Sep 2011
Jim's E-News September
09/09/11 15:05 Filed in: Newsletters
John Key Fact Free
The ability of Prime Minister John Key to rewrite history and make things up as he goes is something that, despite my years in politics, continues to astound me.
On TVNZ’s Breakfast programme recently, John Key told interviewer Corin Dann that a law that I had passed to increase the price of sherry had the consequence of putting fortified wine manufacturers in his electorate out of business and causing grandmothers to move from their regular tipple of sherry to low-priced vodka. Key went on to tell Dann that increasing prices did not affect alcohol consumption.
In his comments, Key cynically ignored the fact that the law change, which, incidentally, I promoted on behalf of Labour’s Rick Barker, who was Minister of Customs but out of New Zealand at the time, the removal of a highly lethal product from the shelves of liquor outlets. It wasn’t Grandma’s sherry that was the target of the legislation, it was the so-called light spirits with an alcohol content of 23% or more. The law change was aimed at those selling high octane drinks to kids. Those drinks included vodka, gin, whiskey, and brandy. And the law change worked. Using price control to remove a literally lethal cocktail product aimed at young binge drinkers was a complete success. It reduced the sale of ‘light’ spirits by more than 80% and has virtually knocked them out of the market.
Although the cost of alcohol-related harm to New Zealand is in the order of $2 billion to $3 billion a year, Mr Key is trying to argue that the problem is binge-drinking restricted mostly to the young. He is wrong; alcohol abuse is a widespread problem, with 700,000 New Zealanders drinking too heavily with 60% of all police arrests involving the abuse of alcohol.
While John Key’s stance is one that alarms me, as is that of the media which fawns over his every word while failing to investigate the accuracy of his assertions. Key’s calculated use of his populist appeal, while pushing through legislation and policies that will ultimately harm our society, shows one thing; that John Key doesn’t actually care about people. He doesn’t really care about the ‘grandmas’ or binge-drinking teens, or the harm that the misuse of alcohol causes. What he revealed to Dann on the Breakfast programme was his true motivation; that of defending those people who manufacture cheap booze and cause misery to others in order to make themselves rich.
Transcript of the TVNZ interview with the PM.
My response.
Ministerial statement at the time.
Megan Woods endorsed for Wigram
It is now less than one month until I give my farewell, or valedictory, speech to Parliament, marking an end to my 27 years as the MP for Wigram and, before that, Sydenham. My speech is scheduled to be held at 5.45 pm on Tuesday 4 October and will be one of my last official duties in Parliament before getting back on the campaign trail, this time to help Labour’s Megan Woods.
While it will be unusual to campaign for someone else in “my” seat, I want to ensure that Megan is elected with a strong majority in order that she has a clear mandate to carry on the work that I have been doing. To that end, I have sent a personal letter to more than 28,000 households in the Wigram electorate endorsing Megan’s candidacy and urging constituents to vote for her.
John Key’s National Government, if re-elected in November, will cut Kiwisaver and Working for Families, reduce eligibility for such things as student loans and sell off state-owned assets. Undoubtedly Kiwibank will eventually be “on the block” and these are the very things I have spent my political career building and protecting. I want to leave Parliament safe in the knowledge that I will be handing over to some-one who will fight for these things just as I have done, and I trust Megan to do that.
Megan has been an important member of my own campaign team over the past 12 years and I know she has the skills, experience and ability to be a good MP and so it is very satisfying to be handing over responsibility to someone I know well and am confident will carry on what I hope has been a high-quality electorate service. In fact, her selection has made my decision to retire easier knowing that she has the qualities necessary to take over and be another hard working MP for Wigram.
Residents protest against liquor licenses
I recently addressed a protest rally by residents of Avonhead in Christchurch opposed to the granting of new licenses to discount liquor outlets in the area. These proposed outlets are in close proximity to student hostels and flats, the University of Canterbury and two secondary schools.
The stupidity of the licensing situation is illustrated in one of the applications where the authorities accept that another liquor outlet could only exacerbate existing liquor problems, but then went on to say they were not persuaded that the outlet’s car park and streets in the immediate area were likely to become venues for drinking.
