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Larry Ross – in memoriam

Posted by Maryan Street on April 24th, 2012

“Peacenik” is a word which will only resonate with a few, but Larry Ross’s work for the anti-nuclear movement resonated far and wide.

Born in 1927, Larry Ross died last week at the age of 84. He founded the NZ Nuclear Weapons Free Zone Committee in 1981. His work at local government level saw the establishment of 105 nuclear free zones across New Zealand. That work was pivotal in building an anti-nuclear movement which culminated in New Zealand’s nuclear-free status enshrined in the Nuclear Free Zone Act of 1987.

Larry’s contribution to the peace movement in New Zealand was extraordinary. His commitment to a nuclear-free world was absolute and he achieved more than one person could ever expect to achieve, by galvanising neighbourhood peace groups and working from the ground up to build a robust and effective anti-nuclear peace movement, expressed locally and globally.

Rest in that peace you worked so hard for Larry. The NZ Labour Party salutes you and your years of commitment. Our thought and condolences go to Larry’s family and loved ones.

Filed under: Pacific issues, community, disarmament, peace
4 Comments

Let’s rid the world of landmines!

Posted by Maryan Street on April 4th, 2012

Landmines are a dangerous legacy of too many conflicts and must be banned world-wide. It is 13 years since the treaty banning antipersonnel landmines became international binding law, yet there are countries including Cambodia and Colombia where people continue to be killed and maimed by landmines.

Today, 4 April, is a day of international action to promote the Mine Ban Treaty and to apply more pressure to cleaning up those parts of the world where landmines continue to wreak havoc. 80 per cent of the world’s countries have banned landmines and millions of mines have been removed from the ground and destroyed, but there is still more to do. The Lend Your Leg video currently on YouTube is a good illustration of this (link above). New Zealand has started the international action today with a Lend Your Leg activity on the steps of Parliament. MPs have rolled up their trousers to ‘Lend Your Leg’ to the campaign. Even I, who will go to almost any lengths usually NOT to reveal my legs, was moved to participate and roll up my trousers for the occasion!

We may no longer have a Minister for Disarmament in New Zealand, but we still have people who care about these issues and care about New Zealand’s performance on them internationally.

Filed under: Foreign Affairs, disarmament, human rights, overseas aid, war
3 Comments

Time for a difficult conversation, again

Posted by Maryan Street on March 27th, 2012

End of Life Choice bill  (TVNZ Breakfast Show video from today)

I am preparing a bill which I am calling “End of Life Choice”. It arose out of a meeting in Nelson last year with a group of people who all want to be able to exercise the same control over the end of their lives as they are enjoying during their lives. It is as much about human rights as it is about dignity, autonomy and compassion.

Three levels of protection are necessary:

1 – for the patient or person themselves – from family who would either exploit them or overturn their wishes in extremis, and from insurance companies or anyone else who might exploit them;

2 – for any attending physicians, and there would need to be 2 – from any coercion to breach their own ethics or criminal liability if all procedures were observed;

3 – for any family members who assist in the final moments – from criminal liability.

The first time this was voted on was 1995 (Michael Laws’ bill), it was defeated 61-29. The second time, in 2003 (Peter Brown’s bill), it was defeated 60-57  and of the three who made the difference,  two did not vote  (John Tamihere and Heather Roy) and one abstained (Dail Jones). It will always be a conscience vote.

I think the time has come for this question to be revisited. I think the social conversation needs to happen again. I think the numbers would be different this time.

Am I right?

Filed under: human rights, members' bills
44 Comments

Diabetics unite!

Posted by Maryan Street on March 21st, 2012

Pharmac has signed a provisional contract with an Auckland company to be the sole supplier of new glucose meters for diabetics. About 150,000 people are affected. Problem: no consumer testing – no backlight on the new one which is a bit tough when you are having a hypo event in the middle of the night; not enough memory to record history of blood sugar levels; batteries which conk out under 10C; sole supply out of Korea – the most stable peninsula we know? Tony Ryall is pressuring them to save $10 million through this contract. He ducked answering questions in the House today about this by exiting to comfort his upset mate, Nick Smith. Watch Campbell Live on TV3 tonight for this item.

