Staff at Te Whatu Ora incorporating karakia into their daily routine should stop he says.

Seymour is reported as saying that Te Whatu Ora must concentrate on people's physical wellbeing and leave their spiritual wellbeing to self-management or others.

Karakia for patient benefit

Act health spokesperson Todd Stephenson says some Te Whatu Ora staff including karakia in their daily routine has a flow-on effect for patients.

In his opinion it is inappropriate and distracts from Te Whatu Ora's work.

While prayer in a person's own time is fine as far as Stephenson is concerned, he says "they shouldn't be paid or encouraged to do it by a government department".

Practical approach called for

"In terms of Te Whatu Ora, the size of the problems in health demands a practical approach" Seymour says.

"Secondly ... in a public office you leave your own religion and beliefs at the door and work together for the benefit of New Zealand.

"We do not believe in forcing any particular culture. We believe in a public sphere where all people can participate on equal terms."

Karakia optional, reflection encouraged

While saying a karakia is optional at Te Whatu Ora there is organisation support for the practice.

A leaked email to Te Whatu Ora staff reads:

"We encourage everyone to incorporate karakia daily. To help ... we have created some pre-recorded videos to learn karakia .. over time we will be adding more recordings for you to choose from."

Health NZ chief executive Margie Apa says many groups chose to begin their day and meetings with karakia. But it is not a required practice she says.

She says that nonetheless Health NZ encourages reflection when teams gather. This practice aims to ensure they collaborate and are aligned in how they can make a difference for patients.

"We do much of our work in teams ... How our people connect with each other is where value is created for patients" Apa says.

"We have a range of resources in the organisation that support teams to build ways of working that recognise this - and karakia is one of those resources."

Source

• NZ Herald

They want him to stop the "violent attack" on the Treaty presented by the ACT Party's Treaty Principals Bill.

Urgent hearing

Iwi chairperson Professor Makere Mutu presented evidence at an urgent Waitangi Tribunal hearing into the Bill.

She and other expert witnesses presented their concerns about the ACT Party's interpretation of the Treaty Articles in its Democracy or Co-Government Policy Paper.

ACT's translation is "nonsensical" Mutu said.

"Which tells me either that the person has absolutely no understanding of the reo at all or is so disparaging of the reo that they think nothing of doing ... gratuitous violence to our language ...".

Tribunal agrees

Tribunal panel member Monty Soutar agrees.

It is "just not possible to draw that English translation from the Maori that's there" he said.

Te reo Maori expert and Ngapuhi historian Hone Sadler also agrees.

"This cutting and pasting exercise ... demeans, debases and trivialises our founding document as a nation and disparages and denigrates Ngapuhi, the guardian of these sacred covenants" he told the Tribunal.

ACT's idea

Seymour reject's Sadler's view.

People say the Treaty "requires us to be divided by a partnership between races, rather than a compact that gives us the same rights, duties and then gives us - all of us - the right to self-determine" he says.

ACT says the Treaty redefined:

• Article 1: "Kawanatanga katoa o o ratou whenua" - the NZ Government has the right to govern all New Zealanders

• Article 2: "Ki nga tangata katoa o Nu Tirani te tino rangatiratanga o o ratou whenua o ratou kainga me o ratou taonga katoa" - the NZ government will honour all New Zealanders in the chieftainship of their land and all their property

• Article 3: "A ratou nga tikanga katoa rite tahi" - all New Zealanders are equal under the law with the same rights and duties.

Disgracing the Crown

Mutu told the Tribunal the government is disgracing the Crown with its actions.

The late Queen knew how to exercise her own rule of law in this country that upheld the mana and the tino rangatiratanga of our people, she said.

"We still look to King Charles ... to stop the lawless behaviour of the Pakehas. And that's all we're dealing with here ...."

She said ACT's plans could change the Treaty so iwi might be unable to pursue their historical claims.

Source

• ODT

He's concerned about the ACT Party's Easter Trading bill, which was drawn in a ballot just before Easter.

"I guess when I read about this, I groaned. I thought: 'Here we go again'. It's coming up every year, it's coming up every holiday break, but often what we're forgetting about is people and families."

CathNews has learnt that Catholic churches around the country were well attended, with many reporting a 'Standing Room Only' situation.

The bill

ACT MP Cameron Luxton's bill seeks to remove restrictions on laws surrounding trading and selling alcohol on Good Friday and Easter Sunday.

As described, the current rules seem complicated, with complete bans, some exceptions and local council rules crowding the rule books.

Profits before people

Unions aren't happy with the changes the bill is proposing.

Like Lowe, First Union spokesperson Rudd Hughes is concerned about the people who will be affected by a change in law.

A law change would mean workers lose two of the three-and-a-half days they're currently guaranteed to have off. At present they get Good Friday, Easter Sunday, Christmas Day and the morning of ANZAC Day off, he says.

"It's another attack by this current Government on workers" Hughes says.

"The only thing they seem to hold sacrosanct is the pursuit of profit over the welfare of people."

Positive change

A Tauranga business that normally benefits from exemptions to trade says a more uniform approach is needed across the country.

