Mana | Movement of the People

MANA in Parliament, December 2013

Government Bills
Parliament sat for two weeks this month – 3-5 December, and 10-11 December. The key bills up for debate over this time were:
· Land Transport Amendment Bill: This Bill seeks to lower the legal alcohol breath and blood limits for driving as research suggests it will reduce alcohol-impaired driving. The Bill also establishes an infringement regime for these “lower level” breaches which includes fines and demerit points. MANA supported the Bill at first reading. We look forward to hearing from submitters before deciding whether to support further. The Bill was referred to the Transport and Industrial Relations Select Committee and submissions are due by 14 February 2014.
· Harmful Digital Communications Bill: The first reading of this Bill to address cyber bullying was supported by all parties in Parliament and is based on the Law Commission’s 2012 Ministerial briefing paper of the same name. It has been referred to the Justice and Electoral Select Committee and submissions are due by 21 February 2014.
· Judicature Modernisation Bill: The first reading of this whopping 1182 page bill to update and modernise the laws governing our court system was also supported by all parties in Parliament – and is also based on a Law Commission Report, Review of the Judicature Act 1908: Towards a new courts act. It has been referred to the Justice and Electoral Select Committee and submissions are due by 21 February 2014.
· Mokomoko (Restoration of Character, Mana, and Reputation) Bill: the final stages of this Bill were completed this month and the Mokomoko whānau were back in the House to see the mana of their tūpuna restored via the first te reo Māori bill passed in Parliament to date, tauke!

Members Bills
Much of the Members Day on Wednesday 4 December was taken up by the committee stage of the Kaipara District Council (Validation of Rates and Other Matters) Bill. There was a significant amount of debate in light of the recent Controller and Auditor-General report which showed the councils gross negligence over the construction of the Mangawhai community wastewater plant and the resultant $30m overspend for ratepayers to cover – as well as some significant shortcomings by Audit NZ. Despite the council’s failure to charge rates and penalties appropriately, and then subsequently facing a ratings dispute crisis with some rate payers, a majority of MPs agreed that the only fair and reasonable way out of the mess was to validate the errors to make them technically legal, and move on. MANA continued to oppose the bill on a matter of principle: when ‘the little people’ make mistakes, they’re held accountable; when others make mistakes, they’re wiped clean. Not fair, not okay, and not on our watch!

Feed the Kids Bill
While the Bill didn’t come before Parliament this year, there’s been a lot of interest in the kaupapa of food in schools – to the point where it was the only policy issue to make it into the top 10 news stories for 2013. A huge mihi to all of the supporting organisations who have done a great job highlighting the importance of food in schools for the health, wellbeing and learning success of children and young people growing up in low-income families – and all of the schools and volunteers who helped make our Otara Big Breakfast (April) and Parliament Breakfast (November) events such a resounding success. We’re anticipating that the Bill will now come up for first reading in late February.

TPPA political leaders press conference
Leaders from all of the opposition parties, and the Māori Party, held a press conference in early December to challenge the government to release the text of the TPPA so New Zealanders can be properly informed and consulted before we’re signed up to it. See the MANA website, www.mana.org.nz, for Hone’s press statement where he outlines what we know about it so far from leaked documents: less jobs, less pay and work conditions, less environmental protections, less affordable medicines, less sovereignty and less power to make our own decisions free of corporate influence. The government is hoping to sign the deal early-mid next year so these cross-party stands are going to become increasingly important.

Child Poverty in the news again, again and again
This month three reports were released highlighting the extent of child poverty in Aotearoa and what this means for the health, wellbeing and education of children and young people in low income families.
· OECD PISA 2012 survey: The first of these was the OECD’s PISA 2012 survey results which showed that the test scores of New Zealand school students in maths, English and science had all deteriorated well out of the top 10 where they’d been 5 years previously. Of particular concern was the fact that the survey showed greatly increased inequalities between the test scores of high and low decile schools, putting New Zealand in the bottom third of OECD countries. Hone questioned Education Minister Hekia Parata in the House about the results, and asked what responsibility she and her government took for them given they’ve failed to act on OECD recommendations to improve test scores (like introducing food in schools) and have done all they can to push schools to the wall and further impoverish struggling whānau. She failed to see they were responsible in any way and even went so far as to say the survey was not accurate. See the MANA website for Hone’s press statement and his speech in the urgent Parliamentary debate on the survey results.
· Unicef’s ‘Kids Missing Out’ report: This report examined the extent to which successive New Zealand governments have sought to meet our obligations under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Unsurprisingly the authors found that they’ve missed many opportunities and have done very little, save tinkering around the edges. They said that children have been let down by politicians and have too often been the victims of tokenism and hypocrisy. Just shameful, and has definitely made us all the more determined to bring our feed the kids kaupapa into fruition.
· Child Poverty Monitor 2013: This was the report that made headlines a while back because the government refused to fund its publication – and was instead funded by the J R McKenzie Trust. The report showed the reality of the impacts of poverty on children’s health and wellbeing: that it has life-long impacts on them including preventable deaths from illness and disease, and that the situation has got much worse under this government. Māori and PI children are the hardest hit.

Honouring the late, great Nelson Mandela
No doubt you’ve heard that Hone and his wife, Hilda Halkyard-Harawira, travelled to South Africa to honour the extraordinary life and legacy of Nelson Mandela. We were so glad that anti-apartheid campaigners, activists and supporters – both men and women –were represented by people who were actually there, remembered they were there, and have continued to be there to challenge racism and oppression. Thank you to all those who donated money to ensure they could attend together. See the MANA website for Hone’s media statements honouring Nelson Mandela, and also his “Dear John” letter written after the PM criticised Hone’s trip as unnecessary. And looking to the future, what better way to honour the man who said “there can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children” than to do all we can to eradicate child poverty in our own backyard. MANA will be doing all we can to make child poverty THE issue of the 2014 general election that all parties have to respond to.

ACC hunger-striker Mike Dixon-McIver:
Former ACC advocate Mike Dixon-McIver is now into his 50th day of a hunger strike against ACC and their refusal to enter into arbitration with him on fair and just terms. MANA members from around the country have been working with Mike and supporting him with this kaupapa, holding protests outside regional ACC offices and a march to Parliament and ACC in Wellington. See the MANA website for a copy of Annette’s media statement. Hone has written to all MPs asking them to write to ACC Minister Judith Collins to intervene before Mike’s health seriously fails … but there have been no signals from ACC as yet that they’re willing to do the decent thing.

New look MANA Parliament team
The year started with just two Parliament-based staff, myself and EA Jevan Goulter, but we’re finishing the year with four of us in the office – Media Advisor, Marisa Balle, and student intern, Emma Raymond. A big mihi to them too for the great work they’ve done in the short time they’ve been part of the MANA team. Look out 2014!

Parliament is now finished for the year, and will start again next year on Tuesday 28 January.

Ngā mihi,
Helen.

Dr Helen Potter | Senior Advisor/Researcher
MANA Movement of the People
Parliament Buildings
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