|
Post by Kiwi Frontline on Oct 2, 2016 5:17:26 GMT 12
Sunday Star Time 2/10/16
PETERS RESPONDS Did your editor have a holiday last week ("Winston's salary should be docked," September 25) and appoint a lunatic to write the editorial on Treaty settlement bills?
The point is that NZ First had earlier agreed Parliament would sit under extended hours on a Friday to pass the bills. Then, on closer examination, we found the Taranaki Claims Settlement Bill contained a clause which handed local iwi six positions on the local authority. We do not support this form of electoral apartheid.
We had another concern also with the serious miscarriage of justice proposed in the Ngatikahu Ki Whangaroa Claims Settlement Bill and therefore requested that there be a party vote to record our opposition to the two bills. A voice vote would not have been a record of any party's opposition.
This is not grandstanding, or perverting the course of democracy, as the editorial states -this is actually democracy at work. National's Gerry Brownlee should have accepted the request. By this stage, National had already granted leave to many of their MPs, which reflects how little importance they attach to these bills. Brownlee, in a fit of pique, cancelled the Friday sittings - and then sought to blame NZ First. WINSTON PETERS, leader, NZ First
|
|