MANA in Parliament, 9-11 April 2013
Posted on April 21, 2013 by admin in NewsGovernment bills up this week
· Psychoactive Substances Bill – first reading: the purpose of the Bill is to regulate things like party pills and other legal highs by restricting their importation, manufacture, and supply, and by only allowing the sale of those that meet safety and manufacturing requirements. MANA supported the Bill at first reading and it has now been referred to the Health select committee for further consideration. Public submissions are due by 1 May.
· Social Security (Benefit Categories and Work Focus) Amendment Bill – third and final reading: this is the first of a series of new laws to further dismantle the benefit system and further punish and marginalise those who are on them. The purpose of the Bill is to reduce the number of people on benefits and save taxpayers money as a result. However, numbers on benefits will be reduced not by placing people into employment (the government has no plans to create jobs), but by making it too difficult to get on a benefit and too difficult to remain on one, effectively pushing people into no-mans-land. Any savings will soon be overshadowed by huge downstream costs for the people involved and their whānau, and for us all in terms of long-term health costs, homelessness, and justice issues. This is all about beneficiary bashing to build the government’s votes. It shows a disregard for people for political gain that is an utter disgrace. MANA opposed the Bill all the way. See the MANA website, www.mana.net.nz , for a copy of Hone’s media statement.
· Crown Minerals (Permitting and Crown Land) Bill – committee stage: The purpose of this Bill is to make it easier for the government to give the green light to multi-national mining companies for lucrative but environmentally-damaging mineral mining. Successive governments already have a poor track record of putting the care of Papatūānuku ahead of short-term money-making activities, and this change will make that situation even worse. MANA continued to oppose the Bill. As outlined in the previous summary (MANA in Parliament, 26-28 March), the government has been issuing prospecting and exploration permits in our most treasured areas (Schedule 4 land) which they promised would be off-limits to mining. The Bill opens the possibility of full-scale mining in these areas and in response the Greens tabled an amendment to prohibit all such activities, prospecting and exploration included. MANA supported the amendment but unfortunately, although unsurprisingly, it didn’t receive enough votes to pass. MANA also supported the Māori Party’s amendment to give Iwi a greater voice in the permitting process, but this failed to get enough votes too – so much for being ‘at the table’.
Unicef International report card on child wellbeing
On Wednesday, UNICEF International released their latest annual Innocenti report card which compares child wellbeing in the world’s richest countries. New Zealand continued to compare poorly and was ranked 21 out of 35 for levels of child poverty. What was clear in the report is that when governments make the effort to set child poverty-reduction targets and invest in measures to meet these targets, it does significantly reduce. What was also clear is that child poverty levels in New Zealand are not reducing because successive governments have failed to set targets and invest accordingly – and this government seems to have no plans to change this. Interestingly enough, New Zealand was clustered with other countries that have the lowest number of kids eating breakfast each day – and it’s no accident that these countries, NZ included, were the lowest-ranked in terms of the percentage of young people not in work, education or training. NZ ranked 32 out of 34 for this, and 25 out of 34 for participation in higher education. As any education research worth its weight will tell you, the answer to doing well in school and being able to enter work or higher education is about better income equality for whānau, smaller class sizes, and a wellbeing framework for learning that includes food in schools and health and social services – not benefit bashing and greater income inequality, nor handing our kids over to profit-seeking charter school operators. It’s no accident the government pushes for “solutions” that make things even worse – it enables them to justify the need for more drastic reforms. See the MANA website for Hone’s media statement on the report and the need for his Feed the Kids Bill to be supported.
More privatisation on the agenda: this time hospital food
This week the government confirmed it will close hospital kitchens around the country and instead open new kitchens in Auckland and Christchurch to supply pre-cooked, frozen meals to all hospitals – as if the food in hospitals isn’t bad enough already. The government is, of course, justifying the move in terms of cost saving and improved quality, and yet they’ve also confirmed that one of the private multi-national companies they’re looking to sign-up as the sole food supplier is Health Benefits Ltd. This is the same Health Benefits Ltd who were recently caught putting horsemeat into their food. While the government continues to line the pockets of their business friends overseas, another 1000 New Zealand workers will lose their jobs as a consequence. It’s hardly a cost saving.
Illegal spying by the government likely to include MANA leadership
Following the illegal spying on Kim Dotcom by the GCSB (the Government Communications Security Bureau), it has come to light that 88 New Zealand citizens have also been spied on illegally. It seems very likely that all of the MANA leadership – Hone, Annette, John – and key spokesperson Sue Bradford will have been spied on as part of this. See the MANA website for the media statement they all put out together demanding that the names be released and that apologies be made. As Hone outlined in the statement, spying on political party opponents would be political interference of the worst kind. After the 2011 election we did discuss having our parliament office swept for bugs but Annette said there was no point ‘cause we’d just be re-bugged within days – pretty scary stuff.
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