Signs of Change - Keynote - Kennedy Graham - Part 2

Signs of Change - Keynote - Kennedy Graham - Part 1

"My vote is for Ecan"

In his general debate speech on Wednesday, Green MP Kennedy Graham launched a blistering attack on the government's plans to overthrow Canterbury's elected regional council and replace it with an appointed dictator:

the Creech report is a shoddy piece of work and fails rudimentary tests of professional standards. First, the report lacks intellectual integrity. It criticises Environment Canterbury for being science-driven and not science-informed. The Creech report is politically-driven and not politically-informed. If it were politically informed, it would acknowledge that democracy is bigger than business; that the subsidiarity principle is bigger than government; and that one does not replace elected councillors with appointees of central government, just because they are making decisions one might not like. That is political arrogance of the highest order.

E-Can Speech

Mr Speaker,
The Green Party strongly opposes this Bill – the Environment Canterbury (Temporary Commissioners and Improved Water Management) Bill.

This Bill may come to mark an historic occasion – which may live on in infamy in the annals of this Parliament.

Last week in General Debate I advanced a critique of the Creech Report and its recommendations. I do not wish to repeat myself here. Suffice to say that the report was politically-driven and not politically-informed, and failed basic standards of organisational and managerial professionalism.

General Debate - Canterbury Earthquake Recovery - Dr Kennedy Graham

I rise to address the situation in Christchurch and the plight of the people of my city as we head into winter.

Two and a half months after the devastation that rocked and racked New Zealand's second-largest city, Christchurch remains in a strange psychological state, essentially one of suspended animation. We have survived, most of us, the immediate crisis of the death and destruction, the liquefaction, and the deprivation of power, water, and sewerage. We have mourned our dead, apologised to other nations, straightened our backs, shut down the inner city, restored basic services, shared education facilities, and established a new Government agency for the rebuild, with extraordinary powers given to the Minister. Now is the time to plan for the rebuild.

3rd Reading- Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Bill - Dr Kennedy Graham

Quake: CERA Bill - 3rd Reading - Ken Graham Speech


This is a rather historic moment. Apart from in wartime New Zealand I think we are passing into law arguably the most Draconian legislation ever passed by a New Zealand Parliament. I do not wish to be melodramatic, but we have experienced a dramatic event, and the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Bill is a dramatic bill. It has generated much heat, yet only occasionally some light—but enough light—to shine a faint torch on what we are doing here today. This bill is a dusty mirror to who we are as a society. It raises issues of an underlying nature, I think, about our national identity, our national style, and our beliefs, and I shall say more about that later. In the meantime let me make three points.

Come and have your say about the rebuild of our city.

I am hosting a Public Forum on Wednesday 20th April at 7pm.

This meeting focuses principally on the rebuild of the inner city, and is the first of three meetings.

I have enlisted various recognized experts to assist including Di Lucas (ILFA), Suzanne Valance (LU), Jasper van der Lingen (NZIA), Prof Andy Buchanan (UC), Chris Kissling (LU) and Andrew Dakers (EcoEng).

Within the forum, we will address issues of land, urban design, architecture, water and transport.

Please join me and have your say on the future of our city.

When: Wednesday 20th April, 7pm
Where: Christchurch Netball Centre, South Hagley Park

Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Bill - Dr Kennedy Graham - 1st Reading

Of course none of us wanted this. We did not want the event of 22 February. We did not want the devastation. We did not want and never expected to have legislation of this kind before our House.

I speak with some emotion, having lived in the city through the past 7 months. I have experienced the sheer drama of death and destruction around us. I have organised volunteer groups into the suburbs to shovel and doorknock, and initiated fundraising for food delivery to those in need. I have attended the heart-wrenching memorial services for the dead. I have entered my office to retrieve equipment still cordoned inside a drop zone. I have visited civil defence headquarters on an almost daily basis. Just last week I toured the devastated red zone—a visually searing experience that simply breaks one's heart. Yet the emotion all of us in Christchurch feel over this event must be separated from our perception of the legislation before us and our responsibility to be true to the basic principles of democratic society as we know it in this country. Not only is the Christchurch disaster unprecedented but so is this legislation.

Signs of Change - Interview with MP Kennedy Graham

Canterbury earthquake law: Home by Christmas?

The controversial Canterbury Earthquake Response and Recovery Act can be repealed early, said the Green Party today.

The Act, heavily criticised by the Green Party during the urgent debate in Parliament, accorded sweeping powers to the Government to amend or suspend almost any piece of legislation in New Zealand through Order-in-Council (OIC).

Yesterday in the House, Earthquake Minister Gerry Brownlee said that he expected that all further OICs would be dealt with before the year's end in a response to a question from Green Party Canterbury spokesperson Kennedy Graham.

Canterbury Earthquake Response & Recovery Bill - 1st Reading - Kennedy Graham MP

I begin by paying tribute to the Government and particularly to Ministers Gerry Brownlee and John Carter for their work and their cooperation over the past week. That is much appreciated, I think, by all of us.

I believe that all of us in this House today would prefer not to have to address this bill, the Canterbury Earthquake Response and Recovery Bill. It is the product of the ravages of nature and the cause of far-reaching human distress, yet the bill is a symbol of human resilience. It shows a determination to respond to a natural disaster with purpose and resolve and to show that our communities can rally together in the face of disaster even stronger than we were before.

