Is NZ’s Bill English Misrepresenting Economic Growth Under Labour? In the House of Representatives.
Posted: February 25, 2010 Filed under: Analysis, Breaking News, Business, Community, Current, NZPacific, Politics, South Pacific Region, US & Foreign Affairs | Tags: Bill English, day, Deputy Prime Minister, government, horizontal, John, john key, key, labour, national, new zealand, nz finance minister, NZ Government, open, Parliament Building, Politics, talking, wellington 1 Comment »
WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND: John Key (L) Prime Minister of New Zealand speaks with deputy Prime Minister Bill English during the 2010 opening day of New Zealand Parliment at Parliament Buildings on February 9, 2010 in Wellington, New Zealand. (Photo by Marty Melville/Getty Images).
We want to know. We want the facts, not the spin. Voters deserve better than a misrepresentation of the facts, if that is what is happening. It’s an insult to people’s intelligence to play those games in Parliament. Very patronising to say the least. Partly helped by New Zealanders’ apathy and paid media not reporting or picking up these issues in the public interests.
So let’s find out. Government Minister versus Opposition Labour: who can we believe? So let’s open the books, the real ones.
NZ: Another Broken Promise From The Top – Prime Minister John Key
Posted: February 10, 2010 Filed under: Analysis, Breaking News, Business, Community, Current, education, NZPacific, Opinion & Commentary, Politics | Tags: broken promises from a politician, capital cities, Commissioning of Parliament, deputy, government, GST rise in NZ, horizontal, house of representatives, John English, john key, meeting, member of parliament, new zealand, NZ rise in GST, Parliament House, Politics, Prime Minister, prime minister nz, swearing, talking, wellington Leave a comment »
PHOTO TAKEN A MONTH AFTER THE NATIONAL PARTY WON A MAJORITY OF THE VOTES MAKING JOHN KEY PRIME MINISTER OF NZ. Taken the same year he promised not to raise GST if elected to Government.
WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND – DECEMBER 08, 2008: Prime Minister John Key (L) speaks with his deputy John English during the swearing in of MPs and the Commissioning of Parliament during the first meeting of the House of Representatives of the 49th Parliament at Parliament House on December 8, 2008 in Wellington, New Zealand. (Photo by Marty Melville/Getty Images).
John Key 2008 before the General Election:
National is NOT going to be raising GST. National wants to cut taxes not cut taxes.
Fast forward to yesterday in Parliament. Prime Minister signals a rise in GST of up to 15 percent. Photo taken yesterday in Parliament during his speech in which he announced the GST hike and other reforms.
Did the Prime Minister lose his memory? That does not bode well for future relationships with voters, particularly the most who are struggling to make ends meet. Maybe the Prime Minister and his Cabinet are the only ones who have forgotten we have been in a recession and it takes time for people to recover from it. That’s because they are one of the few who have not been living in a recession.
Despite widespread disappointment about Key’s speech yesterday, after all the hype and talking it up by the PM’s office, expect to hear more from his spin doctors talking up the next few months of Key’s so-called “tax cuts programme”. Whatever. No more empty platitudes about caring for the poor and needy and fighting crime from the Prime Minister’s office please.
Key’s changing views on GST hikes – National – NZ Herald News.
A Herald video reveals Prime Minister John Key ruled out a GST rise during his election campaign, saying “National is not going to be raising GST”.
Mr Key outlined the Government’s 2010 agenda to Parliament yesterday and signalled it was likely to raise GST from 12.5 per cent to 15 per cent in May’s Budget.
But in a 2008 press conference, Mr Key said raising taxes would not happen under a National Government.
“National is not going to be raising GST. National wants to cut taxes, not raise taxes.”
Mr Key made the comment when asked if he could rule out a GST rise as a new Government grappled with deficits.
Watch 2008 NZHerald video interview with John Key, then Prime Minister-in-waiting.
We think the only people left to trust in the Prime Minister’s office will be the cleaners.
Breaking: NZ Prime Minister Signals Rise in GST up to 15 percent; New Health Laws To Be Passed
Posted: February 9, 2010 Filed under: Community, Politics, South Pacific Region, Breaking News, Business, NZPacific, Fono Notices, Current, health, Analysis, education, Opinion & Commentary | Tags: john key, national party, nz, NZ Government, speech, GST rise, finance nz, opening of parliament 1 Comment »
Prime Minister of New Zealand John Key talks with race goers during the Wellington Cup Day meeting at Trentham Racecourse on January 30, 2010 in Wellington, New Zealand. (Photo by Mike Heydon/Getty Images).
