Latest news with #RachelBrooking
Otago Daily Times
2 days ago
- Politics
- Otago Daily Times
Protest calls for action over starvation in Gaza
Joining those gathered in the Octagon on Saturday to demand stronger action on the humanitarian crisis in Gaza were (from left) Labour MPs Damien O'Connor, Rachel Brooking, Ingrid Leary and Dunedin city councillor Christine Garey. PHOTO: SUPPLIED About 400 people gathered at the Octagon on Saturday afternoon demanding stronger action regarding the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. A report on the event said speakers called for an end to what they described as an engineered mass starvation of Palestinians and demanded the New Zealand Government impose sanctions on Israel and pressure Egypt to open its borders to allow food aid to the war-torn strip. Palestinian community member Rula Talahma made an emotional plea for Palestinians to see the same level of action that New Zealand had taken against Russia when it invaded Ukraine that involved economic sanctions including on individuals associated with the regime. Dr Talahma said New Zealanders were tired of the government's "virtue signalling" after 658 days of "irreversible damage' in Gaza, especially in the context of images from the past week of starving children and hundreds of food trucks blockaded from entry through the borders. "Stop with the lip-syncing filling us with void words and promises," she said. "The time is running out. The suffering in Gaza is real and immense, deeply disturbing." Green party co-leader Chloe Swarbrick addressed the march with a message of solidarity, she said hope lay in the hands of ordinary people who should be making demands of their MPs — otherwise there was no point to their jobs. Five other MPs attended, including Ingrid Leary, Rachel Brooking and Damien O'Connor from Labour, with local Green MPs Francisco Hernandez and Scott Willis as well as Dunedin city councillors Christine Garey and Marie Laufiso. The UN agency for Palestinians said it had thousands of truckloads of supplies near Gaza waiting to deliver aid. Save the Children UK reported more than 10 children per day have lost one or both of their legs in the past 16 months. March organisers welcomed new faces and said it was never too late to try to end what they described as a genocide. — Allied Media
Otago Daily Times
7 days ago
- Politics
- Otago Daily Times
Space Bill debate: I think it's gonna be a long, long time
Dunedin Labour MP Rachel Brooking speaking in the house earlier in the year. Photo: Parliament TV Rachel Brooking gets plenty of time speaking in the House on her main portfolio responsibilities. However the Dunedin Labour MP seldom gets the opportunity to put her party Space spokeswoman astronaut helmet on ... at least not until this week, when the government unexpectedly took urgency to push through all stages of the Outer Space and High-altitude Activities Amendment Bill. It is rare for a government to push through an entire law change in 24 hours — pandemic safety requirements or Budget-critical law changes are recent occasions. Security is another reason for haste, and Space Minister Judith Collins said that law change was needed to manage "risks to the national interest posed by the misuse of ground-based space infrastructure". All very James Bond. She later expanded on that, saying that during the past five years "there have been several deceptive efforts by foreign actors to establish and/or use ground-based space infrastructure in New Zealand to harm our national security." Eek! It turns out that the existing law does a good job of covering things happening at high altitude or in actual orbit, but a rubbish job of ensuring that the terrestrial operators of that high tech were authorised, risks were properly assessed, and that enforcement powers were available when needed. "By introducing a clear and modern framework for ground-based infrastructure, we are enforcing New Zealand's reputation as a responsible spacefaring nation," Ms Collins concluded ... and who wouldn't want to live in one of those nations? Certainly not Ms Brooking, who agreed that this country's ventures to infinity and beyond — especially those which emanate from nearby Awarua — needed to be regulated so that they were in the national interest. But ... and there is always a but ... she was not happy that the law change to protect "ground-based infrastructure" such as satellite tracking stations and telemetry systems was rocketing through Parliament. "I understand there may have been some prior consultation on aspects of it, but in general nobody has been having any public discussion about this Bill, and so there may be parts of it that have inadvertent, unintended consequences," she said. "So we do want to go through, in the committee stage, and take it seriously so that we all understand the Bill as best as we can. And I hope the minister is of that view." Given that "taking it seriously" entailed debate taking up all of Tuesday and a decent chunk of Wednesday, Ms Collins' view may have steadily become less favourable as things progressed. What Ms Brooking wanted — and given the circumstances it seemed a not unreasonable request— was a post-enactment review of the law. Her proposed amendment to add one was ruled out of order, but Associate Defence Minister Chris Penk (subbing for Ms Collins) left that "thoughtful