I am grateful for the opportunity to welcome our distinguished guests this morning to our place – Mangere- the Gateway to our nation. 

I join with Mayor Len Brown in welcoming the two Government Ministers from the west side to the south side. I acknowledge our councillors Alf Filipaina & Hugh Graham, and members of the Mangere Community Board who are here to support this event.

On behalf of the people of Mangere I acknowledge and thank the South Auckland Family Violence Prevention Network (SAFVPN) for all their hard work and effort in our communities.

Today is a rare & special moment.  It is an opportunity where our community comes together to discuss and share our thoughts on an issue that can touch all of us.

As someone that has attended the Teal Ribbon Campaign every year for the last 4 years, I have see what is happening in our neighbourhoods, and I’ve had time to reflect upon what I might share with you this morning.

I want to share some thoughts about families.  I want to challenge all the fathers in our community.  I want to challenge all the community leaders that are present.  I want to do this in a way where we collectively take up the challenges that we face, and not in a finger pointing, condemning way.

The most basic unit of our society, the most fundamental of our system of democracy, the most important foundation of our community, is the family unit. 

While traditionally we have aspired for the ideal family of two parents raising children, the reality of today is there are many families where a single parent is raising children on their own. 

Irrespective of whether your family is a two parent, or one parent family, we seek through the Teal Ribbon Campaign your support and commitment that we all strive to ensure that our families are free from all forms of violence.

It is unacceptable to our system of democracy today to be violent towards your spouse, to be violent towards your children and any member of your extended family.

If you are a father that has a tendency to be violent, or one that turns violent towards the ones you love, especially after a few drinks, I say to you that you need to change.  Our community expects you to change.

You must change if you love your family. 

You must change if you want your children to grow up in a loving family environment.

You must change if you want your children to achieve their fullest potential in life.

You must change if you want to have a strong sense of your own self-worth.

You must change if you want to be a better father, a better provider and a better leader in your own family.

If you do not change, you will fail your children, you will fail your wife, and you fail all the people that love you. 

If you do not change, you will fail our society, and worst of all you will fail yourself  and what you can become.

If you are not thinking of change, then we ask you to ask yourself these questions.  What legacy will you leave behind?  What legacy will you leave your children? What good will you do for your family and our community?

Let me share with you something that two students of Viscount Learning Community in Mangere shared with us, 4 years ago, when we launched the Teal Ribbon Campaign in Manukau for the first time.

In there speech, these two students spoke of their personal experience with violence in our community.  They spoke of their aspirations and dreams for a better and safer future.  Then they said that all the money that our Government and other agencies spend on dealing with violence, is money that should be spent on their education.

From the mouths of babe we are told what we should do in order to ensure that our young people, the future leaders of our community and nation, should be given every educational opportunity to realize their destiny & fullest potential.  I hope that we will reflect on their wisdom.

A family that is free from violence is a happy family.  It is a family with a purpose.  It is a family that will focus on those things which are important for the future.  It will be a family that focuses on growing children that will become good strong leaders of our community, leaders of our nation. 

Our families form the foundation of our society.  Your choices will determine the kind of future communities we build ourselves.

Today, Mangere makes a promise to be violence free.  I ask that you all join with me in making this promise and challenging ourselves to be better.

Thank you.

 

Labour MP for Mangere, Su’a William Sio says he wants the whole community to be vigilant and look out for each other while the police are investigating a series of possibly related sexual attacks on young children and young women in and around Cape Road and Mascot Avenue Mangere.

“Mangere needs to come together like a village and look out for each other until this sex offender is apprehended and incarcerated,” says Su’a William Sio.

“We all need to be particularly careful leading up to Halloween at the end of this week, and make sure that children are accompanied by an adult and young people are in safe groups of people they know and trust.

“The offending behaviour by this predator is completely deplorable.

“I’m appealing to our community to work with the Police and provide any information that can assist their investigation.