DEBATE ON PRIME MINISTER’S STATEMENT NOW UNDERWAY IN PARLIAMENT
Investment property developers can expect to be taxed. GST increases signaled. Government will keep a tight lid on future spending. Mining in NZ will be explored as a valuable use of government land. Some areas of Crown land be removed from Schedule 4. Discussion document will be released. Water storage and irrigation projects, removal of regulatory processes, irrigation can begin in Canterbury. Substantive reforms for businesses to access capital.
Brief Analysis: Disappointing. On a scale of 1 to 10 for delivery: 3.5. On content: 5. Because as the Prime Minister of the country, he gave some general information. That reminds us we live in a democracy. But he gets a C – Minus for what he did share. Not enough detail to flesh out the platitudes about fighting crime and so on. Because although he signaled rises and changes, he leaves a lot unsaid. He signals a proposed rise in GST to 15 percent but discounted that with talk of cuts to personal tax cuts. Don’t be fooled by those cuts because the cost of living continues to rise, and a rise in GST on top of that, Kiwis will not make a difference to whether you can pay your bills on time, put food on the table easier. Those tax cuts, although hardly earthshattering to individuals pay packet when the minimum wage, and part time work hours, is barely adequate for middle and low income earners, will mean major cuts to health, education and infrastructure in New Zealand.
National Government MP Jonathan Coleman, the same one who was responsible for the Melissa Lee by-election flop, is speaking right now and having a dig at beneficiaries to get off benefits. Has he forgotten we’ve been in a recession?Very patronising for the many jobless who are actively seeking work.
RESPONSE FROM LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION
Phil Goff’s reply to John Key
Notes for speech in Parliament
Once again, we’ve heard the rhetoric – but there’s no substance.
It’s Alan Bollard one, John Key nil.
It’s proved Alan Bollard right – John Key’s promise to catch up with Australia is a hollow one – there’s nothing in this speech that represents step change.
Instead, it’s a step back.
There’s no bold plan or any plan at all.
This was hyped by the Prime Minister’s team to be his most important speech.
It was Big Tuesday, they said. More like Tiptoe Tuesday.
He signals a rise in GST, which I oppose, but he trembles as he says it.
“We’re only considering it”.
“No decisions have been made”.
“We’ve asked for more work to be done on it”.
They’ve left a bolt hole they can scamper into when the heat gets too much.
They say they want a fair tax package but they know that it is really about mates’ rates.
Cutting the top income tax rate down to 30% would give the PM, on his salary alone, $509 a week. He doesn’t need it.
Paul Reynolds would get $2600 a week.
Someone on the minimum wage would get nothing, which comes after the miserable 25 cents John Key gave them last month.
A person on the average wage of $48,600 gets 35 cents a week and on $70,000 just $12.69.
And GST would hurt most those who have to spend all their income to make ends met and particularly those with children.
Compensating people for the rise would leave just $200 million more in revenue out of the $2.2 billion in tax take from extra GST, according to Treasury.
Why would you bother?
Aren’t people paying enough for the things they have to buy? Low and middle income earners will ultimately pay more income tax as inflation puts them into higher tax brackets.
Mr Key should tell us who are the winners and who are the losers, but he has failed to do so because the real winners will be his well paid mates.
The bulk of New Zealanders at best will just get compensation for increased prices from GST, if that. They will pay more for their bread, milk, power and their kids’ shoes and school fees, and their block of cheese.
But this statement wasn’t just about tax. It was about the Government’s overall programme to advance New Zealand.
In that, it lacks substance, it lacks conviction, it lacks anything new.
It is a series of reheated announcements we’ve heard before.
Like late night TV, it’s repeat after repeat.
The Kopu Bridge – funded and initiated by Labour — has been re-announced for the 11th time. Even though National’s sole input was to bring it forward by six months.
R&D, where National abolished the $2 billion Fast Forward Fund and repealed the R&D tax credit, has been suddenly found by National to be important.
But they say there’s no extra money to put into it. Australia increased their R&D by 25% and John Key pretends he has a plan to catch up.
John Key said Alan Bollard was wrong about there being no plan to catch up with Australia. He was negative, pessimistic.
But in fact Dr Bollard and the rest of New Zealand were right to be cynical.
New Zealand has the potential to be world beating, with its resources like water, its environment, ingenuity that gave us the digital effects behind Avatar.
But the National Party does nothing in this statement to unleash that potential.
And for all John Key’s rhetoric, his Government has widened the gap not narrowed it.
New Zealand’s unemployment, always lower than Australia’s, is now 30% higher.
Australia has invested in skills and education. National here has dumped the New Zealand Skills Strategy, to the dismay of unions and employers alike.
One in five Kiwi young people are not in work, education or training.
In Australia, it’s less than one in ten.
Where is the plan today to get 168,000 unemployed Kiwis back to work?
Over a quarter of these New Zealanders have bee out of work for more than six months.
