Labour Party
1,385 posts | 23 images
CANTERBURY — Canterbury ratepayer assets must not be sold to help fund the quake recovery, say Christchurch MPs Clayton Cosgrove and Brendon Burns.
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Reports that a 94-year-old woman, with a community services card, was charged $80 to attend an after-hours clinic on Good Friday are a sign that Tony Ryall and the National-ledGovernment have their priorities in health all wrong, Labour Spokesperson on Health Grant Robertson saidtoday.
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Labour Leader Phil Goff has welcomed confirmation from US President Barack Obama that American forces have killed the terrorist Osama bin Laden during a raid in Pakistan.
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Unwell Kiwis would be the losers if New Zealand were to fall over in the face of the predictable attack from United States pharmaceutical companies gearing up for the next round of negotiations in the Trans-Pacific Partnership, says Labour's Trade Spokesperson, Maryan Street and Labour Associate Health Spokesperson Iain Lees-Galloway.
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Finance Minister Bill English now has a threat hanging over his future in the form of ACT leader Don Brash while he is less than a month out from delivering a budget that is crucial to New Zealand’s future, says Labour’s Finance spokesperson David Cunliffe.
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Deep government cuts to vital safety nets and anti-violence services put vulnerable women and children in the path of real harm, says Labour Deputy Leader and Social Policy spokesperson Annette King Front-line organisations are growing increasingly concerned about government cuts to the sector.
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National’s blind preoccupation with building tarseal highway monuments to Transport Minister Steven Joyce will come at the expense of public transport, road policing and maintenance on local roads, says Labour’s Transport spokesperson Shane Jones.
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A new extreme right-wing deal between National and an Act party led by Don Brash would have a devastating impact on the lives of middle and low-income New Zealanders, says Labour Leader Phil Goff.
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National has missed another opportunity to hold loan sharks to account, says Labour’s Consumer Affairs spokesperson Carol Beaumont.
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Despite an increasing number of women and children relying on safe houses, the Government continues to justify cuts to domestic violence programmes, says Labour’s Women’s Affairs spokesperson Carol Beaumont and Victims’ Rights spokesperson Carmel Sepuloni.
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Labour today announced qualified support for a compromise solution suggested by the telecommunication industry to the impasse over the Government’s controversial broadband scheme, says Labour’s Communications and IT spokesperson Clare Curran.
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Labour Deputy Leader and Social Policy spokesperson Annette King is urging the Government to help food banks who are facing a crisis with a huge increase in the demand for food parcels.
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Labour’s Courts spokesperson Rick Barker says that the Government’s proposal to cut costs from the Family Court is deeply concerning.
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An independent review of the Government’s broadband deals must be undertaken urgently following serious conflict of interest allegations against its top adviser on broadband, says Labour’s Communications and IT spokesperson.
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A severe shortage of skilled labour in the building and construction sector will slow recovery and force up prices and the cost of rebuilding Canterbury in the wake of the quake, says Labour Leader Phil Goff.
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I have mixed feelings about this Bill coming before the House today.
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The news that 3908 Kiwis headed across the ditch in February looking for higher paying jobs is an indictment on the National Government and its utter failure to grow our economy, says Labour Leader Phil Goff.
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Legal aid reforms announced by the Government today threaten the access of Kiwis to justice, says Labour’s Justice spokesperson Charles Chauvel.
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Prime Minister John Key’s flippant dismissal of questions about the ministerial BMW with heated seats in Dunedin shows how arrogant he has become about the plight struggling Kiwi families find themselves in, says Labour’s Internal Affairs spokesperson Chris Hipkins.
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Finance Minister Bill English has lost the plot, pushing the case for New Zealand to be a low-wage economy, says Labour’s Finance spokesperson David Cunliffe.
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The National Government is standing on the sidelines as healthy food becomes too expensive for many families, says Grant Robertson Labour’s spokesperson for Health.