The Police have a  what I understand is a 24 hour, seven days a week number in Manukau – (09) 261-1300, but if ever in doubt call 111.

 

Ends.

 

 

 

No one likes to be critical of a government especially if you felt that you helped put them in power. However, when you begin to see your government show signs of conceit, that they know best, and they use weasel words to hide what they really mean, and they refuse to listen to ordinary people, and then show their preference to support big corporations, one can’t help but join the rising chorus of condemnation.

This is a traditional National Government who will bust the unions, sell off the government assets to their big business friends, introduce user charges under the guise of freedom and choice, and then blame the poor, sick and unemployed for being poor and sick and without a job, and at the same time will slash all spending that might actually help the poor, sick and jobless help themselves.

With the support and assistance of the Act and Maori Party, this government has the opportunity to implement everything a National Government traditionally does and if the public get upset by any of it, they’ll be able to shift or share the blame with ACT or the Maori parties. These minority parties will accept this limelight, for better or for worse, because as minority parties, any publicity will be good publicity for them, especially if they are traditionally polling on 1 or 2 percent.

Remember what happened at the beginning of the Government term? National introduced the 90 day fire at will bill, both Act & Maori parties supported it. Who was it that that law was aimed to support? – businesses, unscrupulous businesses. Who would suffer? Ordinary working kiwis who started a new job can be fired for any reason, and they lose all their rights of personal grievance. Maori, Pacific, youth, women, workers with disabilities, and the elderly would be mostly affected by this law.

Remember the recent Auckland Super City debacle over the Maori seats? Labour supported Maori seats. Thousands and thousands of people marched in support of it. Mr John Key indicated that he was listening and gave the impression that Maori seats could be included on the new Auckland Super Council. The Maori Party says they were confident that the government would agree to it. Then the Act Party says no, and that was that. Who is affected? Not just Maori but every New Zealander who is progressive, visionary, and who want a New Zealand that is inclusive and united in its diversity.

Then last week we learn that 7 government ministers were involved in bidding for the broadcast rights of the Rugby World Cup in 2011, but they didn’t talk to each other or cooperate. As a result we have the taxpayer funded Maori TV and TV One trying to outbid each other, while in the background there was all sorts of maneuverings with National ministers attempting to bully the Maori minister. Who ends up paying for this fiasco? It is ordinary tax paying New Zealanders. Who benefits? The privately owned TV 3 and the egos of the National Party ministers. Who gets the crumps? Maori TV.

Then there’s the ACC issue. The first thing the Government minister does is to try and break up the ACC, and he does this by getting rid of Ross Wilson, who was the chair of the ACC board and a staunch supporter of our ACC insurance system. The ACC Minister brings on board a new chairman from the business sector who can help him brake up ACC and sell it off, piece by piece. There is a consistent campaign to exaggerate the problems facing ACC and to gain public support for privatization by prescribing that ordinary people have to pay more and get less. The government proposes to increase vehicle and motorbike levies but those on ACC will get less services and less protection.

The Maori party went to support the introduction of this bill, after initially condemning privatization and the cuts in services. Now the Government with the support of the Act and Maori party will introduce privatization, or competition in workplace insurance coverage. This is only the beginning because the ACC collects over $4billions of dollars from levies. This is what the big insurance corporations are after. What will this mean for ordinary hardworking New Zealanders? We will end up paying more money for less services and then eventually if you don’t have personal insurance, you will not have any financial protection if you’re injured on the job and you can’t work. This government is so intend on selling off ACC which has a reputation as one of the best insurance scheme in the whole world.

Earlier this week, representatives from all over New Zealand came to Parliament and asked Maryan Street and Phil Goff to table a petition of over 53,000 people who call on this Government to reinstate the funding of night classes delivered through high schools and community groups. The Minister of Education didn’t seem to think this was a significant number to warrant any concern, and seemed content on cutting the second-chance education opportunities, including literacy and numeracy skills that many in our community receive from Aorere and Otahuhu College to name a few.

