Not all schools want free food

Hone Harawira’s Bill proposing to provide food for all decile one and two schools will be debated in parliament soon.

It is a blunt instrument which will do nothing for hungry children in higher decile schools and provide food where it’s not needed and not wanted.

A school principal in Whangarei says a proposed law change aimed at providing meals for students in poorer schools could reinforce negative stereotypes. . .

Hora hora Primary principal Pat Newman said that may send a message that all parents with children at poorer schools don’t feed them properly.

He said it does not cost his school a lot to step in when it needs to, discretely offering breakfast and sandwiches to individual students in need. . .

The Press points out other problems with the proposal:

One difficulty is the sheer logistics of the proposal. Most schools are neither set up nor staffed to provide meals to pupils. One figure much bandied about during recent debate has suggested that 80,000 children go to school each morning without having had breakfast.

While that number has a whiff of the Ministry of Made-Up Numbers about it, even confined to decile 1 and 2 schools, Harawira’s proposal would be a large and time- consuming effort to get breakfast and lunch to all those deemed to need them.

But the main difficulty with Harawira’s idea is that it tackles the issue from the wrong end. Hungry children in school are a just symptom of a root cause – inadequate, negligent parenting and decision-making.

For the state to take over providing something as fundamental as proper meals will, if anything, only aggravate that root cause.

The more dud parents become aware that their children will be fed if they fail to do so, the more they will be inclined to abdicate the responsibility.

Providing a decent breakfast and lunch for a child is hardly an onerous or expensive task. Eggs on toast or cereal for breakfast, and sandwiches with a nourishing filling for lunch, are within the capacity of every parent. . .

It’s not the fault of hungry children that their parents don’t feed them and it is a problem which needs to be addressed.

But providing food for all low decile schools isn’t the best way to do it.

Fonterra is providing free milk for all schools that want it – some high decile schools choose to have it, some low ones don’t.

This targeted and voluntary approach, in conjunction with charities like Kids Can which provides food,  doesn’t address the problem of hopeless parents.

But at least it doesn’t waste food on schools which don’t need it, and gives it do children who do.

Maori seats don’t give representation

Maori are being canvassed to register on either the general or Maori roll.

If they’re in Te Tai Tokerau and want decent representation they should be opting for the general roll because their MP, Hone Harawira, is a rare sight in parliament.

Mana Party leader has been absent for 49 of the 120 sitting days since the 2011 election.

Mana leader Hone Harawira described himself as going “to battle for those without a voice in Parliament” at his party’s conference this month but he has been a rare sight in Parliament this year. . . .

Speaker David Carter said a formal attendance record for MPs was no longer kept, but Mr Harawira had been given 49 days of leave since the 2011 election, during which Parliament has sat for about 120 days. Party leaders have more responsibilities than other MPs, but most, including Prime Minister John Key and Labour leader David Shearer, attend on two of the three sitting days. . .

Most Maori seats are considerably bigger than the average general seat which means even a very good MP would struggle to service the electorate well.

However, Harawira has the second smallest Maori seat so can’t use electorate size as an excuse.

Te Tai Tokerau  at 16,370 square kilometres is less than half the size of the three biggest general seats, Clutha Southland, West Coast Tasman and Waitaki,  and a fraction the size of Te Tai Tonga which covers an area of 161, 433 square kilometres.

Te Tai Hauauru covers 35, 825 square kilometres, Ikaroa Rawhiti is  30,952 square kilometres in area, the general seat of Kaikoura covers 23,706 square kilometres, and Waiariki covers 19,212 square kilometres.

A party leader does have other duties but if the Prime Minister and Leader of the Opposition generally make it to two of the three sitting days each week, Harawira can’t use that as an excuse either.

Although he is costing us more than any other MP who isn’t a minister:

Despite the cutback in travel to Wellington, Mr Harawira’s travel expenses for the first three months of the year were still higher than any other non-ministerial MP, including Mr Shearer.

Tariana Turia said Maori seats didn’t give Maori a voice,   Harawira certainly isn’t giving his constituents a voice in parliament but he’s still racking up a very large travel bill.

The enemy of their enemy is Green’s new friend

The Green Party and New Zealand First have little in common except their opposition to National and the possibility they might be in coalition with Labour.

The divide between the two parties has widened with the Greens agreeing to cast Independent MP Brendan Horan’s vote when he isn’t physically in the debating chamber.

Rt Hon Winston Peters says the move by the Greens to help Horan can unfortunately be seen as legitimising his place in Parliament.

“There is no legitimate place in Parliament for Horan, now or in the future.

“And the Greens are wrong to say that his situation is similar to their exercising Hone Harawira’s proxy.

“Mr Harawira represents an electorate.

“Horan represents no one. For obvious reasons, New Zealand First does not want him and he should have resigned his list seat. . .

