Clayton Mitchell New Zealand First MP

“Spoiler alert”: red and blue parties don't listen to voters!

On a Wednesday night in March the Broadcasting (Games of National Significance) Amendment Bill had its First Reading, and the level of fear it generated in the establishment parties and their lackeys was quite astounding.

Getting the Bill through its First Reading, into Select Committee, would have enabled robust debate and fine-tuning of the Bill in front of all New Zealanders in an open public forum, with complete transparency and accountability to voters and taxpayers.

84% of Kiwis – in one online survey – were in favour of sporting events of national significance being live and free-to-air, but were ignored and over-ruled by a cross-section of political elitists who claim to know better.

We weren't surprised this blue government opposed this Bill, voting, once again, for their multi-national corporate paymasters, but never in a million years did we expect the red party to join them and vote it down – again “red and blue, nothing new”.

They claimed it's a “property rights” issue, or we “can't afford” it, or the money – we can't know really how much without a Select Committee investigation – could be spent on other more important things… like flag referenda, presumably.

We are public servants. We are supposed to create legislation for the right reasons, regulations come later, once we've agreed on what we want to do. This was a Bill New Zealanders wanted, but we have not been well served. Quite frankly, it's disgusting.

So, it looks as though we will have to switch off our phones and unplug the internet and sit in a dark room hiding from the “spoilers”, in order to watch delayed coverage of our sporting heroes and heroines in action. Alternatively, we can magically pull $1,000 out of thin air to pay for the privilege of spoiler avoidance, watching live only on Sky.

Red and blue believe that Sky's profits are more important than voters' opinions and cultural identity.

But I suppose there's nothing new there, and New Zealanders have yet more evidence that the only real choice for New Zealand is black and white.