I have since learnt that this Government is forcing High Schools to reduce the number of teachers, despite the growing student rolls. I fell that this will mean pressures on teachers and will surely undermine the quality of their teaching for our young people.

I have also since learnt that COMET who has been a strong advocate for education in Manukau will have to cut a very successful family learning and literacy programme in 2010 if this Government does not provide the much needed investment.

Who will suffer? It will be our families, ordinary working New Zealanders. It will be our young people – the future leaders. There is no aspiration for our communities in what this government is doing. There is only aspiration for corporations siphoning off our dollars into their foreign bank accounts. For ordinary kiwis, there is the deliberate removal of opportunities from those who need it the most, and the deliberate widening of the gab between the privilege few, and the masses of have-nots. This will be the legacy of the National Government. It’s not the voters fault, the fault lies squarely on this Government.

Ends.

On behalf of the people of Mangere, I wish to congratulate Tokelau on this historic occasion of a Tokelau flag being flown for the first time on Parliament grounds today, says Labour MP for Mangere Su’a William Sio.

“We extend our warmest congratulations to the people and Government of Tokelau, Aliki Faipule Foua Toloa, including the many Tokelauans living in Mangere and throughout Aotearoa, New Zealand.

“The Pacific community, and the New Zealand Labour Party, do not underestimate the significance of this moment for Tokelau and what it means for the country’s nation-building.  

“It is only fitting that the New Zealand flag now be retired for Tokelau; in its place, Tokelau, for the first time, will fly its own flag, and rightfully so.

“I extend my best wishes to the people of Tokelau as they begin to build a strong foundation and a vision for the future that will see Tokelau navigate the many challenges that all Pacific island nations will face in the years ahead.  May the seas and the stars favour the Tokelau journey into the future.
 “We look forward to hearing Tokelau’s national anthem that I understand will also be celebrated in this same month.”

On Tuesday 13 October in Parliament, I was privileged to speak alongside Labour’s deputy leader Annette King, Luamanuvao Winnie Laban and other political party leaders and MPs to convey the sympathies of the House of Representatives on behalf of the people of New Zealand, to the governments and people of Samoa, Tonga and American Samoa in light of the devastation that befell these islands from the tsunami of 29 September.

So many people have been affected by this tragedy, including some MPs and their families, and every story has been overwhelmingly heartbreaking. In an effort to pay tribute to all who have died and their families, I dedicated part of my speech to Levaopolo Peter Letiu whom we buried earlier this week in Mangere.
Peter, as he was affectionately known, died in the line of duty as a fireman for the Samoa Fire Service while attempting to save the lives of his fellow Samoans in the morning of 29 September.

He leaves behind a legacy of service to his fellow human being for his young daughter to follow. He also leaves behind a strong but grieving wife who is relying on her faith to see her through the difficult years ahead.

Peter’s siblings, wife and daughter, and father all live in Mangere, Manukau City. When his father spoke at his final funeral service, he said it was very difficult to lose his son – ua oge manatu, ua sola mafaufauga – which means his mind was blank, and his thoughts have left him. The occasion like many others was so overwhelmingly emotional with so much love, sorrow, pain and so many tears.

Equally overwhelming is the kind response from New Zealanders all over. Words cannot express gratitude to the many individuals, groups, organisations who have manifested in so many different ways the spirit of love, gifting and support. It feels that New Zealand and Samoans are all one aiga, one family and long may this feeling remain.

On Thursday 15 October, I had the privilege of being a guest speaker at the Air New Zealand’s graduation event for recipients of the Air New Zealand Certificate in Airline Customer Service.
It was one of their biggest graduation ceremonies according to Hazel Shuttelworth, Manager of the training programme, and it was such a buzz to witness the confidence, style, poise and quality of the graduates.

