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Major issues need major solutions

Posted by on June 17th, 2013
By Meka Whaitiri
Published in The Gisborne Times
Saturday, June 15, 2013

Parekura Horomia was a huge man, with a huge heart, and he loved our people.

I met Parekura when I was 20 years old and finishing my degree down in Wellington.

I waited in his office for eight hours before he finally had time to see me for my first interview. After a quick discussion about who I was and where my whanau were from, he told me to pack an overnight bag and be back first thing in the morning.

That was the first day of what would become a 25-year journey of travelling up and down the country, working in service of our people alongside a great man, Parekura Horomia.

Since he passed, I’ve reflected on what I learned from him and his lessons were basic: love our people, serve our people, trust our people and do the yards on the ground.

Ikaroa-Rawhiti is an enormous electorate. I have travelled thousands of kilometres over the past month meeting nannies in the kitchen, kids at kura, whanau, hapu and iwi leaders on farms and in offices, freezing and forestry workers at the factories, and many of our people doing what we can to get by.

These weeks have affirmed a few things for me: our people are struggling on the ground and no one has been listening; our people are talented and travelling to Australia in droves because there is a lack of opportunities at home; and finally, there are opportunities that are not being realised because the current government is out of touch with us and we have been ignored.

I was born in Manutuke and moved to Whakatu (Hastings) when I was a child. I started my working life as a rousey in Uncle Pong Wyllie’s shearing gang up on the East Coast, and then later worked in the casings department at Whakatu Freezing Works. Looking back, I feel fortunate at the life we lived, where we all had mahi, and I know that this is no longer a reality for many of our whanau.

Our people need jobs and we need to be heard.

A key motto that Parekura had was “local solutions to local problems”. I have been privileged to be the chief executive of Ngati Kahungunu Iwi Incorporated for the past four years. Our key focus was on developing local talent and building capacity. For example, we recently bought a 3680-hectare farm that spans 12 kilometres of coastline, which we will use to train our own to work the whenua.

The role of Government should be to enable hapu, iwi and our people to create sustainable solutions for our whanau. That is why I have put my hand up to be a part of a major party that will form a new government in 2014.

Our people face major issues and we need major solutions and major champions sitting at the cabinet table ensuring that our voice is heard.

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Filed under: #ownourfuture
1 Comment

Dodgy Taxi Cameras

Posted by on June 17th, 2013

The Herald on Sunday published this story about a model of security cameras used in taxis that is failing to provide usable images that can be passed onto Police after alleged incidents of violence and sexual attack.

Security cameras became mandatory in almost all taxis in 2011 when the Government made a rule change in response to the murder of Auckland driver Hirren Mohini.

The NZTA has attempted to wash its hands of any responsibility for the installation of dodgy cameras:

In a statement, NZTA spokesman Andy Knackstedt said the agency was aware of allegations of substandard or counterfeit equipment. “Issues of quality and authenticity are civil matters between the sellers and buyers of the equipment,” he said.

That’s not good enough. Only cameras that appear on the NZTA’s list of approved models can be installed in taxis. The Hikvision cameras at the centre of this scandal appear on that list. It was therefore reasonable for the three companies that have installed them to expect they met the standards required in Schedule 2 of the rule change.

Michael Woodhouse says he is looking into it and well he should. If the NZTA has failed make certain that these cameras meet basic functional requirements, the Government must take responsibility for the fact that vital evidence that should have been available to investigate serious and violent crimes could not be retrieved. Unless the cameras are counterfeits and not what they say they are, this is clearly a matter of Government responsibility.

I wonder if this is really the first a minister has heard of this issue.

 

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Filed under: transport
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Topsy turvy world

Posted by on June 14th, 2013

The  extremist faction of the National Party has been pushing John Key’s government to get tougher on workers. A remit passed at a recent National Party conference to allow replacement workers during strikes and lock outs was a reminder that hatred of unions and workers is still very deep seated in John Key’s “moderate” government and party.

John Key was ambivalent about the remit, saying that while the old party faithful called for it from time to time, “it wasn’t on the government’s agenda.”

Enter National MP Jami-lee Ross, with his Employment Relations (Continuity of Labour) Bill, drawn from the ballot this week, which has put the issue on the government’s agenda, whether John Key likes it or not.

