Workplace Relations Minister refuses regular meetings with union
employment 27 minutes ago
The Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety Brooke van Velden has refused to have regular meetings with the Council of Trade Unions and has ruled out undoing the Pay Equity Changes. New Zealand Council of Trade Unions president Richard Wagstaff spoke to Charlotte Cook.
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9 hours ago
- RNZ News
Carrington Resort trial: Former manager defends actions in court
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RNZ News
13 hours ago
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Māori, Pacific removed from extra education funding priorities
The Tertiary Education Commission warns it doesn't have enough money to cover enrolment growth next year. Photo: AFP The government will remove extra funding for Māori and Pacific enrolments in vocational courses, and trim funding for workplace training. The Tertiary Education Commission told institutions this week it was "reprioritising a small amount - approximately 8 percent - of learner component funding towards provider-based delivery rates, through the removal of Māori and Pacific learners as an eligible category". The weightings for Māori and Pacific enrolments were worth $152 for each student enrolling in work-based level 1-2 certificates and courses at levels 3-6, and $364 per student in non-degree level 7 courses. However, the $1327 weighting for disabled students and students with low prior educational achievement would continue. The payments were added to subsidies for courses offered by polytechnics and private providers, ranging from $6584 for humanities and business courses to nearly $11,786 for health, science, engineering and agriculture, and $19,753 for special agriculture. The commission said funding for work-based training and education would drop 10 percent, while also repeating warnings from earlier in the year that it would not have enough money to cover enrolment growth next year . "Current forecasts indicate the demand for funding will be greater than what we have available to allocate," it said. "Given the multi-year nature of much education and training, we will need to prioritise our future investment." Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
17 hours ago
- RNZ News
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer on the longest suspension in Parliament
Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. Photo: RNZ / Mark Papalii This week, Parliament took the unprecedented step of suspending both Te Pāti Māori leaders - Debbie Ngarewa-Packer and Rawiri Waititi - for 21 days. Te Pāti Māori MP Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke was suspended for seven days - but had also been punished with a 24-hour suspension on the day over a haka all three had performed in Parliament, against the Treaty Principles Bill, in November. It is against the rules of the House for members to leave their seats during a debate - which all three did. Ngarewa-Packer told Saturday Morning that the 21-day suspension, which was seven times harsher than any previous sanction an MP has faced, was not proportionate. "I think the backlash from the public, nationally and internationally, validates that," she said. Previously, the longest suspension for an MP had been three days, given to the former prime minister Robert Muldoon for criticising the speaker in the 1980s. While New Zealand First leader Winston Peters said the duration of the suspension would have been lessened if the Te Pāti Māori MPs had apologised, Ngarewa-Packer said that was never requested by the Privileges Committee. "What we have here is a situation where, and some are calling it Trumpism, we've been a lot more specific - we have an Atlas agenda that has not only crept in, it's stormed in on the shores of Aotearoa and some may not understand what that means, but this is just the extension of the attack on the treaty, on the attack on Indigenous voices. "We made the point the whole way through when we started to see that they weren't going to be able to meet us halfway on anything, even a quarter of the way, on any of the requests for tikanga experts, for legal experts when we knew the bias of the committee." Ngarewa-Packer added that the Privileges Committee process was not equipped to deal with the issue. "We hit a nerve and we can call it a colonial nerve, we can call it institutional nerve... "I think that this will be looked back on at some stage and say how ridiculous we looked back in 2025." Ngarewa-Packer also added that the language from Peters during the debate on Thursday was "all very deliberate" - "and that's what we're contending with in Aotearoa". "Everyone should have a view but don't use the might of legislation and the power to be able to assert your racism and assert your anti-Māori, anti-Treaty agenda." Peters had taken aim at Waititi on Thursday as "the one in the cowboy hat" and "scribbles on his face" in reference to his mataora moko. Rawiri Waititi. Photo: RNZ / Mark Papalii He said countless haka have taken place in Parliament but only after first consulting the Speaker. "They told the media they were going to do it, but they didn't tell the Speaker did they?" Peters added that Te Pāti Māori were "a bunch of extremists" and that "New Zealand has had enough of them". "They don't want democracy, they want anarchy," he said. "They don't want one country, they don't want one law, they don't want one people." Winston Peters. Photo: RNZ / Mark Papalii Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
