It’s not a new trend, but it sure seems on the increase.

Legislation granting more power to the Minister and governmental bureaucrats with more and stiffer penalties for the citizens and taxpayers that is.

Just examine the draft NHI Bill for a taste.

No penalties for the bureaucrats if they don’t present their annual audit to Parliament or their bi-annual actuarial review, but there’s lots of penalties for the doctors and citizens and more.

Of course the powers granted to the minister to have his way are spelled out quite succinctly. And they are very wide.

The Westminster System of Parliamentary Democracy is supposed to lend itself to checks and balances, between the Justice System, The Cabinet, Parliament and the Civil Servants, but this arrangement is being eroded with every new piece of legislation. Accountability seems like it’s annoying to the political class rather than the goal to shoot for.

John Adams reminded Abigail Adams “…democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.”

If the leaders continue to erode the fundamentals of the system in this manner i.e. granting unfettered powers to Ministers and Bureaucrats, how near is the death of this democracy?