Category: Labour Party

National is so short on ideas it is now announcing Labour’s rail announcement from a year ago, Labour transport spokesperson Tangi Utikere said.

“Investing in the Lower North Island’s passenger rail system is a critical service, that’s why in Budget 2023 Labour committed to investing in 18 new trains for the Wairarapa and Capital Connection rail services. At the time I advocated for these trains as the Local MP for Palmerston North.

“Simeon Brown and Nicola Willis clearly have run out of ways to distract people from the fact they are yet to come up with a solution to replace the Interislander ferries – so are reheating other announcements of projects already underway and already budgeted for by Labour.

“My door is always open if they want to talk about other Labour transport initiatives like reinstating free and half-price public transport or the clean car discount,” Tangi Utikere said.

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Labour, the Green Party and Te Pāti Māori are uniting to stop the Government’s dangerous changes to the Early Childhood Education sector.

The Government’s Regulatory Review of ECE is being rushed through, with a Bill to be proposed in October that will negatively affect our youngest tamariki.

Together the opposition parties, with NZEI, will jointly hold public hearings around the country to hear from those affected.

“Early Childhood Education sets the foundations for the rest of a child’s life. Yet, this is not reflected in the Government’s approach, which is about prioritising the needs of business and profits above all else,” said Labour’s education spokesperson Jan Tinetti.

“There is widespread concern that the Coalition Government’s review will take education for our children backwards.

“That is why as an opposition we are uniting to stop the Government’s potentially disastrous changes. Together we will hear from affected parents, whānau, teachers, and community members on the changes we actually need to ensure child learning and development is our priority,” said Tinetti.

“If they were really interested in hearing from the public the Government would not be rushing an important process about an entire generation of our tamariki mokopuna with only six weeks of consultation. This Government does not intend to meaningfully consult anyone, so we must contest their agenda” said Tākuta Ferris, education spokesperson for Te Pāti Māori.

“For young tamariki mokopuna to have the best experience in early childhood education they need great teachers who are supported and happy in their jobs. To make sure that happens we need to improve ratios, make sure that teachers are trained and qualified, and decently paid. This review is not about solving these real issues, but instead it’s about pushing through changes to allow big businesses to cut costs and drive down employment conditions for workers,” said Green Party early childhood education spokesperson Teanau Tuiono.

Labour, Green and Te Pāti Māori MPs will be setting up public hearings and round table discussions across Aotearoa, calling for input from the public, including teachers, parents, and whānau.

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Labour welcomes the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care’s final report and the government committing to a formal apology in November.

“I want to acknowledge the thousands of survivors, those who’ve given their time, energy and stories to the inquiry, and those who have died before this report was able to be finalised,” said Labour Leader Chris Hipkins.

“In 2018 we started the long overdue process of acknowledging the abuse that happened, and to formally hear from those who have had to live with the repercussions of that for a long time.

“I give my thanks to the Commissioners, assisting Counsel, the Survivor Advisory Group of Experts and all others who were instrumental in this inquiry. This was no simple task.

“This report is a harrowing and confronting account of the atrocities suffered by those in state and faith-based care.

“What happened was unacceptable and remains a disgraceful part of our history. The consequences for survivors have been far reaching and intergenerational – affecting families and loved ones across decades.

“We owe it to survivors to closely read this report, to hear the human stories behind it and work through the recommendations made.

“There is still so much more for us to do to ensure those who come into contact with state and faith-based agencies aren’t subject to abuse.

“There will never be closure for some, but I hope that today offers some relief for survivors – that their fight to be heard has resulted in a formal apology and redress,” said Chris Hipkins.

Health New Zealand contradicted the Government’s spin that back-office bureaucracy is the cause of overspend in the public health system.

“The Prime Minister and his Minister of Health Shane Reti have claimed there is ‘plenty of money’ for Health New Zealand, but we know the organisation has been in trouble since National ignored officials on budget increase advice, and didn’t allocate sufficient funding in the Budget,” Labour health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall said.

“Health New Zealand revealed it was pay equity and the increased number of nurses that led to overspend. This contradicts the Minister’s claim that back-office staff are the cause of cost overruns and shows chaos between the Beehive and health leadership.

“The Government is launching a programme of health cuts because it has underfunded the health system.

“Every day we hear from clinicians that frontline roles are going unfilled.

“The Prime Minister and the Minister of Health launched their attack yesterday, but as we’ve seen in the last day, their spin doesn’t stand up to scrutiny,” Ayesha Verrall said. 

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Refusing to listen to evidence, experts or experience the Government is stubbornly marching ahead with its boot camps.

“In their pilot, the government has repurposed the programme Labour set up to target the young offenders toughest to crack. They should drop the boot camps altogether and continue this instead,” Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime said.

“We saw from our circuit breaker programme that 76% did not reoffend. So, we know there are alternatives that actually work.

“We’re now about a week out, and the government continues to ignore warnings from experts, confronting stories from survivors, and decades of evidence on boot camps.

“History, and the same Defence Force tasked with running them before, tell us this is the wrong choice.

“It wasn’t ‘acceptable 20 years ago’ as Minister Chhour claims, it’s clearly not acceptable now and we cannot risk repeating the same mistakes. Young offenders will only end up as hardened adult criminals.

“Christopher Luxon and Mark Mitchell were notably absent as Minister Chhour fronted the policy.