Where is the commitment to turn around the sad situation we saw in South Auckland two weeks ago – 3,500 people desperately queuing for 150 low paid supermarket jobs?
John Key last December said he was pretty happy about the unemployment figures. An extra 18,000 extra Kiwis were joining the unemployment queue as he made that statement.
He described unemployment as a backward looking statistic. What he’s actually referring to is human beings who have lost their livelihoods, with all the personal, social and financial costs that entails.
He claimed last week that his Government has done “as much as we possibly can about unemployment”.
That’s simply untrue.
The job summit was just hot air – the talkfest he claimed it wasn’t going to be. At best it saved a handful of jobs while tens of thousands were losing them.
The Aussie’s took serious steps to deal with unemployment and got it down across the Tasman.
Here we just got political rhetoric from Mr Key and Mrs Bennett and unemployment has risen to the highest level in 17 years.
What in this statement gives hope to hard working Kiwi’s to help their families get ahead?
Hundreds of Kiwi families struggled last year to pay their bills as real incomes fell.
The Labour Cost Index this month showed that 56% of salary and wage rates didn’t increase last year but prices continued to rise and will rise further with GST.
Public servants were told not to expect a pay rise for five years by a Minister of Finance who secretly doubled his housing allowance to higher than what the average worker gets as a full-time wage.
Those on the minimum wage got a miserable 25 cents an hour more – less in the hand at the end of the week than the cost of a family size packet of WeetBix.
Middle income earners found that they were working harder but not getting ahead.
Change to the tax system could help. Labour cut company taxes, gave tax credits worth hundreds of millions to families through Working for Families lifted 130,000 children out of poverty, and stimulated the economy with big personal income tax cuts in the 2008 Budget.
National on the other hand gave the bulk of its tax cuts to the highest income earners and nothing at all to families with kids earning under $40,000.
The tax changes foreshadowed here do little or nothing for hardworking low and middle income earners.
If and where tax loopholes are closed and a level playing field is created between different areas of investment, we will support that but there is no evidence of benefits from this tax package for low and middle income earners.
Then there was John Key’s promise that he would look after the most vulnerable. Empty words when you consider he was cutting assistance to severely handicapped children and assistance to those in second chance adult and community education while subsidising elite private schools with tens of millions of extra funding.
Empty words and political spin too when he came to McGehan Close in my electorate, insulted the residence by calling it a ‘dead end’ street nut promised to help those there he termed an underclass.
Remember the spin around taking young Aroha up to Waitangi and giving her mum a job.
What do they say in McGehan Close now?
Joan Nathan says she has been let down by the Prime Minister and her daughter Aroha now wants nothing to do with him.
She says she and her family are worse off since National won the election.
She says she’s “pretty anti with Mr Key at the moment”.
“He just made everything worse for us and made it easier for the ones that are higher up. I’m struggling every week”.
The job she was so generously given by the National Party mysteriously became redundant. Jackie Blue said her office had merged with Sam Lotu-Iinga.
That’s funny. One’s in Dominion Road Mt Roskill. The other in Onehunga Mall.
And Mr Key who said in 2008 that “the rungs of the ladder of opportunity has been broken”, stopping people like Joan Nathan from getting ahead. She says in fact National cut the training allowance she would have got to undertake a job skill course.
Where in this statement is the National Party’s blueprint for lifting skill training and dealing with educational underachievement.
15.4% of Maori are currently unemployed and for young Maori it’s probably one in 4.
At 14% for Pasifika people it’s not much better.
Flying a sovereignty flag over the Harbour Bridge won’t help that, but I guess it will distract attention from the problem.
Soon this Government will exhaust the publics’ patience for political spin.
This statement today was a chance to set out a plan to a real difference for New Zealand.
A chance to share the benefits of international economic recovery across all New Zealanders.
To build an economy that can close the gap with Australia, create growth through building skills, promoting innovation.
But once again it has let the opportunity slip, has offered to serve the few not the many and to tinker around the edges rather than implement change which will matter.
This statement by the PM fails on all counts.
Unemployment Highest Among Maori and Pacific Job Seekers; Still Worst Hit By Recession
Posted: February 9, 2010 Filed under: Analysis, Breaking News, Business, Community, Current, education, Fono Notices, Jobs In The Pacific, NZPacific, Opinion & Commentary, Politics, South Pacific Region | Tags: adults only, Apia, Arrival, bankruptcy, Bronagh, Bronagh Key, celebration, ceremony, Close-up, color image, copy space, dawn, Diplomacy, food, Georgina Te Heuheu, government, Head of State, Highness, hold, Hon Georgina, horizontal, Human Hand, Human Interest, ideas, indoors, inside out, interest, joblessness, John, john key, Kava Kava, key, labour party, lifestyles, Maori and Pacific jobseekers, Maori unemployment, midsection, national party, new zealand, no money, NZ European unemployment, one man only, One Person, Pacific unemployment, People, phil goff, photography, Pita Bread, pita sharples, pocket, Politics, poverty, Prime Minister, prime minister nz, samoa, serving, Sharples, statistics NZ, Traditional Culture, Tui Atua Tupua Tamasese Efi, UE rate, unemployment, visit, Waitangi, watch, welfare, Whare Runanga, work policies, worst hit by recession Leave a comment »
No pretty picture here. Statistics NZ shows the unemployment rate has risen again for Maori and Pacific job seekers. They represent the worst hit groups normally resident in New Zealand. The unemployment rate for Pacific has almost doubled from 7.8 percent unemployment (December 2008) to 14. percent, as at December 2009.
