Ae Marika! 11 March 2014

Posted on March 11, 2014 by admin in Ae Marika

Tomorrow my FEED THE KIDS Bill was finally due to come before the house but it’s been pushed down the order paper again, so the bill waits a little longer, and unfortunately the kids gotta wait a little longer as well, and what makes the delay even harder to accept is the fact that the list of kids in this country living below the poverty line has just gotten longer as well – in 2012 it was 270,000, now it’s 285,000 – and those figures don’t come from MANA, they come from Treasury.

I know it’s hard to believe that things can be so bad for so many kids, but that’s our reality and it’s why I keep pushing this bill. It’s not the only answer and it may not be the best answer but my argument is that while we’re trying to find the right answer, we should always make sure the kids are getting fed.

Last week I hosted a function at parliament to thank the Community Coalition for Food in Schools for their support for MANA’s Feed the Kids Bill and their help in promoting food in schools. I’ve never fully acknowledged them before because we’ve been so hard out on the kaupapa, but their public support for the issues around child poverty has been absolutely critical to raising the profile of this issue.

In 2011 a food in schools programme wasn’t even on the political radar. But by MANA making it an issue and building a broad coalition of support, last year a TV3 poll showed that 70% of NZers supported government-funded food programmes in low decile schools, Food in Schools made the Top 10 News Stories of 2013, and everybody in the country now knows exactly what FEED THE KIDS is all about.

And that’s why it’s important to acknowledge the Community Coalition for Food in Schools for their excellent work and their ongoing support … School and Education groups: NZEI, PPTA, NZ Principals’ Federation, Quality Public Education Coalition; Te Rūnanga Nui o Ngā Kura Kaupapa Māori o Aotearoa, Tertiary Education Union; Choose Kids; Poverty Stoppers; and Student groups and Schools from across the country (too many to name here). Church groups: Anglican Action, Caritas Aotearoa NZ, the Methodist Church, and the Salvation Army. Health organisations: Manaia PHO; Tai Tokerau PHO, the NZ Nurses Organisation, Plunket; the Royal NZ College of General Practitioners, and the Māori Medical Practitioners’ Association. Poverty and Children’s Rights advocates: Auckland Action Against Poverty, Barnardos, Child Poverty Action Group, Every Child Counts, IHC, Save the Children, Poverty Action Waikato, and UNICEF NZ; Whanau advocates: CTU Rūnanga, the Māori Women’s Welfare League, and Women’s Refuge. And of course the world’s top Kapa Haka group, Te Waka Huia!

And not forgetting all the kids and schools up here in the far north who wrote to me about the bill, and who did stuff to help promote the kaupapa, especially Kaitaia Primary School for their public awareness campaign down on Commerce St last year!

Watch this space …

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.