“If the PM and the Police Minister are getting cold feet, they can cancel the pilot now – it’s not too late.

“Troubled tamariki need a Minister for Children to stand up for them, not a drill sergeant,” said Willow-Jean Prime.

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Labour calls on the Government to act after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Territories is illegal.

That ruling should spur the National Government to do more to back international legal efforts to end the war in Gaza and find a peaceful solution in Israel-Palestine.

Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said the ICJ ruling was a damning indictment of Israel’s occupation and would further isolate the Netanyahu government which is under investigation at the ICJ and the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes in Gaza.

“Successive New Zealand governments have called out Israel’s occupation as illegal, including in 2016 when the then-National government co-sponsored Resolution 2334 at the UN condemning Israel’s illegal settlements.

“Now the ICJ has confirmed that the occupation of the Palestinian Territories since 1968 is illegal.

“International law has a critical role to play in resolving this conflict. That’s why we are again calling on the Government to intervene in South Africa’s-led genocide case against Israel’s war in Gaza at The Hague and send our top legal experts to make submissions.

“The Government has sent defence personnel to take part in the US-led operation against Houthi rebels in the Red Sea, supposedly to defend the rules-based order, but doesn’t have much to say about Israel’s war crimes in nearby Gaza.

“It doesn’t seem to be a case of one international law for all.

“The Luxon Government talks a big game on the international rules-based order but is strangely muted when it comes to Israel’s violations of international law.

“There was no indication that the Prime Minister raised Israel’s war crimes in Gaza, and the US’ unconditional support for Israel’s war, when he met President Biden last week.

“It suggests New Zealand’s independent foreign policy has been replaced with a highly selective and unbalanced one,” said Chris Hipkins.

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National Party policies which promised to put “downward pressure” on rents are having the opposite effect.

The latest figures from Stats NZ saw rents increase another 4.8% in the year to June.

“Christopher Luxon and Chris Bishop have both said landlords will pass on any gains they make from National Party policies to reduce rents,” Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said.

“But the dip in inflation is not going to help people pay soaring rates up 9.6%, or insurance premiums, up 14%. And it’s certainly not going to help make renting more affordable.

“The Government has made claims that they are trimming the fat, but all they are doing is pushing costs like water on to rate payers. Refusing to help the councils will only mean higher rates.

 “This affects homeowners and renters, everyone who needs a roof over their heads. Just this week I met a retired man who has had to sell his house because the rates bill had become too high. If the Government thinks this is an isolated incident they are kidding themselves.

“Scrapping the First Home Grant, which makes it harder to get into a first home and leaves people renting for longer, isn’t helping either. Nor is cutting back the public house build programme so there aren’t as many homes being built.

“The fact is, Christopher Luxon and Chris Bishop are making changes that drive rates and rents up. It’s only going to get worse,” Kieran McAnulty said.

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National’s Emissions Reduction Plan will take New Zealand further from the economy we need to ensure the next generation has a stable climate and secure livelihoods.

“All the good work Labour did in government to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and ensure we meet our climate targets is being undone,” said Megan Woods.

“It’s irresponsible, shameful and shows how out of touch National and their coalition partners are about the climate emergency we find ourselves in. They’re leaving our kids and grandkids to pick up the tab.

“Under this plan we’re going to blow our budget by 17 million tonnes – the equivalent of 153 million car trips from Wellington to Auckland.

“Every tonne of emissions we blow our budget by, we have to pay for overseas.

“They’ve left New Zealanders in the lurch by cutting $3 billion in climate-related work in the Budget, and cut programmes such as the Clean Car Discount that encouraged sustainable transport, and the Government Investment in Decarbonisation Industry that helped large emitters transition to renewable energy.

“They say Labour wasn’t doing anything for climate yet they’ve spent their first seven months repealing climate policies. It is complete arrogance to claim you care about climate change when you’ve spent the first seven months of government undoing the previous government’s climate progress.  

“It’s more short-term thinking from this government for a long-term problem,” said Megan Woods.

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Prime Minister Christopher Luxon should be asking serious questions of his Minister for Resources Shane Jones now it’s been revealed he misled the public about a dinner with mining companies that he didn’t declare and said wasn’t pre-arranged.

Emails show the Minister’s office invited the heads of three mining companies to dinner in Westport four days before the event, but the Minister previously said that the meeting was “very much a last-minute thing”.

Shane Jones told media in May that “I meet people, mate, randomly, all over New Zealand. And to be in the middle of nowhere, which is largely the majority of Te Tai Poutini [West Coast], and decide to have a dinner is not a capital offence”.

“Shane Jones is being disingenuous at best about meeting with industry representatives like this,” said Labour resources spokesperson Megan Woods.

“Far from a ‘last minute thing’, the Minister used his Ministerial office to arrange this dinner and then hid it from public scrutiny.

“Shane Jones would have understood that Stevenson Group would use the meeting to ask for their Te Kuha coal mining project, which has been declined in the past, to be approved under his government’s fast tracking legislation.

Shane Jones’ office also offered the invitation to Bathurst Resources chief executive Richard Tacon, and Federation Mining vice president Simon Delander who both attended the dinner.

“The Prime Minister needs to ask Shane Jones why he failed to declare the meeting in the first place, and why he misled the public about it when challenged,” Megan Woods said.

“If the Fast Track Approvals Bill is passed in its current form, it would make him one of the decision makers on projects that these people he secretly met with want to see given the green light.”

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