In reaching their conclusion, the authorities were evidently not aware of, nor took into account, a number of significant, long-standing problems in the area caused by student drinking. Such has been the problem that, in April this year, the Christchurch City Council issued a temporary six-month public alcohol ban in this area. Since the ban has been in place there has continued to be a number of incidents, most recently an out-of-control party tied up all available police resources in Christchurch and which the police described as “highly dangerous”. So bad is the situation that local councillors have called for the temporary liquor ban to be made permanent.
The Council did not implement the current ban without reason. Vandalism, assaults and other crime caused through alcohol abuse has been prevalent in the area for decades, and the problem has been getting worse, not better. It defies belief to think that those authorities granting the resource consent could not have been aware of the extent of the alcohol problem in the area. To acknowledge that the granting of another licence could exacerbate the problem, but then not to be persuaded that the local streets in the immediate area would not become venues for drinking, ignores both history and logic.
The other point to note is that cheap liquor outlets regularly engage in alcohol promotion including the sale of discounted liquor. While they deny selling alcohol as a loss leader, many of the prices are extraordinarily low, with wine often being sold in supermarkets at less than half the normal retail price.
Again, it flies in the face of research and historical evidence to believe that students will not take advantage of discounted prices, particularly when cheap alcohol is available effectively on their own doorsteps.
My speech to the rally can be found here.
From the community organisers.
ECE funding cuts blot Minister’s copybook
If there are some things that defy belief, one would be the rise of education minister, Anne Tolley on the National Party list. Her climb, from 10 to 8 belies the disaster she has wreaked on the education portfolio.
Believing she knows more than the education profession, Minister Tolley forced the unpopular national standards onto schools before attempting to introduce changes to the early childhood sector that would have seen funding cuts to Playcentres of almost two-thirds of their entire budgets. An Early Childhood Education Taskforce, set up by Tolley, recommended that Playcentres be reclassified with the effect that they would lose 63 per cent of their funding.
At a rally, originally planned as a protest against the proposed cuts, I told parents and supporters that Playcentres are unique in the early childhood sector, differing from kindergartens and early childcare centres in that parents are directly involved in the care and education of their children. Playcentres offer parents a supportive environment to help educate their children because the centres act as community hubs, virtual extended families, offering help, guidance, mentoring and support when parents need it most. And because Playcentres involve parents in the running of their centres across New Zealand, they can offer affordable childcare.
Playcentres are the heart of Kiwi communities, and in some rural areas are often the only childcare available to families. The Government’s ECE Taskforce recommendation for funding cuts threatens the very survival of those Playcentres simply because they don’t fit into its current thinking.
On the Wednesday before the planned protest march, Anne Tolley was adamant the Government would not move on its plans, but within 24 hours she had abandoned that stance and was telling the media that there was no risk to funding. Perhaps the change of heart was because it is election year.
My message to the Playcentre supporters was that, if Anne Tolley can change her mind so quickly to appease them, she can just as easily change it back again.
My speech to the rally can be found here.
Farewell to Sir Paul
It was with great sadness that I joined many others last month in farewelling former Governor General Sir Paul Reeves.
Sir Paul’s appointment as Governor General was so obviously different to previous appointments in number of ways and he helped bring New Zealand into a new era. He was the first Maori appointed to the position, and the first to come from outside traditional diplomatic and legal circles. Importantly, he had a highly developed sense of social awareness and was not afraid to express his views.
Sir Paul was our first Governor General to have grown up after the great depression of the thirties and, like so many others who came of age in that time, he was influenced by the change it made to New Zealand and the way we think about ourselves. Throughout his life he identified with social and economic justice.
Always able to make his point effectively, Sir Paul could always cause people to pause and take stock, but without giving offence. That may have been because he came from a modest family background himself and never allowed himself to forget that.
Sir Paul knew from simply growing up and looking around that economic adversity and social exclusion can wound deeply, and that we must give everyone born into our communities as equal as possible a start in life, the sort of fair go society that most New Zealanders want to live in, and which is one of our most admirable achievements.
Sir Paul spoke out against the inequality between rich and poor, and against racial division. Neither was he afraid to push the limits of his constitutional position and its conventions and to make himself felt in political areas where his predecessors would have been reluctant to tread.