"I just think simplicity, it'd be good for traders to have the option" café owner Hamish Carter says.

Others agree and say they'd like people to have a choice about what they do.

Luxton's thinking

Luxton sees his bill as contributing to ACT's campaign against needless and costly legislation.

"My Member's Bill will remove a burden on businesses by relieving the dumb restrictions on trading on Good Friday and Easter Sunday" he says.

"It just doesn't make sense that bar staff spend much of Easter telling customers when they can drink, how long they have to drink it, how much they are required to eat, and what they have to eat.

"How about we start treating adults like adults?

"It's quite simple — if you want to trade, you can.

"That's how a free society should operate.

"The Bill also looks after workers as it retains the existing employee protections that apply in respect of Easter Sunday and extends these protections to Good Friday."

It would amend the Shop Trading Hours Act to extend employee protections currently in place on Easter Sunday, such as the right to refuse work, to Good Friday as well.

Source

• NZ Catholic Bishops Conference
• Scoop
• RNZ
• 1News

Describing the proposed Bill as "radical", former National Party minister Chris Finlayson and political commentator Matthew Hooten say the bills should not have the National-led Government's support.

Former  National Party attorney general and minister for Treaty negotiations under Sir John Key's leadership, Finlayson is firmly opposed to a referendum about the Treaty.

The ACT Party's Treaty referendum would "derail years of good faith bargaining and empower weirdos" he says.

"It will bring out of the woodwork the sort of people who used to write to me and say ‘why don't you get cancer?', ‘how dare you give property rights to people above their station' or, as sometimes even happens now, walking along Lambton Quay, someone will call me a ‘Maori-loving c***'."

Respected political commentator Matthew Hooton, who has ties to both ACT and National, agrees with Finlayson's concerns.

"The principles of the Treaty were put into legislation to the disadvantage of Maori because the risk was that if the Maori text was taken as authoritative, then the Crown would not be sovereign.

"You do not want to put the words ‘tino rangatiratanga' into statute" he says.

Catholic religious orders are concerned

Some members of the Catholic Church's Congregational Leaders Conference of Aotearoa New Zealand [CLCANZ] are also concerned.

The group, representing Catholic religious orders, is troubled by the current political discourse regarding the Coalition Government's policies about Maori language and the Treaty.

CLCANZ has issued a public statement saying:

"Te Tiriti o Waitangi was the foundational document of Aotearoa, with Bishop Pompallier present at the gathering.

"It had the flavour of a covenant, a sacred agreement.

"It was between the British Colonial Office then, and the Government today, and Maori.

"Any ongoing conversations today should involve members from both parties.

The religious leaders are alarmed by the rhetoric surrounding curbing Maori language and attempting to rewrite the principles of the Treaty and say it is not time to remain silent.

"This current coalition government appears to be continuing a litany of broken promises to Maori, the indigenous peoples of our country.

"We stand in protest at the attitude of the present coalition government in disestablishing the bicultural relationship between Maori and the Crown, and destroying many efforts made over significant years.

"We commit ourselves to learning more about our responsibilities living in a bicultural milieu," say the group of leaders.

The proposed Bill

The five principles the proposed Bill will consider include:

• Kawanatanga - the principle that the Government has the right to govern and make laws
• Rangatiratanga - the right of iwi to control the resources they own
• Equality - all New Zealanders are equal under the law
• Co-operation - there must be co-operation between the Government and iwi on big issues of common concern
• Redress - that the Government acts responsibly to provide a process to resolve Treaty grievances

ACT is committed to replacing and rewriting those principles.

Sources

• NZ Herald
• Otago Daily Times
• For further information CLCANZ statement, please contact the President, Fr Thomas Rouse, on 04 5677216 or by email

When asked by debate host, Paddy Gower whether charities should pay tax, Hipkins responded with a definite "yes", while Luxon said he was "open to it".

In August, there was speculation that the National Party plan would include closing tax loopholes for churches and charities to fund tax cuts for income earners and landlords.

However, Newstalk ZB reports that Churches and charities will continue to enjoy their tax-exempt status under National.

Leader of ACT, David Seymour did not take part in the Leader's Debate.

However, ACT's policy is that certain charitable companies enjoying tax-free status should pay tax.

"Britain amended this charitable tax loophole in the 1920s, and New Zealand is long overdue to do the same.

"Ngai Tahu businesses like Go Bus and Shotover Jet are tax-exempt due to the iwi's charitable status.

"Even church-owned businesses like Sanitarium or Mission Estate Winery are exempt from company tax due to an archaic and outdated British law classing advancement of religion as a charitable purpose.

"If it's really true that they give all their profits to their charitable side, then they won't pay any tax.

"But if some people suspect they are getting away without paying tax and not putting as much into charity as they should, that will level the playing field for other competitors," Seymour says in a press release.

In 2021, New Zealanders gave over $4 billion to the country's 28,000 registered charities.

The overall income they bring in is far higher than that - more than $21 billion, which is comparable to the value of the country's dairy exports.

Charities employ about 145,000 people and more than 200,000 of us volunteer for them.

