Mana | Movement of the People

MANA in Parliament, 12-14 March 2013

Keep Our Assets petition
The week started with the presentation of the Keep Our Assets petition to Parliament by the Keep Our Assets coalition – a petition which will require the government to hold a citizens-initiated referendum on asset sales within the next year. The petition was spearheaded by Grey Power and the unions including the NZ Union of Students, and supported by Labour, Greens, NZ First, and MANA. Nearly 400,000 voters signed the petition, a record-breaking number of signatories for a referendum petition in Aotearoa, and the forms were handed over in a wall of boxes. Hone joined the line-up of speakers in thanking all the volunteers who helped achieve this result, and in thanking the hundreds of thousands of New Zealand heroes who signed it. MC Moana Maniapoto and Hone closed the large gathering on the steps of Parliament with the waiata “Ngā Iwi E”, a fitting end to such a strong and principled stand for our future by so many.

Government bills up this week
· The government’s main item on the Parliament agenda this week was the lengthy debate on the Appropriation (2011/2012 Financial Review) Bill. For this annual debate, parties and MPs get to choose the financial review of a particular government department to focus on and talk to. Hone used his time to talk to the financial review of Treasury, and to expose the government’s myth that asset sale money is going to be used on schools and hospitals. Reading the review makes it clear that the money is going to be spent on paying off debt instead – and yes, that’s debt accumulated from things like funding tax-cuts for high income earners. Even the Treasury has said it’s not a good time to sell our state-owned power companies given the current economic climate will mean a low asking price … and every respected economist has questioned the very logic of selling something that we still use and that is still valuable to us. Hone likened the situation to selling the kitchen because we need some money to fix the toilet, with the government telling us not to worry because we can rent the kitchen back even though that rent will go up and up every year making our power bills go up and up as a result. “How dumb is that?” asked Hone. And to make matters worse, our power bills will increase at a time when unemployment is going through the roof as local businesses go under or shift their operations overseas – and when the government is doing nothing and has no plan to create jobs. See the MANA website, www.mana.net.nz, for a copy of Hone’s speech where he also acknowledged the role of the NZ Māori Council in delaying the sale of the power companies until now.
· Also up this week in Parliament was the second reading of the government’s Minimum Wage (Starting-out Wage) Amendment Bill, which passed with just a one vote majority. The Bill will be passed into law next week and will mean the reduction of wages for some young workers at a time when even the adult minimum wage is not enough to live on (from $13.75 per hour to $11 per hour). How many of the MPs voting for it would fancy trying to support themselves on these wages? Not only is it unfair to say that workers aged up to 20 years are worth less because of their age, the change won’t mean employers are better able to afford to take on more workers either – as has been proved over and over again. All too often such policies have meant that one worker goes out the back door at the higher rate, and another comes in the front at the lower rate. MANA opposed the Bill along with Labour, Greens, NZ First, and the Māori Party.

Member’s Bills
While the government’s programme in Parliament was yet again pretty much doom and gloom for the 99%ers, Member’s Day this week was the complete opposite with two very significant Bills passing their second readings.
· The first of these was David Clark’s Holidays (Full Recognition of Waitangi Day and ANZAC Day) Amendment Bill which will enable us to still have the Monday off if Waitangi Day or ANZAC Day falls on a weekend.
· The second was Louisa Wall’s Marriage (Definition of Marriage) Amendment Bill to enable same-sex couples to be legally married if they so choose. While legal recognition of same-sex relationships was such a controversial issue back in 2004 during the debates of the Civil Union Bill, this Bill has received and continues to receive wider public and political support with a second reading vote of 77 to 44 (the second reading vote on the Civil Union Bill was 65 to 55).

Both Bills will progress to the ‘Committee of the Whole House’ stage at the next Member’s Day on Wednesday 27 March. This is where each clause of a bill is debated and each part is voted on, and is also where any MPs can table amendments – and it will no doubt be an interesting debate on both as a result.