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The Commerce Commission should proceed with its proposal to investigate the domestic pricing of milk in the New Zealand market, says Labour’s spokesperson for Agriculture Damien O’Connor.
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WEST COAST — Pike River has an obligation to front up to the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the terrible tragedy that took the lives of 29 miners and the Prime Minister should ensure that happens, says West Coast Labour MP Damien O’Connor.
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Labour supports the need to provide certainty for the 85,000 Cantabrians who may have been worrying about whether their claims for earthquake damage would be paid out by AMI,and it hopes the Government support package will provide that.
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The announcement that the New Zealand Press Association (NZPA) will close after more than 130 years is a tragic blow for New Zealand journalism and the agency’s staff, says Labour’s Communications spokesperson Clare Curran.
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There is finally hope that New Zealand consumers might get a wider choice of broadcast content through traditional and new media via high speed broadband following today’s announcement by the Commerce Commission, Labour’s communications and IT spokesperson Clare Curran said today.
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Research from the University of Otago linking psychological distress with the increasing unaffordability of safe, nutritious food must be heeded, says Labour’s Associate Health spokesperson Iain Lees-Galloway.
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CANTERBURY — Labour’s Canterbury Earthquake Recovery spokesperson Clayton Cosgrove says Prime Minister John Key and Social Development Minister Paula Bennett are cruelly missing the point in terms of Canterbury people who lose their jobs in the wake of the earthquakes.
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National’s mishandling of the South Canterbury Finance collapse is a disaster of epic proportions and Finance Minister Bill English must resign, says Labour’s Finance spokesperson David Cunliffe.
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Labour Leader Phil Goff has appointed Sue Moroney and David Shearer as the party’s new Education spokespeople.
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Labour’s Finance spokesperson David Cunliffe says the government accounts released today make it even clearer that National will use the economic impact of the Christchurch earthquakes to justify savage cuts to public spending in this year’s budget.
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Working families and the elderly are among growing numbers of New Zealanders floating on a rising tide of hardship while the Government sits back apparently helpless, Labour Deputy Leader Annette King says.
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Labour Leader Phil Goff today announced that Darren Hughes has advised him he will be resigning from Parliament.
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Labour Leader Phil Goff is calling on the Government to take immediate action to get people into training for trades like building, plumbing, plastering and drain-laying so we have the skilled workforce needed to rebuild Canterbury.
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The Government says it is tightening up on sales of farmland to foreign owners, but is allowing the biggest ever sale of dairy land to Harvard University, underlining the lack of clear, strong rules on foreign ownership of our land, says Labour Agricultural spokesperson Damien O’Connor.
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The thriving employment situation in Australia continues to shame the National Government’s woeful economic performance in New Zealand, says Labour Finance spokesperson David Cunliffe.
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National’s Women’s Affairs spokesperson Pansy Wong yesterday bizarrely celebrated the fact that wages in New Zealand are falling, Labour Women’s Affairs spokesperson Sue Moroney says.
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National’s Early Childhood Education taskforce is designed to further increase costs for families, says Labour Spokesperson for Early Childhood Education Sue Moroney.
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The latest official income survey results are another ‘kick in the guts’ for low-income New Zealanders, says Labour Leader Phil Goff.
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Labour has welcomed the announcement that 2010's e-day will go ahead, but says it leaves Nick Smith with many serious questions to answer.
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The long awaited inquiries into leaking of government plans around mining of the conservation estate and the merger of government agencies have failed to find anyone responsible, and show that the Government's management of these issues was a total shambles, Labour State Services Spokesperson Grant Robertson says.
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First it was the national cycleway, and now it is the prospect of summer that is fuelling Prime Minister John Key’s optimism for economic recovery, says Labour Finance spokesperson David Cunliffe.
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AUCKLAND — Labour's Auckland Issues spokesperson Phil Twyford says the Government's Auckland Transition Agency has treated Council staff shabbily by announcing hundreds of job losses in the media before notifying staff personally.
