Latest news with #DuncanWebb
Scoop
6 days ago
- Business
- Scoop
National Caves To ACT To Ram Through Regulatory Standards Bill
Once again National has caved to ACT by today agreeing to shorten the select committee process for the Regulatory Standards Bill. 'The Regulatory Standards Bill puts corporate interests ahead of our communities, environmental protections, and Te Tiriti o Waitangi,' Labour regulation spokesperson Duncan Webb said. 'The Prime Minister failed to show leadership on the Treaty Principles Bill – and he's failing again. Christopher Luxon is clearly too weak to stand up to David Seymour. 'For a Bill that claims to attempt to embed 'good law-making', it is staggering that National would agree to cut short the public's chance to have their say. 'Under the Regulatory Standards Bill, laws that would keep people healthy and safe, like requiring landlords to heat homes, or limiting the sale of vapes, would be at the whim of whether David Seymour thinks they're a good idea or not. "It is unbelievable that the Government is cutting short the time the public will have to weigh in on such a consequential Bill. 'Today, the Government voted to shortcut the select committee process from six months to four months, all because David Seymour wants this wrapped up before the end of the year. They also cut short the public submission period from six weeks to four. 'Luxon needs to start standing up to the extreme voices in his Government, but instead he's bending over backwards to accommodate them,' Duncan Webb said.
Scoop
23-05-2025
- Politics
- Scoop
David Seymour's Bill Harms Our People And Environment
David Seymour's Regulatory Standards Bill would take New Zealand backwards by making it harder to protect our people and the environment. 'This Bill favours corporate interests ahead of our communities, environmental protections, and Te Tiriti o Waitangi,' Labour regulation spokesperson Duncan Webb said. 'Just like the Treaty Principles Bill, it's another concession by Christopher Luxon to David Seymour – soon to be Deputy Prime Minister – that's out of touch with what Kiwis want and just takes New Zealand backwards. 'Laws that keep people healthy and safe, like requiring landlords to heat homes, would be at the whims of whether David Seymour thinks they're a good idea or not. It would make it harder to keep our air and rivers clean and reduce climate emissions. 'It's ironic that the man who thinks that women's pay is wasteful spending also thinks that we should be spending $18 million a year administering his new scheme for evaluating regulations. 'But it's no surprise, given that the whole show would be overseen by a board appointed by, and answerable to, David Seymour, giving him sign-off power over every minister and department. 'This Bill is a dangerous power grab that is not in the interests of the majority of New Zealanders,' Duncan Webb said.
Newsroom
21-05-2025
- Politics
- Newsroom
Labour and Greens queried possible punishments, Act took it further
Act MP Parmjeet Parmar only raised the idea of imprisoning MPs after her Privileges Committee colleagues requested information on the full range of penalties and international precedent. The advice was sought during deliberation of punishments for Te Pāti Māori MPs who performed a haka in the House during a vote on the Treaty Principles Bill last year. Parmar's request was singled out by Labour leader Chris Hipkins as a 'stain' on Parliament, but the committee members representing the Labour and the Green Parties also requested advice to the same effect as Parmar. The point of difference between Parmar's request and the requests made by Duncan Webb (Labour) and Ricardo Menendez-March (Greens) was the word 'imprisonment'. Parmar's fellow committee members requested advice from the Clerk of the House around the range of punishments available and international comparisons. Parmar went further, and specified that she would like advice on the full range from the minimum to imprisonment. In a statement the Act Party told Newsroom the specified range was 'an exercise to help the Committee to put any proposed penalty in context'. The party rejected claims that it argued in favour of imprisonment of MPs, but said 'we like to keep our options open'. Labour's committee representative Duncan Webb says he didn't ask specifically for imprisonment advice. 