Posts by Kevin Hague

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  It’s official: Bicycling can save your life - by Kevin Hague

  
  
  
  The highly esteemed British Medical Journal has found, after an extensive study, that cycling literally saves lives. The research looked at the differences in health benefits of using a bicycle sharing scheme run in Barcelona compared with travel by a car in an urban environment. The results were clear: public bicycle sharing schemes can improve [...] read more
  October 20, 2011 10:02 am - 4 Comments
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  Mental Health Awareness Week - by Kevin Hague

  
  
  
  This week is Mental Health Awareness week. The culture around mental health in New Zealand has come leaps and bounds from where it was even five years ago. I congratulate everyone who has helped bring about this culture change and raise awareness about mental health issues, and I thank them for doing so. However, this [...] read more
  October 12, 2011 1:44 pm - 6 Comments
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  Blueprint for safer queer youth - by Kevin Hague

  
  
  
  Last week I had the chance to participate in several of the events in the Hamilton Pride Festival for queer and transgendered people in the Waikato. I spent my secondary school years at Hamilton Boys High School, so I really valued the opportunity to launch there a landmark new report by Murray Riches entitled “How [...] read more
  September 29, 2011 8:13 am - 1 Comment
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  Where are you now, Mr. Key? - by Kevin Hague

  
  
  
  I have spent a bit of time in  Courthouses. They are typically depressing places, cold, hard, unwelcoming; the people angry, fearful, resigned. The Greymouth Courthouse is a new one. The waiting room is well lit. There are paintings on the walls, carpet on the floor. Yet those same feelings are almost palpable, along with a [...] read more
  September 9, 2011 12:37 pm - 19 Comments
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  Pike Inquiry reveals regulation shambles - by Kevin Hague

  
  
  
  Thanks to my awesome Caucus colleagues I have been given leave from Parliament this week to attend the first week in this second phase of the Pike River Royal Commission of Inquiry. The Green Party was one of the voices calling for an inquiry with wide terms of reference, that families and mine workers could [...] read more
  September 8, 2011 7:58 pm - 13 Comments
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  Riding the first of the on-road Cycle Trails - by Kevin Hague

  
  
  
  This weekend, I got to ride big parts of the 180km route from Taumarunui to New Plymouth. The ride was a celebration of the opening of the first on-road component of Nga Haerenga, the New Zealand Cycle Trail. The weekend had a bit of everything: gorgeous scenery, local hospitality, wide-eyed children, even local political drama. [...] read more
  August 24, 2011 10:50 am - 11 Comments
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  Exciting next phase in National Cycle Network - by Kevin Hague

  
  
  
  I’m writing this from the Overlander train, heading North to Taumarunui. Tomorrow morning I’m part of an event there to launch the next phase of Nga Haerenga: the New Zealand Cycle Trail Network. Nga Haerenga is a joint project of the Green and National parties – Green cycling expertise and Government money. You may remember [...] read more
  August 19, 2011 9:43 am - 2 Comments
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  Misuse of parliamentary procedure to change Misuse of Drugs Act - by Kevin Hague

  
  
  
  Today Parliament debated a proposal from Peter Dunne to change the Misuse of Drugs Amendment Bill to allow him to ban any substance that might cause harm, essentially by decree. The original bill — which went through the health select committee in November last year — was flawed to begin with. The original bill was [...] read more
  August 3, 2011 9:19 am - 10 Comments
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  Labour’s adoption approach underwhelming at best - by Kevin Hague

  
  
  
  Labour MP (and perhaps crucially candidate for Auckland Central) Jacinda Ardern announced last week that she will seek to introduce a Member’s Bill to require the Law Commission to update its previous advice on adoption law and draft a bill to overhaul the current law in this light. Readers may well have heard me talk previously [...] read more
  August 2, 2011 8:18 pm - 12 Comments
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  Mine safety improvements needed NOW - by Kevin Hague

  
  