There wasn’t much enthusiasm from National Party MPs when the Jami-lee’s bill was announced as coming out of the ballot and I saw a few face-palms!

The Minister of Labour, Simon Bridges wouldn’t give endorsement to the bill and John Key only got as far saying the government would support the bill to Select Committee.

You know why?  It ruins the government’s attempts to downplay the Employment Relations Amendment Bill changes with his insistence they are “moderate, centre right, government changes.”

No they’re not.  They’re very serious.

Then in piles the Employers & Manufacturers Association (EMA), who haven’t exactly had the best reputation for supporting workers’ rights in the past who said today that :

“While its principles are worth exploring it could prove very divisive”…… ”New Zealand communities place a high value on fairness and the Bill could have consequences that would be considered unfair”.

There’s a change going on when a prominent business organisation like the EMA is prepared to openly oppose a National MP bill. It  may be a clever play to help downplay the rest of the government’s employment law changes, which are just as unfair and divisive, but I believe there’s more to their unease.

Jami-lee’s bill is a members’ bill.  It has a long way to go through the parliamentary process. It’s a hateful and sinister piece of work, but what’s much more serious are the government’s changes to employment laws.

Submissions have now been called for on the Employment Relations Amendment Bill and these close on the 25th July.

Now, if only the EMA would come out and openly oppose those, we would indeed have a topsy turvy world.

 

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Filed under: Employment Law, protest, union, wages, Work and Wages
6 Comments

On Marlins and Long fins

Posted by on June 13th, 2013

Striped Marlin

The Ministry of Primary Industries’ recent review of the management of striped marlin has reached a stalemate.  Commercial fishers wanted to change the rules and land striped marlin caught in NZ waters.  Currently only marlin by-catch caught outside NZ waters can be landed.  Recreational fishers oppose the current by-catch rule and rejected the proposed extension with vigour.   

The Ministry decided that the current management policy provides the “best balance”.  The Minister has obviously found marlin a fish too big for him to land and kicked for touch.  No surprises there.

Long fin Eels (Tuna)

The Government has taken some initial steps in response to the Parliamentary Commissioner of Environment’s (PCE) recent recommendations about longfin eels. 

There are grave concerns about the long term survival of the eels and the Commissioner’s report was scathing about the management policies up to now.  News that DOC and an independent Review Panel will undertaking work to find appropriate ways to protect longfin eels and other migratory fish is a useful interim step.

I consider that work the PCE has done to be very important.  What matters now, given the complexity of the science and the range of interests involved, is to ensure that the Review Panel is fully independent and well-qualified – including appropriate international expertise.  I would expect that the PCE should be consulted about that.

Let’s hope the work to be done is genuine and results-orientated rather than a time-wasting excuse for slippery inaction while the longfin eel faces potential extinction.  We will watch the outcome closely.

Filed under: Fisheries
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The Grass and the Elephants

Posted by on June 12th, 2013

Tuifa’asisina Mea’ole Keil gave a submission to the select committee on the Government’s Housing Accords and Special Housing Areas Bill. Mea’ole is the Labour Party’s Pacific Vice President and serves cleaners and caretakers in his day job with the Service and Food Workers Union. Have a listen. I thought what he had to say was a powerful plea on behalf of New Zealand’s forgotten people, and a reminder how important affordable housing, public transport, and a living wage are for them.

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Filed under: housing, Labour Party
2 Comments

Our Meka

Posted by on June 11th, 2013

Pictured here on the campaign trail at Matariki celebrations

She’s full of energy. She’s strong and feisty. And she’s coming to parliament. This is our Meka Whaitiri. She’s the Labour candidate for Ikaroa-Rawhiti, which was our Parekura Horomia’s seat. The by-election is on Saturday 29 June

Advanced voting for the Ikaroa-Rāwhiti byelection opens tomorrow, 12 June, and Meka Whaitiri will cast an early vote with rangatahi and first time voters in Flaxmere Public Library at 10am.

Here’s a bit of background:

I was born in Manutuke and moved to Whakatu when I was 10. I worked as a Rousey when I was younger up on the East Coast and went on to work in the Casings department at the Whakatu Works with all of my whanau through my teens and early 20s.

