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A couple of weeks ago, the Green Party released its Internet Rights and Freedoms Bill. While Labour has spoken of their intention to do the same, this marks a step in a new direction for democratic handling of policy proposals – the bill is being crowd-sourced. This means that rather than the policy deriving all of its feedback from the internal party caucus, it comes from you, me, and Dupree. This is a great step forward for gauging what real people think of real policies, and it is my hope that it will lead the way for other issues. Irrespective of how you feel about the bill (I’ve heard resounding support and harsh critique), you now have the opportunity to tell Gareth Hughes exactly how you feel about its specific points. That is important. Notable mention: Generation Zero’s extremely detailed report on what we can do to curb climate change, which I have written about on page eight.

Greatest Shits

This past week has seen a veritable clusterfuck of legal high chat. The Government has announced its intention to ban all legal highs within two weeks, which is at least some form of a step beyond the Psychoactive Substances Bill. What is of concern, however, is Peter Dunne. No, not his gravity-defying hair; but rather the fact that his son is a lawyer who advocates for legal high companies and therefore has a potential conflict of interest. Combined with his flip-flop on what we should do about legal highs, and the accusation by Bill Dalton (mayor of Napier) that he is too incompetent to be in government, it seems Dunne has some serious work to do on gaining back the trust of local government officials. However, from this messy legal high battle an unlikely hero has emerged in the form of ACT’s John Banks, who loves beagles so much that he refuses to support the legal high ban until animal testing is banned, too. On ya, Banksy.