And so the Maori Party’s sell-out of its own people continues. Hot on the heels of the party’s vote to take money out of the pockets of the poor to pay for tax cuts for the rich, this morning’s Dominion Post reports:
Green Party MP Mitiria Turei has accused the Maori Party of disgraceful behaviour for voting to increase fines to $3000 for parents of children who repeatedly skip school.
Under the new law, passed under urgency at the weekend, parents who do not enrol children at school will also be liable to a fine of $3000.
The Maori Party’s new Te Tai Tonga MP, Rahui Katene, voted with National, on behalf of the Government’s junior coalition partner, when the final third-reading vote was held on Saturday.
Ms Turei said the Maori Party’s vote would impact badly on Maori and Pacific Island families.
“Increasing the fines for truancy for very poor Maori whanau is absolutely disgraceful. Nobody should be voting for it,” she said.
Her plea to the Maori Party to vote against the legislation fell on deaf ears.
The Maori Party knows very well that poverty is a major factor in truancy. Often parents aren’t there for their kids because they’re poor and they’re working several jobs to try and make ends meet. I don’t see anything “mana-enhancing” in victimising these families with punitive fines that will only make the problem worse.
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