New Zealand Police Act Wiki Lets You Write the Law

PhoenixOr writes "New Zealand is now on the top of my list for cool governments. They've opened a wiki allowing the populace to craft a new version of their Police Act, the legislative basis for policing in New Zealand."

Comments

kiwis use wikis

[Strange Ranger]

Film at 11.

Cool government indeed.

Re:kiwis use wikis

[Tuoqui]

Now if only this would catch on... we might actually see laws that are representative of what the people want instead of some asshole with a few hundred thousand dollars more than they should have in their pocket.

Re:kiwis use wikis

[Virtual_Raider]

I don't think we would see to many of those laws. The final draft will be reviewed by a relevant body before submitting it for approval. Not doing so would be insane, as all manner of abuse could find their way into the law otherwise. The thing is, it will be reviewed by those same people that we are supposing take "financial aids" from interest groups. So they will just snip out whatever doesn't suit their agendas.

I know this is a police law, but think of the possibilities in other areas. What if I want to expand the definition of Fair Use? Or if I want to shorten copyright duration? Do you see those amends surviving even on the face of overwhelming public support on the wiki? On top of lobbyists there would be astroturfers for one thing. And let's not forget that usually the only people that are vocal about something are those with a vested interest. I wouldn't want the nosy bastards from some retarded Home-Owners association slipping in some ordinances that would, for example, prevent me from installing a solar array on my backyard because it "ruins the aesthetics of the neighborhood" or such. Particularly if I don't even live on their area but get covered by this laws.

I think is a good publicity stunt and it may even generate some novel ideas, but I just don't see it suddenly making sense of the legal landscape in any meaningful way. I'd much rather they put the existing laws in a database with strong referential integrity. That would be interesting.

Just some ramble =)

Re:kiwis use wikis

[Petrushka]

I live here, nothing cool about our government.

Hmm ... loathing of government for no stated reason ... high probability of right-wing lean ... posting as AC ... do I detect a denizen of nz.general?

Re:kiwis use wikis

[Petrushka]

Not so fast. They've set the wiki up with a rather short-sighted password policy: any editor can set a password on any page that can protect that page from being edited or even being seen by anyone else. I'm having difficulty finding any pages that don't have passwords set ...

Re:kiwis use wikis

[WhatAmIDoingHere]

You act like the default relationship with the government should be love. You should hate your government until they give you a reason not to.

Re:kiwis use wikis

[Elemenope]

Hating your government for no good reason is nearly as silly as loving it on the same basis. I would say one should be rationally engaged and emotionally disinterested in their government unless and until that government unduly interferes in your life or perpetrates some act you consider to be unjust.

But maybe that's just me.

Polity and Custom of the Camiroi

[Beryllium Sphere(tm)]

This was a science fiction story in which anyone could create a law. The visitor from Earth created a law saying that only qualified people could create new laws, arguing that otherwise someone might create a stupid one. The native said "Someone just did, in fact". The revert happened almost immediately, and the visitor was advised not to start a revert war: the reverter was described as "very good with the ritual sword".

Re:Polity and Custom of the Camiroi

[miruku]

on a related note;

http://www.pyrsf.com/chapters/Wikiworld/Wikiworld.htm

Vote for Deletion

[speaker of the truth]

I submit that the Title isn't notable enough with this google search only revealing one relevant link. As such I propose we delete this page.

nice!

[i_b_don]

Hm... so this means that young male techno-savy people are going to write the laws now? What do you think they will be?

1. Piracy is legal for any copyright that is represented by the RIAA or MPAA
2. Cute girls can't wear shirts
3. The new legal drinking age is 13
4. People over 50 aren't allowed to vote

???

d

Re:nice!

[mwvdlee]

2. Cute girls can't wear shirts

So now they'll be wearing raincoats and turtleneck sweaters.
Thanks, dude.

Excellent

[skeftomai]

I think having the community develop laws together is a rather superb way of handling society. The more people, (generally) the better (IMO). The more people that have their hand in this, the less likely something will be left out. Also, since everyone in that society will have to live with those laws, I think it's best that the majority has the opportunity to shape those laws (granted, not everyone will likely use this wiki, but I think the concept is good).

Doing it this way, the way I see it, has the potential to mend gaps between people groups in a society by allowing them to discuss their ideas and explain and collaborate their ideas carefully.

I wish more governments could be run this way -- moreso by the people.

And having this online provides an excellent communication medium.

why is it...

[User 956]

Why do i get the impression that the new Police Act will consist mainly of LOLcats?

Re:why is it...

[Titoxd]

No, it will probably be something more along the lines of "Eric is a fag and his face is punishable by law." ~~~~

Re:Not such a good idea..

