Ae Marika! A column published in the Northland Age By Hone Harawira MP for Tai Tokerau MANA Leader

18 October 2011

To comment on this column please go to my website http://www.mana.net.nz Congratulations to the All Blacks - they hit the Convicts so hard they couldn't get into the game and cuzzy bro' Quade wasn't able to fire at all. Mind you, all the other Maori boys - Israel Dagg, Cory Jane, Richard Kahui, Aaron Cruden and Piri Weepu - played awesome! So let's enjoy the moment, and look forward to next weekend when the AB's bash the French.

Which reminds me - 4 years after the event, Tuhoe are still getting dragged though the NZ courts over some trumped up terrorism charges, while the French came down here, bombed the Rainbow Warrior, killed a guy, got arrested but were allowed to go free ... and now they get to play in the Rugby World Cup Final.

Meanwhile, the NZ government bans a Fijian from the World Cup because he'd been in Bainimarama's army, while saying nothing about the fact that we've got the son of a Fijian Army officer playing in our NZ Sevens team ...

Sure makes a Maori boy wonder sometimes about the double standards we have in this country over issues such as racism, terrorism and human rights generally.

Mind you, double standards are whats causing all the grief that poor people are facing in the north at the moment so it's not surprising that our government operates that way.

For example, both Labour and National allow most of the money that gets spent on the pokies in poor communities in the north, to go somewhere else (mainly Auckland). I hate the bloody things because of how many poor people I see getting sucked into chasing the lie of a big payout while most of the money goes on things like yacht races and the Rugby World Cup that poor people can't afford to attend.

MANA's position is simple - no pokies in poor communities.

And then there are the priorities that this government has. Did you know that if we were to provide free meals to every child in every school in the poorer parts of this country it would cost us $38 million? Shock! Horror! We haven't got that kind of money! Well ... Did you know that it costs $40 million for this government to keep our boys in Afghanistan?

MANA's position is simple - bring the boys home and use that money to feed the kids.

And did you know that the tax cuts that National gave to the super-rich last year, are enough to take everybody off the unemployment register today, and put them into full time work tomorrow, at 40 hours a week and on a minimum wage of $15 an hour, tomorrow?

MANA's position is simple - full employment for all New Zealanders.

And what about GST then? National increases it, the Maori Party votes for it and Labour says they won't take it away. And now Labour is prattling on about taking GST off fresh food and vegetables, as if that will do anything to ease the GST pain in petrol, power, school clothes and everything else poor people have to pay GST on.

MANA's position is simple - abolish GST.

MANA's view is that life really is simple, and our priorities should reflect that. Feed the kids instead of the war machine, stop stealing from the poor, and give everybody a job. We have the ability to do it all. All we need is the courage ...

Ends

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