  
  When someone heads off to work in the morning, they have a right to expect that their workplace is as safe as it can possibly be, and that they will return home again after work, safe and well. In the immediate aftermath of the Pike River mine disaster Cabinet ministers, most notably John Key himself [...] read more
  June 23, 2011 1:52 pm - 3 Comments
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  Police fail cyclists elsewhere too - by Kevin Hague

  
  
  
  It seems the Police are not only failing cyclists here in New Zealand but abroad. In fact, a quick search of YouTube reveals dangerous driving behaviour in all those countries where the car is still king, especially in Australia, the UK, and the USA. This clip from New York shows how one cyclist is fighting [...] read more
  June 14, 2011 12:50 pm - 1 Comment
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  Police failing duty of care to cyclists - by Kevin Hague

  
  
  
  Have you ever lodged a Community Roadwatch report documenting dangerous driver behaviour on our streets only to get the feeling later on that nothing has been done about it? I have, and when I used the Official Information Act to find out if my experience as a cyclist was shared by others, the Police couldn’t [...] read more
  June 13, 2011 8:53 am - 37 Comments
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  Happy International Nurses Day - by Kevin Hague

  
  
  
  Happy International Nurses Day to all nurses in New Zealand. And happy birthday Florence Nightingale, whose influence on the nursing profession was profound, and who would have been 191 today. The theme of International Nurses Day 2011 is increasing access and equity, and it is particularly timely. Next week’s budget will see cuts across a [...] read more
  May 12, 2011 1:20 am - 10 Comments
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  Blackball Mayday Speech - by Kevin Hague

  
  
  
  While some others were focused on political events elsewhere in the country, I was in Blackball for the annual Mayday celebrations and for the launch of a memorial wheel for those who have lost their lives in West Coast mines in recent years, most notably the Pike River 29. Families had made tiles with the [...] read more
  May 1, 2011 11:59 am - 2 Comments
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  How bicycle lanes brought down Nazi Germany - by Kevin Hague

  
  
  
  A Friday funny. If only it could be true of this Government too (sigh): read more
  April 8, 2011 11:13 am - 3 Comments
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  Pink Shirt Day on April 14th - by Kevin Hague

  
  
  
  You know you have one. Time to get it out. Russel Norman says I have to iron mine. April 14th is Pink Shirt Day, a day when everyone around the country is encouraged to make a visual display of our abhorrence of bullying. read more
  April 7, 2011 11:29 am - 5 Comments
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  Back to the future with ACC experience rating - by Kevin Hague

  
  
  
  There are quite a number of nasty legislative and regulatory provisions coming into force today.  Among them are Nick Smith’s Experience Rating Regulations for ACC. Experience rating will result in an individual employer’s ACC levies being adjusted up or down on the basis of their work injury record.  The idea is supposedly that individual employers [...] read more
  April 1, 2011 2:01 pm - 4 Comments
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  Folding cycles to be encouraged on Wellington’s trains - by Kevin Hague

  
  
  
  Greater Wellington Regional Council are about to finalise their rules for allowing bicycles on trains. They’re proposing to continue to allow bikes to ride free (where space is available) on all trains except for the new Matangi trains during peak hours. Folding bicycles, however, will be allowed on all trains at all times. Folding bikes [...] read more
  March 18, 2011 8:02 am - 9 Comments
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  Thoughts from the Big Gay Out - by Kevin Hague

  
  
  
  I am the gayest man in Parliament. Everybody knows. So it was a bit galling to get essentially upstaged by John Key and Phil Goff. Perhaps I’m just a bit self-absorbed, but this strikes me as suggesting a weird prism through which at least some straight people see this queer event. Let’s review: I started [...] read more
  February 17, 2011 4:42 pm - 25 Comments
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  ACC digs a deeper hole - by Kevin Hague

  
  
  
  Financial Review of ACC today, so I subbed in for Gareth on the Transport and Industrial Relations Select Committee. Usual thing – we and Labour make the running and when things get too hot the Government members take a turn with patsy questions. ACC fronted with Chair, John Judge, by videoconference and CEO Jan White [...] read more
  February 10, 2011 4:03 pm - 35 Comments