There was so much pride and joy in the eyes of the families as each graduate stepped forward to receive their certificates and acknowledgement. Many of the graduates had already started working as a result of their qualification.

I want to acknowledge through this article Air New Zealand and in particular Vanessa Stoddard who has been influential in ensuring her colleagues at Air New Zealand committed a significant investment in skills development and training of its workforce and the local community.

Investment in the workforce and skills development is what our country needs at this time. Air New Zealand and Vanessa Stoddard are showing the kind of leadership that our nation requires and highlighting a key priority area for this country.

I would hope that this Government would sooner rather than later identify workforce skills development as a key priority and get behind initiatives such as this so that our workforce are prepared to take up the opportunities of the future. Otherwise, we will lag behind workforce development as we did in the 1990s.

Secretary Peter Conway

Parliamentary Colleagues, Trevor Mallard, Darien Fenton, and Carol Beaumont, Delegates.

Thank you for inviting me to address the conference today, for my first opportunity to speak to you formally as leader of the Labour Party.

Can I start by placing on record my appreciation for the warm working relationship I have enjoyed with leaders of the CTU.

I welcome the big contribution union members make to our party and the strength we gain from organised labour working alongside the Labour Party to build a better and fairer New Zealand.

New Zealand made great gains for working people under the last government

Unemployment fell to record low levels with the creation of 350,000 new jobs, and workplaces put a new emphasis on skills, instead of trying to compete by driving wages down. We rebuilt the apprenticeship and skill training system.

Fair industrial laws led to better pay and conditions for many New Zealanders.

The minimum wage rose nine times, and more than a hundred thousand New Zealanders benefitted as a result.

Hundreds of thousands benefitted from Working for Families, which John Key once described as ‘communism by stealth’.

We set up a KiwiSaver scheme, to extend a workplace retirement savings scheme to all working people.

We introduced 14 weeks paid parental leave, and a minimum of four weeks’ annual leave for all workers.

This was a time of sustained gains for working New Zealanders, and it shows how hardworking families benefitted from successful organisation by the broad labour movement.

Helen Kelly, in her tribute to Helen Clark, noted that although the CTU and the Labour-led government did not agree on every issue, our debate was usually about the pace of change rather than the direction.

But, delegates, today we are meeting in a different climate.

We are meeting in the shadow of lack of job security and huge pressure on family budgets.

This year jobs have been lost at a rate of around 2,000 a week. Unemployment has nearly doubled to around 6%.

Working people who are struggling to pay the bills and have something left over at the end of the week are being told to make cuts and sacrifices.

The sacrifices workers are being called upon to make however are one-sided. Chief Executives continue to have their big salaries boosted by large bonuses, even as company profits declined and tax cuts legislated last December saw nearly a third of extra money go just to the top 3% of income earners while families earning under $40,000 got nothing.

We have seen an attack on workplace rights with workers denied any protection against unfair dismissal in the first 90 days of their employment.

This is a time when the labour movement is needed more than ever before to stand alongside working New Zealanders.

New Zealand entered this year under the threat of an international recession which could have become a depression.

While many developed countries were heavily affected, New Zealand was lucky to be able to confront the storm from a base of having low unemployment and one of the strongest sets of public accounts in the world. Thanks to good economic management, Labour reduced our net public debt to zero last year. It was a wise precautionary move, allowing the current government to borrow to maintain activity during the recession.

Today, the global crisis has eased.

Our trading partners are in recovery.

Australia is already growing again and our exports to China over the last year have gone up by over 60% as that country’s economy has continued to grow.

The Prime Minister said here yesterday, New Zealand is seeing the back of the recession.

I agree with that. The international economy overall is improving and carrying us with it.

But as the economy comes right, working people are still not getting ahead – even though they are working harder and harder.

For Maori and Pacific workers, weekly earnings have fallen in the last year. Down from an average of $398 a week for Maori in June last year, to $392.

