MANA in Parliament, 30 July-1 August 2013 Government Bills · Taking up most of the schedule this week was the 8 hour committee stage debate of the Appropriations (2013/14 Estimates) Bill. This Bill puts in place the government’s estimated budget or spending programme for the financial year. Needless to say, MANA has opposed the Bill all the way. · Also up for committee stage this week was the Resource Management Reform Bill. Yet again, the government is looking to reduce and erode key environmental protections in order to promote and fast-track property development projects. And yet again, this is coupled with reducing iwi and community input into resource management decision-making. MANA has also opposed this Bill at all stages in Parliament. · Thursday saw the return of the Government Communications Security Bureau and Related Legislation Amendment (GCSB) Bill for its second reading in Parliament, following large nationwide protests against it over the weekend. The Bill is hugely controversial as it will not only make it legal for the GCSB to now spy on NZ citizens, it will allow the GCSB to spy on pretty much anyone who’s ever stood up and questioned the status quo – and enable the GCSB to pass this info to US spy networks for their own political purposes. A deal with Peter Dunne has meant that the government has the one-vote majority needed to pass the Bill, even though the deal itself consists of basically meaningless changes to the Bill. See the MANA website, mana.org.nz, for Hone’s media statement calling for the NZ government to withdraw from the “5 eyes” spy network altogether. The Bill will be up again in Parliament next week. While the government will be pushing to get it done and dusted by the end of next week, opposition parties will be doing all we can to stop it from being passed. Watch this space. Iwi in the House Parliament held extended hours on Thursday morning this week to hold the first readings of three Treaty settlement Bills – Ngā Mana Whenua o Tāmaki Makaurau Collective Redress Bill, Maungaharuru-Tangitu Hapū Claims Settlement Bill, and Ngā Punawai o Te Tokotoru Claims Settlement Bill. MANA supported these Bills, all of which have been referred to the Māori Affairs select committee for further consideration. Should you wish to make a submission, the closing date is 12 September. Feed the Kids Bill postponed The Feed the Kids Bill was due to come up for first reading on Wednesday 10 July but Hone was not able to be in Parliament on that day due to urgent meetings on Treaty settlements in the North. As a result, the Bill got postponed and has now gone to the bottom of the Members Bill list. It’s unlikely to come to the top of the list again this year. See the MANA website for Hone’s brief statement on this, saying that he’s actually quite happy as if the Bill had gone before Parliament it would have been voted down by one measly vote, as Peter Dunne, John Banks, and all the National MPs have said they won’t support it. So the Bill gets to live another day and perhaps be heard in Parliament when a different mix of MPs will vote for a different outcome. The upshot of all this is that “Feed the kids” Bill will continue to spearhead this s a relevant and current issue, and support for this very important kaupapa continues to build every week. We now have over 30 organisations backing the Bill including two new recent additions – Te Rūnanga Nui o Ngā Kura Kaupapa Māori and a newly formed rōpū called Poverty Stoppers made up of South Auckland high school students. MANA and local government A number of MANA members around the country have been nominated to stand in the upcoming local and regional council elections, including MANA co-vice president John Minto who is campaigning for the Auckland mayoralty. It’s a great platform to promote MANA policies and to build support for the movement. So far John has released two of MANA’s key policies for Auckland: free and frequent public transport – announced at his campaign launch; and solving Auckland’s housing crisis – announced last week during Hone’s court case for supporting housing protestors. Two further policy announcements will be made in the coming weeks.
Posted on: Thu, 08 Aug 2013 05:05:59 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015