After receiving only 2.7% of the votes and no electorate seats in this election, NZ First will not be returning to Parliament. This result means the end of our weekly chats with Tracey Martin. However, this piece contains some clips from the Minister's Facebook page where she discusses the election results and what this means moving forward. She also responds to poliical editor, Barry Soper, who blames NZ First's demise this election on their decision to form a coalition with Labour in 2017.
In her weekly chat with NZ First Minister Tracey Martin, Bronwyn asked about the Department of Internal Affairs using facial recognition software, NeoFace. The US company Datawork Plus who won the contract have faced privacy controversy overseas, making some hesitant about their involvement in New Zealand. In what seemed like a huge scandal, RNZ published an article with an Official Information Act request about the contract. Martin, as the Minister of Internal affairs, explains why she see the issue as having been wrongly reported.
In her weekly chat with NZ First's Tracey Martin, Bronwyn asks the Minister about the Māori Party’s proposal to replace Oranga Tamariki with an independent 'Mokopuna Māori Entity' to overlook the protection of Māori children in state care. The $600 million dollar plan was announced the other week in Whangārei by Māori Party candidate for Te Taitokerau, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi.
This week Jemima Huston speaks to New Zealand First's Tracey Martin about the new relationship and sexuality guidelines for schools as well as the party's views on LGBTQI+ policy and the Rainbow Election 2020 policy tool.
This week Bronwyn spoke to Minister Tracey Martin about phase two of the Keeping it Real Online campaign, which aims to keep young people safe from grooming, pornogrpahy and bullying in the digital age. They then spoke about low attendance rates at Auckland schools under alert level 2.5, along with the parental concerns and mixed messaging which may be to blame. They lastly talked about NZ First's support for the terrorist behind the Christchurch shootings being sent back to his home country, Australia to serve his sentence.
In her weekly chat with NZFirst Minster Tracey Martin, Bronwyn asked about the Children Commissioner, Andrew Becroft’s bid to Parliament to raise the minimum age of criminal responsibility from age 10 to 14. Jemima spoke to Andrew Becroft yesterday on the Wire, but as the Minister for Children, here are Minster Martin's thoughts.
They began however, with another children-related issue, a 52% drop in reports of concern being made to Oranga Tamariki in Auckland under alert level 3.
On Monday, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced that in light of the recent outbreak in community transmission of COVID-19, the election date will move to 17 October.
Bronwyn spoke to NZ First Minister Tracey Martin about the date change, as well as some of the misinformation about the Prime Minister's powers which has been spread by the National Party in recent days.
They also talk about the New $40 million Lottery COVID-19 Community Wellbeing Fund whic hwas annouced by the Minister yesterday.
This week Bronwyn spoke to Tracey Martin about the new $75.8 million dollar funding announcement for counselling in schools, which includes the first allocation for primary school counselling in New Zealand’s history. They also covered the announcement of $160 million dollars in funding for the the Ongoing Resourcing Scheme (ORS) which provides specialist teacher aide support to student with the highest learning needs. Lastly they spoke about the recent passing of an amendment of the Crimes Act definition of Female Genital Mutilation. This is particularly historic as it marks the first time a bill has been put forward signed by a female member of all four major parties.
This week Bronwyn spoke to Tracey about the party’s opposition to the $100 million Southland Recovery Package, especially in the context fo the Tiwai Aluminium Smelter. We also talked abut a number of issues that are topical in Parliament at the moment, such as paid mandatory managed isolation and code of conduct for MPs. Lastly, we spoke about the government's $20 million in regional funding to tackle methamphetamine use and what that means for families and children.
This week Bornwyn has her first weekly chat with Minister Tracey Martin. The two spoke about some policies arising from the party's campaign launch over the weekend. These included introducing one thousand frontline police officers, and a modern version of the Universal Family Benefit. They also spoke about New Zealand First as an "insurance against extremism in government" and some criticisms of that.
The interview also contains a discussion of the Sexual Violence Legislation Bill and why the party wants the Bill to be delayed for more discussion. However, with only a fews weeks left of Parliament for this year, it is unclear what result a delay would have on the passage of the Bill.