Above all else, Paul Reeves wore his talents lightly because he had that one thing which marks out those who serve us best; his modesty. Truly with his passing a mighty totara has fallen.
Release
Sea-change needed for New Zealand fishing industry
A change in the way we fish will reap dividends for the fishing industry and boost “Brand ‘New Zealand” if we can reverse current practices and industry thinking particularly by upskilling workers and addressing a number of outmoded industry practices that have dumbed-down our fishing industry.
I spoke recently in support of a petition from The Service and Food Workers’ Union to Parliament’s Primary Production Select Committee, urging a change in focus from treating seafood as a commodity to recognising our high quality wild fisheries as the ideal environment to produce a high premium product.
Too much of the fishing industry has compromised quality in favour of quantity in order to reap higher short-term dividends by treating seafood as a commodity. By going for volume, quality is lost which has resulted in low prices, widespread job losses and the devaluation of the enormous potential of our fishing industry.
There is no high value future in high-volume pulverised fishmeat caught in huge nets. The prices we are currently attracting for this product are no incentive to develop the high quality, high value fishing industry that New Zealand needs.
New Zealand has one of the most valuable wild fisheries in the world and we should expect to earn a sizable export premium from it.
Discerning chefs and restaurateurs will pay top dollar for fresh line-caught fish. We stand to gain significant market premiums for our fish exports if we can assure customers of high quality and sustainable practices that are the hallmarks of New Zealand food exports.
The current focus on using cheap foreign labour and bulk fishing is to the detriment of our fishing industry and risks giving New Zealand a bad reputation if it continues.
Meanwhile, interested parties have been invited to lodge written submissions with a Ministerial Panel inquiring into Foreign Charter Vessels fishing in New Zealand's Exclusive Economic Zone. The Panel will be reviewing New Zealand's current policy and legislation as well as the economic return New Zealand is getting from our fishing resources.
The Inquiry Panel, which will hold public hearings in Auckland, Wellington, Nelson and Christchurch in October as well as visiting fishing vessels, will report its findings and recommendations to the Ministers of Fisheries and Labour on 24 February 2012.
Submissions close on Friday 7 October.
Further information about the Inquiry, including the Panel's terms of reference, can be found at www.fish.govt.nz
The ability of Prime Minister John Key to rewrite history and make things up as he goes is something that, despite my years in politics, continues to astound me.
On TVNZ’s Breakfast programme recently, John Key told interviewer Corin Dann that a law that I had passed to increase the price of sherry had the consequence of putting fortified wine manufacturers in his electorate out of business and causing grandmothers to move from their regular tipple of sherry to low-priced vodka. Key went on to tell Dann that increasing prices did not affect alcohol consumption.
In his comments, Key cynically ignored the fact that the law change, which, incidentally, I promoted on behalf of Labour’s Rick Barker, who was Minister of Customs but out of New Zealand at the time, the removal of a highly lethal product from the shelves of liquor outlets. It wasn’t Grandma’s sherry that was the target of the legislation, it was the so-called light spirits with an alcohol content of 23% or more. The law change was aimed at those selling high octane drinks to kids. Those drinks included vodka, gin, whiskey, and brandy. And the law change worked. Using price control to remove a literally lethal cocktail product aimed at young binge drinkers was a complete success. It reduced the sale of ‘light’ spirits by more than 80% and has virtually knocked them out of the market.
Although the cost of alcohol-related harm to New Zealand is in the order of $2 billion to $3 billion a year, Mr Key is trying to argue that the problem is binge-drinking restricted mostly to the young. He is wrong; alcohol abuse is a widespread problem, with 700,000 New Zealanders drinking too heavily with 60% of all police arrests involving the abuse of alcohol.
While John Key’s stance is one that alarms me, as is that of the media which fawns over his every word while failing to investigate the accuracy of his assertions. Key’s calculated use of his populist appeal, while pushing through legislation and policies that will ultimately harm our society, shows one thing; that John Key doesn’t actually care about people. He doesn’t really care about the ‘grandmas’ or binge-drinking teens, or the harm that the misuse of alcohol causes. What he revealed to Dann on the Breakfast programme was his true motivation; that of defending those people who manufacture cheap booze and cause misery to others in order to make themselves rich.
Transcript of the TVNZ interview with the PM.