Unemployment among Maori has risen from 9.8 at 15.4 percent. This does not include the figures for European/Maori which is 13.6 percent. Asian unemployment stands at 9.2 percent. The unemployment rate for those who identify as European is 4.6 percent.
MP for Mana Luamanuvao Winnie Laban says the rate should shame the Government into action.“Just over three months ago unemployment rates among Pacific Islanders was 12.3 per cent and we were being promised by the Government it was working to get people back to work, “she says.
The Labour Opposition Spokesperson for Pacific Island Affairs says this latest increase shows their policies are not working. “In just one year, 5000 additional Pacific Island people have lost their jobs. Pacific Island people, who are overrepresented in lower paid jobs, were also bitterly disappointed at the miserly rise in minimum wage announced last month.”
Luamanuvao says many in the Pacific community are saying they are disappointed with a lack of action from the Minister of Pacific Island Affairs Georgina Te Heuheu.
Te Heuheu, who is the second Maori woman to gain election to the National Party, is widely criticised within the Pacific community for her lack of action on Pacific issues.
Luamanuvao on Te Heuheu:
“She is virtually invisible in the portfolio and offering no support or ideas. I am deeply saddened that the Government is failing so many families and that the Minister of Pacific Island Affairs has sat back and done nothing.”
NZ Pacific Affairs Minister Georgina Te Heuheu(right), during a visit to Samoa with the Prime Minister John Key(next to her) and Maori Affairs Minister Dr Pita Sharples (left), July 7, 2009 in Apia, Samoa.
Opposition Leader Phil Goff says unemployment in New Zealand is now at the highest level it has been in 16 years and is growing at the highest rate in a decade.
“168,000 Kiwis are now unemployed. The total number of jobless is more than 275,000,” says the Labour Leader.
“The Government’s stimulus package has produced just 2300 jobs. That is a lot less than the 3500 people who queued for hours last month for the chance to grab just 150 jobs at a new South Auckland supermarket.”
Goff, who is highly critical of Prime Minister John Key’s Job Summit for producing few results to help those who need it the most, says more and more people are struggling to make ends meet, with the young, the less well off, Maori and Pacific communities and other ethnic groups especially hard hit.
| Source: Statistics NZ Single/combination unemployment rate (unadjusted) by ethnic group |
||
| Ethnicity | December 2008
quarter (percent) |
December 2009
quarter (percent) |
| European only | 3.2 | 4.6 |
| Māori only | 9.8 | 15.4 |
| Pacific peoples only | 7.8 | 14.0 |
| Asian only | 6.3 | 9.2 |
| MELAA only | 10.7 | 17.1 |
| ‘Other ethnicity’ only | 4.1 | 3.3 |
| European/Māori | 7.0 | 13.6 |
| Two or more groups not elsewhere included | 6.5 | 14.1 |
| Note: MELAA = Middle Eastern/Latin American/African | ||
Could Waitangi 2010 Mark A New Mood in NZ Race Relations?
Posted: February 6, 2010 Filed under: Analysis, Breaking News, Business, Community, Current, education, Honour & Tribute, NZPacific, Opinion & Commentary, Politics, South Pacific Region | Tags: aotearoa, apartheid south africa, attending, Bill English, celebration, ceremony, cup, dawn, F.W. de Klerk, Fancourt, Finance Minister Bill English, founding document, george, golf, hold, horizontal, Human Interest, inter-racial relations, interest, john key, Listening, maori party, MP for Waiariki, MP for Whangarei Phil Heatley, national party nz, Nelson Mandela, new zealand, nz, open, People, Politics, president, Prime Minister, Prime Minister John Key, race relations, race relations NZ, racism, senior adult, serving, Sitting, south africa, sport, Te Ururoa Flavell, Thabo Mbeki, The Links, tiriti o waitangi, titwhai harawira, Traditional Culture, treaty, Treaty Grounds, Waist Up, Waitangi, Whare Runanga Leave a comment »
PAIHIA, NEW ZEALAND – FEBRUARY 05, 2010: New Zealand Prime Minister John Key sits alongside Titewhai Harawira, a Ngapuhi kuia (elder) after being welcomed onto TeTii Marae on February 5, 2010 in Waitangi, New Zealand. Next to Harawira is (Right) Finance Minister Bill English, Maori Party MP for Waiariki Te Ururoa Flavell, and Fisheries and Housing Minister MP for Whangarei Phil Heatley. The National-led Government has been in power for just over a year after being in Opposition for nine years. This is John Key’s first term as Prime Minister. Waitangi Day is the national day of New Zealand, a public holiday held on February 6 each year to celebrate the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi. The treaty is New Zealand’s founding document, signed on February 6, 1840. (Photo by Phil Walter/Getty Images).
