Parliament Archive

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  Super Fund invests in Chinese property bubble? - by Russel Norman

  
  
  
  The New Zealand Superannuation Fund has, on our behalf, decided to take a $23 million bet on a property development company with significant exposure to China — a country where some reports say that there are 64 million vacant apartments. The Fund’s stake in Hong Kong-based property development company Sun Hung Kai is the tenth [...] read more
  February 9, 2012 8:05 am - 2 Comments
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  The Christmas story: Russel Norman’s Address in Reply speech - by frog

  
  
  
  “These are the values that help to lay down the essential nature of what it means to be human and guide us to live a ‘good’ life – good to ourselves, good to one another, and good to the world in which we make our livelihoods.” – Russel Norman. Address in Reply speeches are long, [...] read more
  December 21, 2011 9:48 pm - 8 Comments
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  Patents, Pacific Partnerships, and (com)puters - by Gareth Hughes

  
  
  
  Have a read of this interesting opinion piece on NBR about the ramifications the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) will have for software patents in New Zealand. I think the most interesting part that Paul Matthews hits on is that by signing the TPPA, New Zealand law could be overridden. New Zealand recently completed a [...] read more
  December 14, 2011 4:11 pm - 3 Comments
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  Survey shows we can turn around low voter turnout - by Gareth Hughes

  
  
  
  The final election results were released over the weekend bringing with them some good news and some bad news. The good news: the Greens achieved a record result, including our bonus 14th MP Mojo Mathers. The bad news: official voter turnout was only 74.21%, the lowest in over 100 years. This record low voter turnout [...] read more
  December 12, 2011 5:37 pm - 16 Comments
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  John Key’s new Cabinet announced - by frog

  
  
  
  Prime Minister John Key announced his new Cabinet this morning. The line-up is pretty predictable, but some of the portfolio allocations and rankings are interesting: The big winners are Steven Joyce and Hekia Parata, moving up 10 and 13 places respectively in the Cabinet ranking. Parata replaces Anne Tolley as Minister of Education. Paula Bennett’s [...] read more
  December 12, 2011 1:02 pm - 10 Comments
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  Good Green gains in final election results - by frog

  
  
  
  The final election results are out, and the great news is that the Greens have achieved an historic high of 11.06% of the party vote.  That gives us one additional MP to the election night count – the talented Mojo Mathers. Mojo’s election will cause a shake-up in the way things work around Parliament.  Shamefully, [...] read more
  December 10, 2011 9:50 pm - 5 Comments
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  Political window dressing is not an appropriate response to abuse - by Jan Logie

  
  
  
  The appalling and heart-wrenching situation for the woman in Invercargill whose rapist moved in next door highlights several areas for legislative review and policy & funding change. This woman has an indefinite protection order in place but this does nothing to prevent her abuser moving in next door. The police have been for a ‘chat’ and [...] read more
  December 10, 2011 2:53 pm - 5 Comments
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  Spectacular Green success in the Māori electorates - by frog

  
  
  
  One of the great 2011 electoral success stories for the Green Party has been in the Māori electorates. In all seven Māori electorates the Greens’ share of the party vote has at least doubled and in two, Waiariki and Te Tai Hauāuru, has more than tripled. read more
  November 30, 2011 8:57 am - 18 Comments
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  Make history tomorrow: vote Green - by Metiria Turei

  
  
  
  It is election day eve and the Green Party has been polling at record highs over the past few weeks. We need your help to turn those polls into seats in Parliament. You can make history tomorrow and get more Green MPs than ever before. A vote for the Greens is a vote for a [...] read more
  November 25, 2011 6:00 pm - 11 Comments
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  Parody and satire reform. It’s no joke - by Gareth Hughes

  
  
  
  Yesterday, in a New Zealand first, I released the Greens copyright position and a new Members’ Bill exclusively on the Internet. My new Copyright (Parody and Satire) Amendment Bill seeks to protect people from being prosecuted for satirising copyrighted content; a protection available in Australia, the U.S. and many E.U. countries. Parody and satire are [...] read more
  November 10, 2011 10:11 am - 9 Comments
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  Nasty surprise in Disability Commissioner bill? - by Catherine Delahunty

  
  
  
  The Government has introduced legislation to establish the permanent position of Disability Commissioner at the Human Rights Commission – or has it? read more
  October 25, 2011 10:15 am - 1 Comment
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  Building industry sees eye-to-eye with Green economic policies - by Russel Norman

  
  
  
  The Construction Strategy Group has recently published their report on the state of the building industry entitled Valuing the Role of Construction in the NZ Economy. The Construction Strategy Group is a lobby group and is made up of a who’s who in the industry. Their report outlines a number of key initiatives they’d like [...] read more
  October 19, 2011 9:19 am - 3 Comments
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  Why Sir Paul Callaghan needs to reconsider clean technology - by Russel Norman

  
  
  
  Sir Paul Callaghan’s opinion piece in the Herald critiques our economic plan to create 100,000 new green jobs. His paper raises some important points about the record of previous governments and their attempts to pick winners in the research and development (R&D) field. A key element of our Green Jobs initiative launched on September 21 [...] read more
  October 11, 2011 1:00 pm - 16 Comments
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  Sue and Keith’s valedictory speeches - by frog

  
  
  
  Sue Kedgley and Keith Locke — two of the original seven Green MPs who came into Parliament in 1999 — are standing down from Parliament at this election. The House grants outgoing MPs a chance to reflect on their time in Parliament with a valedictory speech. You can watch Sue and Keith reflect on their [...] read more
  September 29, 2011 2:20 pm - 6 Comments
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  Steven Joyce: defiler of democracy - by Gareth Hughes

  
  
  
  Just like it did with Auckland’s waterfront, the Government is intruding into university and polytech operations by proposing stringent regulations limiting what can and can’t be done to support students. Tertiary Education Minister Steven Joyce has taken it upon himself to draft a list (see page 3939) that dictates what institutions can spend their student [...] read more
  September 14, 2011 10:33 am - 14 Comments
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  Dropping the ball on Auckland transport - by Gareth Hughes

  
  
  
  Friday was a pretty important night for the country. It’s great that the opening ceremony was a success and that the All Blacks won against Tonga, but the ball was dropped getting people to and from the venues. It’s unacceptable that 2,000 ticket-holders missed kick-off and thousands of others were seriously inconvenienced by the over-sold [...] read more
  September 12, 2011 2:52 pm - 62 Comments
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  Why won’t National listen to Auckland on CBD rail link? - by Gareth Hughes

  
  
  
  I was astonished that a few weeks back Auckland MPs voted against inviting the Auckland Council to submit on the CBD rail link debate. I can only talk about it now because the report containing my minority report was tabled in Parliament today. The Transport and Industrial Relations Select Committee was discussing my petition to [...] read more
  September 8, 2011 4:52 pm - 11 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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  Democracy, secrecy, and good process. - by David Clendon

  
  
  
  On Thursday, Keith Locke and I spent a good part of the day in the House going to bat against the government’s ‘secret squirrel’ bill to amend the Police Act that Frog blogged on earlier .  Our objections to the bill were matters both of process and substance.  I want to comment here just on the process, which was appalling, [...] read more
  August 19, 2011 12:24 pm - 5 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