In my hunt for a document on the Beehive website I threw in a search term only to have the site query is it POVERTY you want to search, or did you really mean PROPERTY?

Couldn’t help but share…

Today is my first regular day as a sitting MP.  Somewhat improbably, a member’s bill in my name has been drawn from the ballot.

I’m pleased to be able to champion the Bill.  It aims to ensure hard working kiwis get the holidays they deserve. My thanks to Grant Robertson who developed the bill originally.

The Bill seeks to ‘Monday-ise’ Waitangi Day and ANZAC day when they fall on a weekend.

The good news is that families may be entitled to a day off for each and every Public Holiday – before the year is out.

It corrects for an anomaly that happens roughly twice every seven years.  When this glitch happens, New Zealanders miss out on the usual full complement of 11 public holidays.

All 11 public holidays are listed in the Public Holidays Act, but only two are missed out when it comes to ensuring a corresponding day off with the family.

The bill makes sense and the idea is not new. Aussies do this already.  When ANZAC day falls on a weekend, the celebration is held on 25 April just as it is every other year, and a public holiday is observed two days later.

It was great to see families out enjoying the various local Waitangi celebrations as part of a long weekend.  Won’t it be great when they can do this every year.

Every New Zealander, especially our young ones, is so proud of saving the Chatham Island robin. So we should be. It’s a huge responsibility to have an endangered species in our area. It’s really a no brainer to do whatever we can to save that species. We only get one chance. We won’t always be successful. But we must always try our hardest.
But right here, right now as they say, we have a critically endangered species and a Conservation Minister saying, and doing, nothing. It is an outrage! Last month, but only reported this month, a female Maui’s dolphin was killed on the Taranaki Coast in a fishing net. There may be fewer than 25 breeding female Maui’s left. In total. Anywhere. That’s why it is critically endangered. We need to act now. If I was the Minister, I would act immediately to reduce the bycatch by allowing only selective sustainable fishing in this area. And more areas may need this as well. I would introduce a plan for the sustainable recovery of Maui’s dolphins. And I would ensure that the recovery is closely monitored.
There may be fewer than 100 of these dolphins left. New fishing methods are available and also reduce the number of seabirds killed. Helen Clark led the way on protection of dolphins with the sanctuary on Banks Peninsula. It is one of Canterbury’s favorite tourism destinations because of the dolphins. Pete Hodgson and Jim Anderton followed in the same vein.
So what is happening with the government now that there is a total absence of action? There is a DOC report due out soon about the dolphins. But Ministers are allowed to act when they see something that needs a response. That’s what they get paid for.
In the meantime, Maui’s dolphins are dying to hear from the minister. literally. And perhaps permanently leaving our planet.

The benefit stats for both November and December were finally released yesterday. Usually we would have had them before now, but the Minister has held onto them over the summer period.

December was pretty grim. Students coming out of uni tend to contribute to a rise at this time of year, but even taking that into account, the overall picture from 2008 till now is poor. Here are the numbers:

For December:
• Main Benefits are up 4.15% from November 2011 (up 14,011 people)
• Unemployment benefits up 10.6% (up 5,481 people)

Compared with this time in 2008, there are 29,456 more people receiving an Unemployment benefit – an increase of 96.5%

The Government’s focus continues to be on welfare reform generally, but this is not just about the quality of ‘work ready’ programmes and changes to case management (where there is certainly much to be said about the government reforms) but the availability of work. I’ll be interested to see whether the Minister or indeed the government will take a second look this term at the role it can play alongside the private sector in the area of job creation, or continue to tinker around the edges.

Kiwis abroad get to vote if the visit home. They are on the roll at their last permanent address in NZ. Some countries have special MPs to represent the diaspora – France is to have eleven.

Not a system I favour – but interesting nevertheless.

Now, after decades of promises dating back to François Mitterrand, France wants to position itself as a model of expat rights, giving the 2.5 million French people abroad their own MPs for the first time. French officials have sliced the world into 11 constituencies, which will next year give France far-flung politicians including an MP for the US and Canada and an MP for north and east Africa. With the second biggest diplomatic network of embassies and consulates in the world after the US, France now joins a small group of European countries, including Italy, which allows its diaspora to choose its own expat MPs.

I know I said it last year as well, (and thanks to Clare who has held off putting up so I could), but there is nothing that says Christmas to me more than a drunken, somewhat off-key rendition of Fairytale of New York. There is sadness at Kirsty MacColl’s death which was just before Christmas a decade or so ago, but in many ways that just adds to pathos of this track.

For me it makes me think of Christmas Eves in Dunedin in my late teens and early 20s. Belting this out with friends before making the call on whether a candlelight service was really a good idea in the circumstances.

So this is for all my friends who I don’t see or talk to often enough- especially Alex, who can actually sing this and sound like Shane McGowan, in tune. Happy Christmas one and all.

Brief scheduled downtime today.

We’re going to take the blog down for a short period at 2pm today while we upgrade some of our hosting for Red Alert, you people have pushed our server beyond our limits. We expect this to take 15-30mins.

If you’re logged in now, you may have to log in again after the transfer is done.