My Right

Organised by ACT deputy leader Muriel Newman, the conference was about getting people off welfare into work, and Duff's brief was to speak on how welfare was destroying Maori.

But in an off-the-cuff speech that matched his strongest past outbursts against Maori leadership, Duff said the issue was not so much welfare reform as reform of Maori losers.

"You don't know how the blame is being shifted on to you," he said to the 100-strong audience. "By shifting the blame on to white people and on to anyone but themselves, their problems continue to worsen.

"Everyone's too afraid to say it's the Maoris that are the problem."

Duff said Maori radio stations carried "an endless parade of losers" blaming Pakeha for their problems.

The result was a ten-fold increase in welfare dependency in just 30 years – from fewer than 35,000 beneficiaries right up until the early 1970s, to over 350,000 today.

In 1973, 31 years ago, we had 12,000 sole parents. Today we have 112,000.

In 1983, 21 years ago, we had 8,000 on Sickness Benefits. Today we have 43,000 – over five times as many.

In 1983, 21 years ago, we had 18,000 Invalid beneficiaries. Today we have 72,000, four times as many.

If you believe Labour, you would think that unemployment is no longer a problem. Yet, in 1973 – 31 years ago – there were fewer than 2,000 people unemployed. Today there are more than 40 times as many.

Welfare reform is an issue I am passionate about – not only in an intellectual and political sense – but, because in the mid 1980’s, after 18 years of marriage, I found myself as a sole mother with two young children on welfare. I’ve lived the day-to-day existence. I’ve seen the wasted lives. And I’ve experienced the seductive grip of a system that begins by helping – but ends by destroying self-esteem, confidence and hope. I escaped; many others did not.

Piripi ".. think(s) it has significant implications for Maori public servants who come from communities who expect them to advocate for them."

9. RON MARK to the Minister of Police: Is he satisfied that police are sufficiently resourced in order to respond to all facets of crime?

11. Hon TONY RYALL to the Minister of Police: Which police districts operate quotas or performance measures where officers are expected to issue a certain number of tickets every hour or day they are on traffic duty, and does he agree with this system?

'The sight of black shirted youth from Destiny Church marching through central
Auckland on Sat 7th against civil unions and other progressive law reforms is
appalling' says Des Smith of the Civil Union Bill Support Society


'It is disturbing to see these children being used by their bigoted and intolerant parents. How will they grow up in today's world? Will they be the future gay bashers? Should they discover that they themselves have a homosexual orientation will family pressures lead them to consider suicide? I hope not but the risk is there'

'The march is reminiscent of the rise of Hitler in Nazi Germany. How ironic it is that they should be using the well known Martin Luther King slogan "Enough is Enough". King stood strongly for justice and equality and opposed intolerance'

'Is the Destiny rally at parliament later this month going to provide a further
opportunity for children to be misused?

If so it will be very evident that Destiny followers do not espouse the same wholesome family values as thousands of other heterosexual or gay and lesbian families throughout NZ'.

A judge has been accused of sending the wrong message to men who assault their spouses by throwing another lifeline to a wife-beating overstayer.

The allegation has been levelled at District Court Judge Philip Recordon after indications yesterday that he would consider letting Tuvaluan overstayer and kidney patient Senee Niusila walk free on charges of assault and threatening to kill his wife.

There has to be frank and open debate on what New Zealand is about, and on the futures we can share together. Partisan and sectional politics on these issues will get us nowhere. People who sand-bag themselves into die-hard positions will not be part of creative and positive solutions. (An easy and simple enough conclusion - but needed to be said)

Michael King was passionate about New Zealand and about the emergence of a unique New Zealand identity. He rightly pointed out that for most New Zealanders, regardless of their ethnicity, home is here, Aotearoa New Zealand.

He argued that just because one group has been here longer than another does not make its members more New Zealand than later arrivals, nor does it give them the right to exclude others from full participation in national life. (A bit of name dropping never hurts)

(And most particularly, this)The Treaty was open-ended, not a straitjacket. It was a preliminary agreement to an on-going relationship under the same law and government. The terms of that relationship have changed over the past 164 years.

The National Party has dug itself into a bunker and thinks there’s a race war going on. National is the North Korea of New Zealand politics. They're spreading fear by threatening to go nuclear on race relations. Such a party cannot create a New Zealand that is unified and at peace with itself.

"Maori people will never accept this action of the Crown as legitimate and we will fight against it creating a festering sore in New Zealand society,"
"This country could be brought to its knees by internal conflict and perhaps civil war over the coming decades as a direct result of this bill."

Having a look at Mallard's "Get over it" speech

A little vitriol over Goff's "I'd do it all again" statement

A few highlights (and low lights) from the week in the house

If I have a few drinks - I may even try to figure out what Winston is thinking

Miss Clark said she did not know how fast her ministerial car had travelled on the drive to Christchurch. She had been engrossed in conversation in the back seat with Agriculture Minister Jim Sutton, but had not felt unsafe at any point of the journey.

In her most extensive comments to date on the dash, she said people needed to understand "it wasn't Helen Clark, private citizen, rushing to a rugby match. It was Helen Clark as prime minister with a set of public engagements for the day."

If Lange's Labour Government will always be remembered for its drastic economic reforms, I wonder if Clark's will have the same legacy in the social sphere. Prostitution, civil unions, matrimonial property reforms, lesbians can be fathers too, no smoking in bars, (possibly) smacking – will history join the dots? Will Clark & Maharey be the Lange and Douglas of the 21st century?

If it's less obvious, perhaps it's because of the method by which some of the legislation is passed. In this regard, conscience votes has always seemed a bit odd to me. Why should economic issues be any less subject to ethical concerns than social ones? Taxation to a libertarian is as much a moral issue as GE is to a greenie, or gay marriage to a conservative.

So while Labour is responsible for the current wave of social reforms, the fact that even its own MPs are (in theory, at least) allowed to vote according to their consciences allows a degree of separation from the party proper. Labour didn't pass the bill, Parliament did. Douglas never had that luxury when it came to his reforms.