Latest news with #PriyancaRadhakrishnan
RNZ News
2 days ago
- Politics
- RNZ News
Oral Questions for Thursday 5 June 2025
Questions to Ministers TIM COSTLEY to the Minister of Transport: What announcements has he made about increasing the speed limit on State Highway 1? Hon BARBARA EDMONDS to the Minister of Finance: Does she stand by all her statements and actions? RIMA NAKHLE to the Minister for Tourism and Hospitality: What recent reports has she seen on tourism growth and international visitor spending? CAMERON LUXTON to the Associate Minister for the Environment: What recent announcements has he made about reforming freshwater rules? Hon JAN TINETTI to the Minister for Women: Does she stand by all her statements and actions regarding pay equity? Hon JULIE ANNE GENTER to the Minister of Transport: Are local road controlling authorities required to increase speed limits under the Government's policy if one of the reasons for a speed limit reduction since 2020 was proximity to a school, and are impacts on road safety a factor that allows local road controlling authorities to retain safe speeds on streets? JOSEPH MOONEY to the Minister of Conservation: What recent announcements has he made about Milford Sound? Hon PRIYANCA RADHAKRISHNAN to the Minister of Conservation: Has he received any advice on the impact of Conservation funding cuts on jobs and communities; if so, how many jobs have been identified as at risk? SUZE REDMAYNE to the Minister for Hunting and Fishing: What recent announcements has he made in the Hunting and Fishing portfolio? STEVE ABEL to the Minister of Agriculture: Does he agree with the Prime Minister that New Zealand farmers are the "No. 1 most carbon-efficient in the world"; if so, on what factual basis? SHANAN HALBERT to the Minister for Vocational Education: Has the Treasury advised the Government that "Demand for tertiary education and training is currently forecast to exceed the volume able to be funded"; if so, what advice has she received about the potential for job losses at New Zealand's Institutes of Technology and Polytechnics, and universities? TAKUTA FERRIS to the Minister for Vocational Education: Does she stand by all her statements and actions? To embed this content on your own webpage, cut and paste the following: See terms of use.
Time of India
26-05-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
New Zealand minister says Indians send her spam emails asking for immigration advice, Indian-origin MP objects
New Zealand's immigration minister Erica Stanford came under fire after she said in parliament that Indians spam her inbox with emails asking for immigration advice. Indian-origin Labour MP Priyanca Radhakrishnan took offence over the remarks and said it is "careless at best and prejudiced at worst". Tired of too many ads? go ad free now According to reports, the incident took place earlier this month when Labour's Willow-Jean Prime asked Erica Stanford, a National MP, to confirm every single email related to her ministerial portfolios, which had ever been sent to or from her personal email account, had been captured for official record. This question had no connection to India and was asked to her as a day before Stanford said she used her personal email account for work purposes, including sending herself pre-Budget announcements for print-outs. "I have complied with the Official Information Act. I have also made sure that everything is available to be captured and have forwarded everything that I've needed to my parliamentary email address," Stanford said in response to the Labour MP's question. "I will acknowledge, though, in a very similar case to Kelvin Davis, I receive a lot of unsolicited emails like, for example, things from people in India asking for immigration advice, which I never respond to. I almost regard those as being akin to spam, and so there are those ones. But, similarly, other ministers have had probably very similar issues." 'If you are from India...' Priyanca Radhakrishnan posts a message Chennai-born Priyanca Radhakrishnan, a former minister of ethnic communities, wrote about this incident on her Facebook making clear how offended she was by the statement. "Earlier this week, in response to a question by @willowjeanprime the Immigration Minister felt the need to single out people from one country/ethnicity in a negative light. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now If you're from India, don't bother emailing her because it's automatically considered spam. So much for the National govt's all-of-government focus on strengthening the relationship between India & NZ and focus on people-to-people links," Radhakrishnan wrote. 'Comments like these serve to reinforce negative stereotypes against an entire community of people," Radhakrishnan told Indian Weekender. Stanford said she did not say they are spam. "I said 'I almost regard those as being akin to spam'."
