This is the early morning scene at Kohupatiki Marae, a few kms north of Hastings, where we went ten days ago to attend a regional conference of the Labour Party.
You can see Margaret in front of the beautiful old (1913) wharenui talking with our two New Plymouth colleagues, Rob (treasurer) and Ruth (chair), about the agenda for the day's meetings.
On the right is the hall where we had our working sessions and behind it is the wharekai, where the local people put on the most enjoyable meals during breaks.
Kahupatiki is the home base of Ikaroa-Rawhiti Member of Parliament, Meka Whaitiri. Her mother and sister were helping in the kitchen, and others of her extended family were assisting in other ways. It must be a great advantage for an MP to have this kind of backing from her home base.
Because Ikaroa-Rawhiti is a huge electorate: it stretches from East Cape in the north almost to Wellington in the south, in other words half the eastern coast of the North Island.
Other MPs at the conference were Ian Lees-Galloway (Palmerston North) and Adrian Raruwhe (Te Tai Hauauru). And Stuart Nash from Napier. Others who dropped in for part of the programme were Annette King, who deputised for Leader, Andrew Little, and Grant Robertson, who came to report on the "Future of Work" Commission. Party President, Nigel Haworth, also came to address the Conference Dinner on Saturday night.
There were also several candidates from last year's election who were with us: Deborah Russell, who we had met at the List Conference last year, and Hamish McDouall, (Whanganui).
Chair for the business sessions was Liam Rutherford, an excellent manager of such matters, and he was assisted by Deborah, and by Liz Clark from Southland, a member of the Policy Council. All in all a very capable and impressive team of leaders.
Here on the right you can see members of the New Plymouth delegation consulting with Deborah about the day's programme.
Our first morning was a series of local people telling us something of what is happening around Hawkes Bay.
There were many interesting points made, but the highlights were Jacobi, a young lady who is a District Councillor and member of the Health Board, and also a member of the local Polytech Board as well.
And Paora Winitana, captain of the Bay Hawks basketball team, who runs an academy for top-class athletes, and was very inspirational.
Saturday afternoon we heard Andrew Little's message from Annette King, and then Tim Barnett, the General Secretary, reported on organisational matters he is having to work on; he wanted our feedback on some of these matters.
Late afternoon we talked with our Whanganui neighbours about things we can work on together, and in the evening we enjoyed a banquet from the amazing kitchen workers.
Sunday morning we dealt with 21 proposals for policy amendments: 7 were lost and 14 carried. We had brought nine of these from New Plymouth, and we lost one!
Then we had a workshop session with Grant Robertson about the "Future of Work". This is a project to find out exactly what is happening and what needs to be done by any future government to make sure there are more jobs, better paying jobs, and a secure working future for us all. So we learned what questions they need answers to and we are all better equipped to find out what our neighbours and friends are experiencing in this area.
Because this does not involve only Labour Supporters: several of the Commission members are from other backgrounds, happy to help because they think it is such an important issue.
Altogether a boost to us; and the welcome and conclusion by the local people of the marae were moving and fully hospitable as only marae events can provide.
No comments:
Post a Comment