I went to Uni in Wellington and my first job as a graduate was working with Parekura in the Department of Labour. Parekura and our team set up the Community Employment Group which enable us to work with whanau, hapu and marae up and down the country for eight years to create jobs and industry for whanau. Our motto was, ‘local solutions to local problems’. One of our initiatives that we assisted to start up was the Whale Watching business in Kaikoura.

I had a great working life in Wellington working with our people, including as the first General Manager of the Maori Women’s Welfare League. I ended up heading back to work with Parekura as his Senior Advisor when he was the Minister of Maori Affairs before returning home in 2008 to work for Ngati Kahungunu Iwi as the CEO.

I live in Whakatu (Hastings) next to my whanau homestead with my two boys (which you may have seen in their youtube video clips:

I believe things are very hard for our whanau on the ground – I know this bevcause I see it day in day out, within my own whanau but also as I travel up and down the electorate. The reality is there a very few jobs for our whanau. Industry has closed and our kids are going over to Australia in the droves. I want to do something about this and this is one of the reasons I have put my hand up to be the Labour candidate for Ikaroa-Rawhiti.

Mauri ora ki a koe, ki to whanau hoki

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Filed under: tangata whenua
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Too close for comfort: is the GCSB spying on us?

Posted by on June 9th, 2013

Stunning revelations that the US equivalent of the GCSB has been routinely monitoring US citizens phone calls, texts and activity on social media impacts on directly on Kiwis with two new laws being hurriedly pushed through out parliament.

Reports say the US National Security Agency (NSA) is collecting metadata on tens of millions of US citizens on phone calls. And it has now been confirmed  that NSA also uses a program called PRISM to access extensive user content  held by Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and Apple: although targeted at non-US citizens, it includes content for US citizens too.

The Government must allow more time for submissions to allow citizens and organisations and the telecommunications and IT industry more time to consider the implications and make submissions.

John Key must front the public (as Barack Obama is doing in the US and David Cameron is being pushed to do  in the UK) to tell New Zealanders whether information about their communications is routinely able to be accessed by the GCSB NOW, and just exactly what extra powers they will have under the new laws which will impact on the privacy and freedoms of us all.

The government would have us believe this is an over reaction. If you don’t believe me read this summary of what has been revealed since last Thursday. And then read this piece by a Kiwi Lawyer who has grasped the implications for New Zealand.

Submissions on both the Government Communications Security Bureau and Related Legislation Bill and the Telecommunications (Interception Capability and Security) Bill are due next Thursday 13 June.

The submission period must be extended to give New Zealanders more time to consider the implications of both bills which will give the GCSB and other agencies more powers to undertake surveillance on New Zealand citizens through all forms of communications as a matter of course.

That is far too short a period of time for such critical pieces of legislation. Both bills are being hurried through the House and the ability of citizens concerned about civil rights and personal privacy has been removed with one of the Bills to be considered behind closed doors with no public discussion.

This is simply intolerable in a democracy where  New Zealanders have ultimate power over the way they are governed.

 

 

 

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Filed under: #ownourfuture, comms & IT
8 Comments

We have the power

Posted by on June 8th, 2013

On Friday afternoon my office was contacted by a Plunket nurse in my electorate who had visited a young mum with a 4 month old baby for a regular check. She discovered a very distressed  young woman who was grappling with the fact that her electricity had been disconnected. Her and her partner (who was at work) had a $600 debt which they were trying to clear but couldn’t get on top of.

The Plunket nurse was horrified as the baby was bottle fed. Electricity was essential in the house for heating. She rang the electricity company and was fobbed off. She then rang my office. I sighed, because it is not the first time this has happened. I rang the Chief Executive’s office and within a few hours the problem was rectified and the electricity was reconnected.

I will not name the company here because I was impressed with how quickly the matter was dealt with and because this is not the only energy company where I have had to “go to the top” to sort it out.

There are clear guidelines for medically dependent and vulnerable customers set out by the Electricity Authority following the highly controversial and tragic case of Folole Muliaga, who in 2007 died less than three hours after the electricity supply from state-owned Mercury Energy was disconnected to her house due to an outstanding balance.

These guidelines set out an “enhanced process around disconnections for non-payment, including a range of requirements that retailers should meet before a disconnection can take place”.

I am writing to the company in question to ask them whether they followed these guidelines before they disconnected this young woman’s power. And I will write to the Electricity Authority to point out that I believe they need to pay closer attention to the number of disconnections occurring.