Greens Try To Water Down 'Extreme' Earthquake Law Marie McNicholas at 5:38 pm, 14 Sep 2010

The Green Party wants to water down emergency legislation setting up a special regime for speeding the earthquake recovery in Canterbury but the rest of Parliament intends to pass it into law tonight.

The Government introduced the Canterbury Earthquake Response and Recovery Bill with the backing of all parties in Parliament today but the Green Party limited its support for what it calls "shock and awe" legislation to the first reading.

Electricity Industry Bill 2nd Reading Dr Kennedy Graham

This Bill is not the first, and will almost certainly not be the last, piece of legislation that seeks to tinker with the NZ electricity sector.

The generation and transmission, distribution and retailing of electricity has become one of the jabberwockies of the NZ economy.

- The policy developments over the past 20 years reflect deeply held, if dimly perceived, points of economic ideology.
- Their structural implications have made for labyrinthine institutional relationships between entities that pretend to compete and cooperate at one and the same time, since the market signals conveyed by the sedimentary layers of legislation remain unclear on whether they are to compete or cooperate with one another.
- Their retail pricing has become a political perennial in this country, ranking as one of the most sensitive electoral issues each time round.

Victory for Parliamentary democracy–Greens can be proud

This week has seen parliamentary democracy in New Zealand at its best.
Most of the time, the House reverberates with two forms of adversarial action:

• Question Time when the trick is (usually) to score a ministerial goal – and for the ministerial goalie to defend;
• Debates over legislation in which supporting parties rationalise a draft Bill in the knowledge they have the numbers, and opposition parties heap trenchant criticism or filibuster for tactical gain.
  

A fair trial includes the right to be there

A last-minute change to draft legislation in Parliament last night preserved the right of defendants to be present at their own trial and will help ensure that they get a fair go, said the Green Party today.

“It is great to see that the Government has listened to the Green, Labour and Maori parties and protected the right of defendants to be present at their own trial,” said Kennedy Graham, Green Party Justice Spokesperson.

The Courts (Remote Participation) Bill would have removed the right of defendants to be physically present at substantive criminal trials. The issue was raised in Select Committee by the Green Party but was ignored by the Government. A Supplementary Order Paper was introduced yesterday by Dr Graham to fix the problem.

Courts (Remote Participation) Bill in Committee Part 1 Dr Kennedy Graham

I listened with considerable interest to what the Minister has just said by way of explanation. I have to say that with respect he has not persuaded me in any way at all. I think in my year and a half in the 49th Parliament this is the most serious attack on constitutional rights that I have experienced. This Parliament has adopted 114 Acts reflecting Government legislation.

I pay tribute to the hard work that goes into that. I think it is important, while we are on this semi-jocular note that we do not denigrate the dignity of this discussion by introducing ad hominem, endless, interminable arguments about whether the previous Attorney-General was a lawyer, because that is a red herring, and this issue is far too important to try to politicise it and get red herrings going.

Bringing the Budget down to Earth

Green MP Ken Graham’s Public Finance (Sustainable Development Indicators) Amendment Bill, newly introduced to the members’ ballot, would revolutionise the annual government budget

Businesses report on their ‘triple bottom line’ — profit, people, planet. But New Zealand governments don’t, in their annual budget.

Dr Kennedy Graham’s Public Finance (Sustainable Development Indicators) Amendment Bill would change that. Newly introduced to the members’ ballot, the Bill requires the Finance Minister to have annual regard to, and provide information about, sustainable development measures and principles. It brings ecological economics to the heart of the budget process — and where the money goes, policy follows.

Ecan Bill Committee Stages: 'What We Say Goes' Continues Part 2

First off under Part 2, I make one comment in response to the comments of the Minister in the chair, the Hon Nick Smith, which he addressed to me, and then I hope that I have a chance later under Part 2 to make further comments.

In response to the Minister, who believed that he had detected an illogicality in what I had been saying, I reassure him that the Green Party does not have an illogical position because it is this: what I was saying at the time, under Part 1, was that responding to the bill as it is drafted, and understanding the intent of the Government, and particularly the Minister, to clear up water management, as he sees best, there could have been another way.

Ecan Bill Committee Stages: 'What We Say Goes' Continues

I want to systematically address at least two clauses in Part 1 of the Environment Canterbury (Temporary Commissioners and Improved Water Management) Bill and offer some comments.

When I look at clause 3 of Part 1 of the bill, I see that the purpose of the bill is to: "provide for the replacement of the elected members of the Canterbury Regional Council with commissioners who will act as the Council's governing body until new elected members come into office following the next election;". The Minister could have used his powers under the Resource Management Act to appoint commissioners to take over all the functions, powers, and duties of councillors in relation to water if that was the Government's main concern. That would have allowed democratic governance to continue in relation to the council's other statutory responsibilities, particularly public passenger transport, air quality, where is has led New Zealand, regional land transport coordination and planning, and pest control and biosecurity.

Courts (Remote Participation) - Thanks

From: Kennedy Graham
Sent: Wednesday, 30 June 2010 10:02 p.m.
To: Green - MP
Cc: Green - Staff All
Subject: Courts (Remote Participation) - Thanks

Thanks to everyone for pitching in on this.
We won it -- a rare moment of parliamentary democracy at its best, and the Greens genuinely influencing things.

The Minister proposed an amendment that guarantees the right of a defendant to be physically present in a criminal trial.

So, we were able to withdraw our SOP (and Labour did theirs).

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Dr. Kennedy Graham
MP, Green Party
Parliament Buildings
Wellington, NZ