A shocking night in parliament and a victory for fairness

Glad tidings from parliament as a bill introduced by a Green MP to remedy an incredibly unfair law gets support in its first reading from Act and NZ First

Mōrena, and welcome to The Bulletin for Thursday, April 10

In today’s edition: the end of the news, again; James Shaw’s last bit of parliamentary business; running tally on public service job cuts hits 1,300; but first, Act and NZ First leave National looking like an outlier as first reading of bill to get rid of our ‘most racist immigration law’ passes

Green Party MP Teanau Tuiono

Act and NZ First shock parliament

As Alakihihifo Vailala reports for the Pacific Media Network, a landmark bill enabling the restoration of the entitlement to NZ citizenship for Samoans born between 1924 and 1948 passed its first reading last night. The bill is a members’ bill from Green party MP Teanau Tuiono. It passed with the support of Labour, the Greens, Te Pāti Māori, Act, and NZ First. National voted against it. As the Herald’s Audrey Young writes, Act and NZ First “shocked parliament” in supporting the bill to select committee stage. Young describes the bill, which stripped the automatic right of New Zealand citizenship from Sāmoans born before 1948 and was passed in a rush in 1982 after a Privy Council decision, as “a weeping sore”. Legal expert Graeme Edgeler wrote on the subject for The Spinoff back in 2017, and explains the history and detail of the act. Edgeler described the act as New Zealand’s most racist immigration law.

A long hoped-for gesture

The National/Act/NZ First government has no Pacific MPs. In supporting the first reading of the bill, Act MP Parmjeet Parmar said the party wanted to assess the bill on the basis of equality and fairness. NZ First’s Casey Costello referenced party leader Winston Peters and his advocacy for the Pacific. In Sāmoa, Peters is referred to as Vaovasamanaia, the chief title he was given in 2007. As Madeleine Chapman wrote last year, the repeal of the law was a gesture many had hoped for as part of the Dawn Raids apology in 2021. Instead, two years after the apology, another kick in the teeth was delivered by way of revelations that Immigration NZ was continuing to conduct early morning arrests on suspected overstayers. In an assessment of why Pacific voter turnout was low in traditional Labour strongholds published last year, Chapman suggested a lack of action might be one of the reasons.  Purely at a political level, National’s lack of support for the repeal bill seems difficult to fathom when an opportunity to further burnish its narrative about the previous government’s preference for words over action was just sitting there.

National’s concern at possible setting of precedent

At a practical level, repealing the bill simply creates a pathway to citizenship for a group of people who are now aged between 76 and 100, thought to number about 5000. National MP Cameron Brewer said the party’s main problem was that the bill was presented as a private member's bill. Brewer said legal experts would say that retroactively reinstating the citizenship of citizens affected by the act sets a problematic precedent and that the government was focused on managing migration levels. Labour’s Carmel Sepuloni shot back, saying the citizenship was retrospectively taken away in the first place.

Amnesty for overstayers still unresolved

As far as I know, the matter of granting amnesty to Pacific overstayers who are victims of changing immigration policy over the years, having travelled here under the impression it would be a pathway to residence, remains unresolved. Labour repeatedly kicked this issue down the road, only announcing a policy in the days before last year’s election to grant an amnesty visa to overstayers who have been in the country for more than 10 years. At the time, Christopher Luxon rejected any amnesty for overstayers saying, “You can’t reward illegal immigration to New Zealand.”

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The end of the news, again

Never has the gap between an old Bulletin and a fresh one been so small. In reading yesterday's news about Newshub and TVNZ’s Sunday, many aspects look bleakly similar to the February 29 edition of The Bulletin. It was confirmed yesterday that Newshub will close, with the last 6pm bulletin to be broadcast on July 5. Warner Brothers Discovery bosses acknowledged proposals and potential lifelines, but presumably, yesterday’s confirmation had to come before any further conversations could be had with third parties. About 250 roles are set to go.

TVNZ also confirmed Sunday is going and will broadcast its last programme on May 19. Re: News confirmed its team was being cut from 10 to six people. about 64 jobs will be lost.

Media and communications minister Melissa Lee and prime minister Christopher Luxon broadly repeated lines about the media needing to innovate and it being a tough day for the media. Under pressure to say something more about what support the government might lend the media to help it “modernise and innovate” from RNZ’s Lisa Owen last night, Lee said she had lots of ideas, but they are going through the cabinet process, so they remain confidential. There is no timeline for any announcment from Lee. Reporting from Stuff’s Tova O’Brien this morning suggests nothing will be progressed until Winston Peters is back in the country.

More:

• Duncan Greive on what’s comes next after what could be the biggest loss of journalism jobs in New Zealand history

• Alex Casey on how the news reported the end of the news, again 

• Michael Morrah sheds light on rejected plan to save Newshub

James Shaw’s retirement set in motion after last legislative duty completed

As Thomas Manch writes for The Post, parliament voted down an attempt by James Shaw to include the “right to sustainable environment” in the Bill of Rights yesterday. As Newsroom’s Marc Daalder reported, Shaw had told reporters it was his duty to shepherd the attempt through the house before he left parliament. He did not expect it to pass, but this now leaves him free to retire as planned. WWF-New Zealand’s Kayla Kingdon-Bebb explained why Shaw’s fight was one worth having on The Spinoff yesterday.

The European Court of Human Rights ruled this week that the Swiss government had violated the human rights of its citizens by failing to do enough to combat climate change after a case was taken by more than 2000 women. As always, the growing legal precedents being set by communities bringing climate cases against governments, or in New Zealand’s case, the potential to set one by taking a case against companies is one to watch.

Spinoff members can now comment on a selection of stories. It’s just one of the benefits of being a Spinoff supporter.

This morning you can:

• Make additions to our map of political scandals in Wellington

• Rule hot or not on Chris Warner’s beard

• Comment on what’s next following what might be the biggest loss of journalism jobs in New Zealand history

Log in, let us know what you think, and as always, we’d be grateful if you’d consider becoming a Spinoff supporter if you’re not already.

Click and Collect

• More than 1300 jobs have been cut from government departments so far

• Missed this yesterday, but the bill to make pseudoephedrine-based medicines available over-the-counter passed its third reading on Tuesday night

• Newsroom wins three-year court battle and is now allowed to republish their investigation into Oranga Tamariki uplifting children

• Solid as a rock in these uncertain times: the OCR stays the same

• Good long read from Newsroom’s David Williams on “How Christchurch got sucked into an eye-wateringly expensive cathedral rebuild”

• If board games affect your family (you) in the way they affect mine (me), Mattel has launched a new cooperative version of Scrabble, which is designed “to bring people together”.

Feeling clever? Click here to play 1Q, Aotearoa’s newest, shortest daily quiz.

Right now on The Spinoff

Haimona Gray maps the sites of political scandals in Wellington. Duncan Greive talks to the CEOs of TVNZ, Sky, NZME and Mediaworks. Tara Ward considers the important news that Chris Warner now has a beard. Budgeting legend Cameron Wislang shares his favourite books. Stewart Sowman-Lund checks in on the Christchurch Call and the future Jacinda Ardern’s role as its special envoy. Gabi Lardies talks to the charity sending thousands of much-needed period undies to Gaza.

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