suggestion" firmly anchored to the launch pad: "The Minister for Space feels — and I, in her place, am happy to relay but also support the notion — that we don't need to specify a mandated review mechanism, be it in front of the intelligence and security committee or, indeed, the foreign affairs, defence and trade committee as per the original proposal." Thus stymied, Ms Brooking moved into fresh fields of inquiry, such as the Bill conferring the minister with the authority to stop providing electricity or internet services to any offending space infrastructure: "are there any examples of that sort of thing happening anywhere else in the world?" she wondered. Mr Penk said the idea, essentially, was to "buy a bit of time" while someone figured out what to do next. Options which the legislation said, "may include, without limitation," — which offers quite the toolbox to utilise. "It's deliberately not excluding the range of conditions or actions that might be taken — noting, of course, that in this highly technical realm and with developing technology, it might well be the case that there are conditions or actions that might be necessary in the future that we're not able to contemplate now," he added, opening the possibility of all kinds of science fiction ideas being placed in a future Space Minister's hands. Which sounds preposterous — but so, too, and not too long ago, did the idea of New Zealand having a space industry. Hence, eventually, the Bill became law. Hard quiz You know that Tuesday was a big day because Dunedin Green list MP Francisco Hernandez had dug out a tie. He had to wait a long time to display his sartorial splendour, but eventually he got to ask Q12 — just his second primary question in the House — to the Minister of Universities, on the establishment of the new Waikato medical school. As it turned out, the minister was not in the building, so Mr Hernandez instead quizzed Health Minister Simeon Brown — which, one suspects, Mr Hernandez was quite pleased by. It was a good quizzing too, as Mr Hernandez asked pertinent questions such as: will it build a strong, more diverse work force, as claimed; will it generate new doctors faster than the proposal to increase class sizes at Otago and Auckland universities, and — quite frankly — just why does the government think building a new medical school is a good idea when there are two perfectly good ones already, which have the capacity and willingness to expand their rolls? The answers were not that pertinent sadly, Mr Brown favouring sloganeering — such as "we're getting on with it and we're delivering"; "this is a great day for New Zealand"; and "Just say yes. Get on the side of the positive news this is for our country, rather than keeping on complaining." However, keeping on complaining is exactly what Mr Hernadez is likely do. Firstly, about the still unreleased business case which underpinned the decision — which the government said on Monday would be proactively released, and which as of late yesterday was still not public. And secondly, when it finally does see the light of day — and it should have done when the post-Cabinet announcement was made — if the arguments in it do not seem to back up a final decision which has huge ramifications for the University of Otago.
Scoop
25-07-2025
- Politics
- Scoop
Space, Spies, Stalking, And Extra Sittings
, Editor: The House The House took urgency on Tuesday evening which extended Tuesday's sitting until lunchtime Wednesday, then it returned on Thursday morning - that time as an extended sitting. As a result, most select committees are not meeting this week. Some have had to cancel their plans or squeeze some work in at lunchtime. With a few exceptions - and excepting bills that committees are given special permission to consider outside normal rules - Select Committees and the House cannot sit at the same time. Spare a thought for submitters and those who schedule them, who have had their plans upended again by urgency. The opposition did ask the Leader of the House last Thursday whether there would be urgency this week but was told to "wait and see". Last minute reveals of urgency are not unusual. Extended sittings (like Thursday morning) are signposted a week or two in advance, but usually little warning is given for urgency. Bills under urgency Tuesday's urgency was aimed at two bills - one relating to space and the other about international crime cooperation. The Outer Space and High-altitude Activities Amendment Bill isn't so much about space as it is about the ground bases for satellites or other extra-terrestrial objects. The Minister for Space, Judith Collins was the bill's sponsor. "This bill introduces a new authorisation regime for ground-based space infrastructure. Until now, these activities have not been subject to a dedicated regulatory framework." The reason for the bill, revealed in the second reading debate, upped the interest. "During the past five years, there have been several deceptive efforts by foreign actors to establish and/or use ground-based space infrastructure in New Zealand to harm our national security. They have deliberately disguised their affiliations to foreign militaries and misrepresented their intentions. To date, these risks have been managed through non-regulatory measures, including relying on the goodwill of ground-based infrastructure operators. These measures are