Filed under: children, family, health, human rights
23 Comments

Trade policy released

Posted by Maryan Street on October 28th, 2011

I released our Trade policy this evening, as promised. Trade is a bipartisan issue because both National and Labour recognise that we are too small and our electoral cycle is too short to risk our exporters’ efforts and foreign direct investment in our industries, by potentially pulling the policy rug out from under them every three years. So we both promote New Zealand’s trading interests overseas equally.

So it will come as no surprise that we wish to build on the international market access we have gained in recent years, particularly in Asia after the successful FTA with China, signed by Phil Goff.

Labour will support the Trans Pacific Partnership negotiations as they proceed but Pharmac remains a bottom line for us. It works for the public good of New Zealanders and should not be compromised, despite pressure from large multinational pharmaceutical companies.

We need more openness and better engagement of civil society in our trade relationships, and so we will establish a Trade Advisory Commission to give contestable advice to the Minister about trade relationships. This Commission would comprise union, business, exporter, academic and NGO interests.

Where we differ from the National Party however in the Trade area is in the fundamentals of monetary policy which underpins the environment in which our struggling exporters work. We will alter monetary policy by introducing a Capital Gains Tax which will moderate interest rates, which will in turn take pressure off the exchange rate. We will broaden the Reserve Bank’s objectives to include employment and the health of the export sector amongst other things in its brief. We will put an exporter on the Board of the Reserve Bank to represent their interests.

And more besides……to see the whole policy, go here.

Filed under: economy, international, monetary policy, trade
8 Comments

Trade policy to be released tomorrow

Posted by Maryan Street on October 27th, 2011

I will be releasing Labour’s trade policy tomorrow at my campaign launch in Nelson. That is a good place to do it because the Nelson region is built on fine primary tradeable commodities. And yet our exporters, from pipfruit growers to the forestry sector, are having difficulties of one sort or another. It should be up on the website by about 5.30pm. Watch this space – or one like it!

Filed under: #ownourfuture, Manufacturing, agriculture, business, economy, international, trade
No Comments

Foreign Affairs = more than trade

Posted by Maryan Street on October 21st, 2011

You could be forgiven for thinking that our only interest in other countries under this government, is how much money we can make out of them.

Yesterday, at an NZIIA seminar at Victoria University, I released our Foreign Affairs policy. MurrayMcCully had given the opening speech and every country or region he mentioned was couched in terms of our Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with them, an emerging FTA with them, the desirability of an FTA or other bilateral economic agreement with them and how well we were doing because of them.

Don’t get me wrong – I am a great supporter of FTAs as long as we don’t concede our sovereignty and they can be negotiated in a more open way which engages the non-government sector as well. But for Labour, Foreign Affairs is also about peace, security, conflict resolution, disarmament, multilateralism, human rights, climate change, environmental protection and restoration, disaster relief, good governance and democratic representation, and most importantly, people to people exchanges and relationships.

Without a viable and secure planet, all the global supply chains you can think of count for nothing.

Our independent foreign policy is a source of great pride for us. It has been most enhanced in our history by great Labour Prime Ministers: Peter Fraser, Norman Kirk, David Lange and Helen Clark. We will build on that tradition.

We will bring human rights and a commitment to multilateral international decision-making back to the fore again. They have been languishing on the back burner under the National government.

Have a look at the policy – comments are welcomed.

Oh – and for those who wonder why there is no mention of Afghanistan – that is simply because our position on that is well known, has been well reported and has been the same since late 2005. In case you have missed it (!) : Labour would not have sent the fourth rotation of SAS troops back to Afghanistan. The SAS should no longer be deployed there. A Labour government will bring them home. We will progressively withdraw our Provincial Reconstruction Team as well, in an exit strategy worked out in consultation with other forces with whom we are working in Bamyan. The fight can only be won in Afghanistan if the government there wins the hearts and minds of the people. That hasn’t happened. Time to come home.

