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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She is one of only two leaders to represent the 165 member organisations of the Caritas Internationalis confederation and will speak at an event with other non-governmental organisations taking place on December 7 as part of the conference.

Mrs Hickey will focus on climate finance in Oceania and the fact it is not addressing real need and must focus more on climate adaptation for the most vulnerable.

"It's an honour to be invited to speak at this global event.

"More importantly, I am concerned that those most affected by climate change in Oceania have a strong voice at the discussions in Paris.

"World leaders need to hear about the real life impact of climate change as they make decisions," Mrs Hickey says.

"For too long the voices of the most vulnerable, who also happen to be those most affected by rising sea levels and extreme weather events, have been ignored or unheard.

"We want to help change that. It is vital that we get a strong commitment from global leaders to take urgent action on climate change.

"The time for timidity is over, it is a time for courage. The time for action is now."

Speakers at the event will present lessons learnt and assess how far the Paris Agreement will reflect climate justice principles.

Other NGOs represented will include: CIDSE (an international Catholic development alliance) and Friends of the Earth International.

Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand is the New Zealand Catholic Bishops' agency for justice, peace and development, and incorporates Mahitahi - Catholic Overseas Volunteers.

Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand is a member of Caritas Internationalis, a confederation of 165 Catholic aid, development and social justice agencies active in over 200 countries and territories

Source

• Supplied
• Image: caritas.org.nz

This target has been condemned as inadequate and some critics are saying New Zealand's clean green image is a mere veneer.

Caritas Director Julianne Hickey says New Zealand's commitment far behind the targets being set by Europe, Canada and the United States. "This is neither fair nor ambitious," says Hickey.

Read the Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand Statement

Hickey said the New Zealand government was already seen by global church networks as one of the more conservative contributors to international climate change talks and this timid goal will further reinforce that impression.

"New Zealand's reputation as a clean green country will once again be seriously affected," she says.

Hickey's opinion is backed up by Climate Action Tracker which rates New Zealand's pledge as inadequate.

"While most other governments intend cutting emissions, New Zealand appears to be increasing emissions, and hiding this through creative accounting."

"It may not have to take any action at all to meet either its 2020 or 2030 targets."

Climate Action Tracker is a grouping of four independent European research organisations

It has been rating the commitments being tabled for the Paris conference in December intended to thrash out a comprehensive agreement to curb emissions between 2020 and 2030.

Hickey says the New Zealand government's action is a very disappointing outcome to a consultation process.

She said the majority of submitters on the New Zealand government's climate change target favoured doing whatever we can now to reduce climate change, rather than allowing the costs of adapting to climate change to fall on future generations.

In it own submission Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand urged the New Zealand government to be a bold and ambitious thought leader, rather than a cautious and timid follower.

"Since our submission, Pope Francis has also urged the international community to take significant action," says Hickey.

An international conference held last week in the Vatican on the Pope's encyclical Laudato Si' included a range of non-government and government players anticipating that the language of the upcoming Paris climate change negotiations will be transformed by the Pope's intervention.

Source

• nzherald.co.nz
• Image: nzherald.co.nz

She was able to give an input from the Pacific perspective where oceans are so important for the sustaining of life.

Hickey was able to speak of what is happening to the food sources like fishing and the instability of crops because of uncertain weather patterns.

She spoke about the effect of extreme weather events which often destroy livelihoods and homes.

Research done by Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand last year highlighted communities around the Pacific fending off rising sea-levels and coastal erosion with makeshift seawalls, built from sticks and stones, shells and coral; or relocating temporarily or permanently to escape sea inundation and groundwater salination.

Laudato Si' highlights a number of issues which are of particular interest to small island nations.

