Young Labour is ignorant of Maori issues

Oh dear, Young Labour puts out a really bad press release on Labour's bill to entrench the Maori seats.

In it they say: "Young Labour supports the announcement today of Labour MP Mita Ririnui's private member’s bill to entrench the Maori seats in parliament and ensure that Maori representation can not be removed by a simple majority of the House."

I wonder if Young Labour are aware of the significance of the Maori Electoral Option, and whether they are aware if that option is also entrenched in the bill.

"We believe that a truly mana enhancing parliament is one that recognises that Maori have a unique role in Aotearoa as tangata whenua.”

Sounds nice. Pity they don't appear to know what "mana-enhancing" is. They should have a chat to the Maori Party.

"If the Government is to live up to its treaty obligations, and truly have a mana enhancing relationship with Maori, they will support this bill.”

This implies that the seats are a Treaty right, and not to have the seats not only breaches the Treaty but the mana-enhancement is also linked to the Treaty, primarily through the seats. Young Labour may think that but Young Labour is wrong.

"This is a signal that Labour is committed to moving beyond divisive issues, and moving towards a more constructive relationship with Maori."

Ha. It's actually a sign that Labour wants to use the Maori Seats to promote wedge politics. That is divisive, and hardly constructive.

These kids in Young Labour are an embarrassment to their party.

Dodgy survey reporting from Children’s Commissioner

Oh this is classic. The Office of the Children’s Commission commissions a survey on smacking and concludes that most parents approve of the law change amending section 59 of the Crimes Act because respondents think that the law should treat the beating of an adult the same as child assault.

This is despite the survey stating that most who gave an opinion support physical discipline of children, with just 20 percent opposing smacking.

The survey asks should children be entitled to the same protection from assault as adults.

Well, of course they should. Just like my neighbour should not slap my kids if they nick his tomato plants, and I shouldn't punch my neighbour in the face if he pokes his tongue out at me. Both are entitled to the same legal protection, and always have been. But the survey doesn’t ask should a smack as part of good parental correction be a criminal offence in New Zealand?.

We all know why. They wanted to conflate assault with smacking again, given that most don’t think smacking is assault.

Among the 750 respondents surveyed by UMR were Maori and Pacific Islanders. But the sample of Pacific Islanders chosen was less than the margin of error and the sample of Maori chosen was just over double the margin of error, and the question order was a shambles.

So, respondents were asked whether they supported the law, then once they said they did, they were asked how much they knew about it. Of those that knew about the law change, most supported it. Of those ignorant about the law change, many knew that smacking was now illegal. So some were ignorant of the law but could state some of its provisions? That’s just weird.

What surprised me is that 30 percent said that physical punishment should be part of child discipline. That’s high. The rest were split pretty much evenly between disagreement and neutrality. But the report of the survey says that parents do not have absolute right to treat children as they wish – negating the opinions of at least a third of respondents.

So the survey admits that the sample is not representative of the population and then reports as if it is, while misrepresenting responses and conflating smacking and assault. How dodgy is that? Never trust surveys from the Office of the Children’s Commissioner. The Commission should be scrapped.

These kids arent skipping breakfast at home to keep trim

No, these 700 kids are having it at school to fill their tummies and fatten up with cereal, milk wheatmeal bread, a variety of spreads, cocoa jam, toast and milo to fuel their brains. Perhaps Parekura Horomia needs to fuel his brain with kai pai instead of pumping out his puku with meat pies.

Minister says kids skip breakfast because they want to stay trim

Being trim may be a challenge for Minister of Eating Pies, Parekura Horomia, but in parliament today he was asked why 20,000 children a week needed feeding at school because they don't have breadfast. Horomia said this

Hon PAREKURA HOROMIA: There are a host of reasons why students and pupils do not have breakfast. They are trying to stay trim, or else there may be poverty in the house.

One wonders why a kid would not have breakfast at home because he or she wants to stay trim, only to have it at school instead.