By Vienna Richards
With John Key due to give a keynote speech on race relations on the Treaty Grounds of Waitangi on our national day today, it begs a few questions. So the Prime Minister is serious about improving race relations improving in New Zealand? I sincerely hope so. We need that kind of leadership from the top.
First, so far so good in Waitangi, as far as fisty cuffs go. No one has yet struck at, or bared their buttock, at a visiting dignitary on Waitangi, unless you count the bare-bottomed Maori warrior yesterday. His only piece of clothing was material covering his loins. The rest was a free show. But today is the Big Day, Waitangi itself, and if anything is going to happen, it will happen on this day.
In the past, few Prime Ministers, and Prime Ministers-in-waiting, have been spared the wrath of racial injustice that such a day evokes. At this stage, it looks like the Prime Minister will leave Waitangi without the diplomatic protection squad needed to jump in front of him.
Now, back to one begging question. (That’s all I’ve got time for). I have just watched the Great Waitangi Debate on Marae, TV One this morning. Well, bits of it. It didn’t hold my interest long enough with a teenager ready to go to his American Football game. But as I listened to the debate, one question rose out of the blue:
Would the Prime Minister John Key accept his son or daughter dating a brown man or woman in New Zealand, particularly a young Maori or Pacific Island? Yes or No.
If he can answer yes to that, then I’ll know that I can take his race relations speech seriously. Otherwise, it’s just another puff piece from a slick speechwriter. One that is more about looking good, rather than a genuine wish list of race relations in New Zealand.
Why THAT Question?
An email via the website from one reader, who identified as a Kiwi living in Oz, prompted me to respond further on this topic. She isn’t impressed with my question aimed at John Key. With all respect, she missed my point It was not about who would be the most suitable partners. It was: would you let them if they wanted to…? Based on her reaction, my hunch is she does not belong to a racial minority. Nor does she identify as Maori or Pacific. So I don’t expect that she would get the historical background to my question. I suspect she has never had to navigate, and live and work between two or three worlds in Aotearoa New Zealand.
To those who have never experienced racism on a personal level, it will be easy to belittle my assertion. How so? If racism has never touched your life in the home, in the workplace or at school, then in my experience, you’ll miss the “knowing” that is spoken only within the safety and comfort of our kitchen tables.
In the early 90s, as apartheid South Africa was beginning to dismantle its racially segregated systems, President F.W De Klerk was the public face of a racially tolerant South Africa. For the benefit of readers who were too young to care or follow its history, apartheid South Africa was a country that previously legally sanctioned racism at every level of life from the bedroom to school to eating places to Parliament. For example, interracial marriage was prohibited in apartheid South Africa. It was a criminal offence to have sexual relations with a person of a different race.
De Klerk was the moderate voice for white Afrikaners. One ready to share political power with those they had previously subjugated for generations.
Come 1990, De Klerk delivered his famous and controversial speech on the 2nd February 1990 which announced the release of Nelson Mandela after 27 years as a political prisoner.
As a 20-something, I saw De Klerk, the public politician, as progressive and color-blind. I accepted his public speech as part and parcel of his psyche as a man and a father. He defied angry threats and calls from many white Afrikaners who refused to let apartheid go. He stood up against generations of national and institutionalised racism in a country that didn’t know any different.
On Sunday 11 February 1990, De Klerk publicly released Nelson Mandela from prison. His release was broadcast live around the world. I was one of millions who stayed up all night to wait for the live satellite broadcast from Johannesburg. It marked a new dawn for apartheid South Africa.
That same day, I ended my boycott of South African products in support of government and grassroots efforts around the world to pressure South Africa to end apartheid.
A long story short, De Klerk went on to win a Nobel Peace Prize. He was feted by the world as a leader who made a difference in race relations. He ended the banning of anti-apartheid groups. He pleaded for all South Africans to work towards a new nonracial democratic constitution.
Yet in his personal life, while he dismantled apartheid laws publicly, De Klerk struggled to dismantle the same attitudes within his own home when his son Willem began dating a “mixed race” woman. Their relationship, which lead to an engagement, did not last under reported pressures from the De Klerk household.