My response.
Ministerial statement at the time.
Megan Woods endorsed for Wigram
It is now less than one month until I give my farewell, or valedictory, speech to Parliament, marking an end to my 27 years as the MP for Wigram and, before that, Sydenham. My speech is scheduled to be held at 5.45 pm on Tuesday 4 October and will be one of my last official duties in Parliament before getting back on the campaign trail, this time to help Labour’s Megan Woods.
While it will be unusual to campaign for someone else in “my” seat, I want to ensure that Megan is elected with a strong majority in order that she has a clear mandate to carry on the work that I have been doing. To that end, I have sent a personal letter to more than 28,000 households in the Wigram electorate endorsing Megan’s candidacy and urging constituents to vote for her.
John Key’s National Government, if re-elected in November, will cut Kiwisaver and Working for Families, reduce eligibility for such things as student loans and sell off state-owned assets. Undoubtedly Kiwibank will eventually be “on the block” and these are the very things I have spent my political career building and protecting. I want to leave Parliament safe in the knowledge that I will be handing over to some-one who will fight for these things just as I have done, and I trust Megan to do that.
Megan has been an important member of my own campaign team over the past 12 years and I know she has the skills, experience and ability to be a good MP and so it is very satisfying to be handing over responsibility to someone I know well and am confident will carry on what I hope has been a high-quality electorate service. In fact, her selection has made my decision to retire easier knowing that she has the qualities necessary to take over and be another hard working MP for Wigram.
Residents protest against liquor licenses
I recently addressed a protest rally by residents of Avonhead in Christchurch opposed to the granting of new licenses to discount liquor outlets in the area. These proposed outlets are in close proximity to student hostels and flats, the University of Canterbury and two secondary schools.
The stupidity of the licensing situation is illustrated in one of the applications where the authorities accept that another liquor outlet could only exacerbate existing liquor problems, but then went on to say they were not persuaded that the outlet’s car park and streets in the immediate area were likely to become venues for drinking.
In reaching their conclusion, the authorities were evidently not aware of, nor took into account, a number of significant, long-standing problems in the area caused by student drinking. Such has been the problem that, in April this year, the Christchurch City Council issued a temporary six-month public alcohol ban in this area. Since the ban has been in place there has continued to be a number of incidents, most recently an out-of-control party tied up all available police resources in Christchurch and which the police described as “highly dangerous”. So bad is the situation that local councillors have called for the temporary liquor ban to be made permanent.
The Council did not implement the current ban without reason. Vandalism, assaults and other crime caused through alcohol abuse has been prevalent in the area for decades, and the problem has been getting worse, not better. It defies belief to think that those authorities granting the resource consent could not have been aware of the extent of the alcohol problem in the area. To acknowledge that the granting of another licence could exacerbate the problem, but then not to be persuaded that the local streets in the immediate area would not become venues for drinking, ignores both history and logic.
The other point to note is that cheap liquor outlets regularly engage in alcohol promotion including the sale of discounted liquor. While they deny selling alcohol as a loss leader, many of the prices are extraordinarily low, with wine often being sold in supermarkets at less than half the normal retail price.
Again, it flies in the face of research and historical evidence to believe that students will not take advantage of discounted prices, particularly when cheap alcohol is available effectively on their own doorsteps.
My speech to the rally can be found here.
From the community organisers.
ECE funding cuts blot Minister’s copybook
If there are some things that defy belief, one would be the rise of education minister, Anne Tolley on the National Party list. Her climb, from 10 to 8 belies the disaster she has wreaked on the education portfolio.
Believing she knows more than the education profession, Minister Tolley forced the unpopular national standards onto schools before attempting to introduce changes to the early childhood sector that would have seen funding cuts to Playcentres of almost two-thirds of their entire budgets. An Early Childhood Education Taskforce, set up by Tolley, recommended that Playcentres be reclassified with the effect that they would lose 63 per cent of their funding.
At a rally, originally planned as a protest against the proposed cuts, I told parents and supporters that Playcentres are unique in the early childhood sector, differing from kindergartens and early childcare centres in that parents are directly involved in the care and education of their children. Playcentres offer parents a supportive environment to help educate their children because the centres act as community hubs, virtual extended families, offering help, guidance, mentoring and support when parents need it most. And because Playcentres involve parents in the running of their centres across New Zealand, they can offer affordable childcare.