Peters might question the legitimacy of Horan’s status but his right to remain and MP is sanctioned by MMP.

A legal right is different from an ethical one, though.

Horan is only in parliament because he was on New Zealand First’s list and having left the party it’s not just Peters who thinks he should resign.

However, the Green Party, which likes to think it’s more ethical than others, isn’t above using his vote when it suits.

The enemy of their enemy is their new friend.

Single vehicle for diverse views won’t go forwards

Tariana Turia has announced this will be her last term in parliament and Te Ururoa Flavell wants to be co-leader of the Maori Party.

That would be simple if it were not for the party’s rule requiring male and female co-leaders.

Flavell can’t succeed Turia and so has to challenge Sharples who doesn’t want to go.

The requirement to have female and male co-leaders could cause more than enough difficulties for larger parties where the talent pool is larger.

What’s happening in the Maori Party shows why it’s even more of a handicap for the wee ones.

Complicating the issue is Hone Harawira’s suggestion that the Mana and Maori Parties should merge, with him as leader.

The leadership of the Maori Party was thrown into the spotlight yesterday morning when Mana Party leader Hone Harawira announced he was open to talks to reconnect with his former party as leader.

He claimed members of the Maori Party had approached him around the country keen for him to take over. . .

Sharples appeared to be open to the idea of Harawira returning, saying there was no point in having two Maori parties. . .

Harawira and Sharples must have forgotten why the former left the Maori Party a few short years ago.

His vision for Maori was very different from that of the party’s other MPs and theirs aren’t the only visions.

There are Maori involved with other political parties who have very different ideas.

A single vehicle for diverse and sometimes conflicting philosophies won’t take its  passengers forward, they’ll just keep going round in circles.

Milk in Schools show no need for taxpayers’ food for all

The Mana Party says support is increasing for its plan for taxpayer funded food for all decile one and two schools:

“It’s a pretty simple bill really” says MANA Leader and MP for Te Tai Tokerau Hone Harawira, “Invest in making sure the 80,000 kids going to school hungry each week are fed and ready to learn and realise the benefits in better educated and healthier school leavers down the track”. . . 

I don’t know where the 80,000 comes from but Fonterra’s milk in schools programme has proved that not all low decile schools have hungry children and that some higher decile schools.

Fonterra’s trial in Northland showed some schools wanted the milk and some didn’t.

The scheme is now being rolled out through the rest of the country and some schools are choosing to get it but others aren’t.

There is no point in a universal scheme for decile one and two schools which provides for some who aren’t in need and misses others who are, especially when schemes like Fonterra’s milk in sare providing help where it’s needed without taxpayers’ money.

Whose responsibility is it?

Brian Rudman approves of Fonterra’s plan to extend its milk in schools programme to the rest of the country after the success of the pilot in Northland.

But then he quotes, and agrees with, Hone Harawira:

“Feeding society’s hungry children shouldn’t be left to well-meaning companies and charities. Feeding the 80,000 children who go to school hungry is the Government’s responsibility.”

No it’s not. The responsibility to feed children lies with their parents.

If they can’t, or don’t, and there is a  company which sees a need, and also an opportunity for advertising and promotion, there is absolutely no need to call on the government and taxpayers.

 

 

Conduct unbecoming

Getting arrested at a protest is good publicity for a cause.

But it’s bad publicity for an MP.

Hone Harawira won’t mind though.

The transition from protester to MP isn’t an easy one and he’ll regard bad publicity for conduct unbecoming to an MP as good publicity for him.

He’ll just have to hope his supporters don’t go beyond the headlines and ask why he’s opposed to replacing 150 old state houses with 260 new ones.

Left don’t learn from history

The statistics on the youth unemployment rate are unequivocal – it increased far more steeply than rate for older adults when the youth minimum age was axed by Labour.

But have people and parties on the left learned from that? No.

Yesterday Labour Minister Kate Wilkinson announced a starting-wage for young people and immediately got this response:

Lower wages no solution – from the Council of Trade Unions.

Poverty pay won’t give young people skills or jobs - from the Service and Food workers Union.

More youth to pack for Australia – from  Hone Harawira.

National offers young workers a hefty pay cut – Metiria Turei.

And low wage no future at all from David Shearer.

None of these people have joined the dots between increasing the cost of employing young people and the sharp increase in the unemployment rate for that age group.

The Employers and Manufacturers Association has a far more positive view of the starting-wage:

Everyone concerned about our alarming rates of youth unemployment should be celebrating today’s announcement on the Starting-out wage, says David Lowe, Employment Services Manager for the Employers and Manufacturers Association.

Then they will be looking out for more ways to help, he said.

“Without an incentive an employer with a choice between an experienced worker and an inexperienced worker will choose experience every time,” Mr Lowe said.

“Though there is no silver bullet for creating jobs for young people, the Starting-out wage offers a vital first step up the employment ladder.