The power bill is a major monthly cost for every household. Prices continue to accelerate upwards. This is a young family trying to make a go of it. They face cost of living increases which are out of their control.

Instead of selling off these energy companies the National Government should be stepping in to ensure that young families don’t get put in these positions. Electricity costs are too high. Electricity companies make huge profits. There’s something sick in our country if we can’t see that and do something about it.

A Labour Government will do something about it. We will bring down the price of electricity by hundreds of dollars a year. It’s got to be done.

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Filed under: #ownourfuture, Cost of Living
9 Comments

Death and Taxes

Posted by on June 7th, 2013

Nothing, they say, is as certain as death and taxes.

It seems the saying is true.

Yesterday the Finance and Expenditure Select Committee reported back the Taxation (Livestock Valuation, Assets Expenditure and Remedial Matters) Bill to the House.

The usual impenetrable tome of complex technical detail that only corporate lobbyists, tax accountants and hard-working Labour MPs bother to read.

This one was remarkable for what was NOT in it – the odious car park tax had been stripped out under pressure from us, unions and business groups.

Death and taxes may be certain, but there is no point having an annoying tax that costs more to administer and comply with than it actually raises.

The second certainty is that the IRD Call Centre is fast becoming a joke.  

A friend just told me they had been on hold to it for an hour and twenty minutes this morning.  I have had several experiences of close to an hour on hold.  It’s enough to drive you spare!

It is fundamentally wrong that our tax system imposes stiff penalties for late payment and tax payers bear the full risks and cost of any errors when they are effectively denied access to their own tax information and advice because IRD cannot run a decent call centre.

If funding is the issue, it’s a false economy.   The lost productivity must be staggering.

If its management incompetence, it needs a big tune up.

The third certainty this week is that the Minister of Revenue is under huge pressure. 

Indeed, he may not be long in the portfolio.

 

Filed under: Budget 2013, IRD, Tax
6 Comments

And so it begins

Posted by on June 6th, 2013

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Filed under: Work and Wages, workers rights
8 Comments

Actually John Key you did invite Huawei into NZ

Posted by on June 5th, 2013

John Key today accused me of deliberately misleading the House by asking this question:

Clare Curran: Does he now feel embarrassed that, having invited  Huawei into New Zealand and virtually offering it contracts on a plate in 2011, he is now being forced to keep it out of the major contract, following the persistent concerns of all our major security partners?

Rt Hon JOHN KEY: The member is deliberately attempting to mislead the House. I did not invite Huawei into New Zealand.

Ultimately he was forced to apologise.

When Guyon Espiner interviewed John Key on TVNZ’s Q&A 11 July 2010 he said this:

GUYON Are there specific projects that have been looked at, I mean I’ve seen commentators talk about projects like Transmission Gully in Wellington. I mean is that a realistic thing that the Chinese might come and do something like that?

JOHN They might do, and at the end of the day from New Zealand’s perspective I mean we’re looking for value for money. So let’s take ultrafast broadband, they’ve got a lot of expertise in that area, Huawei is a big player, they’re bigger round the world, they’ve got a huge partnership in the United Kingdom for instance. No one’s saying they would be the final selected partner in New Zealand but they’ve certainly got the capacity if they wanted to, to come in and look at doing something like that. So you know from New Zealand’s point of view the bottom line is, can we get investment, can we get ultimately value for money?

No-one had mentioned Huawei in relation to the UFB until John Key did that interview on his return from China. Subsequently there was a rash of speculation and discussion about the relationship between the National Govt and the giant Chinese tech company.

Despite a recent visit to New Zealand by Huwaei President Mr Ren Zhengfei a few weeks ago who gave his first ever media interview on our soil, it appears the buck may have stopped for Huawei’s involvement in our public infrastructure.

I was told today that within the telco industry it was believed that Huawei had already been given the contract by Chorus and that it was a back flip to hear that Huawei had been dropped. Whatever the real story is, it involves a turnaround for John Key.

I guess the real question is, what took him so long?

You can watch the interchange here:

 

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Filed under: broadband
7 Comments

We wouldn’t have unqualified doctors in hospitals – why allow unqualified teachers in charter schools?

