Jane Pickering – 04/12/09 Robbie Francis, a passionate youth advocate, has won this year’s “Attitude ACC Supreme Award”. The Waikato University student was presented with the trophy by Sir Murray Halberg and Associate Minister for ACC and Disability Issues Pansy Wong at a black tie function at Eden Park in Auckland. Sir Murray founded the…
Fiona Woodham – 08/05/09 Rotorua National MP Todd McClay and Tauranga National MP Simon Bridges were floating on air on Monday May 4 after making the ultimate jump for a good cause. NZONE MPs Simon Bridges (L) and Todd McClay (R) Photo source: NZONE Click here to view a larger version The two MPs took…
Darrell Carlin — 26/10/2007 In a decision delivered on Oct 26 the Human Rights Commission stated that it is no longer neutral and now joins disability campaigner Melanie Trevethick in arguing the definition of disability must at least be capable of including the cause of disability. However while it agreed with equity-for-illness campaigner Trevethick that…
Margaret – 19/07/02 Am I alone in feeling that the coverage of the 2002 election focuses almost solely on the Party Leaders, the Party Vote and the polls? Everything I have seen on TV or heard on radio presents Helen Clark, Bill English, Jeanette Fitzsimons, Rod Donald, Winston Peters, Richard Prebble, Jim Anderton, Laila Harre,…
New Zealand statesman, lawgiver and poet Part 1 Dorothy – 07/05/02 Ask most New Zealanders if they know who William Pember Reeves is and the reply is likely to be “Never heard of him”, yet this politician was a major influence in New Zealand politics in the 1880s and 1890s and in 1896 was appointed…
New Zealand’s Close Connections With Japanese Hibakusha Kate Dewes – 10/08/01 In November 1995 the Mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki gave oral testimonies during Japan’s submission to the International Court of Justice on the legality of nuclear weapons. With huge photographs of the carnage, and stories from hibakusha (atomic bomb survivors), they eloquently conveyed the…
Rod Donald MP, Green Party Co-Leader – 25/05/01 During the summer I re-read a book which first opened my eyes to Green politics. E. F. Schumacher’s Small is Beautiful asks some fundamental questions about the roles of economics. Way back in 1973 Schumacher said that economic growth had become the abiding interest if not the…
Nandor Tanczos, Green MP – 9/6/00 The Government has finally announced the details of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into genetic engineering. It does not include a moratorium on new field trials as the Greens had insisted. The question is, have we been screwed? The answer, like so many things in politics, is yes and…
Restorative Justice Nandor Tanczos MP – 21/4/00 Last year we voted in a referendum on the nature of our justice system. When asked whether we supported more rights for victims of crime and longer sentences and hard labour for violent criminals, 92 per cent of us voted yes. Nandor Tanczos Photo source Presto I was…
Dorothy – 22/12/99 Christmas, Post-Election and Millennium Hopes What are New Zealanders hoping for at Christmas and in the new millennium? Many New Zealanders are at present living with serious problems and are hoping that the new Labour-Alliance Coalition Government elected in November, 1999, will be able to live up to its pledges. Housing For…