Loss of marine biodiversity

• In tropical and subtropical seas, we find coral reefs comparable to the great forests on dry land, for they shelter approximately a million species, including fish, crabs, mollusks, sponges and algae. Many of the world's coral reefs are already barren or in a state of constant decline. [41]

• Sea level rise

  A rise in the sea level…can create extremely serious situations, if we consider that a quarter of the world's population lives on the coast or nearby, and that the majority of our megacities are situated in coastal areas. [24]

• Ocean acidification

  Carbon dioxide pollution increases the acidification of the oceans and compromises the marine food chain. If present trends continue, this century may well witness…an unprecedented destruction of ecosystems, with serious consequences for all of us. [24]

• Ocean-bound water pollution

  Underground water sources in many places are threatened by the pollution produced in certain mining, farming and industrial activities, especially in countries lacking adequate regulation or controls. It is not only a question of industrial waste. Detergents and chemical products, commonly used in many places of the world, continue to pour into our rivers, lakes and seas."[29]

• Overfishing and seafood bycatch

  Marine life in rivers, lakes, seas and oceans, which feeds a great part of the world's population, is affected by uncontrolled fishing, leading to a drastic depletion of certain species. Selective forms of fishing which discard much of what they collect continue unabated. Particularly threatened are marine organisms which we tend to overlook, like some forms of plankton; they represent a significant element in the ocean food chain, and species used for our food ultimately depend on them."[40]

• Source
• radioaustralia.net.au
• thinkprogress.org
• caritas.org.nz
• Image: caritas.org.nz

It is estimated that 75 per cent of buildings in Ha'apai have been destroyed or have major damage.

Crops, infrastructure and water supplies also having sustained significant damage.

Amelia Ma'afu, Caritas Tonga programmes coordinator, says providing a safe water supply is the top priority.

"Drinking water is a major problem. Cyclone damage to the water supply has resulted in contamination, so people are advised not to drink piped water. Rainwater tanks which many people use have also been damaged."

Caritas Tonga is providing clean drinking water for 1,500 people in Ha'apai.

Source:

• Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand
• Image: Radio New Zealand

‘These are new and exciting times for us," says Director Julianne Hickey. "We've been engaged for a year in reviewing our structures and processes - with all staff involved, and the support of the New Zealand Bishops and our Board."

Hickey says that the restructure "will enable Caritas to engage in a fuller and more lively way with the Catholic community and wider New Zealand society."

"We are now ready to put in place new structures and ways of working that will allow us to be more focused on our core priorities; more accountable to our Bishops, donors and supporters; and more agile in responding to the complex challenges and needs of our world today."

Currently, Caritas is recruiting for three new senior managers to lead its Development, Community Engagement and Operations Support teams.

An Advocacy and Research Manager is already in place. The three new managers are expected to be appointed by early in the new year, after which other permanent roles will be filled.

Echoing Pope Benedict's words, Hickey says, ‘We are seeking people who are not only "professionally competent" and "properly trained in what to do" but also people who have a "heartfelt concern".'

Details and job descriptions

Source

• Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand
• Image: Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand

"This is not a booklet just about Parihaka's history," said Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand Director Julianne Hickey, "but a justice and peace resource that enables us to reflect on the impact of injustice today, in communities across the country - and strive for peace in the future."

Parihaka - on the western slopes of Mount Taranaki in New Zealand - became a centre for non-violent resistance under the leadership of Te Whiti o Rongomai and Tohu Kakahi from 1865. It continues today to inspire discussion and a collective response to injustice.

Regular meetings to discuss the issues of the day - both local and national - have taken place on the 18^th and 19^th of each month at Parihaka since the 1870s. They were only interrupted during the village's occupation by government forces in the 1880s, following a destructive invasion to remove the community's leaders and most of its men.

Copies can be ordered from the Caritas office, or downloaded from the Caritas website www.caritas.org.nz

Source

• Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand
• Image: Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand
  

Funds to 17 June totalled $1,000,271.60, including $51,129.80 from schools. However, donations continue to come in from some parishes and schools, so the total will rise even higher.

"Last year, Lent donations exceeded $900,000 for the first time," says Director Julianne Hickey. "Now, New Zealanders have gone even further. I find it incredible and energising to see this commitment to alleviate suffering. From the ‘widow's mite' contribution of people providing a few dollars a week through the Lenten envelopes, to one-off contributions of thousands of dollars: all are appreciated, all are valued, and all show the Catholic community's caring heart of concern for the poor."

"Lent is our single largest fundraiser of the year, comprising nearly a third of our public donations," says Hickey.