no longer enough." That sounds like the pitch for a thriller just begging to be written. This was a bill that the parties largely agreed on. They even agreed that urgency was reasonable, but opposition speakers complained about the push-push pace of urgency after the Committee Stage, as governing-party MPs worked to abbreviate what Labour's Rachel Brooking called "very civil, thoughtful debates." The pace really started to drag once the Budapest Convention and Related Matters Legislation Amendment Bill was the focus. Its sponsor, Minister of Justice, Paul Goldsmith said the bill "aligns New Zealand's laws with the requirements of the Council of Europe Convention on Cybercrime, also known as the Budapest Convention. The Budapest Convention is the first binding international treaty on cyber-crime, and it aligns members' national laws relating to computer-related offences, improves investigative techniques, and streamlines evidence sharing." Labour supported the bill but played hardball in the Committee Stage, concerned about the possibility of the convention leading to New Zealand accidentally helping countries that don't share our values control their citizens. Duncan Webb put it like this. "We need to be vigilant that we are not being unwittingly used to further either political ends or to allow a foreign state to pursue a proceeding against something that might be a crime in a foreign nation, but it certainly isn't a crime in New Zealand and shouldn't be something for which criminal sanction follows." The opposition made the Committee Stage of the Budapest bill last through most of the rest of Wednesday. The government's original plan was to pass it through all remaining stages, but late on Wednesday evening, they abandoned it after the Committee Stage and moved on to their other priorities. The Budapest Convention Bill was left with just a third reading to complete. Those were not the only interesting bills under discussion this week. Three other bills are of particular interest, relating to Health, Secondary Legislation, and Stalking. Other key bills - Health Tuesday saw the first reading of the Healthy Futures (Pae Ora) Amendment Bill which will now be considered by the Health Select Committee. Among its measures, that bill enacts health targets, and also alters or removes Māori consultation and obligations from the health administration. The Minister of Health, Simeon Brown described his bill succinctly. "This bill is about cutting through bureaucracy, restoring accountability, and most importantly, putting patients first." Opposition MPs had numerous gripes including this one from Dr. Tracey McLellan, regarding bringing Health New Zealand under the public service obligation for staff neutrality. "That is a chilling thing to do. Frontline health workers who have a professional obligation, an ethical and a legal obligation to call out things that they see in their professional practice. It is not political, it is professional, and they should not, in any way, shape, or form, have this hanging over them, this concept of-the misuse of-public service neutrality." Other key bills - Regulation Also on Tuesday, the Legislation Amendment Bill had a first reading and now heads to the Justice Committee for public feedback. The Legislation Amendment Bill has been in development for a few years, and among its aims are making secondary legislation (e.g. regulations) more easily accessible and more likely to be pruned once obsolete. Secondary legislation includes all of the various kinds of laws that don't come directly from a piece of legislation but from power that legislation delegates to ministers, ministries, agencies, councils etc. There is much more secondary legislation than primary legislation but it isn't as easy to search or access. Primary legislation is all stored on a legislation website managed by the Parliamentary Counsel Office (PCO); currently secondary legislation is not. In debate, Labour's Camilla Belich observed that, "the main big change will be the single point of access that it will allow to secondary legislation. The point of the work that we do is to try and make sure that when either primary legislation or secondary legislation has an impact on people's lives, they have access to that. It shouldn't be something which is hidden away and it shouldn't be something which is difficult to find." Don't confuse the Legislation Amendment Bill with ACT's Regulatory Standards Bill which is also going through parliament and which appears to be trying to do something rather different. The Regulatory Standards Bill has influenced the shape of the Legislation Amendment Bill though, which Opposition MPs were unhappy with in debate, despite supporting the wider effort. Other key bills - Stalking The Crimes Legislation (Stalking and Harassment) Amendment Bill had its second reading late on Wednesday. It creates a new offence specific to stalking and harassment and the myriad forms that these can take. It includes indirect harassment like undermining reputation, opportunities or relationships. The bill itself is a fascinating read as an example of how much cleverness is required to effectively draft law for crime that is, by definition, quite nebulous. Policy staff at Justice and legal drafters at PCO may have taken to heart the idiom 'to catch a criminal, you have to think like one'. National minister Erica Stanford