MANA MEDIA RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

5 November 2011
MANA WAIARIKI CANDIDATE ANNETTE SYKES SPEECH DELIVERED AT Made AT MANA CAMPAIGN LAUNCH TODAY

Me Noho he Whenua Rangatira Hai Pumau mo Aotearoa

This government has announced plans to “partially privatise” three electricity SOEs and Solid Energy and increase the private ownership of Air New Zealand.

It is privatising the work account of ACC by opening it to private competition.

It is entering into “Private-Public Partnerships” (PPPs) in schools and prisons and is considering them in hospitals, courts and elsewhere.

Our experience in this process is a track record as a nation we should be ashamed of rather than one to be repeated.
a) New Zealand Rail, Air New Zealand
Failed and had to be bought back by government
b) Telecom
A private monopoly that rorted customers to send profits offshore and pay million dollar executives

c) Banks – BNZ, Postbank
Had to recreate Kiwibank, still gaps in financial market as a consequence of foreign control of over 96 per cent of our banking sector
d) Government Printing Office
Sold far below value – subsidy to start Graham Hart’s empire
e) Radio New Zealand commercial stations
Commercial radio now dominated by two overseas companies
f) Electricity – Contact Energy, Trustpower, local network operators
Continued price rises, insufficient generating capacity
g) Housing Corporation mortgages
Many home owners disadvantaged
h) Forests
Whole logs line the ports as local timber workers are made redundant.
And it will not stop there:

There’s more…
1) 20 year plus PPP’s (Private- Public Partnership) contracts likely in court buildings, roads, hospitals, and other public services
2) Case managing 16-17 year olds on benefits will be by private contractors
3) Increasing use of consultants in government departments
4) Contracting out of backroom services
5) Whanau Ora private contract arrangements with Iwi Authorities many of whom are ill equipped for social service delivery having been established for the purposes of negotiating Treaty settlements
6) Privatisation of the benefits and socialisation of the costs of failed finance
Secretly negotiated free trade deals, like the proposed Trans- Pacific Partnership, which give foreign investors a stranglehold over our economy and natural resources are an intimate tool in this scenario. Future governments are being tied to a failed free market path, taking away our sovereign right to decide our own future distancing direct democracy further and further away from the people.

Sadly this process is being mirrored in the corporate developments arising from Treaty of Waitangi Settlements and is creating huge disharmony and factionalism in Te Ao Maori so while our corporate warriors play capital markets and investment strategies the peoples wellbeing deteriorates more and more and Maori corporates become complicit in employment processes which deny workers rights and fundamental freedoms as the slave labour issues on deep sea charter vessels highlight.

Where has the Maori Party been on all these issues? They suddenly find their voice at election time, claiming to be be concerned about a whole range of policies they have been complicit in alongside National and ACT over the past three years. We know they will fall silent again once the make another pact with the Devil.

MANA stands for a fundamentally different approach to Maori politics building a movement that stands with the people to advocate strongly in the House of Parliament for the direct action community strategies being demanded outside.

MANA the movement of the people has attracted my support because it is clear that these policies are not good for Aotearoa, are not good for tangata whenua, are not good for ordinary citizens and are not good for the nation. They are an attack on the very guarantees of Te Tiriti o Waitangi and place our sovereignty in the hands of Trans National Capital with little emotional connection or commitment to the future of this nation.

MANA te waka whakarei mo te Iwi has therefore developed a policy platform to ensure the future of this nation, the generations born and unborn will not be subjected to an ideology which takes from us all and vests power and wealth into the elites.

MANA is committed to a process of Nation building where Maori and Pakeha, Pacific and Asian coexist in our communities as the Treaty promised but where tangata whenua status and responsibilities are central in planning the philosophical and practical parameters of how power and responsibility is to be shared and constructed for the future wellbeing of us all.

It is for that reason we are committed to a genuine process of constitutional change not the one lead by the State, as agreed to by the Maori Party – despite our protests, but one that is facilitated by Independent community groups and Maori leadership through a process that starts by hearing the voices of the people at marae and hapu level around the motu. That Independent process has begun with the Constitutional Working Group chaired by Moana Jackson and Professor Margaret Mutu meeting in Wellington today.

MANA has attracted a dynamic leadership. People who are activists and are drawn from their very souls to defend the rights of those most vulnerable to these processes. We will not sell you out. We have and will fight back. We will stand with MANA and protect the tino rangatiratanga that the Treaty of Waitangi protects . We will ensure that Change is effected so the patterns of colonialism which have not gone away as the Foreshore and Seabed and the Mining exploration license regime illustrate is stamped out. We will ensure the fundamental freedoms and human dignity that we pride ourself as a nation in upholding are restored in practice. We will represent and be accountable. They will work to eradicate poverty. We will fight for economic justice and social wellbeing . We will ensure our mother Papatuanuku is in the forefront of any policy framework for development and environmental sustainability.

But perhaps significantly we will not lead from the front but stand with you all to lead this Nation into a 21st century step change to ensure the democratic principles of the people for the people are honoured. VOTE MANA if it is this change you seek.

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