THIS WEEK ON BACK BENCHES: Watch Wallace Chapman, Damian Christie, the Back Benches Panel and special guests discuss the week’s hottest topics!
CYBER-BULLIES: It used to be, if you were bullied at school, home could be a refuge. But now in the age of the internet—bullies can always be there simply with a click of a mouse. How can we reduce the harm caused by cyber-bullies? The law commission has several proposals but how many will or should we adopt? Do parents need to do more to protect their kids on the internet? Can they do more? And when the Chief Coroner talks—why aren’t we listening?
A REQUIRED SHOT: A new proposal under consideration for beneficiaries—immunise your children to get your benefit. As Social Development Minister Paula Bennett says, “We see immunisations as important so when you’re looking at those kinds of things, you question at what point should a social obligation be part of a requirement to get a benefit.” We’ve got shocking immunisation rates—so is this a good idea? Or benefit bashing? As always, prevention is cheaper than a cure so does compulsory immunisation make sense? By that argument then, why not require immunisation jabs for entry into schools?
LIVE pub politics from the Backbencher Pub: Wednesday, 16th of May. Our Panel: Green Party MP Holly Walker, Labour MP Grant Robertson, National MP Colin King, and New Zealand First MP Tracey Martin.
Hopefully they will put backbenches on another Channel it is extremely healthy to have open political debate in public.
Would like to see a heavyweight BBC Question Time show replace the dull Q+A and TV3 equivalent political show format.
But then if Back Banches, as good as it is, can’t find a home. What hope of seeing ministers put on the spot and held to account under fire, live?
In New Zealand Politicans are portrayed as movie stars by the media, and is an ongoing soap opera.ie The Mad Hatters Tea Party.
We need Politicans to be put under the microscope for decisions that have been made and the implications of decisions that could be made.
Unfortunately the Press in New Zealand lack the ability to critically analyse economic, financial and the social impacts of the Governments decisions, and we have Governments who appear not to care on how these decisions are going to impact on different sectors in society.
The Leaky Building Crises and the changes made to the Building Codes was organised by the Building Trade itself and rubberstamped by Councils and Government organistaions, is a classic example and we won’t mention Asset Sales.