outlined changes made to the bill as a result of public feedback to the Select Committee. "To be convicted of the new offence, the prosecution will need to prove the person engaged in a pattern of behaviour towards their victim. The committee recommended a broader definition for the pattern of behaviour. The offence will now require two specified acts within two years, rather than three specified acts within one year. This broadens the pattern of behaviour by capturing fewer acts across a longer time frame. I agree that this change will better address strategies such as anniversary-based stalking..." "A further recommendation made by the committee was to add doxing to the list of "specified act". Doxing is the publication of personal information such as addresses or contact details, including whether a stalker claims to be their victim. It encourages third parties to contact, threaten, and intimidate the victim…" "The committee also added two further important amendments to the bill. Firstly, to allow the courts to order the destruction of intimate visual to allow a court to make restraining [orders], firearm prohibition [orders], and Harmful Digital Communications Act orders, where a defendant is discharged without convictions." One more for the road - Espionage There are other bills of note on the Order Paper that the government would have hoped to progress, but progress this week has been slow. Opposition MPs have taken their time working through bills in the committee of the whole House, whether they support them or not. This will likely annoy the government, but thoroughly testing bills is the job of all MPs in the House. That sluggish pace meant the second reading of the Parliament Bill also slipped down the Order Paper (along with the third reading of the Budapest Convention Bill). One bill the House may reach is worth noting. The Crimes (Countering Foreign Interference) Amendment Bill would be a second espionage-related bill for the week. This one hopes to plug gaps in the law around things like treason, espionage and even incitement to mutiny. *RNZ's The House, with insights into Parliament, legislation and issues, is made with funding from Parliament's Office of the Clerk. Enjoy our articles or podcast at RNZ.
Otago Daily Times
23-07-2025
- Business
- Otago Daily Times
Call for release of business case
Pressure is mounting on the government to release the business case it says justified its decision to approve a new medical school at Waikato University. Dunedin Labour MP Rachel Brooking said the figures were so different to the original proposal for the medical school that "everyone is in the dark" and the business case needed to be released immediately. The government would yesterday only say the business case would be released "soon". In 2023, National pledged $280 million for a third medical school at Waikato University, with the university to raise a further $100m. The government will now pour $83m into the new Hamilton-based school and Waikato University will have to find more than $150m for its contribution. Ms Brooking said it was unclear how the government got to a point where the numbers had changed so dramatically. "The government talks about a medical school with a focus on rural doctors, but at no stage have they referred to all the good work Otago University does in training rural doctors through their pathways programmes. "Otago has been focused on a medical workforce that reflects our community." Dunedin Mayor Jules Radich said he did not believe "we will ever see it". The cost-effective decision would have been to put more money into Otago and Auckland's medical schools, he said. It was "very disappointing for Dunedin and the wider region and the whole of the South Island", but he did not have immediate concerns for Otago Medical School, he said. The Waikato medical school is expected to open in 2028, with its first intake tipped to be about 120 students. "Now, it remains to be seen how well it works out, but it won't impact on the other medical schools — I don't think it will make much difference to Otago Medical School other than restricting the possibility of expansion that it certainly had." Former Otago University academic Prof Robin Gauld, now executive dean of Bond Business School at Bond University in Queensland, said the public needed to have all the facts. Most people would conclude this was a politically driven decision, he said. "I think it's a blow to [Otago and Auckland universities] and their ambition to increase the level of training. "They've said they could step up and do more if the support is there. But having said that the universities will continue to do what they've always done very well — which is to train world-class doctors." Prof Gauld said in the short term, the decision to establish a new medical school could actually slow down the process of training new doctors, given that the investment would now be going into a new medical school rather than increasing placements in existing programmes. A lot of the discussions would have happened behind closed doors, he said. "I think Waikato was in a slightly less favourable or enviable position. "They've obviously put together a kind of a business model that shows that they're going to reach some break-even or profit-turning position at some stage in the foreseeable future, maybe within the next five or 10 years."
