Greens Victory – Sue Bradford – Parliament Numbers – Student Jobs – Rangitikei – Gift Company Collapses – South Auckland Health – Whangaparoa Death – Ecstasy – WTO Editorial
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GREENS
VICTORY: The new Labour-Alliance Coalition has vowed to
govern alone even though it no longer has a majority in
Parliament after the Greens triumphed in Coromandel on
special votes. Facing the prospect of running a minority
Government, the Prime Minister-designate, Helen Clark, last
night admitted that the overturning of the election-night
result made things slightly more complicated.
SUE
BRADFORD: Veteran protester and new Green MP Sue Bradford
was smiling at the sight of a photographer's camera.
"It's such a relief to have a picture without a cop
around your neck," she said.
Instead the 47-year-old
mother of five had around her shoulders the hemp-shirted arm
and one or two dreadlocked strands of the new Parliament's
most recognisable non-haircut.
PARLIAMENT NUMBERS: In
come the Greens, out go six MPs from other parties. But the
shape of Parliament was by no means settled last night
without a final result from the all-important seat of
Tauranga.
If New Zealand First leader Winston Peters is
knocked out in Tauranga on special votes, the Greens would
increase their seats to seven, but Labour and the Alliance
would still have a majority with 62 - Labour with 52 and the
Alliance 10.
STUDENT JOBS: Student required to mow lawns:
must be hardworking - and white.
Students from ethnic
minorities are facing discrimination in their attempts to
get summer work. Staff at Student Job Search say they are
dealing with employers who are openly prejudiced.
RANGITIKEI: The election result muddle descended into
farce yesterday as the Chief Electoral Office admitted it
had lost 100 ballot papers from a highly marginal
electorate.
The Chief Electoral Officer, Phil Whelan,
said he had called in the police to investigate the
disappearance, which leaves the result of the Rangitikei
seat in limbo.
GIFT COMPANY COLLAPSES: While scores of
children face a Christmas without presents after a gift
company collapsed, many poor Auckland families have cashed
in on a church group's festive banking scheme.
The
Methodist Central Mission is handing back to 62 low-income
families their $22,000 of Christmas savings, plus nearly
$2000 in bonus payments and interest - an average of about
$380 a family.
SOUTH AUCKLAND HEALTH: South Auckland
health providers are calling for an extra $56 million to
overcome the region's appalling health statistics.
Eleven health organisations comprising the Counties
Manukau Think Tank presented a submission to health
authorities yesterday, which they hope will reverse the
area's health trends.
WHAGAPAROA DEATH: It had been a
happy birthday, but Robyn McClure's party turned to tragedy
when the 43-year-old slipped off a tractor her partner was
driving and was run over during a midnight beach trip.
Tomorrow, family and friends will bury the bright,
fun-loving Whangaparaoa sales manager.
ECSTASY: Police
say the use of the illicit drug Ecstasy may soon be second
only to marijuana - after being ranked sixth two years ago
and virtually unknown at the start of the decade.
Police
say hundreds of thousands of the small tablets, worth tens
of millions of dollars on the street, are flooding into the
country every year.
EDITORIAL – WTO: If the World Trade Organisation did not exist, the world would have to invent it. Global regulators tried to do it in the years following the Second World War, at the time the United Nations was spawning bodies such as the World Health Organisation and the International Labour Organisation, but narrow mercantile interests could not embrace anything more than a General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. It was not until six years ago that negotiations under the general agreement ventured to turn it into a fully fledged WTO. Was that a mistake? The debacle at Seattle last week might suggest so. A conference called to launch another negotiating round was besieged by citizens of rich countries fearful of Third World wages and global corporate power. Inside the conference, the poor nations that have flocked to join the organisation in the past six years were at loggerheads with representatives of the rich, who want to bring labour and other standards into a global trade regime. They could not find common ground.