Zeon: I honestly don't see why people are saying this is anti-democracy, parliament will have to vote on it [...]
Maybe, maybe not.
In NZ and most countries it is the executive function - in our case cabinet - can legally decide to sign a treaty or not. Parliament not required.
Before or after - there is no strict obligation to put a treaty to parliament and nothing that parliament must strictly approve.
As for making it real, in many cases imho that can be done by regulation issued by the minister. For instance in the case of Pharmac I presume it would be little more than a note from the minister to Pharmac saying excuse me buying generic medicine would violate our treaty obligations please stop that forthwith. No legislation required for that one. Agreement on that part of the treaty looks very unlikely anyway but it would be wise to beware of sneaky compromises and wink nudge effects anywhere in the agreement.
Zeon: [...] and there is no way to hide anything then....
Where there is a will there is a way.
It is a gap in our democracy (and many others) that is some way from being fully integrated.
Trusted
