Tuesday, March 07, 2017

Bowing to the inevitable

The government has announced that they will support Jan Logie's Domestic Violence—Victims’ Protection Bill:
The Government says it will back a Green Party proposal to give domestic violence victims extra leave from work.

In a reversal of its previous position, National said it would support the bill in the name of Green MP Jan Logie at its first reading tomorrow.

Justice Minister Amy Adams said the bill "needed work", and did not commit to supporting it into law. But she said it was an issue worth discussing.

If passed into law, the bill would allow victims of abuse to get up to 10 extra days' leave a year and would classify family violence as a workplace hazard.


Note that National isn't doing this because they actually support the bill or helping victims of domestic violence. Instead, its because NZ First announced this morning that they would support it, meaning the government does not have the numbers to vote it down. So, rather than standing by their principles, they're supporting it, simply to prevent a headline saying "government loses vote". A classic case of doing the right thing for entirely the wrong reason.