[Anonymous Coward]

Opening a wiki for creating laws is insane. It would just invite vandalism, and instead of leading to formation of new laws, it would waste money and manpower involved in maintanence and moderation.

Yeah. I heard that someone also had a wiki to build an encyclopedia, but that's just as insane. It would just invite vandalism, and instead of leading to an informative and complete reference, it would waste money and manpower involved in maintanence and moderation.

A Public Relations exercise

[gihan_ripper]

From the wiki (emphasis mine):

An official Bill is currently being written-up by parliamentary drafters, but in parallel there's an opportunity for others to suggest how a new Policing Act might look by contributing to a wiki Act.

OK, it's unrealistic to believe that New Zealand would let anyone write the law. That would lead to anarchy. However, what they're doing is trying to get people interested in the law-making process, and in the laws themselves by opening up this wiki. I can see a number of purposes this could serve:

1. Educational: teaches citizens about laws and law-making.
2. Political: by getting citizens involved in the process, they're more likely to support the new Act.
3. Police PR: gets citizens to think about policing in a new way and perhaps gain a new respect for the Police.

Re:A Public Relations exercise

[bug1]

"OK, it's unrealistic to believe that New Zealand would let anyone write the law. That would lead to anarchy."

Quite the opposite.

Anarchy is the absense in laws, so letting anyone write laws would move New Zealand further away from anarchy.

Allowing anyone to repeal laws might lead to anarchy.

citation needed

[Anonymous Coward]

Police officers may not shoot people at random [citation needed]

Re:Not such a good idea..

[TallGuyRacer]

Nobody said the result would definitely be used. The wiki is just being used to get suggestions and ideas...

Did you read the article?

[Jane Q. Public]

The wiki does not allow people to write law. It is just for citizen input.

Wow...

[nebaz]

According to the New Zealand Police Act, the elephant population has tripled in New Zealand.

Re:Not Practical In The U.S.

[dangitman]

As pointed out elsewhere, the people who would participate are too self-selecting. They would just be too small a segment of the U.S. population.

Well, yes. Citizens of New Zealand would be a very small segment of the US population.

Can I contribute?

[OrangeTide]

I'm not from New Zealand, but I think with a name like "Police Act" that the law should roughly state: The beatings will continue until morale improves.

It's worth reading this rant on that popular joke slogan.

Re:Not such a good idea..

[dangitman]

Laws have to be constant, same for everyone, and not open to discussion or question.

WTF? Laws should be constant? So slavery never should have been abolished, I guess. They should not be open for discussion? Sounds like fascism to me.

It should be the exact opposite - laws should change to reflect the times, and they should be constantly discussed and questioned.

Re:Not Practical In The U.S.

[Jane Q. Public]

Wikipedia has some VERY serious flaws. For example, it is too vulnerable to vandalism, even though that vandalism is often easily fixable... if anyone happens to notice it in a timely manner.

There are other flaws as well. From my own participation, for example, I have found that often certain groups of people will "take over" a topic as "their own", and interfere with input from outside sources, however valid that input may be. In some ways this is analogous to problems we see today with "peer review" in scientific journals.

Wikipedia would be a disastrous model for anything having to do with government. It relies too much on the "good nature" of contributors. As we see very often, some people simply don't have any. And that is double true when it comes to government.

Awesome re-branding

[PhilHibbs]

Alternatively, it is proposed that all police forces throughout New Zealand be renamed "The New Zealand Yum-Yum Teddy Bear Strike Force Z"

Re:An alternative

[kiwipeso]

New Zealand follows the German MMP system. We have one house of representatives. We will have 121 Seats unless there is another overhang next year. About half are directly elected, of which 7 are Maori seats. The rest are list seats allocated by putting in party nominees according to their share after counting what they won.

So, to get represented in parliament, you either need to win : a general electorate, a maori electorate or 5% of the party votes.

What this means is simple, Labour or National win a load of ordinary seats and fill with up a few list MPs.
NZFirst gets the elderly and the patriot vote. Sure to be there. :-(
Greens get the young and the hippy vote. Like the smell of their voters, sure to be there. :-P
Act gets the ambitious and business vote. Too well funded to lose, but I like them more than others. :-)
Maori party, gets enough of the Maori seats and Pacific Islander votes to be there. A new party.

That irrelevant few that split up and now have bugger all chance. (One has gone to be the christian party with the MP who is in the first corruption trial.)

What would be easier would be if you are just going to make laws into online referenda (with postal voting allowed).

Re:WikiWar

[TheRaven64]

How about:

Smoking marijuana is <blink>il</blink>legal. That ought to keep everyone happy.