Despite all his rhetoric, De Klerk could not put into practice his own speech about a “new South Africa” in his own home. That’s a global example, of course, from a big gone era. But news coverage of a few years ago showed those attitudes still prevalent in the country. And yes, New Zealand is worlds away from South Africa’s former apartheid system, thank goodness.
But here’s the big reveal: in the privacy of one-on-one conversations with people in Aotearoa, I am, now and then, taken aback when one says bluntly, they would not let their child date a Maori or Pacific person. It’s not a common experience here, to be fair. But then again, I largely ignore signs of racism, even when “beware” hazard lights are flashing in neon. I just plough right ahead and disregard the warning signs because they don’t matter to me. Truly. Because I know who I am. I know who I belong to and who created me. So I don’t define myself on the views of racists of any colour, including my own.
Colour and cultural definitions of self? In daily life, colour-blind is my preferred vision. Though others may try, I refuse to define myself purely in cultural or colour terms. There’s more to this brown skin than colour. And it isn’t always white-on-brown-or-black racism that I’ve seen. Sometimes it’s brown against brown. (I’m using colour definition purely for the sake of brevity). I hear pockets of ambiguous views about our melting pot, from the voices of otherwise tolerant and accepting New Zealanders ,who support racial equality as long as their child doesn’t date someone of a different colour or race. Those are not isolated views and they’re not confined to so-called rednecks, by the way.
So these days, because of what I’ve seen and heard in my lifetime in New Zealand, I’m not interested in clever speeches about race relations from a leader of any country, political party or organisation. Dare I say it, I am far from alone on that. Live that speech inside your home first before you sell it to the masses. Show me that it’s more than political rhetoric aimed at winning the next place in history. Then, believe me, if that be so with the PM, THEN I’ll take Key’s ‘nationhood’ speech seriously.
No disrespect intended. But I do rest my case.
Insight on Racism, NZ radio documentary by Radio New Zealand’s Pacific Correspondent Richard Pamatatau.
Photos in Review: Waitangi 2009; What’s To Be Expected This Year?
Posted: February 5, 2010 Filed under: Analysis, Breaking News, Business, Community, Current, education, NZPacific, Opinion & Commentary, Politics, South Pacific Region | Tags: annette king, Arrival, Attempted, breakfast, Cherington Hiku, competition, conflict, dawn, demonstrating, filing, group, Haka, hone harawira, horizontal, Human Interest, interview, john key, king, King Tuheitia, Kingi Tairua, labour, leader, leaves, left, line, Listening, Maori MP, MP Annette King, MP Parekura Horomia, Nautical Vessel, new zealand, ngapuhi, Ngapuhi Kaumatua Kingi Tairua, oposition, paddle, parekura horomia, People, phil goff, police, Politics, Prime Minister, Protestor, senior adult, serving, shore, Show, silence, Sitting, slient, talking, TeTii Marae, Titewhai Harawera, Traditional Culture, Treaty Grounds, Tuheitia, Upper Marae, vertical, violence, Waitangi, waka, Walking, watch, welcome Leave a comment »
WAITANGI, NZ, 5th Feb 2009: Silent marchers walking on Treaty Grounds at Waitangi.
The biggest controversy at Waitangi last year was the assault on Prime Minister John Key by two members of the crowd, who were later arrested and charged. What is almost always missed at Waitangi, from the media coverage, are the calmer scenes of the day. This year promises to be an interesting news day at Waitangi: it will be the first time in as many years that a number of international dignitaries will return to Waitangi for the day; Hone Harawira and the Maori Flag; and the Tongan followers of Josh Liava’a mislead into seeking refuge with Ngapuhi over their immigration status. Meanwhile, back to 2009, a lo0k back at the stories that made the front page and the lesser known scenes of the day. Photos by Sandra Mu/Getty Images.
WAITANGI, NEW ZEALAND – FEBRUARY 05: Hone Harawira, a Maori Party MP listens as New Zealand Prime Minister John Key is welcomed onto Te Tii Marae on February 5, 2009 in Waitangi, New Zealand. Waitangi Day is the national day of New Zealand which is a public holiday held each year on February 6 to celebrate the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, New Zealand’s founding document, on that date in 1840. Read the rest of this entry »
NZ Dumped From BBC Global Debate on Climate Change; We Tell You Why
Posted: December 17, 2009 Filed under: Analysis, Breaking News, Business, Community, Current, education, Environment, health, Politics, South Pacific Region, US & Foreign Affairs | Tags: Arts Culture and Entertainment, australia climate change, australian culture, Ban Ki-Moon, BBC debate on climate change, capital cities, changing, Climate, climate change, copenhagen, day, denmark, Diplomacy, government, hold, horizontal, Hyatt, john key, Kevin Rudd, Lars Lokke Rasmussen, new zealand dumped from climate change debate, pacific nations, Politics, Port Of Spain, Press Conference, Prime Minister, royalty, second, Secretary-General, Trinidad And Tobago, united nations Leave a comment »
COPENHAGEN, DENMARK : British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd hold a bi-lateral talks on December 15, 2009 in Copenhagen, Denmark. World leaders have started arriving today to attend the United Nations Climate Change Conference 2009 that runs until December 18. (Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/WPA PoolGetty Images)
Key dumped from BBC Copenhagen debate
Updated 8:30 AM Thursday Dec 17, 2009John Key was dumped in favour of Australian PM Kevin Rudd.
