A proposed law change - the Shop Trading Hours Amendment Bill - would let local councils pass bylaws allowing shops in their area to open on Easter Sunday.

Caritas's Lisa Beech said Easter Sunday trading would affect community events.

She also questioned the effectiveness of protection of worker's rights to refuse to work on Easter Sunday stated in the bill.

Caritas director Julianne Hickey invited select committee members to convene on Easter Sunday to experience what working on that day would feel like.

She said Caritas members would make themselves available for such a meeting.

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Beech told the Committee how when she lived in Housing New Zealand flats in Petone, a long-time resident, a kaumatua figure, helped retrieve her precious 1840 violin when it was stolen from her car. He lived alone in a two-bedroomed flat and kept an informal eye on things.

‘From the perspective of his household, of his housing need, it might be easy to conclude that he didn't need a two-bedroomed flat,' said Ms Beech. ‘But our community needed him.... I hate to think of what it would have been like if our flats had been a series of unconnected households, rather than a community.'

Watch Lisa perform on Brook Sabin on the week in politics last Thursday (3:15 minutes in):

Caritas' oral submission to the Social Services Select Committee considering the Bill also included the experience of a state house tenant from Christchurch.

Caritas welcomed the government's increased focus on housing affordability and intention to increase social housing, Caritas Director Julianne Hickey told the Committee. ‘However, any expansion of social housing in the community must extend social housing by State and private providers, rather than replace it.'

• Read oral submission
• Read written submission

Source

• Caritas Aotearoa/New Zealand
• Image: Screen Shot TV3

The New Zealand Catholic Bishops have made a submission to the Advisory Panel. The full text of the Bishops' Submission can be read kin the New Zealand Catholic

In its submission to the the Panel, Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand says basic human rights would be better protected if a revised and strengthened Bill of Rights became part of a formal, written New Zealand constitution.

‘Some human rights lie so deep that Parliament cannot override them,' says Caritas advocacy spokesperson Lisa Beech. ‘A superior law Bill of Rights would articulate clearly the laws and principles governing these, in a similar way that international human rights agreements have striven to guard against individual states abusing the human rights of its own people.'

While the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act (NZBORA) passed in 1990 was a step forward in recognising human rights, Caritas says it has witnessed many breaches of human rights and discriminatory legislation, because the government of the day has found them ‘justified'. This includes the GCSB Bill currently before Parliament.

However the Bill of Rights would need to be strengthened within a superior law, written constitution to meet some of New Zealand's international commitments. It also currently fails to adequately protect the most fundamental right - the right to life, which extends from conception to natural death.

‘We cannot be complacent about the necessity of protecting human rights, particularly the right to life,' says Caritas in its submission, ‘which is about protecting the most vulnerable members of society - people with serious illnesses and disabilities, unborn children, frail elderly people, the poor and people in prison. When the right to life is breached for any of us, none of us is safe.'

‘The New Zealand Bill of Rights Act needs to be more comprehensive, it needs to be superior law, and the Courts must have the ability to uphold it,' says Ms Beech.

A written constitution would also ensure that both New Zealand law-makers and the public are better informed about constitutional matters and more easily able to see where fundamental constitutional matters are being changed. Caritas supports the New Zealand Catholic Bishops Conference's proposed preamble to a written constitution, and has also been guided by the Bishops' previous statements on the Treaty of Waitangi.

Caritas says our constitutional arrangements must reflect and honour the Treaty of Waitangi/te Tiriti o Waitangi, as the fundamental agreement governing the relationship between tangata whenua and all who have subsequently settled and are settling in New Zealand. Parliament has been able to ignore some provisions of the Treaty/te Tiriti, and significant questions about sovereignty/tino rangatiratanga and governorship/kawanatanga in the Treaty/te Tiriti are yet to be addressed.

On extending the Parliamentary term from three to four years, Caritas says in the absence of better checks and balances on government, and stronger protection of human rights and the Treaty of Waitangi/te Tiriti o Waitangi, the status quo is preferred.

‘One of the few existing protections against abuse of power in New Zealand is our short three-year electoral term.'

The full text of Caritas' submission is available here.

Source

• Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand
• Image: www.cap.govt.nz

Parliament will this week debate whether working children aged 16 or younger should be regarded as employees rather than contractors, when Te Tai Tonga MP Rino Tirikatene's private member's bill is introduced on Wednesday.

Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand, the Catholic agency for justice, peace and development, strongly supports Mr Tirikatene's Employment Relations (Protection of Young Workers) Amendment Bill.

In 2006, we interviewed 30 children aged 10-16 who delivered newspapers and advertising leaflets. Most made positive comments about their work, including enjoying the exercise, meeting people and earning money.

However, they also had concerns. Some had experienced unilateral cuts in their pay rates; others didn't even know what their pay rates were as that section of their contract had been left blank. Some had to find their own replacements if they were sick or had a work accident.

Most were left to supply their own equipment, and sort out their own tax and ACC payments. Despite experiencing injuries ranging from near-miss road accidents to dog bites, they had to take care of their own health and safety.

Some did not know the name of the person or company they worked for, and in one case had never met their supervisor.

By contrast, a small group of children in our study enjoyed much better working conditions than the others. They had stable, clearly explained pay rates and regular pay days. They received bike and clothing allowances, as well as sick leave and holiday pay. Continue reading

Sources

• The New Zealand Herald
• Image: Stuff

Lisa Beech is the research and advocacy co-ordinator for Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand.

Research and advocacy co-ordinator Lisa Beech said what the legislation was attempting to do had parallels with the poor houses of Britain in the 19th century.

Beech said Caritas had no confidence that its views would be heard.

"In 25 years of making submissions, I have never felt more disillusioned and discouraged about participating in the select committee process."

"The role of the select committee is not simply to rubber-stamp the decisions of the Cabinet ... or to provide some kind of legal proof-reading of minor details."

Statistics New Zealand's latest household labour force numbers, published earlier this month show people out of work rose to 7.3% in the September quarter.

Labour leader David Shearer and other opposition MPs, say prime minister John Key's legacy is leaving the highest jobless rate since Jenny Shipley's National government in the late 1990s.

Source

• Radio New Zealand
• NBR
• Image: The Daily Post

I've been at the odd meeting over the past few years where different Church representatives for whom alcohol law reform has been a burning issue have thought it would be just great for the Catholics to front the issue, since everyone knows that we drink more than other Christians. I've heard that we are regarded as being somewhat over-enthusiastic about Jesus's first public miracle turning water into wine, and of having a suspiciously good understanding of AA's 12 step programme and the Serenity Prayer.

But I'm afraid that I haven't a great knowledge of the current policy debates on alcohol reform, as the closest I've got to discussing alcohol with a Select Committee was arguing that Catholic prison chaplains should be allowed to take communion wine into prisons.

However what I can talk about from first hand knowledge is how in New Zealand's poorest suburbs, even though affordable food is rarely available within walking distance, there always seems to be easy, immediate access to four of the terrible scourges of poor communities - bottle stores, fast food outlets, pokie machines and loan sharks. There's plenty of places in New Zealand where it is far easier to buy beer than a cauliflower. Read more

From 'Under the influence..', a Speech given by Lisa Beech to the Otago University Centre for Theology and Public Issues election forum, St John's in the City, Wellington, 3 November 2011

• Source: Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand
• Image: Asia Pacific Forum