Posted by on June 4th, 2013

The charter schools Bill is likely to be enacted this week.  It is a disgrace that the Government has agreed to establish sschools who may hire unqualified teachers in their classrooms.  See my speech during committee stages last week – inthehouse.co.nz/node/19003.

Filed under: education
14 Comments

Anyway it is not even her real birthday

Posted by on June 2nd, 2013

Can someone remind me again why we are celebrating the Queen’s Birthday this weekend?

I like a good long weekend as much as the next person. But it seems slightly odd (in fact a bit North Korean) that the country has a holiday to celebrate the birthday of the head of state. And very odd that our head of state lives on the other side of the world, and only visits here very occasionally.

Sometimes I realise with a bit of a start that the British Queen is “our” queen, as if waking from a dream that New Zealand was a modern, democratic state with a New Zealander as head of state. It is a shock to realise that hasn’t happened yet.

Parliament will soon be debating the Royal Succession Bill which will end discrimination against female royals but will still mean a New Zealander can never be head of state of New Zealand. It also leaves in place the rule that no Catholic can ever be Monarch. Now if the Brits want to maintain this feudal institution good luck to them, but really, is this what we want for New Zealand in the 21st century?

We’ve had a succession of pretty good Governors General during my adult lifetime. Why we don’t just change the law and make the office of Governor General our new head of state is beyond me.

It wouldn’t make a blind bit of difference to the Maori relationship with the State. The British Crown has never taken any role in negotiations with iwi since 1840. It has always delegated that job to the New Zealand state.  Appointing a New Zealander as head of state wouldn’t necessitate any other constitutional overhaul.  We could even still belong to the Commonwealth if we wanted to.

Conventional wisdom has it that people feel very affectionate about Queen Elizabeth and would not contemplate any change while she is still on the throne. Charles and Camilla as our reigning monarchs, that is maybe a different matter. I say we start debating the idea of a New Zealander as head of state now, so that when Queen Elizabeth’s long reign comes to an end we’ll have a plan and a process worked out.

Anyway, it is not even her real birthday.

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Filed under: republic
20 Comments

Cartoons irresponsible and racist

Posted by on May 31st, 2013

 I believe the two cartoons in the Christchurch Press and the Marlborough Express were a clumsy and objectionable attempt to draw attention and raise debate about an important issue.  The approach taken is indefensible and potentially damaging.

 The cartoon depicts two stereotypes.  The first is that those who access food in schools have the financial resources to feed their children but would rather spend the money on gambling, smoking, booze and a lavish life style.  While there may be some people who fall in this category there are many who don’t and who just simply can’t make ends meet either on a low income or on a benefit.  These depictions refuse to accept that. The second is that most of those who fall in this category are brown, overweight and irresponsible.

 Like all stereotypes the depictions malign those parents who access food in schools most of whom the cartoons depict as Māori and Pacific Islanders.  Therefore they are offensive.  The defence that the cartoons depict people of different ethnic background is just plain unbelievable.  The figures are overwhelmingly brown and overweight, gamble, smoke, drink and have a flash lifestyle.

 If the cartoonist’s message was that in New Zealand everyone should be able to feed their children because we are a welfare state, he failed miserably in getting that across.  Rather the cartoons accidentally or deliberately discount the fact that for whatever reason a good number of children live in poverty and they come to school hungry and in no position to take advantage of the education offered.  Any perspective that had an understanding of the needs of children would not depict the programme to feed our hungry children in this way. 

 The alternative surely can’t be to let the children go hungry or take them away from their parents?  Neither option is realistic and shows little appreciation of the real financial pressures on many families who are not in work or who are in poorly paid jobs.

 The second stereotype is even more troubling.  Some would say it incites racial disharmony.  It certainly does not assist positive race relations.  If the cartoons had asked people to take negative action on the parents, who it believes are brown, it would have breached the Human Rights Act for inciting racial disharmony.  As such it would have led to the commencement of the process of mediation and even eventual prosecution.  I accept that it does not reach that threshold.

 The cartoonist does have a responsibility to present issues fairly.  Satire is fine but there is a fine line.  There are many complex issues behind child poverty.  The cartoons should also show an appreciation of the impact of the depictions on minority ethnic groups.  Instead they trivialise these two issues and as such the two papers ought to print a retraction.  The Race Relations Commissioner should also take a much stronger line to discredit this approach and to caution cartonists who periodically stay into this style.

