Mourning the loss of a Kiwi icon
On Tuesday I attended the funeral of Sir Howard Morrison in Rotorua, where many hundreds of Kiwis paid their last respects to an iconic New Zealander.
Sir Howard’s unique brand of charisma and cheekiness, his skill as an entertainer and fine voice will be greatly missed by all of us. He was a prominent figure in our lives for such a long time.
Like Billy T James, he was larger than life and could make us laugh at ourselves. In doing so, he helped bring Maori and non Maori closer together.
I was three when the Howard Morrison Quartet formed and 10 when it disbanded – the group was one of the earliest stars of TV in New Zealand – and the fact that I can remember my age at the time shows the impact Sir Howard had.
But he was more than an entertainer. He worked tirelessly over the decades for causes which were close to his heart, particularly in promoting and supporting the advancement of young people.
He was closely associated with or founded a number of charitable organisations including Tu Tangata Programme, the Life and Education Trust and Books in Homes.
Sir Howard was a great ambassador for Ngati Whakaue, Te Arawa, the people of Rotorua and New Zealand.
His was a life lived in full. May he rest in peace.
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Upcoming visit to the US
On Friday I leave for a 10-day trip to the US.
During the visit, I and Labour’s Trade spokesperson Maryan Street will meet various groups and US government officials to discuss issues ranging from regional security in the Asia Pacific to the global recession and the NZ-US trading relationship.
Uppermost among these appointments is this year’s US-NZ Partnership Forum in Washington. I am a founding member of the forum which was set up to foster and develop links between our two countries.
This year it is to be chaired by former PMs Mike Moore and Jim Bolger on the Kiwi side and former Congressman Cal Dooley and former Trade Representative Susan Schwab on the US side.
Susan was the Bush government’s trade representative with whom I negotiated last year for the US to begin talks to enter the Trans Pacific (P4) trade agreement – which will be of huge benefit to New Zealand.
We will also call on State Department, Agriculture and Defence government officials, members of Obama’s election campaign team, the World Bank, the IMF, senior world economists and a number of key progressive Washington think tanks.
Finally, we will meet Helen Clark and other senior UN executives to talk about global security and international economic issues.
Changes to the EFA – National looks as if it is screwing the scrum
Labour welcomes some of the proposals National has put up to reform our electoral law, but we are concerned that rules around secret donations to political parties will be designed to suit its purposes.
We believe the three most important principles in terms of electoral law reform should be fairness between political parties, freedom of expression and transparency.
The current regime on donations doesn’t promote transparency. National disclosed the source of just $130,000 in donations and Labour $420,000, though both spent more than $2 million each.
While National’s proposal paper seeks submissions on other issues, it is silent on the donations regime – it has clearly already made up its mind.
That is an extremely worrying sign. Electoral law is a highly contentious area that goes to the heart of any democracy. New Zealand needs one that is fair and durable.
Power company dividends too high
News this week that another SOE power company is paying hundreds of millions of dollar in dividends to the government will be of cold comfort to the many Kiwi families who are struggling to pay their power bills.
In the past two months two government-owned power companies have paid more than $500 million in dividends to the government. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Economic Development's New Zealand Energy Outlook to 2030 predicts that wholesale electricity prices will rise by 40 per cent over the next 20 years.
The Government has told the SOEs that the recession is no excuse to cut dividends. Labour thinks that is wrong. Ever-increasing power bills hit people on limited incomes the hardest.
Instead of demanding ever higher dividends, the Government should only accept what is required to meet future power generation capacity.
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