Pita Sharples has announced that he wll oppose Wayne Mapp's Employment Relations (Probationary Employment) Amendment Bill. The bill won its first reading 63 - 58. Sharples' about-face will cut that majority, but not by enough for the bill to fail; for that to happen the rest of his Maori Party colleagues (or New Zealand First) would have to vote against it as well.
Sharples changed his mind because of pressure from the flax-roots within his electorate. Which shows us the way forward on this: if you are on the Maori Roll in Te Tai Hauauru or Waiariki and you oppose the bill, either write to your MP at Parliament (the postage is free), or better yet, schedule an appointment at their electorate office. The Maori Party's MPs will at least listen to their constituents, and if people speak up, they can hopefully be flipped one by one so that Mapp's bill will fail.
5 comments:
Not being on the Maori roll in either of those electorates I'm not gonna be much use for Turia or Flavell. Who are our other options?
Am I right that we're at:
For: Nat, NZF, UF, ?Turia, ?Flavell
Against: Lab, Greens, Prog, Harawira, Sharples
cos I'm struggling with the Math (again :).
Posted by Anita : 6/19/2006 02:03:00 PM
anita - I suspect ACT might bother to vote on this one :)
Posted by Graeme Edgeler : 6/19/2006 02:08:00 PM
Anita: There's no reason why you can't push the Maori party; they're still accountable to everyone else via the party vote, after all. But it would have more impact coming from their chosen constituency.
Other than that, your best bet is probably NZ First. They only committed to back the bill to committee, and they might change their mind.
Graeme: I'd hope so. While the left would win if they were slack, you'd think they'd bother to show up on such a core issue to them...
Posted by Idiot/Savant : 6/19/2006 02:15:00 PM
The way this bill is being promoted it should be renamed "The Probationary Employment of Maori and Others Who Don't Deserve A Real Job Bill."
You might want to checkout the piece in the Kiwi Herald "Parents Want Probationary Period"
http://www.kiwiherald.blogspot.com/
Posted by Anonymous : 6/21/2006 01:47:00 PM
If we're going to make Flavell and Turia flip then it's important we flood their inboxes so they can't ignore us. You can lobby them direct through www.workrights.org.nz
Posted by Anonymous : 6/26/2006 12:16:00 PM
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