Our education system should be focused on ensuring that all New Zealanders, no matter where they are from or what their background, have the opportunity to fulfill their potential in life. Inherent in that goal is a recognition that everyone is different, we all learn at different rates and in different ways, and we all have different strengths and challenges.

This week is Gifted Awareness Week. It’s a time when we recognise that failure to extend and challenge really bright kids is just as much of a tragedy as failure to lift the educational achievement of those at the lower end of the educational statistics. Gifted kids who are bored through lack of challenge and stimulation are just as likely to become disengaged from education as those who struggle to keep up.

Last year as part of Gifted Awareness Week I had the chance to visit the Wellington Library and play chess with some fantastic young people. Sadly, funding for the programme that supports them has been withdrawn by the present government. It wasn’t a lot of money in the first place, but that decision speaks volumes about the current government’s priorities.

The current National government are obsessed with ‘standardising’ the education system. They measure the success of the system by whether or not all kids are jumping the same hurdles at the same time. In a ‘standardised’ system, a lot of attention gets focused on those students who are at or just below the standard, while those who are falling a long way behind, and likewise those who are already excelling, often get over-looked.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.