Politics and Prose

A press release from the Labour Party:

“A report saying that 22 percent of New Zealand children are living in unacceptable poverty still highlights the path the Labour Government is on is the right one.  But there is still a lot to do,” says Labour Candidate for Te Tai Tokerau Kelvin Davis.”

So, Labour is on the right path, despite child poverty increasing in the last decade to a despicable 22 per cent.  Makes you wonder about the aims of the Labour Party – are they aiming higher? 

But it gets worse.

“One way to lift Maori children out of poverty is to raise their educational achievement.”

And Labour is “on the right path” by spending $56 000 printing 70 000 bades to promite Maori education in schools, including such messages as “Wassup” and “Niiiiiice”.

“If the next generation of Maori parents work in high-skilled, stable employment poverty would cease to be an issue for Maori.”

Now this is a Labour candidate who is onto something – get people into employment, and they will be out of poverty.  Duh.

Many might not know this, but in light of recent accusation about secret donations, it might be enlightening to know that the Rt Hon Winston Peters voted against the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act in 1990.

In fact, there were only 35 votes for it, 30 votes against and 32 absence votes (including Phil Goff, Jim Anderton, Annette King and Peter Dunne being absent from the vote). 

Here is a reall good site for checking up on what MPs voted on what conscience votes: CommoNZ Parliamentary Database.