 Dr Rajen Prasad MP

 

 

Filed under: children, ethnic, human rights, inequality, M?ori, Pacific issues, Uncategorized
11 Comments

State sector unions win on reform bill

Posted by on May 31st, 2013

Most of the time, it’s hard for Labour and unions to make progress for workers when we don’t have the numbers in the House.  Occasionally, as in the Mondayisation Bill, we get a win.  Sometimes we can help to avoid a disaster.

That’s what has happened with the State Sector and Public Finance Reform Bill (SSPFRB), soon to get its second reading in the House.

This Bill, as introduced by National, would have scrapped redundancy provisions for public sector workers, overridden bargaining rights and allowed state powers to be contracted out without proper protections and accountability.

Fortunately, the PSA, the CTU and many individual civil servants testified powerfully agonists the Bill.

That allowed the Labour members of the committee to insist on further consultations between officials and unions.

We were then able to use our potential vote for the Bill as leverage to negotiate major concessions from the government.

As a result the Bill has been heavily amended.  State sector employee rights are now better protected than they would have been.

Redundancy provisions have been improved so that the state sector employees retain their entitlements unless accepting a position that is ‘no less favourable’ than their existing package.

Transition arrangements have been fixed so that collective agreements and individual agreements are sunsetted equally, three years after the Bill takes effect.

Government workforce policy statements have been revised to ensure that all existing legal and bargaining rights have been protected.

Conflict of interest protections; enhanced governance for delegated powers; and strengthened accountability requirements in public sector financial reporting have all been achieved through the negotiations.

There still are concerns over some aspects of the Bill, but the vigorous work of public sector unions and successful negotiations in the select committee have resulted in a much better outcome that we were originally facing.

Filed under: Employment Law, public services, Uncategorized
1 Comment

National’s Rubber Budget

Posted by on May 30th, 2013

The truth is National’s surplus is not ‘wafer thin’.  It comes from massaging a bunch of rubber numbers. Had they been completely upfront with New Zealanders they would have either admitted they would not reach surplus or had to hike up petrol taxes or ACC levies even more.   

It’s a “bogus surplus” and here is why.

Over $1 billion more than is needed is being collected from ACC levies and an extra $900 million is being taken from people’s pockets through petrol taxes.

Forecast revenue flows show a one-off net $600 million surge above trend in 2014/15, driven by an unexplained jump in corporate tax and employee compensation, and a magic $400 million tax loss offset that occurs in that year only.

National has forgotten to cost their tax credits to small business or include them in the estimates.

There is a strange and abnormal use of contingencies in Education ($196 million). That means National’s surplus relies on major spending lines that are not properly appropriated. The question this raises in my mind is – is this featherbedding for next year’s surplus?

But wait, it gets worse.

At the previous forecasts the Government said they would spend $1.2 billion in 2014/15. This time around $200 million spending has suddenly shifted out of that year (the year they need surplus) and shunted into the other years or disappeared. This way they only have to spend $1 billion in 2014/15. That makes it a lot easier for them to reach surplus.

If that $200 million of total new spending had not shifted out of 2014/15 at the last minute all the contortions I’ve discussed would not have got them over the line.  

It’s almost like they are taking the New Zealand public for fools.

Refusing to lower excessive ACC levies, kicking out forecast expenditure, an artificial spike in predicted revenue flows, and a huge use of unfunded contingencies and unbudgeted spending shows National’s surplus relies on flaky accounting, not prudent management.

By contrast, Labour ran nine consecutive fiscal surpluses in nine years of government.  Labour has a proud record of prudent fiscal management.

But even if the National-Act Government had reached fiscal surplus, their record on broader economic management has been woeful.

The current account deficit continues to widen; international debt continues to rise; unemployment is too high; wage growth is too low; the gap between rich and poor continues to widen.  They lack vision, strategy and a heart for everyday Kiwis.

National is fiddling with the figures to balance their rubber books. And they are doing it at the expense of New Zealanders books. Their fiscal surplus is bogus, it’s a rubber budget, and they know it.

