John Minto

As Nobel Peace prize winner and South African Archbishop, Desmond Tutu, says “we should name it apartheid and boycott”

While the world is speaking out in condemnation of Israeli plans to annex vast swathes of Palestinian land in the Occupied Palestinian Territories the New Zealand government’s silence is deafening.

Most of us are used to councils coming up with proposals to shift the cost of council services onto the poor but today’s water charging proposal from Christchurch City Council takes abuse of people on low incomes to another level. It’s unbelievable. 

Our OIA request comes after revelations thousands of US police from numerous cities have been trained in Israel in policing and crowd control methods used against Palestinians.

PSNA has written to the Prime Minister urging the government to reject Israeli participation in a proposed international Covid 19 “travel bubble” until Palestinians are able to join the bubble as equals.

Well there you have it. Two Labour Party ministers confirming yet again, if any confirmation was necessary, that Labour remains as mired in neo-liberalism as it ever was in the 1980s.

“Normally a major bilateral deal would involve photo opportunities at Parliament and press releases.  On this occasion, with the Israelis, nothing.”

Excuse us Ms Woods but the facts on planet earth are the following:

The budget announcement that the government will deliver 6000 additional public houses (and 2000 transitional houses) over the next four to five years is deeply disappointing

Once again the most helplessly exposed of our citizens – those locked in generational deprivation in a land of plenty – have been sent to the back of the queue.