‘These contributions enable us to respond immediately when disaster hits, such as the cyclones that hit Samoa and the Philippines last December. They support long-term programmes helping poor communities meet their needs, such as for better water and education in the Solomon Islands.

"At home, high-quality advocacy work has continued, including prompting decision-makers to consider the common good and impact on the poor of new legislation on housing and resource management. Our Justice Leadership Days with senior secondary students around the country encourage a truly Catholic response to global justice issues by our young leaders.

"These funds will contribute directly to work such as immediate emergency help following natural disasters for our Pacific neighbours. Also the leading advocacy work here in New Zealand, prompting decision-makers to consider the common good and impact on the poor of new legislation on housing and resource management. As well as valuable contribution to the formation of our young people with Justice Leadership Days with senior secondary students around the country encouraging a truly Catholic response to global justice issues by our young leaders."

The Bishops have also thanked all those who "contributed their prayer, time, talent and treasures to the Bishops' Lenten Appeal."

"Our heartfelt thanks to all those who've contributed in different ways to raise this amount. It is made possible through prayer, support, publicity, encouragement and hard work by countless people, and today we would like to acknowledge and thank one and all, says Archbishop John Dew on behalf of the New Zealand Catholic Bishops Conference

Despite the challenging financial times we live in, together we've raised these funds which will go a long, long way to carrying out the Church's work of promoting social justice and full human development, bringing hope to the world's poorest and most vulnerable people.

Today as we mark this milestone, we are reminded that the parable of the widow's mite is evident today as we see the fruits of all the generous donations from those who contributed a few dollars to thousands of dollars, all are valued and all are the result of generosity," says Archbishop Dew

"The more that is raised, the more that the Church can do to put God's love in action, bringing the Gospel to life in very real and practical ways."

Caritas Aotearoa/New Zealand released a short ‘thank you' video online for their supporters in acknowledgement of their efforts. The video showcases some of the places and people who benefit from donations to Caritas. Our latest Caritas Updatenewsletter out this week also profiles recent work achieved.'

Source

• Caritas Aotearoa/New Zealand
• Image: Caritas Aotearoa/New Zealand

Mahitahi will retain its own identity, profile and strategic direction, within and supported by the Caritas structure and administration.

For the last two years, Mahitahi has been governed by a separately constituted Board, made up of members of the Caritas Board. However, the Caritas Board and the Bishops of New Zealand believe it is in the best interests of both organisations to bring Mahitahi directly under the governance of the Caritas Board, and for the Mahitahi Director to be responsible to the Caritas Director for administrative and management purposes.

The integration will also provide extra support and oversight to Mahitahi which, as Mahitahi and its predecessor Catholic Overseas Volunteer Services (COVS), has a 50-year history providing volunteers in response to partner requests. Its present focus is on the Pacific.

Caritas has been the Bishops' Justice Peace and Development Agency since 1968, and its new strategic plan has a stronger emphasis on the Pacific, including Aotearoa.

‘The Caritas mandate has been enlarged to embrace Mahitahi in its role of providing skilled volunteers to meet partner requests in the Pacific,' says Caritas Director Julianne Hickey. ‘It will add another dimension to our work providing a human face to development, greater person-to-person contact, and enhancing our ability as a Pacific nation to be "the hands, ears, eyes and mouth of Christ" in this part of the world.'

‘Mahitahi's model of providing short-term volunteers in the context of a long-term partnership has proven effective and has taken off in 2012,' says Mahitahi Director Christina Reymer. ‘This integration will provide an opportunity to grow its capacity within the wider structures of Caritas.'

Ms Reymer will relocate from Hamilton to work in Auckland alongside other Caritas staff based there.

Source

• Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand
• Image: Screen Shot Mahitahi

ACMRO and Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand will appear separately before the Transport and Industrial Relations Select Committee considering the Bill Thursday 28 June.

ACMRO's Fr Maurizio Pettenà and Joe Moloneyare are coming to Wellington to share the reality of mandatory detention of refugees. They are calling on New Zealand to respond with compassion to asylum seekers escaping war or violence in their homelands.

