracy? Grow a spine Labour.
i’m not taking “no” for an answer
where’s the kindness?
Jacinda has changed from a leader to politician
Where’s the Left ?
Fuk this
there will be trouble
big trouble
On the streets
Get ready
Within the first week of Government this term — Andrew Little (and JA by default) pulls this…oh boy, for the 2023 elections, especially the 1.1 million voters of yes to Cannabis, will get revenge on them.
The Labour Government got in partly due to being Covid Wardens — and not a hell of a lot more, this time last year, National was ahead in various polls, then Covid struck, and the National Party fell apart, allowing Labour to victory.
This decision by Andrew Little to ignore 1.1 million voters wish, with the majority being either Labour, or Green voters, will result in a change of Government in 2023…if, they (Labour) does not offer to reform the Cannabis Laws ASAP…
Andrew Little is no longer Minister of Justice (three days is a long time in politics nowadays). Will Faafoi really allow his decisions to be constrained by vague statements made by his predecesssor a week before the final referenda results were known?
A statement like: “The Cannabis Legalisation and Control Bill will not be introduced as legislation by the Labour Government this term.” Doesn’t prevent a different Legalisation (or decriminalisation) bill being introduced and conscience?) voted on by this parliament.
I hope Minister Faafoi — does Reform the Cannabis Laws…
After the final vote count and half the country wanting a change then the minister has to look at decriminalisation an I hope an encompassing education program for Kiwis about weed and other drugs such as alcohol and P.
Kids and others need to know and live in a community that knows.
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