Wallace's blog: And we're back. With new MP's.
I do miss it. The wood of the Backbencher pub. The regulars that filter on in around 8.30 - some of them filtering on in for years now. The political puppets on the wall summoning up a history of dreams, ambitions, careers soaring and aspirations dashed. David Lange, Jim Anderton, Ruth Richardson, Jenny Shipley, Peter Dunne (hang on, he's still in Government). There was a huge puppet display of Helen Clark in a bed with Winston Peters - taken down for whatever reason, to make way for Bill English in a biplane. The fresh flowers on the bar next to the monitor screen. The after show political conversations. Well, this Wednesday night we're back, quite possibly for our last ever season, so we've started by making show number one and good one.
New NZ First MP Richard Prosser will join us. Prosser says he'd like to provoke a national debate on what vision New Zealanders would like to see for their country. He has courted, um&discussion on his opinions on banning the burqa, and on what he calls the 'silly little girl syndrome.' So he makes a top Back Benches candidate - someone not afraid of airing their viewpoint no matter what comments come hurtling the other way.
Dunedin North Labour MP David Clark is with us also. He
would like to "Monday-ise" ANZAC day and Waitangi Day if they fall
on a weekend; that the kiwi worker is owed his/her fair time off
for in an age where most of us a working the year round. Clark is
38 years old was a former treasury analyst AND a Presbyterian
minister - presumably not at the same time.
Eugenie Sage, the new Green MP, has been a life long advocate for
conservation. She was Helen Clark's press sec during the Lange
years, and was one of the sacked Environment Canterbury regional
councillors, when the Government took over in what one might
suggest was an unprecedented stoush. "The appalling way in which
the Ecan Act was drafted and passed, with scant debate and scrutiny
by Parliament, and it's consequences for water conservation orders
and democracy" are one of her reason for standing, she told the
Pundit blog. " I'm baaaaaaaaack" in other words.
And Alfred Ngaro. He is a newly minted National MP of Pacific - Cook Islands - descent. In fact the first Cook islander to enter the NZ parliament! Ngaro made a wonderful maiden speech, citing his parents who worked hard on low wages to make ends meet, and his wife who told him to " stop mucking around in the sandpit and start to play on a bigger field to make a greater difference. " Whether parliament is or is not a sandpit is not for me to say, but I'm sure Ngaro will respond to the considerable challenges facing Pacific island New Zealanders today.
Four new MPs, new voices, new visions - and Damian and I back in Wellington this Wednesday night, and onwards. Can't wait. See you there just after 8 pm.
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