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AUCKLAND CITY — Neighbours of Westfield St Lukes have been given a raw deal over a decision allowing the mall to more than double its floor size says MP for Mt Albert David Shearer.
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Conservation Minister Kate Wilkinson needs to start taking her role as an advocate for New Zealand's natural heritage seriously, Charles Chauvel says.
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New Zealand Superannuitants want leadership, not another committee from a Government that has belatedly come to the realisation that Kiwis need to save more for retirement, says Labour’s Spokesperson for Senior Citizens Ross Robertson.
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AUCKLAND CITY — Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Phil Twyford has referred the Auckland Transition Agency tabloid newspaper ‘Auckland: Your Council.
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Six jobs advertised on Trade Me and another on Seek blatantly break the existing 90 day trial law, proving that the Prime Minister’s claim that employers are using the law responsibly is rubbish, says Darien Fenton, Labour’s Associate spokesperson for labour issues.
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Thousands of Aucklanders due to enter into new work contracts with the Super city in November could find themselves denied employment rights under the Government's new fire at will law, Labour's Auckland Issues spokesperson Phil Twyford said today.
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Despite Prime Minister John Key’s best efforts to pass the buck, today’s back-down on mining in schedule four land is humiliating for him and his cabinet colleagues, Labour Leader Phil Goff says.
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With nearly 60 percent of elderly reliant solely on Superannuation, concerns are growing about what the Budget will hold for them, Labour Senior Citizens spokesperson Ross Robertson says.
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Judge Eugene Hyman, of the Superior Court of California, has provided real insights into the way the three strikes law is working in practice in that state, says Labour Law and Order spokesperson Clayton Cosgrove.
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The directive given to KiwiRail to look for an offshore supplier to build the rolling stock required for Auckland’s rail network proves John Key is running a Government with a “can’t do” attitude, Labour’s Transport spokesperson Darren Hughes said today.
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The failure of Steven Joyce to allocate adequate funding to tertiary institutions signals the end to all aspirations for New Zealand to grow through a smart economy, says Maryan Street, Labour’s Spokesperson on Tertiary Education.
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Labour's spokesperson for Consumer Affairs Carol Beaumont urged New Zealanders to write to National MP’s asking them to support her private members Bill, the Credit Reform (Responsible Lending) Bill, during its first reading which is to take place in two weeks time.
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“Parents of Monte Cecilia school, local residents and the wider community will be appalled to hear that the Auckland Transition Agency (ATA) does not seem to consider expenditure of up to $30 million dollars to have a significant negative impact on the assets and liabilities that are to be transferred to the new Auckland Council” said Labour MP Carol Beaumont.
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Warnings today by a major ratings agency that a key aspect of the Government's proposed electricity reforms will pile costs onto taxpayers are a real concern, Labour’s Energy spokesperson Charles Chauvel says.
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CHRISTCHURCH — The latest indicated job losses in Christchurch at Telstra Clear’s call centre are part of a jobs haemorrhage that the Government has no plan to address, says Christchurch Central MP Brendon Burns.
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Korea’s demand to be allowed the option of whaling if Japan is granted the right to limited commercial whaling, Japan’s vehement insistence that it will never give up whaling, and Australia’s condemnation of New Zealand’s proposal appear to have sunk Prime Minister John Key’s grand plan to end Japanese whaling in the Southern Ocean, Labour’s Foreign Affairs Spokesperson Chris Carter says.
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Labour’s Foreign Affairs Spokesperson, Chris Carter, says a draconian new media censorship proposal in Fiji marks another step backwards in the restoration of genuine democracy in Fiji.
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The Whanau Ora Taskforce report released today – two months late – contains no new information on how the policy will be funded or delivered, Labour’s acting social development spokesperson Ruth Dyson says.
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A huge opportunity exists for New Zealand to show leadership in promoting nuclear disarmament in a new environment created by President Obama, Labour Leader Phil Goff said today.