Playcentres are the heart of Kiwi communities, and in some rural areas are often the only childcare available to families. The Government’s ECE Taskforce recommendation for funding cuts threatens the very survival of those Playcentres simply because they don’t fit into its current thinking.
On the Wednesday before the planned protest march, Anne Tolley was adamant the Government would not move on its plans, but within 24 hours she had abandoned that stance and was telling the media that there was no risk to funding. Perhaps the change of heart was because it is election year.
My message to the Playcentre supporters was that, if Anne Tolley can change her mind so quickly to appease them, she can just as easily change it back again.
My speech to the rally can be found here.
Farewell to Sir Paul
It was with great sadness that I joined many others last month in farewelling former Governor General Sir Paul Reeves.
Sir Paul’s appointment as Governor General was so obviously different to previous appointments in number of ways and he helped bring New Zealand into a new era. He was the first Maori appointed to the position, and the first to come from outside traditional diplomatic and legal circles. Importantly, he had a highly developed sense of social awareness and was not afraid to express his views.
Sir Paul was our first Governor General to have grown up after the great depression of the thirties and, like so many others who came of age in that time, he was influenced by the change it made to New Zealand and the way we think about ourselves. Throughout his life he identified with social and economic justice.
Always able to make his point effectively, Sir Paul could always cause people to pause and take stock, but without giving offence. That may have been because he came from a modest family background himself and never allowed himself to forget that.
Sir Paul knew from simply growing up and looking around that economic adversity and social exclusion can wound deeply, and that we must give everyone born into our communities as equal as possible a start in life, the sort of fair go society that most New Zealanders want to live in, and which is one of our most admirable achievements.
Sir Paul spoke out against the inequality between rich and poor, and against racial division. Neither was he afraid to push the limits of his constitutional position and its conventions and to make himself felt in political areas where his predecessors would have been reluctant to tread.
Above all else, Paul Reeves wore his talents lightly because he had that one thing which marks out those who serve us best; his modesty. Truly with his passing a mighty totara has fallen.
Release
Sea-change needed for New Zealand fishing industry
A change in the way we fish will reap dividends for the fishing industry and boost “Brand ‘New Zealand” if we can reverse current practices and industry thinking particularly by upskilling workers and addressing a number of outmoded industry practices that have dumbed-down our fishing industry.
I spoke recently in support of a petition from The Service and Food Workers’ Union to Parliament’s Primary Production Select Committee, urging a change in focus from treating seafood as a commodity to recognising our high quality wild fisheries as the ideal environment to produce a high premium product.
Too much of the fishing industry has compromised quality in favour of quantity in order to reap higher short-term dividends by treating seafood as a commodity. By going for volume, quality is lost which has resulted in low prices, widespread job losses and the devaluation of the enormous potential of our fishing industry.
There is no high value future in high-volume pulverised fishmeat caught in huge nets. The prices we are currently attracting for this product are no incentive to develop the high quality, high value fishing industry that New Zealand needs.
New Zealand has one of the most valuable wild fisheries in the world and we should expect to earn a sizable export premium from it.
Discerning chefs and restaurateurs will pay top dollar for fresh line-caught fish. We stand to gain significant market premiums for our fish exports if we can assure customers of high quality and sustainable practices that are the hallmarks of New Zealand food exports.
The current focus on using cheap foreign labour and bulk fishing is to the detriment of our fishing industry and risks giving New Zealand a bad reputation if it continues.
Meanwhile, interested parties have been invited to lodge written submissions with a Ministerial Panel inquiring into Foreign Charter Vessels fishing in New Zealand's Exclusive Economic Zone. The Panel will be reviewing New Zealand's current policy and legislation as well as the economic return New Zealand is getting from our fishing resources.
The Inquiry Panel, which will hold public hearings in Auckland, Wellington, Nelson and Christchurch in October as well as visiting fishing vessels, will report its findings and recommendations to the Ministers of Fisheries and Labour on 24 February 2012.
Submissions close on Friday 7 October.
Further information about the Inquiry, including the Panel's terms of reference, can be found at www.fish.govt.nz