And for Pasifika New Zealanders, average incomes are down from $375 a week to $359.

Incomes are falling because hours are being cut and jobs are being lost.

24 thousand more people were thrown out of work in the last three months.

Hardworking New Zealanders who are losing their jobs too often get no support. Take the forecourt attendant here in Wellington who was made redundant this year. When he lost his job, the family income halved. But the mortgage payments didn’t halve. They stayed the same. His wife has a job as a cleaner, working sixty hours a week. And because she works hard in a low income job, that family doesn’t get any help.

And that’s why I support the Bill put forward by Darien Fenton to ensure workers in all jobs get redundancy payments.

New Zealand is one of the few developed countries where there is no legislative requirement for redundancy payments and in these difficult times there is a real need for it.

The government can’t sit on the sidelines.

The number of long-term unemployed is going up fast – 22-thousand New Zealanders are long term unemployed now. That’s double a year ago.

Remember when National said they were going to make sure New Zealand catches up to Australia? One area where they have kept their promise is unemployment. New Zealand unemployment has risen so quickly, it’s gone past Australia’s unemployment levels.

When Labour delivered the lowest level of unemployment in a generation, we reduced the welfare rolls by tens of thousands.

We delivered opportunity and a better future for tens of thousands of young New Zealanders.

Today, jobs are going and incomes are down. But the day to day grocery bill for those families hasn’t been falling.

Your monthly power bill for example might be as much as four hundred dollars.

It’s up by 4.5 percent compared to a year ago.

This was a winter when working New Zealanders needed a government to step in and tell the publicly-owned power companies to keep prices down. Families don’t have the cash.

The Government did the opposite – the Minister of SOEs demanded bigger dividends from power companies this year two of which alone in recent months passed across more than half a billion dollars to the Government. That’s a form of taxation, but a particularly regressive taxation falling most heavily on those with kids, who are often low income.

Delegates, Labour should have acted in this area in Government and didn’t We will not repeat that mistake. My commitment as leader of the Labour Party is that Labour will not allow electricity companies to price gouge We will not demand excessive dividends coming back into state coffers above what is needed for investment in new generation. And we will stand resolutely against National’s plan to privatise the power companies.

That would just see profits rise further and go into the pockets of private and overseas owners.

Food prices went up 5.4 percent in the last year.

That means families on static incomes have to make a choice between 5.4 percent less food on the table, or else less of something.

Budgets are under strain.

When it’s a struggle to pay bills and have something left over at the end of the week, New Zealanders are right to expect better times ahead.

On a personal note, I want to say that it’s a privilege to lead the Labour Party, and to have the opportunity that provides to make a difference for hard working New Zealanders.

I joined the Labour Party the same year I first joined a union, when I left school and got a job in a freezing works, where I did seven seasons.

I learned a lot there:

* That a boy from Mt Roskill and South Auckland could seize opportunities

* That the cornerstone of the labour movement is the hopes and aspirations of ordinary people.

* That working hard is necessary to achieve what you wanted to in life

* And that the guys working on the chain beside me were the people paying the taxes that paid for my education and other people’s education.

The Labour Party I lead is a party that will fight for a fair go for everyone.

The party for people who aspire to a better life for themselves and their families.

And the party for people who rely on hard work and fair pay to make ends meet.

And it’s a party that supports strong social services. This week, parliament was presented a petition signed by more than 53-thousand people asking the government not to cut night classes.

The government and its cheerleaders disparage those classes as hobby groups.

But I think of the woman I met in Auckland who had dropped out of school aged fourteen. For her, going back to school to do night classes helped turn her life around.

Today she has a degree and a top job and she’s making a huge contribution to New Zealand as the head of Onehunga High’s renowned Business School.

These are the people National is throwing barriers in front of by cutting night classes, and if National sneers at those men and women and their ambition for a better future.it is out of touch.