Filed under: Foreign Affairs, climate change, democracy, disarmament, environment, human rights, international, overseas aid, trade, war
5 Comments

Release of Foreign Affairs policy pending

Posted by Maryan Street on October 20th, 2011

I will be releasing Labour’s Foreign Affairs policy this afternoon at 2pm. It will include our role in the world and particularly in the Pacific, as well as our views on disarmament, human rights, the United Nations and MFAT reform. I released our Overseas Development Assistance policy separately two weeks ago – www.ownourfuture.co.nz/overseas-development-assistance.

I will post a more expansive blog later today.

Filed under: #ownourfuture, Foreign Affairs, Pacific issues, disarmament, human rights, overseas aid
2 Comments

Release of Overseas Aid policy

Posted by Maryan Street on October 11th, 2011

Today I released our Overseas Development Assistance policy. This is one point of distinct difference we have from the Nats in the Foreign Affairs basket of interests and issues. The points are simple:

1. Restore poverty elimination as the primary focus of overseas aid, as opposed to economic development, as the Nats have prioritised. Get back on board with achieving the Millennium Development Goals, especially here in the Pacific, and that includes education to improve literacy, access to health services like maternal and child health, HIV/AIDS prevention programmes, sexual and reproductive health programmes.  Stop handing aid dollars out to business friends without tender, so they can line their own pockets AND feel good about themselves at the same time.

2. Redevelop a strategic partnership with the NGO sector and develop best practice again, as we were known for previously. If there are inefficiencies in aid delivery through NGOs, let’s sort that out, but let’s not alienate some of our experts by adopting McCully’s “4 legs good, 2 legs bad” approach to the sector. In other words, if it comes out of the private sector, it must be good. If it comes out of the not for profit or, god forbid, the public sector, it must be bad.

3. We will set up NZAID with semi-autonomous status, taken back out of MFAT and based on sound principles of development analysis and research. Stop the blurring of the boundaries between aid and foreign policy objectives where it is too easy to slip into chequebook diplomacy.

4. We will build on our experience in reconstruction and peace-making to develop a specialist capability in mediation and conflict resolution.

Those are the main points. You can see the whole thing here. Comments welcome.

Filed under: #ownourfuture, Foreign Affairs, Pacific issues, human rights, international, overseas aid, peace
10 Comments

Aid to Libya – what about the Horn of Africa?

Posted by Maryan Street on August 26th, 2011

A few days ago, John Key announced that NZ would be giving “millions” to the National Transitional Council representing the rebels in Libya, ahead of UN recognition of the NTC and any request from them for such aid.

What the hell is this about? Libya is an oil-rich country. The UN is right now moving to lift the freeze on Libyan assets to the tune of $US1.5 billion, so why does the NTC need money from NZ? Who is pulling Key’s strings here? And did he tell his Foreign Affairs Minister? Where is the money coming from? Are we going to cut even more of the aid programmes in the Pacific to divert money to a country which doesn’t need it? These questions need answering.

Don’t get me wrong – I think we should assist Libya as it moves towards democracy, even if it is not as we know it. They will need assistance by way of training people in the maintenance of the rule of law, the establishment of accountable public structures which are transparent to the people, governance matters, etc. That’s where we can help.

And while John Key is distributing unnecessary largesse to an organisation which has yet to get full international recognition, Murray McCully has been dragging his heels in disbursing aid promised 6 weeks ago to the relief effort in the Horn of Africa. Children are dying by the thousands from the worst drought in 20 years and a call on our aid budget in this respect is legitimate and compelled by any humanitarian impulse.

But McCully has dicked about with disbursing this money – only just an hour or two ago, putting out a release that says he has made the decision on which NGOs will get the $1million promised 6 weeks ago. Provoked by bad press. How principled. What about the $1million promised to the World Food Programme? When did that get paid, if it has been?

Not good enough, Murray.

