The Importance Of Restraining The Executive In New Zealand

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Constitutional conventions and statutes are central to the New Zealand (NZ) legal system and both play an imperative role. While the two are vital to our legal system, statutes are more important at restraining the Executive in NZ. This essay will discuss the significance of both and argue why I think statutes are more important.

A statute can be defined as a written piece of legislation, made by Parliament, which has gone through the processes to become law. Statute law is the supreme form of Law in NZ. An example of an important statute in NZ is the Social Security Act 1938 which created various welfare benefits, including Superannuation and Unemployment, for New Zealanders in need. While statutes apply to every citizen in NZ, constitutional
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Perhaps the most important of these is the Bill of Rights Act 1990 which applies to everyone, including those who are part of the Executive. Section 7 of this Act states that the Attorney-General must provide a report to parliament when a Bill appears to be inconsistent with the Bill of Rights. Essentially, everything the Executive does is subject to this Act. The Official Information Act 1982 is also useful to the general public because it allows access to information held by the Government. This can be used to challenge executive actions and ensures the Government acts in accordance with what the public want. The Electoral Act 1993 is one of the main restrictions on the power of the Executive and states that an election is to be held every three years where the public votes the government in. If the government gets offside with the public they face the risk of being voted out. This act also changed the electoral system from First Past the Post (FPP) to Mixed Member Proportionate (MMP). MMP is a significant restraint on the powers of the Executive because it means that no single party in NZ politics completely dominates the political landscape. The party in power no longer has majority to easily vote through legislation they want and must rely on smaller parties to vote with them, therefore losing some of the dominance they had under …show more content…
There is an important constitutional convention that says ministers should not openly criticise judges. Judges have the power to check Executive action so if they faced the idea of being criticised publically they perhaps would act as the Executive wanted them to instead of being impartial. Because ministers can’t criticise their decisions, the judiciary can effectively restrain them. John McGrath explained why conventions, such as this, are necessary when he said “Conventions ensure that the legal powers of our constitution are exercised in accordance with democratic principles”. Without constitutional conventions, NZ would effectively become a dictatorship with one person, or party, in control of all three branches of government.
Another important constitutional convention is that of collective ministerial responsibility which requires every Cabinet decision to be unanimously supported outside Cabinet. This restrains the Executive because Cabinet are less likely to push through extreme or controversial acts that they will have to publically

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