RNZ News
15-05-2025
- Politics
- RNZ News
Stanford spars with Radhakrishnan over email ‘spam' remark in House
Erica Stanford (left); Priyanca Radhakrishnan (right) Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone A Labour MP of Indian origin has accused the immigration minister of painting migrants in a "negative light" during an answer to a question in Parliament last week. On 6 May, Labour's Willow-Jean Prime asked Erica Stanford, a National MP, to confirm every single email related to her ministerial portfolios, which had ever been sent to or from her personal email account, had been captured for official record. The question followed revelations a day earlier that Stanford had used her personal email account for work purposes, including sending herself pre-Budget announcements to print out. "I have complied with the Official Information Act. I have also made sure that everything is available to be captured and have forwarded everything that I've needed to my parliamentary email address," Stanford said in response to the Labour MP's question. "I will acknowledge, though, in a very similar case to Kelvin Davis, I receive a lot of unsolicited emails like, for example, things from people in India asking for immigration advice, which I never respond to. I almost regard those as being akin to spam, and so there are those ones. But, similarly, other ministers have had probably very similar issues." Priyanca Radhakrishnan, a former minister of ethnic communities, made her displeasure with the remark about unsolicited emails from India clear in a social media post on 10 May. "Earlier this week, in response to a question by @willowjeanprime the Immigration Minister felt the need to single out people from one country/ethnicity in a negative light," Radhakrishnan wrote. "If you're from India, don't bother emailing her because it's automatically considered spam. So much for the National govt's all-of-government focus on strengthening the relationship between India and NZ and focus on people-to-people links." Radhakrishnan was referring to Prime Minister Christopher Luxon's recent call for an "all of New Zealand" investment in the country's relationship with India. Stanford claimed Radhakrishnan's assertion was "incorrect". "As I advised the House, I receive unsolicited emails from people overseas to my personal email address, often requesting personal immigration advice," Stanford said. "In this instance, I recalled a recent email I'd received of this nature when answering in Question Time. I did not say it is automatically considered as spam, I said 'I almost regard those as being akin to spam'. "While these people are attempting to contact me as the minister of immigration, I have no ministerial responsibility for providing non-citizens with immigration advice, nor do my officials at Immigration NZ have any responsibility. "Therefore, these emails to my personal email address are not responded to. Emails sent to my official email addresses are managed appropriately by my office."
India Today
24-04-2025
- Politics
- India Today
Indian-origin MPs present bills on virginity tests, liquor sales in New Zealand
Two Indian-origin MPs in New Zealand have introduced members' bills to tackle important social issues. While the bill presented by Priyanca Radhakrishnan was aimed at criminalising virginity testing and hymenoplasty, the one by Parmjeet Parmar sought a balance between alcohol licensing and community is an MP from the Opposition Labour Party. She became New Zealand's first-ever Indian-origin minister in whose bill is aimed at ensuring a fair and transparent process in alcohol licensing, is from the ACT Party, which is part of the ruling coalition. She has been an MP since TESTING A VIOLATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS: KIWI MP Radhakrishnan, the former Labour minister, called for virginity testing and hymenoplasty to be criminalised, citing violations of women's human also known as hymen repair surgery, is carried out with the intention of giving the appearance of having preserved 44, who has been a lawmaker since 2017, has proposed the Crimes (Virginity Testing Practices) Amendment Bill which "seeks to protect vulnerable women and girls by amending the Crimes Act 1961 to introduce new offences that criminalise virginity testing and the related practice of hymenoplasty", Radio New Zealand (RNZ) reported on many societies around the world, purity before marriage is an expectation. In some cases, this gets taken further and the expectation is to prove it," RNZ quoted the Indian-origin MP as saying."This is not a cultural practice; it's rooted in patriarchy and is a human rights violation. Only women are expected to be pure and only women are punished if they're not," she added."The UK has already banned virginity testing and hymenoplasty, and the World Health Organisation has called for its global ban. It's time New Zealand also recognises this form of gendered abuse and acts to end it," she said she received support from the community for the bill. Notably, her work has centered on empowering the voiceless, including domestic violence survivors and exploited migrant BILL AIMS TO MAKE LIQUOR LICENSING FAIRERParmar, an ACT Party MP since 2023, was a National Party MP from 2014 to Sale and Supply of Alcohol (Participation in Licensing Decisions) Amendment Bill "seeks to strike a balance between the rights of licensed businesses and the interests of the local community by ensuring a fair and transparent process for the application and renewal of liquor licenses", according to the RNZ said she introduced the bill to streamline alcohol licensing, aiming to reduce costs and uncertainty for businesses, after being alerted to issues by a business association."Many liquor shops are now having to spend significant amounts of time and money on consultants and lawyers to seek help against the uncertainty they face for the future of their business. The individuals who own these shops have invested their hard-earned savings and often have their homes mortgaged to build a life for themselves and their families," Radio New Zealand quoted Parmar as saying."It is important that we have a balanced approach that respects the rights of legitimate businesses along with the interests of the community in the vicinity," she to her, the bill aims to balance business rights and community interests by introducing a fair and transparent liquor licensing IS MEMBERS' BILL IN NEW ZEALAND PARLIAMENT?Members' bills are bills introduced by members who are not ministers. Every second Wednesday the House gives precedence to local, private, and members' bills. On these days, members' bills are debated, according to the New Zealand Parliament's official each members' day, at least eight members' bills must be listed on the Order Paper for consideration. When a spot opens up, a ballot is held to decide which new bills will be introduced. MPs can enter their bills into the ballot by submitting a notice of proposal and a copy of the bill to the House Office — this can be done on any working submitted, the proposed bill is published on the Parliament website, where other members can publicly show their support before the ballot takes place. If 61 or more non-executive members indicate support for a members' bill, it gets introduced without needing to be selected through the two bills presented by the Indian-origin MPs in New Zealand deal with crucial issues on women's rights and community welfare.