Filed under: Foreign Affairs, democracy, human rights, international, overseas aid
26 Comments

8.8.88

Posted by Maryan Street on August 9th, 2011

Yesterday was the 23rd anniversary of the massacre of 3000 protesters who wanted democracy in Burma. They were Buddhist monks, students, activists and workers. They were gunned down by the military regime for daring to want freedom, peace and democracy. 2200 political prisoners still languish in Burmese prisons. In Norway or Burma, democracy is a threat to some people.

I went to my fifth commemoration of this event in Nelson yesterday. It gets bigger every time. We have more ethnic groups arriving from Burma and they bring new horror stories of murder, rape and persecution.

One woman who knows about perpetual struggle in a way to which I will never have to become accustomed, is Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. Here is a message from Aung San Suu Kyi – yes, to us in NZ – about the Burmese struggle. Enough said.

Filed under: Burma, Foreign Affairs, civil liberties, democracy, disarmament, human rights, international
1 Comment

Key – a case study in leadership, not!

Posted by Maryan Street on July 21st, 2011

Key’s appalling handling of the SIS/Israeli/Christchurch earthquake issue demonstrates beyond a doubt that the man is not a leader’s elbow. That is the polite version.

Not in the public interest? Give me a break! What is more important than our country’s sovereignty, not being an easy touch for identity or passport fraud even by a “friendly” country, and the integrity of our own passport system? That’s in the national interest, John.  Perhaps it’s not in the National interest? You tell me.

If there were no issues around the behaviour of the four unfortunate Israelis in the van in Christchurch that day, why did the SIS conduct an investigation? Why did the survivors depart the country so quickly? The other two guys who died were in my view innocent tourists. I got an email from their desperate parents asking for the privately funded SAR team from Israel to be admitted to NZ and Christchurch and I sent that on to Murray McCully. I was surprised that the team wasn’t accredited but more surprised that there wasn’t any explanation. I might be wrong about all that but the Opposition hasn’t been briefed on this, so I’ll stick to my version.

But importantly for NZ, Key has fluffed this from the start. Let’s be fair, Foreign Affairs was never his forte, but why not just say you were going to mount an enquiry, get some advice, and would get back to the media asap? If you are going to wing media standups, as he thinks he can do, expect some questions you can’t answer. Instead, we get that excruciating interview which went on way past its Press Secretary tolerance time (I would have thought – where was his Press Sec?) and well into injury time.

We have been abused by Mossad agents before in 2004. We have a right to be suspicious. Key’s leadership was conspicuous by its absence in this case.

Filed under: Foreign Affairs, politics
66 Comments

Couldn’t have put it better….

Posted by Maryan Street on July 19th, 2011

How’s this for speaking a thousand words from the clever pen of Moreu, usually in the Nelson Mail, but sometimes distributed more widely through Fairfax.

Courtesy of the Nelson Mail.

Courtesy of the Nelson Mail

Filed under: ACC, Foreign Affairs, human rights, humour
7 Comments

Of troughs and trotters……

Posted by Maryan Street on June 24th, 2011

On Wednesday evening, the night before examining Murray McCully over the MFAT estimates at select committee, I received the answers to my raft of questions. There is one Annex of which people should avail themselves. It is the spreadsheet of consultants and contractors and is accessible here. Have a look and see for yourself. Page 39 for starters, but there is plenty of interesting reading there.

One name stood out for me – Charles Finny, formerly of the Wellington Chamber of Commerce, now of Saunders Unsworth. Paid $54,135 for work done between 1 November and 24 December 2010. Nice pay rate for 2 months’ work! I’m sure he wouldn’t have had any sick days – oh, that’s right, he’s a bloke. No uterus, no sick days.

Charles Finny’s contract was not put out for tender. Why not? At a rate of $27,000 a month, you’d think that might be tendered. McCully wasn’t aware of the details, he said, but knew Finny had the requisite skills.  There are lots more questions to ask here – like, at what threshold does a requirement to tender kick in, etc., etc. McCully had given another gift to one of his mates.