Speaking from experience in Australia, the Office warns that indefinite mandatory detention is an unnecessarily harsh and inhumane way to treat human beings. It ultimately divides society, is ineffective in stopping boat journeys and has substantial economic and moral costs.

Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand - the social justice agency of New Zealand's Catholic Bishops - is also concerned about the mass detention provisions in the Bill.

It is concerned as well that the government is sneaking through other significant changes to immigration policy under the cover of fear of ‘mass arrivals'. These include the ability to suspend determination of refugee claims, and restrictions on judicial review (the ability of New Zealand courts to review refugee cases).

Caritas Director Julianne Hickey says New Zealand has a reputation as being a world leader in the resettlement of refugees. Many members of society are from refugee and migrant backgrounds, and contribute to the richness and diversity of our communities.

"We should be celebrating the welcome we give to desperate people fleeing persecution, not damaging their lives and our international reputation by adopting these unnecessary and harmful policies," she says.

Mrs Hickey says public and Parliamentary debate about the Bill needs to be based on a sound understanding of the Refugee Convention. ‘The Convention specifically covers the crossing of borders by people seeking asylum. Both resettled "quota refugees" and asylum seekers are Convention refugees. They are not "illegal migrants", "people smugglers" or "queue jumpers".'

Caritas has a leaflet Refugee Myths and Realities to address misunderstandings about refugees and asylum seekers.

Source

• Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand
• Image: 3News

Caritas Director Julianne Hickey says the Catholic agency assesses the impact of Budget measures through the lens of the common good: what will contribute to and achieve the full human potential of each of us and of all of us? ‘Catholic social teaching sees a person as more than their cost or value on a balance sheet. A myopic view of people simply as economic units cannot enhance our wellbeing as a society.'

Mrs Hickey says it is hard to see the full impact of Budget changes because, while the detail of new spending has been given, the detail of ‘savings' or cost-cutting is less transparent. However, she says aspects of the Budget seem hard to understand or even illogical, particularly where funding cut-backs are occurring apparently in areas of priority to government.

‘For example, it is shortsighted to set goals that beneficiaries with young children will return to the workforce and that participation in early childhood education will increase, while simultaneously making formal childcare less affordable by freezing childcare subsidies. It is shortsighted to open an Advanced Technology Institute to increase skills in science and technology, while simultaneously eliminating student allowances for post-graduate study.

‘Similarly, it is shortsighted to set goals to increase educational achievement at NCEA level, while reducing class-to-teacher ratios. And it is shortsighted to partially sell state-owned power companies to fund infrastructure development in rail - which is only required because of past, failed experiments in privatisation.'

Read Caritas Press Release

Image: Zimbio

In its submission to the Social Services Select Committee the New Zealand Catholic Bishops' Agency Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand has expressed very real concerns about the proposal for case managers to offer any woman on any kind of benefit, including married women, as well as the daughters of those on benefits between the ages of 16-19, free long term reversible contraception.

"The Catholic Church teaches a respect for human dignity and many of the proposals will damage that dignity. The key purpose of welfare changes should be to reduce poverty, not to make the vulnerable more vulnerable," says the CEO of Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand, Julianne Hickey.

"If contraceptive options and incomes become linked, a beneficiary facing a case manager may feel they have little option at all," she says.

"While the Government says that they won't be coerced, we know that coercion can be subtle and when punitive measures are proposed for those who have subsequent children while on welfare it seems there is little option but to take it."

Source

• The Catholic Diocese of Auckland
• Image: MSN News

Caritas Director Julianne Hickey made an oral submission to the Select Committee last week. Caritas told the Committee that the legislation will lead to greater inequalities and, in the current regulatory environment, may not lead to sufficient protection for poor and vulnerable consumers.

She said, "Catholic social teaching contains cautions both for people seeking to privatise and people seeking to nationalise industries and services which provide essential goods. It recognises both the value of the market and the limits to the market."