“Unless there is an incentive for taking on the added issues of employing youth workers, young people will continue to be over represented in the unemployment numbers.

“The Starting-out wage will restore a form of youth rates that were abolished in 2006 and which proved, as predicted, to hurt the very people its supporters were trying to help.

“Independent research from Pacheco at the time found job opportunities for youth would fall by nearly 20 per cent for all teenagers if youth rates were abolished, but that turned out to be very conservative.”

BusinessNZ also sees the starting-wage will benefit the economy and communities:

Chief Executive Phil O’Reilly says having to pay unskilled teenagers at adult rates makes it hard for many young people to get a job.

“Not being able to get that initial job prevents many young people from gaining workplace skills, further reducing their future employment chances.

“A starting-out wage at 80 per cent of the minimum wage for the first six months’ employment will make it easier to employ a young person so they can gain those vital workplace skills.”

Mr O’Reilly said the policy announced today would particularly benefit teenagers who were vulnerable to being trapped on a benefit through being unable to compete effectively for a first job.

Costings indicate that with accommodation and other applicable subsidies unaffected, a teenager on a starting-out wage would earn more than if on a benefit.

“Getting more young people into jobs – especially including those currently on a benefit – will benefit the economy and communities all through New Zealand,” Mr O’Reilly said.

If employers have to pay people the same rate they are almost always going to favour age and experience over youth and inexperience.

Enable them to pay younger people a bit less in recognition of the bigger investment required in training and the bigger risk with people with no work experience, and they will be more willing to take them on.

SMOG or playing to gallery?

From any other politician this would be regarded as a SMOG - social media own goal:

Hone Harawira · 2,262 subscribers

8 hours ago ·

• Time John Key realised a few home truths like (1) he can tell his little house niggers what to do, but (2) the rest of us don’t give a shit for him or his opinions!

It’s certainly not language befitting an MP but he’s playing to his gallery.

I presume he’s referring to this:

That leaves the Maori Party. Co-leader Tariana Turia says  she doubts they will be attending.

“Well at this point I don’t really see the point in going,” she says.

Fellow co-leader Pita Sharples agrees.

“We believe this is a thing that iwi/hapu have to work out  themselves,” he says.

They are right.

Maori as a whole don’t have rights to water. If anyone has a case it’s individual iwi or hapu.

Not racist, just not partial to people in patches

Quote of the day:

“These are people who are murderers, who are drug dealers, who are rapists. Now individually they may be nice people but when they put patch on and get together they are horrible, they’re a blight upon our society. . .” Todd McLay

He was responding to Hone Harawira who had accused him of racism for promoting a Bill to make the wearing of gang insignia illegal in Government buildings.

Hone doesn’t get it

Hone Harawira has written an open letter to overseas investors warning them off buying shares in any State Owned Enterprises.

He doesn’t get it.

The partial float of a few energy companies provides a wonderful opportunity to Iwi who are the ultimate long-term investors.

It also provides a far safer option for individual investment than finance companies.

But he’d rather look back, stay mired in grievance and foster dependence.

No to Harawira but maybe to Peters?

Phil Goff has said he won’t do a deal with Hone Harawira after the election but he hasn’t said no to a deal with Winston Peters.

Most of what Harawira stands for is anathema to me but he hasn’t been sacked from Cabinet, found to be contempt of parliament, used $158,000 of taxpayers money for his own election campaign and refused to pay it back, lied about donations . . .

 

Grievance and gimme or whanau helping whanau

Tariana Turia talks sense:

Hone Harawira’s rhetoric that political parties should ‘feed the kids’ must be challenged says Maori Party co-leader Tariana Turia.

“Gone are the days when we allow the State to take over the role of families; to encourage whanau to abdicate their responsibilities” said Mrs Turia.

“Our greatest opportunity through Whanau Ora has been that our whanau are able to inspire the nation and act as a beacon of hope for our own solutions” said Mrs Turia.

“The last thing we need is for another politician to come in to save our families by handing out free breakfast and free lunch to their kids”.

“It’s patronizing, it’s demeaning and it devalues the vital capacity of our whanau to take responsibility for their own children’.

“Hone has picked a number out of the air  ($38m) but the costings are at least ten times that” said Mrs Turia “and that’s not for all children either”.

“If we provided free breakfast and lunch to the children the Child Poverty Action Group has classified as living in poverty (230,000) that brings a cost of $368m per year – that’s right  – a billion dollars for the next term of Parliament to authorise politicians to take over the rights and responsibilities of families”.

“We must resist any attempts by politicians to paint our families as incapable of doing for themselves.   We should be working to inspire hope; to remind our whanau of their capability to feed their children, provide a healthy lifestyle, a warm and secure home”.

“Government’s job is to ensure that there is support for families to look after their own; that there is meaningful work available; and a minimum wage of at least $16 an hour”.