RNZ News
24-04-2025
- Politics
- RNZ News
No virginity testing and amending alcohol licensing rules on Indian origin MPs agenda
Labour's Priyanca Radhakrishnan and ACT's Parmjeet Parmar look to be the only MPs of Indian origin in the next parliamentary term. Photo: RNZ / Supplied The two MPs of Indian origin in the current Parliament - Labour's Priyanca Radhakrishnan and ACT's Parmjeet Parmar - have lodged private members' bills on issues important to them. Radhakrishnan, who has been a lawmaker since 2017, has proposed the Crimes (Virginity Testing Practices) Amendment Bill which "seeks to protect vulnerable women and girls by amending the Crimes Act 1961 to introduce new offences that criminalise virginity testing and the related practice of hymenoplasty". Meanwhile Parmar, who has been an ACT Party MP since 2023 (she was a National Party MP earlier between 2014-2020), has proposed the Sale and Supply of Alcohol (Participation in Licensing Decisions) Amendment Bill, which "seeks to strike a balance between the rights of licensed businesses and the interests of the local community by ensuring a fair and transparent process for the application and renewal of liquor licenses". According to Parliamentary rules, members' bills are bills introduced by members who are not ministers. "Every second Wednesday the House gives precedence to local, private, and members' bills. On these days members' bills are debated," the Parliament website says. "At least eight members' bills awaiting first reading must be on the Order Paper on each members' day. When a space on the Order Paper becomes available, a ballot is held to decide which members' bill(s) will be introduced. "Members enter bills in the ballot by lodging notices of proposal with the House Office and providing a copy of the proposed bill. "The proposed bill is then posted on the website and members can publicly indicate their support for the bill prior to the ballot." Importantly, if 61 or more non-executive members indicate support for a member's bill, the bill will be introduced without needing to be selected through the ballot, according to the Parliament rules and procedure. Calling virginity testing and hymenoplasty invasive and harmful practices, with no medical or scientific basis, the former Labour minister wants these practices to be formally recognised as a crime because these violate a woman's human rights. "In many societies around the world, purity before marriage is an expectation. In some cases, this gets taken further and the expectation is to prove it," Radhakrishnan said. "This is not a cultural practice; it's rooted in patriarchy and is a human rights violation. Only women are expected to be pure and only women are punished if they're not." Claiming great support from the community for the bill, Radhakrishnan said she had worked on similar issues before entering the Parliament, where human rights violations had been guised as cultural practices. "I am aware [that] these issues often remain hidden," she said. "The UK has already banned virginity testing and hymenoplasty, and the World Health Organisation has called for its global ban. It's time New Zealand also recognises this form of gendered abuse and acts to end it." Claiming her party ACT "is determined to unwind cumbersome red tape that imposes unnecessary cost, stress, and uncertainty on businesses", Parmar said she was made aware of issues in alcohol licensing by a business association. "Many liquor shops are now having to spend significant amounts of time and money on consultants and lawyers to seek help against the uncertainty they face for the future of their business. The individuals who own these shops have invested their hard-earned savings and often have their homes mortgaged to build a life for themselves and their families," the lawmaker said. "It is important that we have a balanced approach that respects the rights of legitimate businesses along with the interests of the community in the vicinity." Parmar said her bill sought to strike a balance between the rights of licensed businesses and the interests of the local community by ensuring a fair and transparent process for the application and renewal of liquor licences. "[Her] bill defines who is eligible to oppose an application for, or renewal of, a liquor licence, with a focus on those parties most affected by the operation of the business," she added. "It also seeks to provide certainty to licensed outlets in the event of a new sensitive site appearing nearby that under current legislation could threaten a licence renewal." The ACT Party's ethnic communities spokesperson pushed back on suggestions it (issues with alcohol licensing) was an Indian community issue. "This is [because] a significant number of liquor outlets are owned by Kiwi Indians. To me it is important such distracting perspectives are not allowed to overshadow the real concern. My commitment is to ensure our policies create fair and just business environment for all legitimate business regardless of business owners' ethnic backgrounds," Parmar said. "I am quite confident that I will be able to get the support needed for it [when the bill is drawn from the ballot] to pass into law."