Filed under: Uncategorized
1 Comment

National’s war on Auckland

Posted by on May 28th, 2013

 

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Filed under: Auckland, housing, transport
7 Comments

Building a better Auckland

Posted by on May 26th, 2013

Speech to Labour Party Auckland-Northland regional conference, Henderson

You’ve seen the image of Michael Joseph Savage carrying the furniture into the first state house at 12 Fife Lane, Miramar in 1937. It’s a big moment. Bob Semple, Walter Nash and John A Lee are all there. The Ministers have their sleeves rolled up. People are smiling. It’s an exciting moment.

The massive programme of state house building was one of the greatest achievements of the First Labour Government. They did it because they knew sub-standard housing lay at the root of so many social problems: illness, and the vulnerability of the poorest people to extortionate rents.

They did it because they were willing to use the power of the state to tackle problems that for decades the political establishment said were intractable, that such things must be left to the market to sort out, that in any case where would the money come from?

It is time once again to roll up our sleeves.

The quality of our housing, the shape of our cities, the lack of public transport, the cost of buying a house…these issues have once again become red hot issues. Labour’s willingness to pick up a hammer and actually build houses; our readiness to build the City Rail Link; these issues will have an impact on next year’s general election.

Third world diseases, associated with overcrowding and sub-standard housing, have come back to haunt New Zealand as poverty and inequality have risen. 900,000 homes have inadequate insulation. We know these diseases affect the children of the poor. The research shows there are too many kids dying unnecessary deaths from diseases like asthma, rheumatic fever, meningococcal disease. We know that most children growing up in poverty live in private rentals. That is a fact.

Which is why our Healthy Homes Guarantee will make it compulsory for rental homes to be properly insulated and have an efficient source of heating. We will amend the Residential Tenancies Act. End of story. National announced they will consider the development of a warrant of fitness they will trial in Housing NZ homes.  They are going to trial this policy in the very houses – Housing NZ homes – that don’t need it. Houses that have all been retrofitted and insulated. But they won’t do a damn thing for the tenants of private rentals where hundreds of thousands of the poorest Kiwi families live in uninsulated damp and cold houses.

Read the rest of this entry »

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Filed under: Auckland, environment, housing, transport
13 Comments

I made a mistake

Posted by on May 23rd, 2013

There’s been comment online about my previous post focusing on why I highlighted one thing and not others.

I subsequently updated the post and highlighted a few other things that I think are worthy of discussion. But  I agree with the commenters who say they are confused.

This has had the result of the discussion being about what I do or don’t support and not about the list itself which was the intention. There are some items on the list which I think could do with discussion. And which I didn’t want to highlight because they would need a separate post (which I am likely to now do eg on parallel importing)

That is my mistake. Yes I said it. I should have either highlighted things I thought were particularly frightening or not highlighted anything.

I think it’s a given that in the world of social media we don’t always get it right. Some of us make more mistakes than others. Once you make yourself available in the environment, especially if you are a publicly elected figure, you are immediately open to criticism, ridicule and sometimes fierce opposition and support.

I remain committed to the medium But it is getting tougher. I see it as engagement not broadcasting. But you have to take the good with the bad and I agree you should own up and say you either made a mistake or that  you could have expressed things better. In a conversation in the physical environment, that then gives you the opportunity to continue the conversation and hopefully move on.

Shall we continue the conversation?

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The right wing agenda

Posted by on May 22nd, 2013

*Update to post. It’s fair enough that the comments are focussing on why I’m not support this or that. I highlighted and bolded one issue that I could definitely support. I didn’t highlight others that I thought needed discussion because I didn’t outright support them. But have subsequently done so. I do however think the discussion should be about the impact of the agenda and not about what I think.

On the 4 April, in the great stone-and-glass National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, luminaries descended to celebrate the 70th Anniversary of the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA), Australia’s leading free-market think-tank.

Tickets to the gala dinner cost a minimum of AU$500 (£340) per head, and an auction to raise funds for the IPA featured prizes including a guided tour of the Reagan Ranch in California and a behind the scenes Fox News “experience” in New York City, including a meeting with host Bill O’Reilly . Among the speakers were Rupert Murdoch, journalist Andrew Bolt, billionaire mining magnate Gina Rinehart, and a man named Tony Abbott, Leader of the Opposition.

Tony Abbott, Gina Rinehart and Rupert Murdoch took turns sharing the stage. Andrew Bolt (a conservative columnist for the Melbourne Herald Sun) was MC. By accounts, Abbott praised his fellow key-note speakers, especially Murdoch, and promised the crowd a “big yes” to many of the think tank’s list of 75 policies to radically transform Australia.

