South Island Independence

With New Zealand's Labour party about to bankrupt the country, about time for the South island to think about independence. 

New political party: SCRAM Stands for South Island, Chathams, Rakiura Autonomy Movement. 

Policies:

 

No lockdowns Zero income tax for individuals and companies 

Cheap cigarettes 

Excise tax on EV's 

Literacy and numeracy compulsory 

Winning rugby world cup compulsory 

Free speech protected 

Industry encouraged with free trade zones providing cheap land/zero rates. 

How would this work? Any number of ways, but it could exist within New Zealand as a whole. The SCRAM entity could have its own laws apart from Defence, Foreign Affairs and existing Trade agreements. But not like a federal structure, more like a confederacy, that way overarching federal legislation wouldn't apply. As an example, SCRAM could introduce the death penalty for the worst crimes (such as murder with aggravating factors like torture and rape/sexual assault) and not be controlled by Wellington. 

In the future, SCRAM could merge with Western Australia which has voted for independence in the past but never had the numbers in Canberra to push it through. This new entity would create a new empire of the Southern and Indian oceans. Yay. Crucially, it would be resource rich, boundless wealth is tied up in the South and in WA. Effete classes in the urban conurbations are skewing the landscape to enrich themselves at the expense of those who sit on top of that wealth. 

Precedents?

There are a few out there, we could come up with a peculiarly Kiwi solution so Southerners still call themselves New Zealanders. Here are a few models to study and borrow ideas from: 

Wales

Scotland

Northern Ireland 

Monaco 

San Marino 

Andorra 

Lichtenstein 

Luxembourg 

Malta 

Vatican City 

Isle of Man 

Jersey 

Guernsey 

Or look at secessionist movements: 

Catalonia 

Venice (separate from Italy proper and once its own empire) 

California (broke away from Mexico) 

Texas (Broke away from Mexico, then joined the US after a referendum) 

How would secession be achieved? To begin with, members of the party must be elected to parliament. If using the Northern Ireland example with Sinn Fein, they'd not take their seats. However, I suggest this party does take its seats and agitates for a referendum on secession, only to be held in the South Island amongst those on the electoral roll there. If the party gets itself into a kingmaker position, it could make this referendum a condition of forming a government. Auckland politicians are a greedy lot and would do this despite knowing NZ would be broken up. What do you think?