I never particularly liked Amy Adams. I never particularly disliked her either. I certainly never saw her as a future prime minister, although a few people clearly did, including Amy herself. Her resignation recently was a surprise, and was generally seen as her expectation that National, under Simon Bridges, will lose the next election, and so she is off to greener pastures. It is a shame that Amy doesn’t understand the expression that a week is a long time in politics. Anything can happen between now and the next election, and with the way Winston Peters is currently behaving, it probably will.
But I never thought I would ever say this about a National politician. Amy does not understand democracy. Or, maybe she understands it, but she doesn’t believe in it.
This is about the abortion bill, which Adams supports.
Thanks to the lobbying skills of National’s Amy Adams, Little is believed to have the numbers for the abortion bill without NZ First, although NZ First leader Winston Peters says the party still wants a referendum. But it raised the lasting question of whether referenda are the best way to resolve knotty social, political and moral questions.
Putting something to a referendum is the ultimate form of democracy. Yes, as we often see, the issues are won by small margins. Think the Scottish referendum on independence. The vote was 48 to 52. So went the Brexit referendum, too. All elections and referenda seem to be won by relatively small margins, but they are still won by a majority, even if it is a small majority.
Speaking of Brexit…
Adams believes they are not. Speaking with a clarity and intelligence that could make listeners regret she was not picked as National leader, Adams told RNZ that “if we learned anything from Brexit, it’s that referenda can be very bad ways to make complex, complicated decisions”.
Excuse me, dear moderators, but… WTF?
It just so happens that I have 3 siblings who live in Britain, not to mention nephews, nieces and in-laws. Of my 3 siblings, 2 voted in favour of Brexit, and I don’t know how the other one voted. I have to say I was surprised… I honestly thought they would all be Remainers. Chances are, their families voted in the same way as they did.
So exactly why does Amy Adams think she knows better than people who live, day after day, with the consequences of being part of Europe, of being overrun by Eastern Europeans, or who live with the consequences of a corrupt and bloated organisation that is neither elected nor held to account by anyone?
I don’t live in Britain any more, but I would have voted Brexit too. Turns out I would not have been alone.
So, I think it is a very good thing that Amy Adams is stepping down at the next election. Democracy is a precious thing, and is valued by many people like me, who feel it is our only chance to have a say in the way we live. Clearly that is not important to Amy Adams. Clearly, she thinks she knows best.
You do know best, Amy. You know that now is the time for you to leave. You made the right decision.