'I asked for international comparisons – we were discussing suspension. Despite suggestions to the contrary only the Act member was keen on imprisonment,' he says. Parmar's question was not asked in a vacuum. It followed requests made by the Green and Labour MPs around the possible punishments and, according to the Party, was intended to provide context around the maximum possible punishment. The Act Party rebuked criticisms of the three-week sentence, and instead called for further measures to be taken. The advice given to the committee, from the Clerk of the House David Wilson, recommended reaching broad consensus if intending to recommend a punishment that went beyond previously imposed. This did not happen. The Act Party was targeted by Te Pāti Māori during their haka, as the Treaty Principles Bill came from their leader David Seymour. This was ruled out of order by Speaker of the House Gerry Brownlee. In the six months that followed, the Privileges Committee deliberated on what the offending MPs would receive as punishment. Each party is represented on the committee by a senior member. Te Pāti Māori MPs did not engage with the committee after their request to appear as a group was rejected. Party leaders have previously expressed frustration with the mechanisms of a Western parliament, and have called for the formation of an alternative Māori parliament. A fourth MP, Labour's Peeni Henare, also joined the haka. He did not advance towards the Act MPs, and engaged with the Privileges Committee. Following an apology to the committee, Henare's sanctioning process concluded. The committee's final report detailed a majority recommendation to issue a three-week suspension to the co-leaders of Te Pāti Māori, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer and Rawiri Waititi, and a one-week suspension to MP Hana-Rāwhiti Maipi-Clarke, who initiated the haka. Their refusal to attend committee hearings was not considered in the sentencing. Previously, the longest suspension suggested by the committee – and agreed to by Parliament – was three days. Then-Prime Minister Robert Muldoon criticised the Speaker in a 1987 press release, netting him the suspension. In another departure from the norm, the committee's recommended suspension was not a unanimous opinion. Efforts to meet in the middle evidently failed, and the Government's majority won out. Leader of the House Chris Bishop said there was 'too much of a gap between the parties'. Hipkins said: 'It is wrong and against the traditions of our democracy for a Government to use its majority in Parliament to suspend and remove from the service of the people of New Zealand its political opponents.' Before eventually deciding to delay the vote to confirm the suspensions, House members delivered speeches. During Hipkins' speech, he said he was 'absolutely shocked' to learn a member of the committee had asked about the possibility of imprisoning another MP. He likened the behaviour to that of 'tinpot dictatorships and banana republics', and said 'the fact that the question was even asked is a stain on this House'.
Scoop
05-05-2025
- Politics
- Scoop
Mark Mitchell Wants Short Prison Sentences Scrapped In Hope Of Reducing Reoffending
Article – RNZ Labour's Justice spokesperson Duncan Webb says it's 'depressing' the government can't come up with better solutions. Lillian Hanly, Political reporter The Corrections Minister is looking at scrapping short prison sentences in favour of longer ones, in the hope of reducing reoffending. Mark Mitchell said people with longer sentences have more access to rehabilitation and therefore more successfully re-enter society. The idea is only being looked into, but it's Mitchell's preference if it led to fewer victims overall – even if it required building more prisons due to an increase in the prison population. 'When violent offenders receive short sentences or are released without proper rehabilitation, it puts the public at risk. I have asked Corrections to look into how short sentences relate to re-offending with a view of gaining a better understanding,' Mitchell told RNZ. 'We want to see offenders turn their lives around and become meaningful, contributing members of society. 'With that comes tough decisions to ensure serious crime leads to serious consequences, alongside investing in programmes that break the cycle of reoffending,' Mitchell said. The Opposition is scoffing at the idea though, with the Greens and Labour both saying it goes against the evidence and would come at a significant cost. Labour's Justice spokesperson Duncan Webb said it was 'depressing' the government couldn't come up with better solutions. 'It's the usual rhetoric about putting people in prison for long periods of time. 'We know that whilst imprisonment is necessary in some cases, in terms of reducing crime in the long term, putting everyone in prison simply doesn't work.' Webb said rehabilitation was 'absolutely' important, but said the lowest reoffending rates came from those who were sentenced to community sentences where they could access drug and alcohol programmes and rehabilitation programmes in the community. 'The correction system at the moment doesn't have the resources to deliver them. The community is the best place for that.' He said they had to address offending and risks of offending at the 'earliest possible stage,' and by the time people were put in prison 'you've missed the boat.' 'Prisons are a waste of money… they are unbelievably expensive to build and unbelievably expensive to manage,' Webb said. 'We should be putting money into where we can avoid crime, which is into education, into health, into addiction and into mental health and building more prisons is building a big concrete ambulance.' Mitchell, however, pushed back on the previous government's approach to corrections. 