Good effort by the maori party

The maori party appear to be putting some lines in the sand and for that they must be congratulated. And it is great to hear a younger member of the maori party build up arguments and deliver for maori. This is an excellent example, where after initially supporting the ACC Amendment Bill, they have, after hearing the submissions, changed their support to opposition and are not supporting the second reading.

From Rahui Katene speech highlights but read the whole speech - it really is quite good.

"Maori are over-represented in injury statistics across all age groups, and in employment and sports.

The most significant health effect of the Bill is in the reduced ACC cover for those already on low incomes who cannot afford healthy or income insurance to cover them when injured.

Reduced access to ACC will also impact negatively on child poverty rates.

The National Council of Women suggest that women are more vulnerable to negative outcomes through a lack of social services and the Bill will reduce those services further.

Some of the most vulnerable New Zealanders, those who have made sensitive claims, will suffer from both levy increases and a restriction of services.

Access for Maori has been consistently lower than for other groups – Maori receive treatment at a lower level than non-Maori; and when services were accessed they were accessed later and they exited programmes earlier.

High risk occupational workers have significant numbers of Maori workers, and the Bill provides for a matching of risk environments and levy rates, so the cost of cover can be expected to increase.

Maori are a small population group, and constitute a small group of claimants, under a privatisation model they would not be considered a high value market segment to provide a financial incentive for private insurers.

 I will bag the maori party every time they fold and i'm not above dishing it out to individuals when necessary BUT when good is done and maori are protected and considered in the House, then we can thank the maori party for that. Is there anyone else thinking about maori in our parliment? No they are the only ones, all of the other parties have multiple interest groups in broad based parties. Well done maori party the best aspect of this speech was that it was coherant and built nicely to a good conclusion. And of course a good result. This is the sort of politics we need and it is great to see a younger member of the maori party doing it.