The lights will be off at our night schools next year with this government destroying a century long tradition of learning for life – life skills like parenting, vocational and ESOL skills, training community volunteers and simply allowing people to improve their quality and enjoyment of life.

Skills are necessary to get people into jobs, and for jobs which are well paid.

We don’t agree with National that the best thing to do is sit on the sidelines and just ‘blunt the sharp edges of the recession’, as they put it.

For full employment and a high-wage economy, we need to increase skill-training opportunities.

We need scientists and researchers. And we need well-trained and skilled tradespeople.

My two sons did apprenticeships. Now they have jobs, one as an electrician, the other a refrigeration engineer … along with eighteen thousand other young New Zealanders who finished their Modern Apprenticeships before we left office.

That’s a core part of the future for New Zealand.

Skills will drive our productivity higher.

We need to lift productivity in our economy, and we need to ensure productive gains are enjoyed by the working men and women who create them.

I note the facts on productivity that the CTU has published. These show that since 1980, labour productivity in New Zealand grew by 82 percent.

But average ordinary time real wages in that period have grown by only 18%.

If real wages had grown as fast as workers’ productivity grew, then the average hourly wage would be $38.60.

We need to continue to grow our productive economy, and we need to improve productivity while making sure working people enjoy a fair share for their labour.

I strongly reject the weakening of ACC that the National Government is introducing.

I heard Tariana Turia say on Sunday that she was “very concerned” about privatising the ACC Work Account. She said privatising the Employer’s Account would see ACC costs “go up exorbitantly.” She’s right about that!

As Minister of Disabilities she said she would be “very opposed” to plans to slash spending for badly injured New Zealanders.

But three days later she said that the Maori Party would support the introduction of the bill that will cut entitlements and open up ACC to privatization.

Privatisation, or opening it up to competition as the Prime Minister describes it, will simply result in hundreds of millions of dollars in profits going to insurance companies. That will be paid for by higher costs imposed on workers and less money available for injury prevention, income support and rehabilitation.

The only ones who will benefit from privatisation are the big Australian insurance companies who will get the business. Ordinary Kiwis will pay more and get less.

Labour will fight the government’s cuts to ACC.

We will fight the attempts to privatise ACC.

We will fight massively increased levies for working people.

And I know we will be together in this fight.

We do need to look at the problem of rising costs, as medical costs go up and new medical technology allows seriously injured people to survive.

But pushing out fully-funding ACC, expanding rather than cutting injury prevention programmes as National is doing, better rehabilitation and stopping rorts are all better alternatives to cutting assistance to New Zealanders who genuinely need it, and forcing up costs higher than they need to be.

As a biker I am outraged that motorcyclists who are saving the country petrol and congestion riding to work now face a $750 bill for registering a bike, when two thirds of accidents involving bikes are caused by cars.

The government says that’s fair, it’s user pays. But where does that end?

If you are going to move to user pays, does that mean that next, kids and adults playing sport will be charged more because of injury risk and should stay at home and watch TV instead?

In Australia there are families whose kids aren’t allowed to play sport any more because they can’t afford the private health insurance they need before they run on the field.

If you think that’s a good policy – ask yourself what the All Blacks, the Ferns or the Kiwis would look like if kids from poor families were stopped from playing rugby, netball and league.

Delegates, Labour will work with you for the interests of working New Zealanders, for jobs, a good start in life for all kids, for access to education so people can achieve their potential, for access to healthcare, regardless of means.

Our commitment is for a New Zealand where there is opportunity for families striving to achieve their dreams to make tomorrow better than today.

Can I finally take the opportunity to place on record the Labour Party’s deep appreciation to the CTU and its affiliates for your support for Labour at the elections last year.

While we lost the election, the political cycle will turn. We are determined to win back the Treasury benches to advance the interests of working New Zealanders.

By both wings of the Labour movement working together, we can enhance our chance of achieving that.

Thank you again for the invitation to be here.

ENDS