Otago Daily Times
09-05-2025
- Politics
- Otago Daily Times
Govt says do be hasty
You may have had a bad week but it's probably nothing compared with the week Dunedin Labour MP Rachel Brooking has had. Ms Brooking has oscillated between outrage, anger, despair and disgust during the course of the past few days as the government took urgency to pass two Bills which she was deeply affronted by: the Equal Pay Amendment Bill and the Wildlife (Authorisations) Amendment Bill. Ms Brooking's dudgeon was in equal parts: she took extreme exception to both the content of the Bills, and the manner in which each was passed in all stages by the government, under urgency. Before the House went into recess three weeks ago, no indication was given by the government that it intended to go into urgency, nor that it intended to rush through two such controversial pieces of legislation. Given the circumstances, the Opposition did rather well to keep argument on both law changes going for a couple of sitting days. Depending on which side of the House you sat on, the Equal Pay Amendment Bill was either an exercise in providing a better framework for assessing whether there was ''a sex-based undervaluation in remuneration in female-dominated occupations'', or a horrible and unfair piece of legislation. We know Ms Brooking is in camp B given those are her words, not mine. ''We are going to take every opportunity to try and amend this terrible legislation that we think is a disgrace,'' she added for good measure. Through Tuesday and Wednesday Ms Brooking took seven calls on the Bill (Taieri Labour MP Ingrid Leary and Dunedin Green list MP Francisco Hernandez were also often on their feet) teasing out the minutae of the Bill as only she can. ''Where the current legislation, back at 13F, has things that are included for consideration, and that happens at subsection (3) - it uses ''including'' - at subsections (1) and (2), it has to be everything; there are and's included,'' she said in part 2 of the committee stage, before going on to quite the discussion about the difference between ''view'' and ''views'' - any port in a filibuster storm. The Opposition was not just posturing here: they had a legitimate point to make, Whether you agree with the law change or not, whether you believe it was a cynical attempt to balance the government's books by deferring a contingent liability or not, it was a terrible use of urgency to pass the Bill in a matter of hours. Given the decades of struggle it has taken for the concept of pay equity to gain purchase, profound changes to the way the system of achieving it operates warranted full discussion from affected parties rather than this week's rush job. As a lawyer, Ms Brooking was understandably vexed by the entire process. Having fought in vain for 48 hours, Ms Brooking was back for more almost immediately, as the Wildlife (Authorisations) Amendment Bill hoved into view. The Opposition had slightly more of an inclination that this one was coming, it being well publicised that the government had not been best pleased at a recent High Court decision that it was unlawful for the Department of Conservation to authorise the killing of wildlife unless there was a direct link between killing and protecting wildlife. Permissions had been given in the past for consented construction works, such as the Mt Messenger road in Taranaki, which occasioned this lawsuit. The government, fearful that its infrastructure building programme could be interfered with, has moved to reverse the court's findings. Having sat in the family station wagon many a time as a child as it scaled Mt Messenger Southern Say has some sympathy with those who want the road built, but the wider point that Ms Brooking and others were making against the Bill - that its clawback on protections for wildlife could be far-reaching and fraught with unintended consequences - was a reasonable one. This Bill is a stopgap before a much-needed overhaul of the antediluvian Wildlife Act, but given that tidy-up is likely many months away it may well be in force for some time, making it all the more important that a decent period of deliberation be taken to passing it. By lunchtime Thursday Ms Brooking was fed up to the back teeth with it all and let rip in her third-reading speech. ''I have tried over and over again to try and engage with the minister about how it is that the words in his Bill make sense, how it is that they don't contradict each other ... this Bill is a hot mess. I mean, it just shows the craziness of using urgency for all stages, particularly when the policy problem has only arisen recently, so there's clearly not been much time to develop that. ''That is why we are opposing this Bill. It is a dreadful process. The government doesn't know what it's doing, and shame on them.'' That is as may be, but it is now the law.
