The Budget Day Protests
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- Date published:
8:33 am, May 30th, 2024 - 18 comments
Categories: budget 2024, democratic participation, Maori Issues, maori party -
Tags: protest, strike
Protests by Māori and Tangata Tiriti against government policy are underway on the day of the National government’s first budget. Carkoi and Hikoi are taking place in many locations across the country.
Stuff have a backgrounder from last week on why Māori are protesting,
Government triggers ‘impressive’ legal tsunami from Māori
MSM have live coverage,
NZH: Te Pāti Māori protest: Auckland motorways clogged, Parliament staff asked to work from home
RNZ: Live Budget Day protests: Call for action across Aotearoa
Thousands of protesters are expected to ‘activate’ today for the second National Action Day aimed at government policies and rhetoric toward Māori.
It is the second time Māori have mobilised on a national scale with the first hikoi taking place last December.
Hīkoi, or ‘carkoi’, are expected to disrupt traffic and city centres with protests planned from Kaitaia down to Dunedin, each with their own coordinator.
The national protest coincides with today’s budget announcements.
I love a good protest. This is democracy in action when our elected leaders fail to take notice of the people to the extent the people take to the streets. Māori have the ability to mobilise in ways the rest of the country doesn’t, and I don’t expect these protests to stop. Māori also have a very long history of effective protest, and are expert in the long game.
Of note, apparently New Zealand still doesn’t know the difference between a protest strike and an employment strike.
RNZ’s piece yesterday talks about employment law and tries to tie today’s actions to legal and illegal employment strikes.
Sutff’s piece also from yesterday comes down on the side of it’s a protest not a strike. Employment Lawyer Sarah Cates,
“It sounds like Te Pāti Māori are encouraging Māori and allies to protest instead of going to work, rather than “strike” as defined in employment law,“ she said.
“If an employee walks off the job, and has not sought the permission of their employer to be absent from work, they may face disciplinary action.”Cates said it was not unlawful for a political party to encourage people to protest.
I am not a lawyer, but I can’t see how a worker taking a day off, with or without permission, is a strike in terms of the Employment Relations Act. They may face disciplinary action if they don’t get permission, but that’s a different thing.
The work strike gets used in different context. School Strike 4 Climate isn’t an employment strike.
I think it’s both funny and pointed the protest organisers used the word strike and a bunch of people went off on one about that. Luxon said it was illegal, and it’s hard to tell if this was ignorance or him politicising the situation. Off the back of that, a lot of people assumed it was an employment strike. The confusion around that is odd, and the MSM should have been able to explain it on day one.
Meanwhile, Māori are out on the streets, doing the political mahi.
All power to the people taking action today. This government deserves much criticism, and we need to act now not wait until the next vote in three years time.
Photos from NZH link.
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Many who would comment on this are out there in numbers. In Rotorua many toots of support .
I really hope that it's the protests that will lead the news tonight, before the Budget. That would really piss off Nicola and Chris
I would have thought it would have been better to plan the protest for after the budget so that they would actually know what is in the budget.
You miss the point. The protests are about the Government's actions already taken. The budget will likely add to the protestable things.
Your comment appears to match the similarly idiotic comments about how Māori should only protest in the weekends, unless of course, they work int he weekends, in which case they should STFU and get on with their work.
They may well be better off after the budget.
read the post, especially if you want to keep commenting privileges under this post,
Free speech (for opinions I don't like) should be confined to the weekends. I’m also deeply (oh so deeply) committed to free speech.
Imagine Ardern responding to those protests against her government by Groundswell and the like, by saying they should only be allowed to happen at the weekends.
Imagine the media furore if she had.
I'd love to see Luxon asked about the difference between Groundswell protests and today's TPM inspired actions. Would probably just be the normal word salad but eventually he has to squirm.
One are capitalist farm-owners who can as the owners of production can take as much time off when and as they like, the others are serfs who must adhere to their masters wishes
At least after the plague in 1349 they controlled food prices so that the workers had enough energy to work.
The ordinance required several things, including:
"I think it’s both funny and pointed the protest organisers used the word strike and a bunch of people went off on one about that. Luxon said it was illegal, and it’s hard to tell if this was ignorance or him politicising the situation. Off the back of that, a lot of people assumed it was an employment strike. The confusion around that is odd, and the MSM should have been able to explain it on day one."
In his maiden speech Luxon proudly invoked his heroes: William Wilberforce, Kate Sheppard and Martin Luther King. Yes, he really did. Irony overload.
As everyone knows, those famous reformers didn't protest except at weekends, and never broke any laws. In his own language, they all achieved "outcomes", but he doesn't seem to like the way they did it.
Luxon needs to live up to his maiden speech, and Christian beliefs | The Post
I am loving it. What else can the left behind, dispossessed and perpetually hurt by right wing governments do? I dont care that much about legalities around employment law and strikes, though I know them backwards. Note that the right use the word "strike" in all sorts of contexts ir "strike force raptor" and even a mild one :" the clock strikes midnight".
I think that the clock strikes at midnight for people on the left as well as the right.
"The strike is illegal".
Luxon demonstrating how much he is out of touch with reality.
It is no more illegal than groups of farmers blockading parts of towns with tractors and Ford Rangers a few years ago or convoys of conspiracy theorists and anarchists rolling through towns causing similar disruption a couple of years ago.
Don't remember National voicing much concern for NZ motorists when those events happened.
But I suppose if its Maori doing it then that's different.
I was on the Kaitaia Hikoi today, and it was a great event. The cops said one lane, but marchers took all the main road and closed it down for an hour with multiple speeches and waiata.
Lots of young people and good support from locals. TPM are certainly providing some good leadership.
At least 10,000 in Auckland. (The news reports said one thousand)
Good vibes, no dramas. Except for @bloodysamoan having words with a counter-protestor.
Good turnout at the Nelson protest I took part in.