MEDIA STATEMENT

29 October 2014

Labour doing its best to confuse the public

New Labour MP Peeni Henare has claimed that the Māori Party’s stand against the Employment Relations Amendment Bill is a sham and has asked the Party to “fess up over its voting record”.

“So here’s our confession,” says Māori Party List MP Marama Fox.

“The Māori Party voted against the first reading of the Employment Relations Amendment Bill on 5 June 2013, voted against the second reading of the bill on 19 March 2014 and voted against the bill on 22nd, 23rd and 28th October 2014”.

Ms Fox says it will vote against the bill again when it comes up for its third and final reading.

“We are utterly opposed to the bill which will reduce worker’s rights, endanger job security and decimate the good faith provisions of workplace bargaining.

“We realise the Māori MPs in Labour will be trying to land some early body blows on the Māori Party but we don’t see the point in filibustering just for the sake of it. What we all know, is that National has secured enough votes to move the bill through Parliament anyway.

“If more Māori had voted for the Māori Party candidates we could have held the balance of power and stopped this bill going through. In this case, we’re in the same position as the other Māori MPs in Labour,” says Ms Fox.

ENDS.

© Scoop Media