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CANTERBURY — The National Government, already embroiled in controversy over mining in national parks, is today passing legislation that will substantially undermine water conservation orders in Canterbury, says Labour Conservation spokesperson David Parker.
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CANTERBURY — National’s decision to replace the Environment Canterbury Council with government-appointed commissioners for the next three-and-a-half years is an outrageous affront to democracy, says Christchurch Central MP Brendon Burns.
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Official documents have revealed the Government rushed the "Smartgate" electronic passport control system into New Zealand’s airports against the advice of three Government departments, Labour’s customs spokesperson Su’a William Sio said today.
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CHRISTCHURCH — Meridian Energy's decision to axe its trial in Christchurch of how smart meters can help save power is short-sighted, the Labour Party says.
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Labour Spokesperson for Early Childhood Education, Sue Moroney said today that she shared the concerns of the NZEI Te Riu Roa forum regarding the negative impact national standards may have on early childhood education.
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The Government's proposal to merge Archives New Zealand and the National Library into the Department of Internal Affairs could save as little as $165,000 a year, while seeing more than a dozen jobs go, and risking compromising key components of our democratic infrastructure, Grant Robertson Labour State Services Spokesperson said.
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National needs to come clean about the promises it made to the mining industry before the 2008 election on digging up our protected Schedule 4 land, says Labour Leader Phil Goff.
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More evidence of Kiwi’s distrust of National’s plans to hike GST have been unearthed in the latest Westpac consumer confidence survey, Labour’s Finance spokesperson David Cunliffe said today.
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The Government needs to release its report on where it thinks more mining should be allowed in the conservation estate now, so the public can see for themselves just what it is planning, Labour Conservation spokesperson David Parker says.
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AUCKLAND — Labour MP Objects to Auckland City Council’s Blatant Breach of Political Neutrality at Pasefika Festival Auckland City Council officials have woefully breached political neutrality by issuing instructions to Pasefika village organisers that Labour MPs not be allowed on the main village stages, says Labour MP for Mangere Su’a William Sio.
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National’s embarrassment over John Key’s dismissive put-down of Keisha Castle-Hughes’ climate change stance was obvious in Parliament today, says Labour’s Climate Change spokepeson Charles Chauvel.
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SOUTHLAND — Labour Civil Defence spokesperson Carmel Sepuloni today thanked Civil Defence staff in Southland for their prompt response to last night’s earthquake measuring a magnitude of 7.8 on the Richter scale.
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Government rejection of official advice to pay $2000-a-day private purchase advisers like Graeme Scott out of ministerial funds shows how far National is down the track of politicising the public service, says Labour Internal Affairs spokesperson Chris Hipkins.
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New Zealand has been named the world's most peaceful nation by an international think tank; this is a credit to nine years of Labour Government under former Prime Minister Helen Clark Labour Associate Foreign Affairs spokesperson Phil Twyford says.
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Workers should be very, very afraid about the Government’s decision to review the Holidays Act given its track record to date, says the Labour Party’s Labour Spokesperson Trevor Mallard.
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The inevitable resignation of Dr Richard Worth has occurred several months too late, Labour Leader Phil Goff said today.
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AUCKLAND CITY — David Shearer has been selected as the Labour Party candidate for the Mt Albert by-election, Labour President Andrew Little announced today.
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AUCKLAND CITY — Click on the link below to view Mt Albert by-election candidate David Shearer's CV.
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Labour welcomed the release today of the decision of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention that the on-going house arrest of Burmese democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi is illegal under both international and Burmese law.
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Police Minister Judith Collins must explain why the Police made submissions on behalf of a man facing sentence on serious criminal charges, says Labour Leader Phil Goff.
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Prime Minister John Key seemed stumped by the most basic questions on jobs today unable to say how many are being cut by government or retained by the 9 day fortnight Labour Finance Spokesperson David Cunliffe said.
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