INDIA NEEDS CHANGE

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We are a team of high school students who wish to bring about change in our country.

Dodgy Grab One promotion

News Hub
I get the Grab One offers in my in-box regularly, and as a lover of coffee I was interested in the $20 for 10 Regular Mojo Coffees at Pure Espresso (value $44). We have one in the suburb in which I live. The promotion says:
Pay just $20 for 10 regular mojo coffees at Pure Espresso and indulge in a taste that will please you over and over again. Make a quick stop before work"


In order to have a taste that will please you "over and over again" the implication is that you can use the promotion to make 10 quick stops before work.

New video released tonight: Smacking parents get CYF’d and hauled before the Courts

The other week when I was at the Family First Forum, a video was screened that featured a few couples who have been hauled before the courts after being charged with assault after they smacked their kids.


The 30 minute video and associated website is embargoed until midnight tonight and as I have been given advance copies of both I`ll be blogging about them when the embargo has lifted, and will be embedding the video in full.


When I saw the video, it reduced some to tears at the unjust treatment given to smacking parents by authorities.

The politicians have spoken on Ohariu-Belmont

It is clear that one of two people will win Ohariu-Belmont (my electorate) in 2011- Labour’s Charles Chauvel or United Future leader Peter Dunne, just like in 2008. But it always was clear.


While a competent MP, Gareth Hughes from the Greens will not win, and is campaigning for the party vote. Many National Party supporters prefer Peter Dunne over Katrina Shanks, so Shanks has no option but to campaign for the party vote.


So, if you are a Green supporter, you have been advised to vote for Chauvel, if you are a National supporter, Peter Dunne. Katrina Shanks, who is currently 55 on the party list, was so out of touch that she did not even realise a deal was done by National to have their supporters vote for Dunne.

Our hungry kids - and our selfish parents

Was watching this programme  on Campbell Live where a beneficiary on $529 a week was spending not much more than $100 a week on food and didn’t have enough to feed his three kids. He didn’t send them to school some days because he couldn’t give them lunch as he had no food.


Yet not all parents who fail to give their kids breakfast are that hard up. I have kids. They get breakfast every day. They go to school and come home and tell me that many of their classmates don’t have breakfast.


It’s not that their parents can’t afford to give their kids breakfast, it’s just that they leave for work at 7.30am and drop their kids off to school and don’t want to get up earlier to give their kids breakfast.

The story behind Hannah Tamaki's bid for the Maori Women’s Welfare League presidency

There has been a lot of coverage about Destiny Church pastor Hannah Tamaki’s bid to be the president of the Maori Women’s Welfare League (MMWL), which at the end of May had 2850 members.

This post outlines that payments for 921 new MWWL subscriptions were paid through a Destiny Church- affiliated taxpayer-funded Urban Maori Authority, in a failed attempt to get the maximum votes for Hannah Tamaki’s presidency bid.

The 10 branches were formed just hours before several Maori MPs were asked for Whanau Ora funding at the same conference - for the very fund that the MMWL subscriptions were subsequently paid from.

Tamaki’s mother was a member of the MWWL, and Tamaki herself is not only a member but is the president of the Wahine Toa branch. This branch is one of three affiliated to Destiny church through its Urban Maori Authority, Te Runanga A Iwi O Te Oranga Ake. This UMA was given $850,000 for government contracts for social services, but the funding has now dried up.

As the Church cannot secure contracts for social services, Tamaki probably decided that becoming president of the MWWL may do the trick and secure contracts, but she needed the votes. There were 1100 women at Destiny’s annual conference on 4 June, and 921 of them - including Winston Peters' mother sister - were signed up to the League through 10 different newly formed branches all at the same time. All had between 91-93 members. A branch has to have 91 financial members to secure the maximum of 10 votes for the Presidency – so 90 extra votes for Tamaki out of 430 votes. A branch of 90 has just 5 votes, and a branch of 10, 1 vote.

However all membership fees, totalling more than $9200, were paid by one inter-bank transfer by Destiny Church – through Te Oranga Ake, who got their funding from the taxpayer. It appears however that all members were invoiced and have apparently paid their MMWL fees to Destiny Church.

So it was clear that this Destiny conference setup was done to stack votes for Hannah Tamaki’s presidency bid by well over 25 per cent , just as it was clear that Maori MPs were invited to the same conference on the same day to secure Whanau Ora funding.

However none of the 10 MMWL branches were financial as at 30 June, the date the ballot papers were sent out for the presidency, missing Tamaki’s name. Tamaki took the League to court as her name was removed, and it was revealed that the 10 branches subscriptions were paid from 1 July 2011. So while members in the new branches cannot vote, the three financial members affiliated to Destiny church can – and the court has decided that Tamaki’s name will be on the ballot paper, one of eight candidates.

Tamaki has pledged to resign from her pastoral role at Destiny should she win, and also to donate her entire presidential salary to the league.

The Green Paper for Vulnerable Children: we can talk about child abuse now. But don't do anything about it just yet..

Green Paper
The governments response to child abuse is clear: have a chat about it until 28 February 2012 when submissions to the Green Paper close. I’ve now read it. Have read most of it before. Several times.


Here’s some extracts:
Government isn’t afraid to challenge itself and openly debate these issues with New Zealanders to find solutions that will help our children.
When is the open debate going to start? Am I allowed to play? The Minister says it is the “single most important debate we can have”. We should have had it years ago but we were more interested in debating whether we should smack our kids.
To achieve the best results for vulnerable children, New Zealand needs strong leadership, stability, accountability and long-term commitment.
But that has got to translate into action, not smiling and waving.
Getting good services for vulnerable children may not need new money but a more effective targeting of money already in the system and a commitment to invest in programmes with a sound evidence base
This is a “hot air” statement.