The policy remits this morning. There isn’t a lot of time. However they are prioritized
Passed Remit 1: The future of privatized state assets
THAT Labour in-principle supports the restoration of 100% public ownership of any assets part-privatised by the current government, and will develop a clearly articulated approach towards this objective that takes into account different options for achieving the objective, available resources, fiscal priorities, and the strategic importance of each asset.
Passed: Remit 10: Lowering the voting age, Civics
THAT Labour in Government commit to reducing the voting age to 16 alongside the embedding of a strong, compulsory civics education system in the national curriculum
The debate was pretty impassioned. Charles Chavel and other speakers were probably the most effective when they were talking about the falling levels of voter participation. The conservative agenda is to put barriers into the way of citizens to vote. Getting kids both learning civics (which is not part of our kid training) and doing it as early as possible is important..
Failed Remit 12: A New Zealand republic.
THAT the Labour party support the declaration of New Zealand as a republic as soon as possible.
Opps went to a card vote. 210 vs 226
The debate has been interesting primarily because there wasn’t a single speaker that I heard speaking up for the monarchy. Just concerned about timing
Passed: Remit 16: The future of public education
THAT Labour notes the flexibility already offered by our public education system in delivering a diverse and high-quality school system governed by local communities, and so agrees that:
a) National’s “Charter Schools” will not add to this system due to the lack of mandated teacher quality and curriculum coverage, and pledges to end the Charter Schools experiment; and
b) public-private partnerships that do not offer any advantages to the public education system will be ended; and
c) Labour will phase out public funding to all private schools
Amended to add
d) Labour will remove National Standard.
No debate except on d, and that was only about if it was already in the policy.
Passed: Remit 43: Hillside Workshops and procurement
This has been extensively rewritten in workshops. Essentially that Hillside workshop should be re-established.
Having a group of workers from Hillside certainly helped.
Passed: Remit 35: Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement
THAT in light of the Labour Party’s strong commitment to both the benefits of international trade and New Zealand’s national sovereignty, and recognising the far-reaching implications for domestic policy of the proposed Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement, in which trade is only a small part, Labour will support signing such an agreement only if it which:
a) Provides substantially increased access for our agriculture exports to the US market;
b) Does not undermine PHARMAC, raise the cost of medical treatments and medicines or threaten public health measures such as tobacco control;
c) Does not give overseas investors or suppliers any greater rights than domestic investors and suppliers, such as Investor-State Dispute Settlement, or reduce our ability to control overseas investment or finance;
d) Does not expand intellectual property rights and enforcement in excess of current law;
e) Does not weaken our public services, require privatisation, hinder reversal of privatisations, or increase the commercialisation of government organisations;
f) Does not reduce our flexibility to support local economic and industry development and encourage good employment and environmental practices;
g) Contains enforceable labour clauses requiring adherence to core International Labour Organisation conventions and preventing reduction of labour rights for trade or investment advantage;
h) Contains enforceable environmental clauses preventing reduction of environmental standards for trade or investment advantage;
There is an amendment by Phil Goff to “Labour will support signing such an agreement only if it which“. The rationale is that it is a negotiation, getting 90% and then being unable to do it because of absolute adherence to this list would be daft. I think that he is right to insert that amendment. The TPPA agreement is pretty problematic in my view – but that is because of the current information of the US stance. This appears to be the stance of the most of the unionists which is interesting.
The lack of information on the TPPA is the real issue.
Passed Remit 46: Te Reo Maori in schools
THAT Labour expand the availability of Te Reo Maori teaching in all schools and that Te Reo will be available if parents and communities want Te Reo taught to their children as guaranteed in the 1989 Education Act, S61, 3a(ii) through funding support, expanded
teacher training and professional development opportunities.
Amendment to remove “if parents and communities want Te Reo taught to their children” – passed.
Frigging hell. The next one is a book!
Passed: Remit 52: Local government policy
THAT Labour adopt the following principles in its support of Local Government:
Fundamentals of Local Government
1. Labour believes in local democracy, local empowerment and local choice,
2. Labour believes that Councils must be directed by a responsibility to the four wellbeings – Social, economic, cultural and environmental wellbeing).
3. Labour believes that Councils must be considered competent to carry on any activities that are not specifically proscribed by statute.
4. Labour believes that the distinction between Council’s regulatory and service delivery functions must be clear and unambiguous
5. Labour believes that local democracy is paramount and that central government should have no ability to suspend Council elections, save for those instances that it might apply to itself.
6. Labour believes that relationships with iwi should remain a fundamental element of local government.
7. Labour believes that governance should deliver best value within available resources – in terms of cost, quality of service delivery, local democracy, community engagement, and shared services.
8. Labour believes that councils should preserve public ownership of major public assets, particularly strategic assets such as infrastructure, open spaces and public transport.
9. Labour believes that Council’s should keep the number of arms-length organisations to a minimum and that any council controlled organisations should be councillor controlled (e.g. having a majority of elected members on their boards and/or being fully accountable and requiring all significant decisions not covered by their statement of Intent to be endorsed by their Council).
10. Labour believes that effective community engagement is an essential component of good governance, no matter what the structure and scale of local government.
Principles to Guide Local Government Reform
11. Labour recognises that from time to time, as communities and economies change,so too we must evaluate the functions and structure of local government to best meet these needs of communities. At these times Labour will only support change which:
a. is evidence-based, has a clear and robust rationale, and which has been derived following consideration of key options and what each would achieve.
Passed Remit 57: Living wage
THAT Labour establish a living wage, and set the minimum wage as a proportion of New Zealand’s average wage.
This was amended. But they’re rushing so I missed the amendment – something about all new zealanders
Passed Remit 61: Marriage equality
THAT Labour supports marriage equality for all New Zealanders, regardless of sex, sexual orientation, or gender identity.
First speaker is a Christian heterosexual pacifica who supports the issue and says it is just a generational issue. So enthusiastic that he was the first to have the mic turned off 🙂 And another pacifica nearly did as well. And later a pacifica opposing it. Personally I can’t see what the issue is. But 2008 was raised.
Ok – thats all – out of time.
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