Prime Minister John Key has been bumped at the last minute from a worldwide televised climate change debate – in favour of Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.
The BBC World news debate today – dubbed The Greatest Debate on Earth – has been billed as the media highlight of the Copenhagen climate talks and the Prime Minister had announced he would be in it.
With all respect to the New Zealand Prime Minister, his dumping is no surprise to pacificEyeWitness.org. What was a surprise was that the BBC had initially included him. Because climate change talks between world leaders have seldom included New Zealand since the change of government at the end of 2008. John Key is not a player on climate change. He never has been.
On the world leaders stage, it was New Zealand’s former Prime Minister Helen Clark who was a key player on climate change globally. Unfortunately, news coverage in New Zealand sometimes makes New Zealand appear more a player than it actually is when it comes to climate change. It is not an example to the rest of the world. That should give you a clue about how un-climate friendly the New Zealand Government’s Climate Change Bill really was. It benefits polluters, not consumers. But most New Zealanders did not know that until after the Bill was passed into law.
What the Prime Minister’s initial inclusion in the BBC debate reveals, however, is how well connected his press secretaries are with the rest of the world’s media. They would have talked him up and made him out to be more concerned about climate change than he really is. But actions speak louder than words. And sooner or later, BBC’s research and talking to other world leaders, its producers would have quickly worked out that New Zealand’s Prime Minister was the wrong guy to put on the debate. Because New Zealand, and the Prime Minister, are not key players at all on this issue. That changed at the change of government last year.
All things considered, Australia’s Prime Minister Kevin Rudd could be the only choice of the two. Let’s look at why Rudd was chosen over Key for BBC’s global panel on Climate Change:
- Australia’s Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is one of the lead negotiators behind, and in front of, the Copenhagen Climate Change talks, along with UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon and Danish Prime Minister who are key movers and shakers at Copenhagen.Did you see John Key sitting at that table? No, of course, you didn’t.
- Rudd, not Key, was also part of the press conference on climate change at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) at Trinidad and Tobago, along with the same key movers and shakers at Copenhagen.Did you see John Key at that table? No, of course, you didn’t.
- Rudd, not Key, who was called to the White House after CHOGM to give Obama an update and further climate change talks ahead of the Copenhagen Leaders. We brought you the pictures on this site so use the search tab to find them.Did you see John Key at that meeting to discuss climate change with Rudd and Obama? No, you didn’t, because he wasn’t invited.
- Rudd, not Key, spoke up in support of Pacific island nations affected by climate change at this year’s Pacific Island Leaders Forum in August. That was duly noted by the United Nation’s Copenhagen organisers. They make mention of it on the official website. Again, those stories about Rudd’s support received coverage in Australian media, but not New Zealand.
So, in light of this information, was BBC right to dump Key from the panel in favour of Rudd? Exactly.
Here’s one piece of the photographic evidence(you can go to the search tab here to find the rest):
PORT-OF-SPAIN, TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO – NOVEMBER 28: (L-R) United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Danish Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussenm, Commonwealth Secretary General Kamalesh Sharma, Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Patrick Manning, and Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd hold a press conference on climate change during the second day of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) at the Hyatt Hotel on November 28, 2009 in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad And Tobago. CHOGM is held every 2 years, bringing together world leaders to discuss key issues of a global and Commonwealth nature, and key policies and initiatives. (Photo by Phil Walter/Getty Images).
NZ Parliament Winds Down For the Year
Posted: December 16, 2009 Filed under: Analysis, Breaking News, Business, Community, Current, Politics | Tags: house of representatives, john key, nz parliament, nz politics, parliament, question time parliament, tongan prime minister dr feleti sevele Leave a comment »
WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND – MAY 19: Tongan Prime Minister Dr Feleti Sevele (2nd L) and New Zealand Prime Minister John Key (2nd R) walk up the steps of Parliament after a welcome ceremony on May 19, 2009 in Wellington, New Zealand. Prime Minister Sevele is expected to discuss Tonga/NZ relations, New Zealands aid programme, the impact of the global financial crisis, and political reform in Tonga. (Photo by Marty Melville/Getty Images)
This is the final week for NZ Parliament for 2009, closing a week earlier than initially scheduled. Listening into the debating chamber this afternoon, we can hear their excitement already, along with louder than usual heckling, from both sides of the House.