Sources

• Newshub
• CathNews
• ACT

Labour, National and ACT all made similar announcements that they would overhaul the current visa system, while Labour also opened up the door for a one-off regularisation for Pacific and other migrants who have been in the country for more than a decade.

During the 2017 election, Labour promised to axe the number of migrants by 20,000 or 30,000 a year, and not long after the Parent Visa category was closed. Read more

It comes after Prime Minister Chris Hipkins on Wednesday put several unpopular policies on the burn pile including the RNZ-TVNZ merger, hate speech reforms and the income insurance scheme. Read more

The private member's bill came from small business spokesman Chris Baillee. It sought to give retailers more choice over whether they operate during the religious holiday.

Baillie said his bill would also look after workers by keeping existing employee protections in respect of Easter Sunday, and extend these protections to Good Friday.

Initially, the Labour-majority government indicated its members would treat the bill as a personal vote.

"We will be opposing the bill," Robertson said.

"I think there can be a few days in our calendar that focus on spending time with families and not putting pressure on people going out to work."

Other parties treated the proposal as a "conscience" issue, allowing politicians to make personal votes.

National Party leader Christopher Luxon said he supported the bill. He said it has strong support from the retail sector.

Currently retailers have to close on both Good Friday and Easter Sunday.

A bill needs a majority of the 120 MPs to pass. As Labour has a majority, only bills it supports can pass.

Parliament has had many similar debates about whether strict Easter trading rules should be relaxed.

In 2016 Parliament responded to the Easter trading law reform debate by giving councils the power to create a policy to allow shops to trade on Easter Sunday.

Source

• NZ Herald

Donnelly and Seymour appeared on TV3's Newshub Nation on Saturday morning.

Donnelly said the proposed Act is a "dangerous law" that will put the lives of 25,000 vulnerable people at risk.

"I think that it would be a lot more respectable if instead of making up these kinds of what I call 'false objections' if Dr Donnelly came here and said 'this choice is against my religion, and I don't want other people to be able to make that choice'.

"It would be a lot more respectable if she would say that," Seymour said in reply.

Donnelly was visibly shocked.

"That's a disgraceful, sectarian comment.

"I have 25 years of experience in palliative medicine, I speak from a professional point of view, I'm an associate professor of palliative medicine, research and education, I've worked in four different countries - so I speak from that platform and that experience.

"I deeply care for people - that's all I care about. Four generations of doctors in my family... I know we can relieve their suffering through palliative care.

"Palliative care works".

Donnelly said Seymour's comments were "bigotry at its utmost".

"I've travelled literally from Kerikeri to Gore campaigning for this law," Seymour said.

"I've heard the stories of New Zealanders who have seen bad death. No matter how much people try to say 'just a bit more palliative care, it's going to be okay' they know what they've seen. They want to have that choice of dignity and control.

"It's their life - it should be their choice. It's not up to others to tell them that they should stick around a bit more to fit someone else's morality."

Donnelly explained some of the common objections to the proposed law.

These include fears people will be coerced into ending their own lives. She also pointed out that some people make miraculous recoveries after being close to death.

"Prognostication is an estimate... we get it wrong most of the time. Even within a few days of death."

"Families often ask 'how long have they got to live?'

"We generally say we're not sure, we don't know... It's not as if we plug in the patient's details into a computer and out pops a date of death," Donnelly said.

Source

• Newshub
• Image: Newshub

By voting in favour of this bill at the second reading, Parliament has abandoned its commitment to upholding a culture of life and its sacred duty to legislate for the protection of the lives of every human being from conception to natural death and not to preside over our destruction.

It is not the role of Parliament to decide who shall live and who can be killed.

Members who voted in favour of this bill at the second reading, have also put the democratic process of law in New Zealand in serious jeopardy.

In ignoring the overwhelming rejection of euthanasia, and this bill, by 91.8 per cent of the 39,159 written submissions and the 85 per cent rejection of the 3,600 oral submissions heard by the Select Committee, those politicians who voted in favour of the second reading have thumbed their noses at the very process they take an oath to uphold.

In reporting the bill back to Parliament, the Committee chairman advised that the Committee was unable to agree that the Bill should be passed, yet a majority of our elected representatives thought their conscience took priority over due parliamentary process!

The bill is also strongly opposed by the New Zealand Medical Association, by disability groups and Aged Concern.

I am disappointed that Parliament has embraced a culture of death by voting in favour of the EOLCB, which if passed at its third reading will allow doctors to kill their patients or assist in their suicide.

This is a violation of the sanctity of life ethic and of the prohibition of the taking of the life of an innocent human being, the foundation of the law and of medicine, which we change at our peril.

That Parliament has decided at this stage that some lives not worthy of life is a tragic moment and a day of shame in the history of our Parliament and country.

It has placed in jeopardy the lives of some of our most vulnerable, the aged, the disabled and the seriously ill.

Right to Life now earnestly requests that Parliament defeats this bill at its third reading and ensures that every New Zealander has access to death with dignity with our world-class palliative care by ensuring that it is fully funded and accessible.

Parliament should also commit itself to implement the government's Suicide Prevention Strategy which aims to reduce our appalling suicide rate.

• Ken Orr is the Spokesman for Right to Life.