"We have drawn on experience by New Zealand Catholic groups with low-income power consumers who have had difficulty even under current arrangements with obtaining or maintaining power accounts. We also have recent experience of the privatisation of state assets, where private owners failed to invest in basic maintenance, forcing the government to buy them back rather than allow services to fail. We have also considered the urgency of the environmental challenges facing us, and question whether the Mixed Ownership Model provides the best incentives and encouragement for power companies and consumers to make changes in their energy production and use."

Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand also made a written submission which is based on the principles in the Church's social teaching about the common good, the protection of the poor and vulnerable members of society, the protection of the environment, and the principle of the universal destination of created goods.

It thinks that continued state ownership is a better way to:

• ensure the provision of essential services, particularly for the most poor and vulnerable;
• improve our use of energy in the face of environmental destruction and climate change;
• ensure that our commitments to the Treaty of Waitangi are met;
• overcome or at least not worsen local and global inequalities;
• continue to have an adequate oversight of the behaviour of state institutions.

The submission makes it clear that Catholic social teaching does not prescribe specific public policy solutions, and contains cautions both for people seeking to privatise and people seeking to nationalise industries and services which provide essential goods and recognises both the value and the limits of the market.

Source

• Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand - Text of Oral Submission
• Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand - Text of Written Submission
• Image: Anti Corruption New Zealand

In a written submission Caritas says the speed of consideration was unreasonable and unrealistic. Only 11 working days were provided between the first reading of the Social Security (Youth Support and Work Focus) Amendment Bill on 27 March and the close of submissions on 13 April. Now hearing dates for the Social Services Select Committee considering the Bill are being condensed to only two days in Wellington this week.

Caritas Director Julianne Hickey says that despite the Bill being introduced shortly after the consultation period on the Government's Green Paper for Vulnerable Children, there is no coherence or integration of government social policy. "There is insufficient time to consult and consider how people and communities, particularly the most vulnerable members of our society, may be impacted by this legislation," she says.

‘An estimated 13 million people are in grave danger,' says Caritas Director Julianne Hickey. ‘This has been brought on by severe drought, poor harvests, and rising food prices - made worse by regional conflict.'

‘Drought is a natural phenomenon, but famine is caused by human action - or inaction,' she says. Hundreds of thousands of people died needlessly in the Horn of Africa last year because the international community took too long to respond. Eventually, concerted action by humanitarian agencies helped avert a far greater disaster in most of the affected countries. ‘There is no excuse for people to die of hunger in our world today,' says Ms Hickey.

New Zealand's Foreign Minsiter Murray McCully also announced on Wednesday that the Government will provide $1 million to a United Nations food relief programme in the Sahel.

Donations to Caritas for the Sahel crisis can be made by:

• Phoning 0800 22 10 22 to make credit card donations or
• Donating online using a credit card at www.caritas.org.nz or
• Posting to Caritas, PO Box 12193, Thorndon, Wellington 6144, New Zealand.

The international Caritas network is providing a coordinated response across five of the most severely affected countries in the Sahel - Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso, Chad, and Mauritania. In Niger alone, about 5.5 million people face hunger because of drought. Without assistance, communities are being forced to rely on traditional coping mechanisms. Some of these practices can make things worse in the long-term, such as burning trees to make charcoal or selling-off of livestock.

Caritas is distributing essential food to the most vulnerable; seeds and agricultural inputs for planting; and setting up both Food for Work and Cash for Work programmes. Young children, and pregnant and breast-feeding women, are the focus of special food assistance. The Caritas network is also establishing emergency water, hygiene and sanitation facilities in Niger, as thousands of refugees flee fighting in northern Mali between the country's army and a rebel group.

‘Intervention now will help prevent a catastrophic event such as we saw in the Horn of Africa,' says Ms Hickey.

Caritas Humanitarian Programmes Officer Mark Mitchell has just returned from Kenya, where he saw the difference that good, effective relief programmes made after last year's Horn of Africa drought.

‘Lessons have been learnt from the Horn of Africa,' says Mr Mitchell, ‘in terms of responding quicker and noticing the warning signs and thresholds of hardship earlier.'

‘I've seen the importance of Food for Work schemes in putting in place better water supplies, using better collection methods and improving access to water in the long term.'

Source

• Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand
• Radio New Zealand
• Image: The Guardian