Mana | Movement of the People

MANA in Parliament, 4-6 June 2013

Government Bills
· As indicated in last week’s summary, the third and final reading of the Education Amendment Bill was passed today – marking a very dark day in our country’s education journey. Disappointingly, the Māori Party continued to support the Bill despite the publication of a letter against charter schools signed by many leading Māori educationalists including Ranginui Walker, Linda Smith, and Leonie Pihama. See the MANA website, www.mana.org.nz, for Te Hāmua’s press statement on the Bill. I just hope that Labour’s jumping-up-and-down about it isn’t hot air and that they move to ditch charter schools as soon as they’re back in government.
· Also up this week was the first reading of the Employment Relations Amendment Bill, the government’s latest bill to further reduce workers’ rights – including the right to rest and meal breaks – and to further erode collective bargaining. MANA of course opposed the Bill and will continue to do so at all stages.
· A number of Treaty settlement bills were read in Parliament this week – namely, the first reading of the Te Tau Ihu Claims Settlement Bill, and the third readings of the Ngāti Whātua o Kaipara Claims Settlement Bill and the Waitaha Claims Settlement Bill. The Treaty settlements process continues to leave Iwi and Hapū battered and bruised and with nowhere near a just settlement so these days are less celebratory and more an acknowledgement of another step being taken.

Members Bills: Feed the Kids
This week Members Day was cancelled as the Budget debate continued to take priority in the House (it was finally completed on Thursday). What this means is that the Members Days timetable has now been pushed back a week, and will mean that our Feed the Kids Bill will now come up for first reading on Wednesday 31 July instead of Wednesday 10 July … giving us another few weeks to get the government to commit to support it! Remember to check out the Feed the Kids website, www.feedthekids.org.nz. As you’ll note, we’ve had even more organisations join the campaign in support of the Bill including the Te Tai Tokerau PHO and the Manaia PHO.

Team Te Hāmua
We hear from MANA by-election campaign workers and volunteers from around the Ikaroa Rāwhiti electorate that support for Te Hamua to win is strong and growing by the day – tauke whānau! See the MANA website for Hone’s release about the on-line polls which have Te Hāmua in the lead, and about the high level of support reported back from early door knocking in the electorate.