Add that to: $75k contract to former Nat MP, Mark Blumsky for development work in Niue (requisite skills – the man used to be a shoe salesman?); current Nat MP Allan Peachey being made  Special Envoy with the permission of the PM no less, to go round the Pacific and talk about education (is that what he was elected by the good people of Tamaki to do?); current Nat MP John Hayes, appointed to chair a committee which disburses money to aid NGOs (a committee he might have to interrogate as Chair of the Foreign Affairs select committee?).

These men might all be good blokes, but how would anyone know? They haven’t been subjected to any form of competition. I thought the Nats liked competition. Nope? They just like extra perks and income. This is taxpayers’ money, not McCully’s personal slush fund.

Filed under: Foreign Affairs, education, overseas aid, parliament, perks, select committee
9 Comments

Ugandan Parliament closes without passing anti-homosexual bill

Posted by Maryan Street on May 18th, 2011

Last week the Ugandan Parliament closed without debating the much feared anti-homosexual law being promoted by a single MP. People around the world rose up in protest. I went online to register my objection and lots of you did as well, I know. I have also raised this issue directly with the Deputy Speaker of the Ugandan Parliament, when I met her last year.

All the effort has worked. Have a look at this video and be inspired!

Filed under: Foreign Affairs, human rights, international
16 Comments

On torture

Posted by Maryan Street on May 15th, 2011

Last week the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade select committee considered a resolution from Keith Locke (Greens) calling for an inquiry by the committee into the allegations raised in the recent Metro article, that NZ Defence Forces in Afghanistan had handed detainees over to other forces (US and Afghani) who were known to torture prisoners for information. This would be in breach of the Geneva Convention, the UN Convention Against Torture, human rights in general and make a mockery of our current participation at an international level on the UN Subcommittee for the Prevention of Torture.

The Nats on the committee decided to block this inquiry. Labour and the Greens voted in favour of it and the Nats rolled us with their majority.

At the end of last year, I asked for the NZ Defence Force to come to the FADT committee and explain how the “rules of engagement” in war worked and how we maintained our commitment to our well known anti-torture position, especially in Afghanistan. This was long before there was a whiff of a story from Jon Stephenson (Metro).  Kevin Riordan (NZDF’s head legal man) came and gave us a full briefing in public session (although noone from the public was there!), explaining that when detainees are held by NZDF soldiers, the decision on who to hand them over to, particularly if we knew they were likely to be tortured, went right back to the head of our NZDF. This isn’t a decision made by anybody in the field – it goes right to the top – in this case, GG-designate, Gerry Mataparae.

Why wouldn’t we have an inquiry into this? Our international reputation is being impugned by this journo. Are there any grounds for that? Even if it happened on Labour’s watch, wouldn’t we want to know so that it didn’t happen again? Labour is happy for an inquiry to occur. Why did the Nats vote it down?

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Filed under: Foreign Affairs, human rights, select committee
12 Comments

On Murray McCully, leopards and spots

Posted by Maryan Street on April 28th, 2011

And now for something NOT about the Royal Wedding….has anybody noticed how remarkably consistent Murray McCully is? I mean, recall the Tourism Board fiasco when McCully was last a Minister? First, he created a little advisory unit to advise him alone on Tourism and Sport. He made it up. He appointed all the members – no precedent in the public service. Then he forced people he had appointed to the Tourism Board to resign, but made sure they took $340,000 tax free with them to make them feel better. The Auditor-General’s Office later found the payments to be unlawful and recommended the Board get the money back. Good luck with that – that was 1999. He also got a one-off $12.5 million boost for the Tourism Board for promotional work so that his mate Kevin Roberts, head of Saatchi and Saatchi at the time could live comfortably, given the Tourism Board was one of S&S’s clients. That got Jenny Shipley into a lot of hot water but she couldn’t remember what she and Kevin had talked about over dinner so that was alright.