It is worth remembering that Tony Abbott and his conservative Liberal Party, David Cameron and the UK Conservatives and John Key and the National Party are all advised by the PR gurus Crosby Textor.

It’s also important to note that this dinner and the following ideas were the brain children of a right wing think tank. But it’s no coincidence that these three men and their parties share much of the following agenda. I wonder how many of these ideas (which have relevance here) will find their way into National’s agenda if they win another government term? I have marked the  ideas which I think have merit.

  • Means-test Medicare
  • Eliminate family tax benefits
  • Abandon the paid parental leave scheme
  • Abolish the Baby Bonus
  • Abolish the First Home Owners’ Grant
  • Repeal plain packaging for cigarettes and rule it out for all other products, including alcohol and fast food
  • Repeal the alcopops tax
  • Reject proposals for compulsory food and alcohol labelling
  • Repeal the Fair Work Act
  • Allow individuals and employers to negotiate directly terms of employment that suit them
  • Introduce a single rate of income tax
  • Return income taxing powers to the states
  • Cut company tax to 25 per cent
  • Cease subsidising the car industry
  • Abolish the Foreign Investment Review Board
  • Abolish the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission
  • Abolish the Office for Film and Literature Classification
  • End local content requirements for Australian television stations
  • Break up the ABC and put out to tender each individual function
  • Devolve environmental approvals for major projects to the states
  • End mandatory disclosures on political donations
  • End all corporate welfare and subsidies by closing the Department of Industry, Innovation, Science, Research and Tertiary Education
  • Immediately halt construction of the National Broadband Network and  privatise any sections that have already been built
  • Privatise Australia Post, Medibank and SBS
  • Halve the size of the Coalition front bench from 32 to 16
  • Reduce the size of the public service from current levels of more than 260,000 to at least the 2001 low of 212,784
  • Slash top public servant salaries
  • Force government agencies to put all of their spending online in a searchable database
  • Repeal the carbon tax, and don’t replace it (if it is replaced by another costly scheme, most of the benefits will be undone).
  • Abolish the Department of Climate Change
  • Abolish the Clean Energy Fund and repeal the renewable energy target
  • Withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol
  • Repeal the mining tax
  • Privatise the CSIRO and the Snowy-Hydro Scheme
  • Abolish the Commonwealth Grants Commission
  • Introduce fee competition to Australian universities
  • Means test tertiary student loans
  • Repeal the National Curriculum
  • Introduce competing private secondary school curricula
  • Reintroduce voluntary student unionism at universities
  • Introduce a voucher scheme for secondary schools
  • Abolish the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA)
  • Eliminate ‘balance’ laws for radio and television broadcasters
  • Abolish television spectrum licensing and devolve spectrum management to the common law
  • Eliminate media ownership restrictions
  • Cease funding the Australia Network
  • Rule out government-supported or mandated internet censorship
  • End public funding to political parties
  • Introduce voluntary voting
  • End media blackout in final days of election campaigns
  • Formalise a one-in, one-out approach to regulatory reduction
  • Legislate a cap on government spending and tax as a % of GDP
  • Legislate a balanced budget amendment which limits the size of budget deficits and the period the government can be in deficit
  • Allow people to opt out of superannuation in exchange for promising to forgo any government income support in retirement
  • Encourage independent contracting by overturning new regulations designed to punish contractors
  • End all hidden protectionist measures, such as preferences for local manufacturers in government tendering
  • Remove all tariff and non-tariff barriers to international trade
  • Remove anti-dumping laws
  • Deregulate the parallel importation of books
  • End preferences for Industry Super Funds in workplace laws
  • Privatise the Australian Institute of Sport
  • Rule out federal funding for 2018 Commonwealth Games
  • End all public subsidies to sport and the arts
  • Eliminate the National Preventative Health Agency
  • End all government funded ‘Nanny State’ advertising
  • De-fund Harmony Day and close the Office for Youth
  • Repeal Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act
  • Allow the Northern Territory to become a state
  • Introduce a special economic zone for northern Australia including:
    a) Lower personal income tax for residents
    b) Significantly expanded 457 Visa programs for workers
    c) Encourage the construction of dams.
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Filed under: #ownourfuture, Australia, politics
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