You can listen online to Parliament by clicking here and following the directions. We will shortly post some of the highlights in NZ Parliament this year.
Photos: Samoa, NZ, Tonga, Vanuatu, Australia at CHOGM Trinidad and Tobago
Posted: November 30, 2009 Filed under: Analysis, Breaking News, Business, Community, Current, Environment, NZPacific, Politics, South Pacific Region, US & Foreign Affairs | Tags: Arrival, Arts Culture and Entertainment, australian culture, Ban Ki-Moon, british culture, british empire, British Royalty, Business, business person, capital cities, changing, Climate, David Miliband, day, denmark, dinner, Diplomacy, Elizabeth Ii, event, Feleti Sevele, Final, french culture, government, head, hold, horizontal, hotel, Hyatt, Jacob Zuma, john key, Kevin Rudd, Lars Lokke Rasmussen, leadership, meeting, new zealand, Nicolas Sarkozy, Opening Ceremony, Politics, Port Of Spain, president, President of France, Press Conference, Prime Minister, royalty, second, Secretary-General, South African, speech, talking, Third, tonga, Trinidad And Tobago, united nations, vanuatu, vertical Leave a comment »Main agenda for Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting 2009:
- Democratic Governance & Governments
- Sustainable Developments
- Assistance for Developing Nations
- Development of youth. A Youth Forum was held.
- A special session on climate change was convened and a declaration made.It is worth noting that although Climate Change grabbed media headlines, the main focus of CHOGM was apparently on YOUTH. We didn’t know that from the mainstream coverage.
PORT-OF-SPAIN, TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO – NOVEMBER 29: Samoan Prime Minister Tuilaepa Malielegaoi attends the 2nd Executive Session on the third day of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) at the Hyatt Hotel on November 29, 2009 in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad And Tobago. CHOGM is held every 2 years, bringing together world leaders to discuss key issues of a global and Commonwealth nature, and key policies and initiatives. (Photo by Phil Walter/Getty Images). Content © 2009 Getty Images All rights reserved.
Youth make strong call for inclusion in decision making
Although discussions and initiatives on Climate Change have grabbed the headlines at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting 2009, the main issue on the agenda of the Commonwealth’s young people was “Youth Involvement in Decision Making.”The Commonwealth Youth Forum officially closed on Friday night after seven days of intense work and some play but the work was not finished because on Saturday, the Youth Dialogue was held. This comprised of a selection of delegates from the Youth Forum in discussions with Heads of State where the case for decision making inclusion was once again put forward by the youth.
CHOMG 2009
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Breaking: NZ Cabinet Minister Resigns Suddenly
Posted: February 25, 2010 | Author: pacificeye | Filed under: Analysis, Breaking News, Business, Community, Current, education, Jobs In The Pacific, NZ General Election 2008, NZPacific, Opinion & Commentary, Politics, South Pacific Region | Tags: john key, minister of fisheries nz, minister of housing nz, ministerial credit card misdemeanours, national party, nz government 2010, phil heatly resigns, second minister resigns | 1 Comment »UPDATED: “Disgraced former minister Phil Heatley was repeatedly warned by officials about his ministerial credit card use, new documents reveal. Mr Heatley, 42, quit his fisheries and housing portfolios yesterday after moves by Prime Minister John Key to put his spending under more scrutiny by Auditor-General Lyn Provost…”(Source: Dominion Post, 26th February 2010). Read more
Full text of resignation speech by Minister of Housing and Fisheries Phil Heatley. Read out at a press conference an hour ago.
Heatley’s Profile on http://www.heatley.co.nz
In the National-led Government, Phil Heatley is:
He attended Maunu & Whau Valley Primary, Kamo Intermediate and Kamo High Schools in Whangarei.
Being born, raised and educated in Whangarei, he has strong personal ties to the electorate with his own family and extended family all residing there.
In 1990 he completed a Masters with honours degree, majoring in Horticultural Engineering. After finishing his studies he returned to Whangarei to work.
Phil’s personal interests include carpentry, tennis, boating and fishing.
In 1993 both Phil and his wife Jenny, a registered nurse, worked voluntarily with an international relief agency aboard a nine-story, 12,000-ton hospital ship. When in port crew undertook medical, agricultural and construction work in developing countries.
After returning from overseas in 1995, Phil was employed as a Professional Engineer for a NZ Dairy Board subsidiary in Northland. Nationally, Phil was responsible for working on behalf of the dairy industry in relation to the Resource Management Act (1991).