'For too long, the balance in our justice system has shifted away from accountability, and this government is taking action that puts victims first, ahead of offenders.' 'My top priority as Corrections Minister is keeping Corrections staff and New Zealanders safe,' he said. The Greens justice spokesperson Tamatha Paul told RNZ longer and harsher prison sentences do not lead to better outcomes. She said it was 'extremely expensive and costly', not just financially, but the 'human potential that it will waste, and the families that will be torn them apart for longer as a result of this policy.' Paul pointed to criminologists who considered the issue, and what happened in prisons, and said it was 'pretty clear' that 'sentencing is not a silver bullet.' 'The thing that this government loves to do is they like to create this assumption that every single person that is in prison has done a violent, heinous, serious crime. 'That is simply not the case.' She said the idea of making people stay in prison for longer because of 'public safety' didn't match up with who was actually in prison, given shorter sentences were due to more minor crimes like burglary or theft. Paul said the government seemed to think they could 'continue to just build prisons and prisons and prisons and keep filling them up' and that was good policy. 'The best policy decision would be actually reducing the drivers of crime, things like poverty, homelessness, mental health and addiction issues, the presence of drugs in our communities, those are the kinds of things that actually help to reduce crime.' She said researchers, criminologists, lawyers and judges had said this over the years, but 'we have a government that is completely agnostic towards that advice.'
Time of India
04-05-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
Ethnic communities in New Zealand's Christchurch hold vigil, denounce the Pahalgam terror attack
A memorial vigil occurred in Christchurch for tourists who died in the Kashmir terror attack. The Christchurch Bengali Community Inc organised the event KOLKATA: In Christchurch, the second-largest city in New Zealand, various communities gathered on Saturday to hold a memorial vigil for tourists who lost their lives in last month's tragic terror attack in Kashmir. Several families present at the vigil were personally impacted, having lost relatives and acquaintances in the Pahalgam incident. The memorial service, coordinated by Christchurch Bengali Community Inc, drew participation from numerous non-resident Indians and delegates from various ethnic groups, including the Canterbury Punjabi Association. Political representatives from across New Zealand's spectrum participated or shared messages of support, denouncing terrorism. You Can Also Check: Kolkata AQI | Weather in Kolkata | Bank Holidays in Kolkata | Public Holidays in Kolkata Labour Party MPs H Megan Woods and Duncan Webb attended personally, expressing strong condemnation of the attack and offering condolences to affected families. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Secure Your Child's Future with Strong English Fluency Planet Spark Learn More Undo Greater Christchurch parliamentarians from the National Party coalition, including Matt Doocey, Nicola Grigg, Vanessa Weenink, and Hamish Campbell, released a collective statement: 'New Zealand condemns the terrorist attack in Kashmir. We extend our deepest condolences to the victims, their families and all those affected.' Parmjeet Parmar of the ACT Party coalition shared this message: 'This is a tragic act of terror and hate, and I condemn it in the strongest terms. I am shocked and saddened by this senseless violence. My thoughts are with the victims, their loved ones, and all those affected. Those responsible for this terrible act must be brought to justice. Every human being has the inherent dignity to live in peace. Disputes must be resolved through dialogue and diplomacy, not through cowardly acts of brutality.' The commemoration, situated at the Bridge of Remembrance in central Christchurch, attracted diverse ethnic community members, including families with young children as young as 14 months. Saurabh Bose, representing Christchurch Bengali Community Inc Society, established the context by noting that the vigil honoured the victims, their families, and others vulnerable to global political violence. Arpan Mandal, chairperson of Christchurch Bengali Community Inc Society, strongly denounced the calculated attack that resulted in 26 fatalities and over 20 injuries. 'Terrorism and violence have no place in civil society, and we stand in solidarity with the innocent. This brutal act of terror has united the entire world and galvanised support for the Indian government to hold those responsible to bring those responsible for this terror act so that the victims and their families get justice. Our hearts are with the families of the victims whose lives were so cruelly ended by bullets,' said Mandal.