“And we must restore to ourselves our time-honoured traditions.  The Maori Party has invested in the recreation of maara kai so that our whanau can fend for themselves, determine their own futures”.

“Our whanau are our future – not a politician handing out a free lunch”.

This is really encouraging and offers voters in the Maori electorate real choice – the grievance and gimme of Harawiara and the Mana Party or whanau helping whanau of the Maori Party.

One encourages dependency the other encourages responsibility.

Could National be a victim of its own success?

It was rare for a party to get more than 50% of the vote under MMP FPP, it’s never happened under MMP.

While National has been polling above 50% it is not expected to get an absolute majority. It will need coalition partners, but will they get enough to from a government?

Act’s chances of gaining more than 5% of the vote are even more unlikely than National’s of getting more than 10 times that so hinge on John Banks winning Epsom.

That’s by no means certain. Even if he does he’s unlikely to bring in as many MPs as Act has in parliament now.

The Maori Party already has one less MP than it started with after the last election thanks to Hone Harawira’s defection and vote splitting between the Maori and Mana Parties could allow Labour to come through the middle in at least one of the Maori Party’s seat.

Peter Dunne will probably hold his electorate but is very unlikely to bring in another MP.

If potential coalition partners do worse, National will have to do better than 2008′s 46% to have a chance of leading the next government. If it doesn’t, Trans Tasman says:

. . .  in the scenario where National’s coalition partners fall by the wayside, and Labour’s numbers are bolstered by the Greens, NZ First and the Mana Party, the country could be left in limbo while one or other of the main parties seek to build a viable coalition.

It would be ironic if National was a victim of its own success, taking votes from Act and other potential coalition partners, but leaving it with too few MPs in support parties and of its own to govern.

Yet another reason to vote for change in the referendum on our electoral system.

Bradford’s candidacy boost for Bennett

Former Green MP Sue Bradford has confirmed  her candidacy in Waitakere.

This will help sitting MP and cabinet minister Paula Bennett by splitting the left vote.

The candidacy will get Bradford and her party some publicity and if Mana got sufficient party votes for a second MP, assuming its leader Hone Harawira keeps his seat, she might get in to parliament.

The iPredict contract gives Bennett a 74% chance of holding the seat.

The contract on Bradford being  second on Mana’s list, after Harawira, hasn’t attracted much interest.

Minor major or major minor?

Quote of the week from Trans Tasman:

Mana Party leader Hone Harawira says Goff is a minor party leader anyway and should be thrown in with the rest…..

He was referring to the debate over whether or not the major party leaders should join the crowd at the minor party leaders’ debate.

Parlous as Labour’s poll ratings are, it is not yet a minor party, but it is definitely the minor of the two major ones.

Although after the major muck up by its leader this week it is in danger of becoming the major of the minor ones.

Question of the week

Genuine question: with a bit over 5000 votes in total, is Hone the electorate MP with the least number of votes in modern NZ history? Seriously, I cant think of any electorate MP with fewer votes.

From Simon Bridges on Facebook.

Update: Not just the MP with the fewest votes but probably the one with the most expensive votes.

Keeping Stock quotes Newstalk ZB political editor Barry Soper saying it cost about $600 a vote.

Poor odds for better relationship

Hone Harawira has held out a sort of olive branch to the Maori Party, saying he wants to work with it.

But he’s far better at activism than co-operation.

If he couldn’t work well with Maori Party MPs when he was one of them there’s very poor odds on him making a better job of it now he’s leading his own party.

Mana not registered yet

The Electoral Commission’s list of registered political parties, dated yesterday, does not include the Mana Party.

 It’s difficult to know how much credence to give last week’s poll in Te Tai Tokerau when so  many people in the electorate don’t have land lines but it’s safe to say the by-election is a two horse race.

The Maori Party hasn’t looked like it’s been trying from the start which leaves Mana’s Hone Harawira and Labour’s Kelvin Davis.

 Labour’s ability to mobilise voters, especially in Auckland, might give Davis an edge but there isn’t much in it with only three days to go.

The race is going to the wire and so is Mana’s registration. If Harawira pulls it off, he might do so as the leader of an unregistered party.

What’s Hone living on?

Last month Hone Harawira said that campaigning would be tough because he’d be doing it on the dole.

It’s up to the people of Te Tai Tokerau to judge if someone who’d been receiving an MP’s salary for nearly six years without saving enough to live on for a month  has the nous to be an MP.

They might also ponder how someone who purports to represent the poor and downtrodden doesn’t know there’s a stand-down period for people who’ve resigned from a job before they can receive a benefit.

The rest of us can ponder what he’s living on since he said he had no savings and he’s ineligible for the dole.

Someone with a better understanding of electoral law than I have might know whether donations to a candidate for living expenses count as donations which have to be recorded in election returns.