Ae Marika! 19 Nov 2013

Posted on November 19, 2013 by admin in Ae Marika

Last week my FEED THE KIDS Bill due to finally come up in the house, but not!! … We started the day with interviews on TV1 and TV3 before hosting a breakfast for Natone Park School to promote the bill. The kids stole the limelight with an awesome bracket of songs out on the forecourt and then sang their way through breakfast as well, at the appropriately named ‘Loaves and Fishes’.

Then when the bill was due to come up that evening, everything else dragged on so long it became clear we wouldn’t get through all the speeches. So I had a quiet word to Winston, who then rose and asked everyone to allow the house to lift early so “a matter of national importance can be heard in the light of day”. Everyone agreed and so the bill will come before the house for first reading about 4.30pm on Wed 4 December.

I also attended a gathering at Manu Bay in Raglan to protest the arrival, 100 kilometres offshore, of an oil rig leased by Texas oil giant Anadarko; the same Anadarko that had to pay $4 billion for the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. With a record like that, it’s appalling that Anadarko was allowed to simply ‘lodge’ an environmental impact assessment and oil well design plan, before getting their safety and discharge plans approved by the same agency that gave approval for Petrobras to drill in the earthquake prone Raukumara Basin a few years ago.

The offshore rigs we’ve had up till now have been in fairly shallow water and inspected every month, but in the deeper water the Texas cowboys won’t worry about government inspection, and with 27 rigs soon to be set up around our coasts the chances of disaster increase hugely.

I hear there may be a meeting this Saturday out at Poroa as part of a national day of action against deep sea mining and oil drilling. Watch the paper, tune into the radio, and hopefully I’ll see you there.

I also attended a couple of tangi last week – one for Dixie Hona, a staunch MANA man and dedicated “Highway 61” rider, who was killed when a car ploughed into a group of motorcyclists in the Bay of Plenty. Dixie was farewelled at his marae in Te Whaiti last Thursday, surrounded by his whanau, MANA crews from around the motu, and hundreds of riders from the “Highway”, “Greazy Dogs” and “Tribesmen”.

And the other tangi was for Takutai Moana ‘Doc’ Wikiriwhi, senior kaumatua right throughout Ngati Whatua. Takutai was a man of great mana, deeply knowledgeable about all things pertaining to Ngati Whatua whakapapa, humble in the extreme, pleasant to talk to, and well respected by iwi leaders from throughout the country. Doc was held for a night at Orakei Marae before being taken north where he was laid to rest at his home marae in Oruawharo yesterday.

I did a lot more too, but I’ve run out of column space! Catch you all next week.

AE MARIKA is an article written every week by Hone Harawira, leader of the MANA Movement and Member of Parliament for Te Tai Tokerau. You are welcome to use any of the comments and to ascribe them to Mr Harawira. The full range of Hone’s articles can be found on the MANA website at www.mana.net.nz.