Now he’s at it again, but this time with a Ministry (MFAT) which is a little harder to push around, but he’s still succeeding. Last year he passed over $75,000 or so to his old mate, Mark Blumsky, ex-shoe seller, Mayor of Wellington and fleeting MP. No tender process, no bidding required – just “here’s some money Mark, go and see what you can do to develop tourism in Niue. Oh, and by the way, I’ll chuck in the High Commissioner’s job as well.” He’s building on that success to reach over the top of trained and qualified diplomats to open postings to the private sector, who as we all know, are supremely qualified to run everything (eg: Merrill Lynch, Hanover, South Canterbury Finance, etc.).  So how can we continue to train diplomats who have NZ’s interests at heart when they know that McCully is simply going to reach over them with his sticky little fingers and dish out goodies to mates? Much has been made recently by Iain Rennie, State Services Commissioner, of how good it is for public sector workers to be seconded into the private sector. Well, it might be. But it would be really good for private sector whizz kids to spend some time in the public sector also – learning the difference between public interest and private interest; service and corruption. I am proud of our public service. They help us maintain our international reputation for being transparent and virtually corruption-free. I don’t know if Murray McCully understands that. Leopards and spots….that’s all I’m saying.

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Filed under: Foreign Affairs, admin, public services
14 Comments

What about taking a leaf out of Hague’s book, Key?

Posted by Maryan Street on January 21st, 2011

William Hague has been here for 2 days and leaves this evening. He is the UK Foreign Affairs Secretary and he has been paying NZ the first bilateral visit of a Foreign Affairs Secretary for perhaps 30 years. He’s a clever bloke. I remember him as the incoming Leader of the Opposition in 1997 when I was in Britain and Tony Blair romped in. He got a terrible pasting from the media (as Leaders of the Opposition do….) but has turned out to be a very significant political presence in the Tory front bench in Opposition and now in the UK Cabinet.

I can’t fault his principled approach to Foreign Affairs. He has been forthright about human rights, calling it the conscience of Foreign Affairs. He has spoken out about the threatened stoning of Sakineh Ashtiani in Iran, for alleged adultery. Our government said nothing. He was quick to call the Burmese elections a charade and prompt to support Aung San Suu Kyi’s release - our government was virtually mute on these events, until pressed.

He has maintained overseas aid commitments, despite the biting impact of the recession in Britain, pledging concretely to save the lives of 50,000 mothers and a quarter of a million babies around the neediest parts of the world by 2015, in pursuit of the Millenium Development Goals.  Our government turns overseas aid into private sector gains because in their view, getting the private sector to provide economic growth is the beginning and end of development assistance. Millenium Development Goals are ignored.

Hague has also committed to getting to .7% of GDP in aid by 2013 – an extraordinary commitment in these times of government cuts. We only got half way to that in the good times at .35%. I can’t see this government prioritising it any higher.

He promotes the participation of women in peacebuilding  negotiations and reconciliation teams in regions of conflict, in line with UN resolution 1325. Our government couldn’t give a toss.

Hague sees an effective global response to climate change as the thing to underpin security and prosperity. Our government promotes an Emissions Trading Scheme which is a laughing stock.

I hope William Hague and Murray McCully had a good talk or two. They are both conservatives after all. We haven’t done what the UK tells us to for years and nor should we. But there is no harm in learning from the efforts of people with whom we have a great deal in common.

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Filed under: Foreign Affairs, human rights, overseas aid
6 Comments

Human Rights Day

Posted by Maryan Street on December 11th, 2010

10 December is recognised as World Human Rights Day. This message is late going up because I had to wait for the UN to post some material. Have a look at any of the stuff this link gives you access to. It will remind you of what the struggle for human rights means in a range of places around the world.

You might also want to read (or at least have a browse through) the NZ Human Rights Commission’s report on Human Rights in NZ. We have some work to do here as well.

Filed under: Foreign Affairs, civil liberties, democracy, human rights, international
10 Comments

Aung San Suu Kyi – first direct address to the world in a while

Posted by Maryan Street on December 1st, 2010

Have a look at this and tell me you are not affected by it. Not a smuggled video, not a clandestine cobbled together job, just a simple, direct address which clearly and carefully asks for support and friendship. Amazing.

      

Filed under: Burma, Foreign Affairs, civil liberties, democracy
5 Comments

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